Oh absolutely. (I'm also reminded of Fontane's needling in FW's direction when he reports Heinrich pretending not to speak German at all in his Rheinsberg chapter and adds snarkily this was undoubtedly the result of an education "which put all the emphasis on the German and vilified the French".) If FW - whose own German was clumsy, it being a second language to him as well - hadn't made such a point of ramming it down the throat of his oldest son (and of the entire family, but especially Fritz) - it wouldn't have become such an identity question. BTW, Volz' "Conversations" contain an amusing passage about one of several encounters between Fritz and Gottsched: about the German language, as told by Nicolai, who was present:
Among other things they talked about the qualities of the German language. The King described it as rough, clusmy, etc., and Gottsched of course defended the language he'd written in praise of, and this with many exclamations. The King disregarded this and took more and more from the German language until he finally said: it had so many dislikeable sounds which made it ill suited to eloquence and poetry. For example, said the King, a rival was called "Nebenbuhler", what a fatal sound "buhler" has! This hre repeated a couple of times, and emphasized the "uh".
Gottsched: But your majesty, it sounds exactly like "Boule"! (Which it does, btw.)
The King who was disconcerted by this reply ignored it and continued: "And the German consonsants! My ears always hurt whenever I listen to German names; there's so much Kah and Peh all the time! (He put the emphasis on K and P.) Knap - Knip - Klotz - Krock! His own name, how hard! Gottsched! Five consonants - tsscchhh - what a sound! The German language is simply rough, and what is soft and pleasing can't be pronounced as agreeable in it as it can in other languages!
Gottsched: Begging your majesty's pardon. The most beautiful and most tender passion humanity has to offer we Germans all "Liebe", whereas the French call it - "Amour!" Now you can imagine that he, too, put the emphasis on the "our". And if you know how rough and screaming Gottsched's voice could get, you can imagine how awful he managed to make the u and the r sound in his mouth.
(Fritz seems to have carried a grudge for not winning that argument, since he calls Gottsched pedantic and a couple of other unflattering things to Catt.)
All this is always worth keeping in mind when realising how big a concession on Fritz' part it was to keep talking and corresponding in German with Fredersdorf instead of demanding that Fredersdorf had to learn French. Liebe indeed.
White uniforms: I only regret I didn't know this detail when writing my Yuletide AU section 4! Because of course MT would have noticed at once.
Re: He said, she said, they said: on partitioning Poland and other matters
Among other things they talked about the qualities of the German language. The King described it as rough, clusmy, etc., and Gottsched of course defended the language he'd written in praise of, and this with many exclamations. The King disregarded this and took more and more from the German language until he finally said: it had so many dislikeable sounds which made it ill suited to eloquence and poetry. For example, said the King, a rival was called "Nebenbuhler", what a fatal sound "buhler" has! This hre repeated a couple of times, and emphasized the "uh".
Gottsched: But your majesty, it sounds exactly like "Boule"! (Which it does, btw.)
The King who was disconcerted by this reply ignored it and continued: "And the German consonsants! My ears always hurt whenever I listen to German names; there's so much Kah and Peh all the time! (He put the emphasis on K and P.) Knap - Knip - Klotz - Krock! His own name, how hard! Gottsched! Five consonants - tsscchhh - what a sound! The German language is simply rough, and what is soft and pleasing can't be pronounced as agreeable in it as it can in other languages!
Gottsched: Begging your majesty's pardon. The most beautiful and most tender passion humanity has to offer we Germans all "Liebe", whereas the French call it - "Amour!" Now you can imagine that he, too, put the emphasis on the "our". And if you know how rough and screaming Gottsched's voice could get, you can imagine how awful he managed to make the u and the r sound in his mouth.
(Fritz seems to have carried a grudge for not winning that argument, since he calls Gottsched pedantic and a couple of other unflattering things to Catt.)
All this is always worth keeping in mind when realising how big a concession on Fritz' part it was to keep talking and corresponding in German with Fredersdorf instead of demanding that Fredersdorf had to learn French. Liebe indeed.
White uniforms: I only regret I didn't know this detail when writing my Yuletide AU section 4! Because of course MT would have noticed at once.