Moreover is Over

4 February 2008



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Miles Kington, Jazzman and Humorist, Passes On

If Mark Twain and Herbie Hancock lived in a single body and had been educated at Oxford, the result might well have been Miles Kington. Mr. Kington was a columnist for Britain’s The Independent for two decades (“Moreover” by name), a jazz critic for The Times when he was 26, a contributor to Punch, and a member of cabaret quartet Instant Sunshine. He is best remembered here for his “Let’s Parler Franglais” trilogy of books, a witty look at the mingling of two of Europe’s more xenophobic languages. Sadly, il est mort en le Wednesday de last week at 66.

Franglais is, of course, not his own invention. Indeed, modern English is, itself a variety of 12th century Anglo-Saxon and Middle French. In Canada, it has a life of its own for obvious reasons. But Mr. Kington’s three Franglais books take the clash of linguistic cultures to a new high. The secret was to make each bit sound like a language course lesson, that is, the most common situations in which even one without a formal grounding in one of the two languages can parse out what is going on.

For example, at the train station a man wants to buy a train ticket and the railroad employee doesn’t hear him at first. The exchange in English or in French would be boring. In Franglais, though:

Client: Un second class return a Bexleymoor, s’il vous plait.
Guichet: Parlez dans le trou marque SPEAK HERE, s’il vous plait
Client: Un second class return a Bexleymoor, s’il vous plait.
Guichet: Plus haut

Client: UN SECOND CLASS RETURN A BEXLEYMOOR, S’IL VOUS PLAIT.

Guichet: OK, OK, je ne suis pas deaf
Perhaps, it is just the juxtaposition of Bexleymoor (a dreadfully English-sounding place name) with the oh-so-French s’il vous plait. Or maybe it’s the frustration one has had in trying to buy a ticket without speaking the local language. It just makes one smile.



© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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