Ocassionally I read the London Times, Guardian, or Telegraph online, and I have noticed that people from non-English speaking nations are referred to by the title in their native language, especially if its French, German, or Spanish. For instance, “Monsieur Chirac”, “Señor Chávez”, “Herr Schroeder”.
When I saw this I took it as an odd quirk of a single reporter but it seems to be part of the usage of the British press. Is this true?
Also does this extend to other languages?
Yep it’s quite common, but only in languages like French, German, Spanish and Italian where people will know what the title means.
It appears to be a fairly old custom, and not limited to journalism. In his History of the Second World War, Churchill quotes several minutes he wrote in which he refers to foreign personages by the appropriate national title. One I nearly quoted on the thread about English-language vs. national names for cities and other geographic entities was his direction that within the Government the English name should be used (Rome, Florence, Leghorn, Moscow vs. Roma, Fiorenza, Livorno, Moskva), but that the Foreign Service should use the preferred national usage in addressing another nation. He had a wonderfully ironic line in it: “and if you should be conversing amiably with Signor Mussolini, you should say Livorno” – the U.K. being at war with Mussolini’s Italy at the time.
Interestingly, it seems to be limited to the three languages you name and Italian; the Soviet ambassador to the U.K. was M(onsieur). Maisky, French being used diplomatically by the U.S.S.R. at this time; Mme. Chiang was the First Lady of China; and there were a few other examples where he used the French M. of a foreign personage who was not French or a part of the French Empire.
It would be standard editorial policy, I’d imagine. No reason to think they’d distinguish different languages and I’m not aware of anyone doing so.
The BBC sometimes comes across interesting situations. I recall a news report a while ago that required the reporter to pronounce - with appropriate emphasis - German, Spanish and French place names, and all in the same sentence. Some linguistic challenge.
G’day
The Economist doesn’t do it. Everyone is ‘Mr’ in its pages (unless they have a higher title, such as ‘Mrs’).
Regards
Yes, the BBC’s reserach centre actually has a special Pronunciation Unit to tell newsreaders how to pronounce foreign words. Their services are also available to the general public.
Whenever I’m watching English or American TV news, I’m amazed by the politeness. German journalists or TV reporters usually omit titles altogether (or mention the person’s office/position when referring to them for the first time in a given article or broadcast), calling them simply by their family name.
Oh, and that was my 1000th post, btw. Not the true gem I’ve been planning for two years…
They can never get Turkish right though, for example for Galatasaray, they say ‘Ga-ler-tas-er-ay’ instaed of ‘Ga-la-tas-ar-ay’ as it should be pronounced and for Hakan Şükür, they say ‘Hakan Soo-kur’ instead of ‘Hakan Shoo-koor’ .
With an answer like that, how come you’re not in the pot, MC ?