Given that English is the universal second language. Given, also, that most American collectors collect American coins. 1. What foreign languages do you use in numismatics? 2. How do you use them?
I have found the index information in Krause to be very helpful in gleening information on foreign coins that I don't understand... it can take a while - with some arabic languages, a long while - but with patience, I can sometimes figure it out. I have found that my foreign languages have become awfully rusty over the years, from lack of significant use and/or study.
Besides English: Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Afrikaans. The local language Frysian I also speak, is not used on coins though
English is quickly becoming a second language in the United States. Since we cannot control our borders and have made it politically-incorrect to say anything negative about illegal aliens, the English langauge will evidentially fade into past history books like the fall of the Roman Empire. Language, borders, culture...if you lose any of these three, you start to see the demise of a country. As for other languages, when I lived in Western New York and followed hockey, I studied and practiced French for almost 5 years and could understand when they (French-Canadians) were insulting us "bad" Americans. Other than that, I still can here both of my grandmothers cursing and yelling at us kids in Polish where our grandfathers sat back, smiled, and toasted us (with a shot of vodka) with a smile.
Well, numismatically speaking, I can decipher any language besides the Arabic script, and other scripts similar to Arabic. I also cannot decipher ancient texts or Chinese/Japanese. However, On coins I can read with fair ease German, Russian, French, Spanish, English, Old English, Swiss, some African languages, etc. Unfortunately, I cannot speak any of them fluently, nor can I speak several well enough to hold a coherent conversation. The only ones I can speak easily enough are Spanish, a little French, and very little German. I am taking a course in Russian this coming Fall at college, though, and I'd really like to become fluent in it, because it facinates me! ~AJ
Other than a few of words here and there I can't speak any but English. But I can read most numismatic terminology in French & Spanish. And I muddle through with Dutch - barely. A hundred years ago ( seems like that long anyway ) I was fluent in Latin, reading, writing and speaking. But even that is all but gone now. But I can figure it out if I work on it.
Illiterate in Seven Languages It always seems funny to me when someone asks about a coin that says RZECZPOSPOLITA POLSKA and they do not know where it is from. I have had college classes in Japanese and community classes in Italian and Arabic. I had a ton of German in school. I just had a series of business interviews for which I learned to say a few pleasantries in modern Greek. I grew up with Hungarian. So, languages are pretty easy for me and that included Basic, Fortran, and Cobol. I spent a year setting type with TeX, the urvater of HTML. I can hack my way through Greek and Latin with the aid of a lexicon and grammar. I usually rely on Loeb Classic Library editions. However, it has helped a few times to be able to re-translate from scratch. A few years back, a member of our local coin club was also the minister of a local Baptist church. He and I sat down with 250 ancient prutot ("widow's mites") and he showed me what David Hendin was seeing as we attributed them against the standard reference. In numismatics, the coins, banknotes, etc., are pretty much stylized and restricted in their symbols, words and wordings. So, if you find Japanese or Chinese coins interesting, really, you might need about 100 characters, maximum, and you do not need them all at once. Medals range a bit farther but again the iconography will be a clue to farming, industry, motherhood, or whatever. With most languages, it is not the big words, but the little ones that are tricky. As for using foreign languages, apart from reading inscriptions, I have not much problem with numismatic books in German, French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese. Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, etc., take a bit of time. Russian is too difficult. I can read coin inscriptions. I cannot read about coins. And that is true, unfortunately, for the entire Slavic family. Hungarian and Finnish also are closed books to me. I really do not know any languages well enough to do serious business in them, except English.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys can all really speak a lot of languages!!! Anyways I forgot to answer the second part of the question--- I use my Polish with my parents, neighbors(not so much though), and Babcia(grandma). I use my Spanish to kid around to friends.
