... and yet he was called "Tonto"?
Tonto means wild one in the Pottawatomi indian language. Because Tonto means fool in Spanish, films dubbed in Spanish call him Toro instead.
@Lorajay I have read that some of the old time film "Indians" would swear and insult the "white man" when they were to speak "native."
@Beowulfsfriend Good for them!
I remember how in Nairobi, during a showing of the film "Mogambo" the entire cinema burst out laughing. The film was showing people in the "jungle", actually a well know copse at fourteen falls, some 20 miles away. As they waded across the river, the director had told all the Africans playing the part of porters, to speak "native", so they did. The comment that caused most hilarity was the one that came over, loud and clear,
"How many more times is the director going to make us cross this river today?"
Most of us, having grown in Kenya, were bilingual!
@Petter I have a friend who told me about being on the reservation and hearing the laughter - he did not speak his mother's language.
@Beowulfsfriend When I am out in public (I remember with fondness those days of yore, 'ere the onset of the Covid) and my wife and I wish to pass comment, we speak in Swahili. In 32 years of living in this part of Spain I have only ever come across one other Swahili speaker.
@Petter I envy people who are multilingual. I used to read some Spanish and a little French and Middle English. Note I said read. My daughter speaks a few languages - French and Thai and Italian, and all the juicy good words in German, from her roommate.
@Beowulfsfriend Good for her. I leave the (poor) German to my wife. She leaves the (garrulous) French to me. We both speak Spanish and can get by in Italian.
Never had any Thai knowledge whatsoever.