Masterful analysis! I love the attention to detail. Also, I knew this salon needed E-Enlightenment access!
My own speculations: If Voltaire and Fredersdorf were to have a conversation, it would probably have taken place in German, but if Voltaire started substituting French words when he didn't know the corresponding German word, it's possible that Fredersdorf would be able to understand.
Makes sense to me. Also, his own command of French aside, Fredersdorf might have been used to this kind of code-switching from Fritz already?
Tellingly, Voltaire snarks about the 'pureté du stile' of the original letter
Fredersdorf, I would have avoided venturing into French in this unforgiving environment as well. selenak, you were spot on.
(note: 'stile' is not deliberately misspelled to make fun of Fredersdorf's own spelling - Voltaire always spelt 'style' that way)
Linguistic note: it's not misspelled at all. It's the historically correct spelling in both English and French, since it comes from Latin stilus. The 'y' spelling is more recent, and is a "misspelling" due to a folk etymology: the belief that it's somehow related to the Greek word στῦλος.
Re: Lucchessini, Catt and Fredersdorf, oh, my
My own speculations: If Voltaire and Fredersdorf were to have a conversation, it would probably have taken place in German, but if Voltaire started substituting French words when he didn't know the corresponding German word, it's possible that Fredersdorf would be able to understand.
Makes sense to me. Also, his own command of French aside, Fredersdorf might have been used to this kind of code-switching from Fritz already?
Tellingly, Voltaire snarks about the 'pureté du stile' of the original letter
Fredersdorf, I would have avoided venturing into French in this unforgiving environment as well.
(note: 'stile' is not deliberately misspelled to make fun of Fredersdorf's own spelling - Voltaire always spelt 'style' that way)
Linguistic note: it's not misspelled at all. It's the historically correct spelling in both English and French, since it comes from Latin stilus. The 'y' spelling is more recent, and is a "misspelling" due to a folk etymology: the belief that it's somehow related to the Greek word στῦλος.