From: me@yahoo.com   
      
   On 2024-04-22 11:42:42 +0000, Ross Clark said:   
      
   > Now there's a linguistically interesting writer.   
   > Grew up in an upper-class Russian family where of course much French   
   > was spoken. Also had an English-speaking nanny.   
   >   
   > "The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and   
   > Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. He related that the first   
   > English book his mother read to him was Misunderstood (1869) by   
   > Florence Montgomery. Much to his patriotic father's disappointment,   
   > Nabokov could read and write in English before he could in Russian."   
      
   My youngest daughter could read and write in Spanish before she could   
   in English, but I wasn't disappointed, and English and French weren't   
   far behind. After all, Spanish spelling is much easier than English (or   
   French).   
   >   
   > Every time Nabokov comes up, I want to refer to an exchange between him   
   > and the critic Edmund Wilson that I read long ago,   
      
   Likewise.   
      
   >  in which N amusingly shows up the irreducible subjectivity of people's   
   > judgments about the "character" or "quality" of different languages.   
   > Trouble is I can't find it any more. I've tried.   
      
   Likewise. There are lots of articles _about_ the letters on the web,   
   but not the letters themselves.   
   >   
   > (...) it's late. Maybe somebody else will have some thoughts.   
      
      
   --   
   Athel cb   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)