Unless I wasn't paying close enough attention, there was never an explanation of how Princess Caraboo or Mary Baker had gotten such an elaborate tatoo on her hip and it is still nagging me! Does anyone know?
shareYeah, I also imagine that she did to herself even to help her disguise as princess,but it was not a real tattoo.
shareAnd how did she know the word for "black" in a foreign language?
- Saathi
http://arbitraryweirdness.blogspot.com
"You said nuclear, it's pronounced nucular, dummy, the 's' is silent"
She actually made up the entire foreign language herself. The word for "black" was part of the invention.
Books first; food, clothes, and toothpaste eventually.
Well, if that is in fact the case, it surely was lucky that the word she "made up" was the word for black in many foreign languages. Many of the rest of us may not have had such luck.
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I guess I was speaking more from happy enthusiasm than actual knowledge when I said she made up the *entire* language. On the other hand, it could have happened with some of the made-up words coincidentally being real words. A guy in my Japanese class once strung together a bunch of random sounds and came up with the word for "ugly." Considering it is four syllables long (in Japanese) it was a pretty neat trick. I do agree with suzeclark that Princess Caraboo could have incorporated foreign words she had heard into her language as well--that explanation was in the movie.
However, I will be more careful with the facts in the future.
Books first; food, clothes, and toothpaste eventually.
I thought they had explaned that she picked up the word from the merchant sailor stories. I wondered about the tattoo as well.
I can't expect others to share my virtues, it's good enough for me if they share my vices.
Yes. She based some of the words from her made up language on foreign words she'd heard the sailors using on the wharves.
shareHere is some info about Mary Baker, Princess Caraboo http://raineyscribbles.tumblr.com/post/91310582035/little-maids-in-a-r ow-mary-baker-princess-caraboo
share"And how did she know the word for "black" in a foreign language?"
Did you catch that she was looking over Lithgow's shoulder at the text while he was paging through it for phrases in a variety of languages he thought she might recognize? The real Mary made constant use of the fact that people around her thought she did not understand what was being said, and thought she could not read English. She would listen to their conversations and then do or say something that "verified" their assumptions about her exotic upbringing.
I'm all right, I'm alllll right!
The real person picked up gypsy words to provide bulk to her language. Gypsies are historically travelers from the mid-to-far east. So it would make sense that they'd retain similar words. She chose to bust those out just as the Professor concluded her a hoax in order to throw him off balance.
Gypsies!
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