Every day, Stéphane Bern goes back in time to understand the origins of a French expression.
Tuesday, the host returns in the program "Historically Vôtre" on the famous "speak like a Spanish cow", an expression which means that one does not master a foreign language.
In the program
Historically Vôtre
on Europe 1, Stéphane Bern tackles a new French expression every day.
On Tuesday, he chose to explain to us the origins of "speaking English like a Spanish cow", a phrase that dates back to the 17th century, a time when it did not yet contain the word "cow".
"It is still sometimes said today that someone" speaks like a Spanish cow ", although the expression in its entirety is" to speak English like a Spanish cow. "This expression, a little out of fashion, has indeed Well had its hour of glory, to put it simply, it means "not to be bilingual", "not to be comfortable in a foreign language".
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To trace its origin, we have to go back to the 17th century.
At that time, the formula already existed.
Except that instead of cows we say "vasces", a word that designates the Basques.
The Spanish Basques speak French poorly.
It is therefore a not very elegant way of making fun of the mountain dwellers of the Pyrenees who crossed the border for seasonal agricultural work.
"Murder the French"
Another hypothesis could also explain the birth of the expression.
It would not be a question of a cow but of "bass", a word which designates a servant.
We spoke of a "bassoteuse" to speak of a woman of mediocre condition.
The reference to Spain accentuates the meanness of the formula: we said "pay to the Spanish" when we beat the person who came to claim the money that was owed to him.
In other countries, when we speak French poorly, we use surprising expressions.
So we say in the United States "to murder French".
French are being murdered.
As for our Dutch friends, they push the logic even further by saying "het frans radbraken", understand "subjecting French to the torture of the wheel".
Indeed, under these conditions it is better to speak a punished French. "