Between 1936 and 1939, some 35,000 foreign volunteers from fifty-three different countries came to Spain to fight against Francisco Franco's Nationalist Army. They were drawn by the ideological struggle against fascism, and backed by socialist, communist, and democratic movements. They became the International Brigades of the Republican Army, and this is one of the songs that they sang:
This scan is from Legions of Babel: The International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War by V.B. Johnston. My friend Jonathan found this book when we were at the Library of Congress in DC. I count five languages in the song: English, German, Spanish, French, and Russian. It was published by The Volunteer for Liberty, the newspaper of the International Brigades of the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, which was published in French, German, Italian, Polish, and English.
What I love most about the mishmash of languages in the song is all the spelling and grammar mistakes. I think most of them are intentional; the anarchic grammar gives a colloquial feel to the song that enhances the feeling of international brotherhood. As Jonathan pointed out, spelling 'comment ça va' as 'comment savar' and 'working shirt and pants' as 'woiken shoit and panties' makes it sound like this is being sung by a New Yorker who is just now getting a handle on all of these languages being spoken around him.
Because I apparently have nothing better to do, I decided to translate the song (preserving the grammar mistakes as best I could). Black is English, Red is French, Orange is Spanish, Blue is German, Green is Russian:
The Internationalist
I came to Spain in January
I speaks only English
But now I say Comment Ça Va
Wie gehts, Que Tal, Comrade
I driving with my ambulance
In woikin' shoit and panties
I have no time for romance
And work much harder than before
When evening comes I say good night
My blankets all lostI'm very cold, but I am told
This is war, dat's the war, there's a war on
But other things I has learned
That eats is not much
Our meat is sometimes burned
With garlic, also oil
But one idea is above all
An idea very profound
We'll work hard for Franco's fall
And the United Proletariat Brothers of the whole world
Here multilingualism is used to underpin the message of international solidarity. It strikes me as counter to the Esperanto Movement, which views linguistic confusion as a source of international discord and seeks to propagate a single international language.