Linguistic confusion in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Introduction
A subtle theme brought to light by de Bernières in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
is that of linguistic confusion. The signs are everywhere, though to the casual
reader they are not so much a theme as details in the plot. The Greek resistance
graffiti on the walls, ingenuously misunderstood by the Italian soldiers. The dual
and confused background of Drosoula, who sometimes dreams in Greek and other
times in Turkish. The unwitting way in which Captain Corelli speaks profanities at
local Greeks, including a priest, a little girl, and a dog. The comical but poignant
relationship between the British parachutist Bunny Warren and the Greek shepherd
Aenos, who takes Bunny’s English to be angel-speech. The subsequent life of
Bunny on the island, where he is understood by no one, taken to be mad, and
finally tags along with Father Arsenios – who also doesn’t understand him. The
wonder of the British Special Forces when at Inousia they find “an island where
every single person spoke fluent English, and where everyone was called either
Lemmos or Pateras”, and when on Samos they discover “that for some
inexplicable reason all the local doctors spoke French”. The list goes on.
Of course, all of these things are related to the essential potpourri nature of
Cephallonia. Over the centuries, wave after wave of invasion have created an
enormous mixture of languages and cultures on the island. The six hundred-year
Italian occupation with a twenty-year Turkish interlude, the Napoleonic presence,
and the heavy British influence were all contributions to this. Of course, the most
significant is that of the Italians, who caused a linguistic, behavioural and social
fusion with the Greek tongue and Greek customs. So true is this that Cephallonia is
seen as different even within Greece. The following passage from Dr Iannis’ history
demonstrates this point.
“The reader will readily see that to all intents and purposes the island was Italian for about
six hundred years, and this explains a great many things that may puzzle the foreigner.
The dialect of the island is replete with Italian words and manners of speech, the educated
and the aristocratic speak Italian as a second language, and the campaniles of the
churches are built into the structure, quite unlike the usual Greek arrangement whereby
the bell is within a separate and simpler construction near the gates. The architecture of
the island is, in fact, almost entirely Italian … and we lost the habit of wearing traditional
dress long before this occurred in the rest of Greece. The Italians left us a European rather
than an eastern outlook on life, our women were considerably freer than elsewhere in
Greece … they were undoubtedly, along with the British, the most significant force that
shaped our history and culture…”
Nevertheless, there is an obvious and enormous gap between the two
tongues, highlighted by the Italian misunderstanding of the graffiti. The occupying
soldiers “mistook Rs for Ps, did not know that Gs can look like Ys or inverted Ls, …
construed theta as a kind of O, … were baffled by the three horizontal strokes that
could also be written as a squiggle … especially as the quirks of an individual’s
handwriting could render the letters even more completely inscrutable.” This last
remark demonstrates the personal nature of linguistic confusion. The origin may be
at a national and cultural level, but it basically boils down to a frustrating void in
communication between two people that can’t make a connection, who in the
process of not understanding each other’s words do not understand each other.
The dividing abyss that results needs no explanation. We need only examine our
own reactions when we are confronted by the sound and tone of one speaking in a
foreign language. It seems to be of another world so remote and baffling that we
could call it, as Aenos so eloquently does, angel-speech.
But returning to the general, we should ask: why does this difference
between Italian and Greek – or any language for that matter – exist? The answer is
infinitely complex, but it can be naïvely summarized as the separate evolution of
languages. Those are lofty and vague words, true, but one would require a
linguistic scholar’s knowledge to formulate an answer to the unanswerable
question ‘why are we different?’ The bottom line is that sounds are different,
meaning is the same; words and symbols are alien, feelings are universal; history
and geography divided our tongues, and as yet nothing can satisfactorily unite
them.
However, languages do influence each other throughout the course of time.
Greek (especially Ancient) and English are an example of this. Not just sayings like
‘It’s Greek to me’, but true affecting factors that change the language. The statistics
are surprising. Approximately one third of the words in the English language (and
other European languages) find their direct roots in the Greek language. It
constitutes one of the richest foreign sources of the current English word stock.
The total word stock of the English language is of roughly 170,000 words, of which
over 40,000 are Greek. The basic concepts of thought and expression rest on
Greek roots, which explains why Western European languages resort to the Greek
glossary to express feelings, concepts, ideas, or to name objects and processes
(consider analysis, dogma, philosophy, diagnosis, energy, epic, nostalgia). Latin,
for all its merits and flexibilities, has difficulties in the production of compound
words, which is where we usually have to make up new words to describe the
encounter of two ideas or emotions in one.
Which brings us to the English language itself. Its history shows us the true
meaning of linguistic convergence, linguistic innovation, linguistic confusion and
contribution. Anyone who questions its merits as our current lingua franca is clearly
not informed about its historical development with the help of other languages and
their many varied advantages. Out of the chaos blooms a form of clear
communication, though there may be more misunderstandings than in German or
Greek itself. Obviously it has its flaws, but they are acceptable given the
circumstances.
Old English
(500-1100)
Middle English
(1100-1500)
- Three major dialects
appeared due to the
west Germanic
invasion on the British
Isles, which brought
along with it the
language of northeastern region of the
Netherlands:
 Northumbrian
 Mercian
 West Saxan
- There was a little
influence
from
Latin due to the
conversion
of
Britain
to
Christianity in the
seventh century.
- Celtic-speaking
inhabitants were
therefore pushed out of
England.
- English was also
influenced by the
Vikings and by North
Germanic words
brought by Norse
invasions.
Early modern
English
(1500-1800)
- Many classical Latin
and Greek words
were added into the
English language
during the
Renaissance period.
- Shakespeare highly
influenced
English
with
about
2000
innovated words and
phrases.
- The great Vowel
shift caused great
changes
in
pronunciation around
1400.
- The printing press
England in 1476 by
William Caxton, which
helped to reduce
literacy, as books
were more affordable.
There
were
grammar and spelling
rules set on the
language and the first
English
dictionary
was
published
in
1604.
Late modern English
(1800-2000)
- Vocabulary has
increased as the need to
express new ideas that
appeared during the
Industrial Revolution
and the rise of the
technical society.
- The industrial and
scientific
revolutions
created a need for new
words, for this the
English relied heavily on
Latin
and
Greek.
(Oxygen,protein,nuclear,
etc.)
Today
these
innovations are most
visible in computers and
electronics.(byte, cyber).
- Finally, the 20th century
saw two world wars and
the military influence on
the
language.
The
military slang entered
the language like never
before.
So what does all of this pertaining to the subtle theme of linguistic confusion
mean for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin? Probably it helps highlight the way in which
language isolates the different groups in the book, even though the outsider (the
reader) can see underlying similarities in the characters. This means that our
language barriers make us see each other as alien entities despite the fact that we
all holler the same feelings and ideas into the air, which unfortunately come out as
gibberish. As in the biblical quotation, our linguistic gaps cause us to see each
other ‘in a mirror, dimly’. We are looking at ourselves, but get the impression of a
strange and unknown creature. Can we hardly wonder, then, at all the trouble we
cause on account of our own confusion? Until we learn the lesson of Corelli,
linguistic variety will haunt us with misunderstandings and worse atrocities rather
than with new and inspiring ways of perceiving our common reality.
Cynthia Paz
Gonzalo Riva
Fernando Valdivieso