César Oudin

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César Oudin (* 1560 in Champagne ; † 1. October 1625 in Paris ) was the official Hofdolmetscher for the French King Henry IV. And translator , the u. a. made the first French translation of Don Quixote .

Life

César Oudin was the son of a Grand-Prêvot. He was brought up at the court of Henry IV, when he was still exclusively king of Navarre. Because of his knowledge of the most important European languages, he came into the immediate vicinity of this prince. He was hired as an interpreter for the Italian, Spanish and German languages ​​at the court of the French king. In addition to his linguistic activity, he carried out various trade missions abroad on behalf of the king. a. led to Germany. In recognition of his services, Henry IV entrusted him on February 11, 1597 with the post of "Secrétaire et Interprète des langues étrangères" . In line with his position as official court interpreter for the languages ​​mentioned, Oudin's life was particularly dedicated to the " langues vulgaires [...], ayans vn mesme origine, comme sont l'Italienne, Espagnolle et Françoise" .

job

The court interpreter also translated writings from abroad and published books that helped Francophones learn the languages. In 1607 he published the Spanish-French dictionary of the 17th century: Tesoro de las lenguas francesa y española , which was constantly updated until 1675. His second dictionary, Thrésor des trois langues, espagnole, françoise et italienne , was published in 1609 and the Grammaire italienne mise et expliquée en François in 1610. Nevertheless, it was his Spanish language textbooks that made him famous in the 16th and 17th centuries. Oudin also wrote a translation of Don Quixote , which appeared only after his death in Paris in 1639.

The Grammaire et observations de la langue Espagnolle

In 1597, César Oudin's Grammaire et observations de la langue Espagnolle recueillies & mises en François was the second Spanish grammar for Francophones in history. This grammar is seen as a window through which one can see the development of Spanish and its linguistic situation in Europe at the end of the 16th century. The treatment of the topic of foreign language acquisition and the relationship to the Latin grammatical system is interesting, because at that time no independent Spanish form had been created to describe the Spanish language. Through them we see several examples of the ancient grammar of Spanish clearly described and translated into French so that one can be sure of the meaning. It serves as a comparison to Old Spanish and also shows how to use the Latin grammatical system as a crutch to pin down Latin dialects.

Works

  • Grammaire et observations de la langue Espagnolle recueilles & mises en François , new edition of the 2nd edition Paris 1604. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2004.
  • Tesoro de las dos lenguas española y francesa. Tresor des deux langues françoise et espagnolle , ed. by Marc Zuili. 2 vols. Honoré Champion, Paris 2016.

literature

  • Bello, Andrés, Gramática de la lengua castellana destinada al uso de los americanos, Notas e índices de Rufino José Cuervo, Caracas, La casa de Bello, 1995.
  • Corominas, Joan, Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Vol. 3, Madrid, Credos, 1980.
  • Corominas, Joan, Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, Vol. 4, Madrid, Credos, 1981.
  • Penny, Ralph, A history of the Spanish language, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  • Wells, Larry D., Handbook on German Grammar: Repeating and Applying, Second Edition, Boston, Houghton Mifflen Company, 1997.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Oudin, César
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish translator; Court interpreter for the French King Henry IV.
DATE OF BIRTH around 1560
PLACE OF BIRTH Champagne
DATE OF DEATH October 1, 1625
Place of death Paris