both of them

[Maybo]

"As their talk continued I noticed here and there a resemblance to French and Spanish, both of them languages I had previously heard among the sailors on the Thames." (The New World Beyond Treasure Island by Andrew Motion)

Is "both of them" referring to both of French and Spanish? I don't quite understand the sentence structure of "both of them languages".

 

[GoesStation]

It's another way to say "which are both languages I had previously heard".

 

[Maybo]

How should I parse the sentence? I feel something missing between "both of them" and "language".

 

[Tdol]

How about thinking of it as both languages I had heard. Presumably he had heard other languages.

 

[Maybo]

Can I say "..., both of them I had..."?

 

[tedmc]

It may be clearer for you to omit both of them, a phrase added for emphasis.


"As their talk continued I noticed here and there a resemblance to French and Spanish, languages I had previously heard..."

 

[GoesStation]

Can I say "..., both of them I had..."?

I can't see a way to fit that into the sentence, no.

 

[Maybo]

I can't see a way to fit that into the sentence, no.

How about "both of them that I had..."?

 

[Rover_KE]

That's even worse.:-(