Re: non-phonetic english spelling

From: John A Rea (j.rea2_at_insightbb.com)
Date: 12/28/04 

Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:40:59 GMT

Lee Sau Dan wrote:

>>>>>>"Ruud" == Ruud Harmsen <realemailseesite01@rudhar.com.invalid> writes:
>
>
> >> In familiar French, "ils" is pronounced /i/ when followed by a
> >> consonant, /iz/ when followed by a vowel. Same thing for
> >> "elles" (/E/ and /Ez/).
> >>
> >> So we have:
> >>
> >> /EvjEnti/ and /EzaRivti/
>
> I have to assume that /En/ here means a nasal vowel as in "bien".
>
> Elle vien tee? Elles arrivent i(ci)?
>
> >> as well as:
> >>
> >> /ivjEnti/ and /izaRivti/
>
> Il vient i(ci)? Ils arrivent i(ci)?
>
> From your phonemic transcription, I can better understand the claim
> that French is an agglutinative language! :)
>
>
> Actually, I'm totally confused by the /-ti/ part in your 4 examples
> above. I was told that the "-ent" suffix for verbs of the 3rd person
> plural, present tense, is never pronounced at all. Maybe, you
> pronounce that in your home dialect? (Do you come from la Côte
> d'Azur?)
>
the /ei/ has been called "an interrogative particle" placed after the
verb in a common colloquial (as contrasted with "formal) variety
of French, also called (with implied value judgment) "francais
avance" (if your mailer permits acute accent marks, please insert
one on the last vowel of "avance", rather than complaining!).
>
> Ruud> This is completely new to me. Never heard that, and never
> Ruud> about it either. So now I know why I don't understand a word
> Ruud> when I overhear a conversation between French people,
> Ruud> although I can reasonably well communicate with them in
> Ruud> French myself. They speak a different language when talking
> Ruud> to me. (;-)
>
>
> Ruud> -- Ruud Harmsen - http://rudhar.com/
>

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