Death of a multi-linguist
February 2nd, 2008 by JeremySad news out of the UK today. Miles Kington, the man who arguably did more to improve (or not, depending on your point of view) relations between les rosbifs (the English) and les frogs (the French) has died. As well-traveled Americans will undoubtedly appreciate, trips to a foreign country (especially a French speaking one, like France for example) include a squirming right of passage otherwise known being sneered at, sniggered at or at best disdainfully ignored when attempting to speak la lingua franca.
By single-handedly inventing an entirely new language, Franglais, Kington enabled millions of English-speaking Phileas Foggs to travel free of the need to construct whole sentences in French and instead substitute English wherever necessary. For example, “My bon homme, sil vous plait tellez moi la direction of le nearest pub”?
The language even had its own unofficial anthem in Bill Wyman’s seminal Je Suis Un Rock Star. Rest in peace Miles. Nous’ll never voir your like encore.
