Off-list: English as She is Spoke

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Since so many XyWriters are linguophiles, I thought I'd recommend "English
as She is Spoke." It's an 1883 Portugese-English phrase-book, but the
Portugese gentleman who wrote it didn't know English. Knowing French, they
used a French-English dictionary to get the "English."

Some samples:

The walk.

Will you and take a walk with me?
Wait for that the warm be out.
It seems me that corn does push alredy
You hear the bird's gurgling?
Which pleasure! which charm!"

With a hair dresser.

Your razors, are them well?
Comb-me quickly; don't put me so much pomatum. What news tell me? all hairs
dresser are newsmonger.

Under "Familiar Phrases":

He do the devil at four.
They fight one's selfs together

And the ever-popular: "We are in the canicule."
I know what you are thinking, "One's can to believe you?" Yes, it's real.
And exists in several editions you can find cheaply on the web. E.g.,
www.abebooks.com.

I leave you with the closing thought of the author's preface:
"We expect, then, who the little book (for the care what we wrote him, and
for her typographical correction) that may be worth the acceptation of the
studious persons, and especialy of the Youth, at which we dedicate him
particularly."

Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx