Thank you! And right, that's why I thought "but that's not what joli means, Heinrich!" back in the day. Hm, several possibilities I see:
a) Heinrich changes his mind about what he wants Ferdinand to be like in the letter mid-sentence
b) Speaking better French than German like the rest of his siblings, he uses the wrong German word
c) This is actually how this particular family used the term "joli" in their Brandenburg-French when talking to or about a child.
If the last, I'm also considering that for FW, his son(s) being "ehrlich" was tremendously important, and not just in the sense of "not lying" but in the old fashioned "having honor" (i.e. "Ehre") sense of the world. However, FW famously used the expression "honnete homme" - in French - when making his prediction of AW's future greatness, and "honnete" as a translation makes more sense of that meaning, too. Therefore, I also see the possibility of
d) Heinrich is linguistically reflecting parental advice he himself heard from SD and FW precisely, who told him to be joli and ehrlich, respectively, so he uses both towards Ferdinand!
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Re: Fritz and fear of gunfire
Date: 2021-06-07 04:43 am (UTC)a) Heinrich changes his mind about what he wants Ferdinand to be like in the letter mid-sentence
b) Speaking better French than German like the rest of his siblings, he uses the wrong German word
c) This is actually how this particular family used the term "joli" in their Brandenburg-French when talking to or about a child.
If the last, I'm also considering that for FW, his son(s) being "ehrlich" was tremendously important, and not just in the sense of "not lying" but in the old fashioned "having honor" (i.e. "Ehre") sense of the world. However, FW famously used the expression "honnete homme" - in French - when making his prediction of AW's future greatness, and "honnete" as a translation makes more sense of that meaning, too. Therefore, I also see the possibility of
d) Heinrich is linguistically reflecting parental advice he himself heard from SD and FW precisely, who told him to be joli and ehrlich, respectively, so he uses both towards Ferdinand!