(the presentation will be in English)
Marco Polo has become an iconic figure of the Western interest in the Eastern world. Since the early 14th century, the account of his travels across the Mongol Empire, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo, has been an inexhaustible source of both information and fantasy for Europeans fascinated by the riches and mysteries of what the explorer called Khitai.
The scholarship on Marco Polo—covering his actual journey, his administrative role, and the accuracy of his descriptions—has grown extensively, addressing various topics such as Eastern Christianity, Mongol history, trade, and natural history. Codicological and philological approaches continue to be applied in tracing the book’s genesis, helping to distinguish the most reliable events.
While scholars have speculated on the languages Marco Polo may have spoken, little attention has been given, in the history literature, to the languages he might have heard along his route.
Exploring this aspect could offer several benefits: constructing a clearer picture of the sounds and structures of the languages surrounding Marco Polo might help clarify his itinerary through the toponyms he recorded. It could also reveal linguistic patterns influenced by contact with Mongol. Finally, such a study could bring Marco Polo closer to us by exploring the languages (along with their evolution and scripts) that shaped the auditory world he experienced.
This presentation aims to take a first step toward creating a comprehensive image of the languages spoken across Eurasia along Marco Polo’s route. Beginning with his native linguistic background, I will pause at key points in his journey to offer a brief overview of the main languages spoken at each major stop.
Mathieu Beaudouin is a young French linguist working in the fields of Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and Inner and East Asian studies. A fellow of Inalco (Paris), he recently defended a PhD thesis consisting of a grammar of the Tangut language.
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