1940s Spoken Language books by Charles E. Kany

[AnthonyLauder]

Is anybody here familiar with the Spoken Spanish/French/German/Italian/Portuguese/Russian books by Charles E. Kany from the 1940s?

As a bit of background: Kany was a university professor of languages. He was an expert in how languages are actually spoken, and was particularly well known for his multi-volume study of the spanish spoken in latin america.

He was, I have discovered, also a rather accomplished polyglot, able to speak a large number of languages, and constantly adding new ones throughout his life.

Recently, I have become aware of his book series called "Spoken XXXX for Students and Travellers". Each book is around 250 pages long, covers one language, and (not surprisingly) focuses on the spoken language.

These books seem to be available used quite inexpensively, but I do not own any copies personally.

If you do own copies of any of these books, would you be willing to tell us a little about them? Possibly even with photographs of pages from within?

[Speakeasy]

I, too, happened upon this series recently. From what I understand, Charles Emil Kany (1895 – 1968) was an American linguist, university professor, and prolific author of works covering primarily the Romance but also other languages. As you noted, his “Spoken [language] for Travelers and Students“ series was published in the 1940’s for the instruction of French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. I am under the impression that the series was re-issued, with minor revisions, in the 1980’s.

I came across an offer on eBay last week for “Spoken German for Travelers and Students“ but, given the condition of the book, ordered what-I-hope-will-turn-out-to-be a cleaner copy from another vendor. The images posted on eBay suggest an expanded phrase book*, replete with a glossary and notes on grammar. Notice the Fraktur font! I will update this post with more information upon receipt of the copy that I ordered. I have also ordered a copy of a book under the same title, published in 1980, accredited to a different author. *UPDATE: Please refer to my revised comments, posted below.

Spoken German for Students and Travelers 1.JPG

Spoken German for Students and Travelers 2.JPG

Spoken German for Students and Travelers 3.JPG

Spoken German for Students and Travelers 4.JPG

[jeff_lindqvist]

"Ich werde gleich meinen Spirituskocher in Gang bringen." / "I'll start my alcohol burner right away."

Now, that's a postillion sentence if ever I saw one.

[AnthonyLauder]

postillion sentence

Now I feel rather embarassed, because I have no idea what a postillion sentence is.

[Speakeasy]

A postilion sentence, from the oft-cited phrase "My postilion has been struck by lightning", is an example of language which, although grammatically correct, has "little or no chance of ever being useful in real life." As David Crystal points out, "it conveys a structural meaning, and a lexical content, but that is all." This is the epitome of classroom language teaching far removed from the needs of students. Such phrases remind us of the need for teaching language that has a direct bearing on the present or future communicative needs of language learners. Source: Teflpedia

[lavengro]

A postilion sentence, from the oft-cited phrase "My postilion has been struck by lightning", is an example of language which, although grammatically correct, has "little or no chance of ever being useful in real life." ....

Coincidentally, due to unusual habits in my younger years (yes, I am of course referring to swimming in lakes in thunderstorms senza vestiti), I got my postilion struck by lightning. Walked with a limp for years thereafter....

[Speakeasy]

... I am of course referring to swimming in lakes in thunderstorms senza vestiti), I got my postilion struck by lightning. Walked with a limp for years thereafter....

That would have been your left leg, no doubt.

[Daristani]

Thanks for bringing up the Kany books, which I'd been unaware of previously.

I see that the Spoken French volume is available for download at archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dl ... 95/page/n6

while the Italian and Spanish ones can be "borrowed" (viewed online) for 15 days if you register at the site:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=charles%20kany

Based on the above discussion, I ordered copies of the Italian (210 pages), Portuguese (187 pages), and Spanish (296 pages) volumes, which are arranged somewhat differently from the French one. While the French book has the French sentence, the IPA transcription, and the English translation one after another, the others all have the original language and the English translation on facing pages as seen in the illustration above, with no IPA, although the Italian and Portuguese volumes do show stressed open e's and o's with special letters and small diacritical marks, respectively.

Also, while the German book posted by Speakeasy seems to have a German-English glossary, none of the three books I have has any sort of glossary, except for some short lists of words pertaining to certain categories (foods, etc.) All three have short grammatical sketches.

Physically, the three physical copies I have are quite small hardcovers, not exactly pocket-sized, but still pretty convenient to carry around at roughly 5 by 7 inches.

In conception, they seem to be very similar to the Cortina books in consisting essentially of bilingual conversations on various mostly tourist-oriented topics, followed by a grammatical summary, but with less substantial notes, glossaries, etc.

[Speakeasy]

Daristani, thank you very much for the additional information on this series. Although Charles E. Kany collaborated with others in writing most of the books in this series, I am rather surprised that the professor does not seem to have exercised editorial oversight through the adoption of a uniform presentation.

Spoken German for Students and Travelers
Yesterday, I received delivery of “Spoken German for Students and Travelers” by Charles E. Kany and Christian F. Melz, published in 1946 by D.C. Heath and Company, that I had ordered.

Description
As Daristani pointed out, the hard-covered book is smallish, measuring some 4-3/4 inches x 6-5/8 inches. Whereas my initial impressions, based on the images that I had downloaded from the offer on eBay, were that this was a “phrase book”, I would now revise my opinion by saying that this work appears to be more of an “elementary language course”, somewhat in the Assimil style, than a simple phrase book. The contents of the German book are organized as follows:

Preface
Quote: “The purpose of this book is to offer easy but adequate conversational German to students of the language and to travelers and tourists in Germany. The book may be considered a basic conversation text not only for beginners with no knowledge of German, but also for those who already possess a foundation. A skeleton grammar is appended for the benefit of those who may wish to consult it. To this end, footnoted references will be found throughout the text corresponding to explanatory paragraphs in the Appendix, which contains also the principal parts of strong and irregular verbs as well as the principal parts of nouns occurring in the dialogues. The conversations have been carefully selected to meet the ordinary requirements of the traveler in his daily life and have likewise been graded as to difficulty of expression. The English translation given for each German sentence is a time-saving device particularly helpful for self-instruction…” The preface continues with suggestions on how this book might be used for classroom instruction, including very specific recommendations for the chorus repetition of the sentences.

Pronunciation Guide
Brief notes are provided on the pronunciation of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, with approximate English equivalents, as well as punctuation, capitalization, and syllabification

Part I
Part I contains 10 brief elementary conversations covering introductions, et cetera. The German text, in Fraktur font, appears on the left page with the English translation in modern font appears on the right page. Very brief notes appear at the bottom of the pages.

Part II
Part II contains 50 brief dialogues, of increasing difficultly, covering a broad range of situations in which a traveler might find themselves. The presentation is the same as that already described: German text, in Fraktur font, appears on the left page with the English translation in modern font appears on the right page. Very brief notes appear at the bottom of the pages. The presentation resembles that of the Cortina, Assimil, and so many similar courses. The image below was drawn randomly from the book.

Spoken German for Students and Travelers, 1956, Charles Kany et al.JPG

Appendix, Glossary, Et Cetera
The Appendix contains a well-presented summary of the basics of German grammar, principal parts of strong verbs, a German-English glossary of approximately 1,100 words, notes on numbers, counting, and measurements.

Audio Recordings? Sadly, None!
The author does not make any references to audio recordings having been prepared to accompany these books and, instead, offers suggestions on how the materials might be practiced in a classroom setting. As we know, recordings (on shellac or vinyl records, either 78 rpm or 33-1/3 rpm) were available for the courses by Assimil, Cortina, Linguaphone and many others during this era. What a shame that Professor Kany chose not to exploit this technology.

Revised Edition?
I have ordered, but have not yet received, a copy of “Spoken German for Students and Travelers (College) ” by Renate Hiller, published in 1980 by y D.C. Heath and Company. I’ll report back upon receipt of what I suspect might be a revised edition of Professor Kany's original work.

EDITED:
Typos.

[Speakeasy]

Revised Edition?
I have ordered, but have not yet received, a copy of “Spoken German for Students and Travelers (College) ” by Renate Hiller, published in 1980 by y D.C. Heath and Company. I’ll report back upon receipt of what I suspect might be a revised edition of Professor Kany's original work.

Spoken [Language] for Students and Travelers, Second (Revised) Edition
As a follow-up to our discussions of the Spoken [Language] for Students and Travelers series by Charles E. Kany, I can confirm that a second (revised) edition of these books was published by D.C. Heath and Company in the late-1970’s through the early 1980’s.

Although, owing to an error* at the time of shipping, I did not receive a copy of the German course that I had ordered, and in its place, received a copy of Spoken Italian for Students and Travelers, it is clear from the Preface that this similarly-titled series was a revision to the original. In the updated edition of the Italian course, the author explains that several changes were made: revisions to the dialogues, a skeletal grammar was included, and an index was added. I would add that a much more modern, and readable, font was used in the second edition and that the books were soft-bound.

*Error: all three items delivered under my order were incorrect. More hassle on the horizon.