Judging from his letters and diaries as well as _A Tramp Abroad_, my
impression is that he must have understood and spoken enough German to
conduct at least simple conversations; most probably more.
What made communication difficult at the time was the fact that most Germans
of the lower social strata were dialect speakers, and travelling around
Twain and his companions / family encountered numerous different "Germanic"
varieties.

Wolfgang Hochbruck

Englisches Seminar - Institut für Nordamerikastudien
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Rempartstr. 15
D-79085 Freiburg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Dorman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 1:54 PM
Subject: German


> How well did Clemens speak/write German?
>
> -------
> Apology:  I had a "technological meltdown" a while back and since have
> been unable to communicate much online because I have no voice
> recognition software on the machine.
>
> .--sue