🎖️ c. 1786 | Young Napoleon Speaks French with a Corsican Accent What you’re seeing:
A 17-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte, a junior artillery officer in a French garrison town. His hair is wet, his uniform is worn, and he looks straight ahead like an outsider among older, more polished officers. What he says (French with a Corsican accent):
“Ils se moquent de ma patrie… Mais le canon… le canon n’a point d’accent.” What it means in English:
“They mock my fatherland… But the cannon… the cannon has no accent.” What language is he speaking?
Napoleon is speaking French with a strong Corsican accent. His first languages were Corsican and Italian, and he only learned French properly for school and the army, so his French never sounded like that of Paris-born officers. Why did Napoleon have a Corsican accent in French?
He grew up on Corsica hearing Corsican and Italian at home. He started learning French around age 9 and never lost his island accent. Classmates and fellow officers often mock...