Four, resembling the riddles of medieval European texts

In fact, at that time, those who wrote books or notes in their native language only needed to ensure that they and their acquaintances could understand it. As for others, well, my books are not written for them, so let them ponder over it like deciphering a code!

It was not until the mid-16th century, when the Middle Ages had essentially come to an end, that Martin Luther (not the African American leader from the United States, but the German who founded Protestantism) made the initial standardization of German grammar and translated the Bible into German for the first time

In summary, given the chaotic state of various languages and scripts in medieval Europe, even the Bible could not be written in the local languages, but rather in Greek and Latin, which the general populace could not understand at all, leaving them at the mercy of the clergy's whims. In fact, in remote areas outside of Italy, many churches recruited low-level clergy who also did not understand the obscure Greek and Latin. With the lamentable transportation conditions of the medieval period, it was impossible to organize them collectively to receive training in Rome. Thus, the missionaries in the initial pioneering phase could only reluctantly lower their standards, first establishing the local people's faith in God, and addressing the remaining matters gradually when conditions allowed.

It is important to understand that in medieval Europe, the written languages of most countries were not standardized; words and grammar were entirely spelled out according to individual pronunciation. However, the issue is that even within the same linguistic region, each locality had its own dialect, and naturally, the words spelled out with letters varied as well. A visit to museums to examine the literature from medieval Europe, particularly from Central European countries, reveals that the same word in the same language can have multiple spellings in the hands of different individuals—this is not merely a typographical error, but rather a reflection of the absence of a unified standard.

Therefore, in the context of the medieval environment, one should not assume that the presence of Germans or French means there are no language barriers—after all, even in China, there are often instances of miscommunication between people from Guangdong and those from Shanghai!

In medieval Europe, the vast majority of knights, nobles, and even kings were illiterate, and many held superstitions about swords and blades, looking down upon culture. This resulted in the complete control of knowledge transmission being held by the Church. Noble youths who wished to learn cultural knowledge typically had to go to the monasteries of the Church. Moreover, even if one had studied in a monastery, the usefulness of literacy for genuine long-distance communication was likely quite limited

I would like to express my gratitude to the linguists and rhetoricians of ancient Rome for their significant contributions to the standardization of the Latin language

If Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement had occurred a thousand years earlier, it might not have been regarded as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church

Returning to the main topic, the character Kong Yiji, as depicted by Lu Xun, states that "the character for 'hui' has four different forms," which is regarded by modern Chinese people as cumbersome and pedantic. However, in the Holy Roman Empire of medieval Europe, the same word in German likely had more than twenty different spellings (at that time, regions such as Bohemia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and many other countries were still within the Germanic realm), leading to frequent errors in the transmission of written information, making it quite troublesome to correspond with others.

Therefore, if you encounter a clumsy priest in the Middle Ages who tells the Bible stories in a jumbled manner, you should not be surprised at all

The last point is actually not a big deal; in those days, 99% of Europeans were illiterate, and it was quite common to find no literate person in a small town. In "Spice and Wolf," the character Lawrence merely read a contract for the illiterate villagers and received a roasted chicken as a reward, highlighting the rarity of intellectuals at that time. Rather than going through the trouble of writing a letter, it would be more efficient to find a good memory courier to relay the message directly. It was quite common to find no literate person in a small town; in "Spice and Wolf," the character Lawrence merely read a contract for the illiterate villagers and received a roasted chicken as a reward, highlighting the rarity of intellectuals at that time. Rather than going through the trouble of writing a letter, it would be more efficient to find a good memory courier to relay the message directly

Now, let us briefly summarize the drawbacks of life in medieval Europe: castles were unsuitable for habitation, the food was unpalatable, there was no standardized language, and communication through letters was extremely difficult

Everyone can imagine, if someone were to spell out the Cantonese or Fujian dialect using pinyin letters (strictly according to the local tones), and then present it to someone from Beijing or Northeast China, asking them to read it out loud...! ... What a perplexing and frustrating scene that would be!

For example, in the early Middle Ages, shortly after Christianity was introduced to England, there existed a simplified standard: the lowest-ranking missionaries recruited from local believers were considered qualified as long as they could recite the first three lines of the Bible in Latin, with the rest left to their own invention

In summary, one might as well consider it living in a remote mountain village in modern times, which seems barely tolerable

During the Age of Exploration, European missionaries also adhered to a similar "fast-track principle." Consequently, due to the significant differences in language and cultural backgrounds, a plethora of peculiar indigenous clergy emerged in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. For instance, in China, the Virgin Mary was translated as "Maria Guanyin"; while in African churches, there were black choirs beating cowhide war drums and singing praise songs in a severely off-key manner.

Due to the well-established standardization of the French language, coupled with the strength of modern France and its cultural supremacy in Europe, French remained the international lingua franca in European diplomacy until the 19th century, when it was gradually supplanted by English in the 20th century

Hehe, young man, you are truly too naive. The matter is far from over. The horrors of daily life in medieval Europe could absolutely drive any normal modern person insane. How could it be so easy to get away with it?

To avoid misunderstandings, the princes of Germany could only communicate in Latin. The situation was not much better in France either

Of course, if you are Italian, you would not have such troubles—this is also one of the reasons why the Renaissance first occurred in Italy! Otherwise, if there were no unified regulations for words and grammar, how could the literary figures write the "Decameron" and the "Divine Comedy"?

In summary, if you were to write a letter in your native language during the Middle Ages, due to the lack of a unified writing standard, the recipient would likely misunderstand it. Conversely, if you wrote the letter in Latin, most people would not understand it and would have to seek out a senior clergy member in the cathedral for translation

After having eaten and drunk to satisfaction, if you do not wish to lie down and sleep, then according to the conventions of fairy tales, it seems you should write a love letter to a certain noble lady or madam, or perhaps write to your sovereign to offer some counsel... But the question is, what written language should you use to put pen to paper