File under “answers to questions you never asked”:
Comments
Open thread 3/31/23 — 20 Comments
English cannot hold a candle to spoken French when it comes to not pronouncing some of the letters in words. Sometimes it seems that the French can discard half the alphabet because they never seem to pronounce many letters .
Ironically, when you hear songs in French they literally pronounce every letter, especially at the ends of the words; just listen to Edith Piaf’s songs.
When William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 he and his nobles spoke French and introduced many French words into the english language. At least, that’s my understanding of how so many French-type words wound up in the english language.
This was linked at the Instapundit yesterday, with an insight that is obvious when I think about it, but I never thought about it this way.
Why is there a G in sign? Because it’d be a sin to leave it out.
JohnTyler,
Frederick the Great ruled what was Germany in the mid-18th century and spoke French. I’m not even sure he spoke German. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin… French has been infiltrating other languages for a long time.
Even folks who disagree with his opinions should agree with the ferocity he defends his independence.
Ironically, when you hear songs in French they literally pronounce every letter, especially at the ends of the words; just listen to Edith Piaf’s songs.
JohnTyler:
There are many French accents. My rough understanding is that the clipped letters and syllables evolved in Parisian French, upon which today’s Standard French is based. However, in other regions, for instance Marseilles, people speak slower and more completely.
I guess the the Big City Folks were too important and busy to bother saying all the letters! I suspect it worked as a class distinction too.
As I hear Piaf, she does clip the last letter as in Parisian French. She was born in Paris, so I assume her accent is Parisian. However, her long rolled Rs are a device singers used to amplify their voices before microphones.
The French pop songs from the 60s onward I’ve been listening to all sing Standard French.
Spoken French is the most difficult to understand among the Romance languages. When the final letter or letters are clipped, many more words sound alike and their meanings must be derived from context.
Then there is the “liaison” problem, where the silent last consonant wakes up and is pronounced if the first letter of the next word is a vowel. Though not always.
I’m happy with my progress in reading French, but understanding spoken French is much slower.
signal
andrew tate and his brother released from prison
portuguese to my ear, had a extra consonant sounds and seemingly extra syllables I learned that when I tried to learn it in south florida
Here’s a word ending in -gn, directed at Nancy Pelosi: RESIGN.
Israel was rocked by the news on Thursday that the U.S. State Department had ordered NASA scientist Dr. Amber Straughn to cancel her participation in the Israel Physical Society’s annual meeting. The news came following Straughn’s posting on Twitter that her “travel authorization was revoked” on Wednesday.
The State Department’s move, which gives the appearance of an official boycott, would be stunning under any circumstance. But it is all the more alarming coming on the heels of U.S. President Joe Biden’s shocking remarks in relation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s efforts to place minimal limits on the Supreme Court’s currently limitless powers.
In apparently off-the-cuff remarks to reporters on Tuesday, Biden said curtly: “Like many strong supporters of Israel I am very concerned, and I’m concerned that they get this [judicial reform] straight. They cannot continue down this road. Hopefully, the prime minister will act in a way that he’s going to try to work out some genuine compromise. But that remains to be seen.”
Gee.
” … it’d be a sin to leave it out.”
Because you will get singed when you put it back in and are assigned, aligned, resigned, and consigned to Hell.
After complaining about French, I’m happy to be reminded what a nightmare English can pose to second-language learners.
For instance, our “th” sound is only found in 7% of other languages. And actually, without noticing it, we pronounce “th” in two different ways, voiced and unvoiced: “that” and “them”.
Then there’s George Bernard Shaw’s well-known example that we might as well spell “fish” as “ghoti” from “enough”, “women” and “motion.”
Olly Richards is another YouTube polyglot. He emphasizes “Story Learning” as a great way to learn languages. He has a playful style of teaching.
____________________________
Are you a native English speaker? Consider yourself lucky! You got to learn one of the world’s most difficult languages the “easy” way. Or if you are learning English as a foreign language, you have my sincere sympathies! From rare sounds, to whacky spellings, to illogical rules, there are so many ways in which English is ridiculously difficult to learn.
In this video, I dive into the many strange facets of English that make it a truly strange and challenging language. Fasten your seat belts, folks; it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
To be fair, as I understand these matters, it’s relatively easy to learn to make oneself understood in English since gender, noun/pronoun declensions, verb conjugations and word order are lesser considerations.
But to master English close to native level must be maddening.
Olly quotes this:
___________________________
English doesn’t just borrow words from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys to beat them unconscious and rifle through their pockets for new vocabulary.
–(not sure, seems to be based on something Terry Pratchett wrote)
___________________________
Good for a laugh.
There are long discussions about what language has the largest vocabulary. Turns out no one is quite sure how to count words in a language. Finnish, arguably, has an infinitely large vocabulary.
But there’s no denying English borrows words wholesale and indiscriminately from other languages. It’s the Wild West.
We have a huge number of synonyms and we know the subtle shades of difference and which words work better with other words, because we grew up with them.
Aren’t you glad you don’t have to learn them now?
French has the Académie Française, established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, to regulate the vocabulary and grammar of the French Language. It’s still going strong.
BIG NEWS LEAKS AT INSTAPUNDIT COMMENT THREAD, regarding the Trans-Nashville Christian school shooting. (Somebody get him or her on Tucker Tonight, stay!)
He or she dishes on the hidden Trans Manifesto — it’s juicy, powerful and quite plausibly just — BUT sinister powers are forcing a new narrative, it is claimed.
HERE’S the post:
Another Nameo
8 hours ago edited
This is all stray voltage to cover up the “manifesto” the killer wrote, which blames CNN, her sexual abusing “progressive” therapist (the daughter of whom she murdered in her kill spree because she couldn’t find him), the many people who tried to convince her that she was not a woman but was instead a man and ruined her life.
That’s what the manifesto says that the FBI is now hiding from you.
But I’ve seen it.
They are writing a new manifesto, to be released to the public. And once they do, the real manifesto, which I have a copy of from police sources in Nashville, will be released. Just waiting on the FBI to make its stupid move.
3
0
Reply
•
FOLLOWUP, in answer to who the therapist is, is THIS reply:
Another Nameo cbenoistd
8 hours ago edited
Chad Scruggs.
ANOTHER Commenter “Occasional Reader” claims this poster has a history at IP of being nutty but “Another Nameo” defends, saying he or she gives sources and references.
AGAIN, Challenged by the same, and asked to be more forthcoming, An other Nameo responds:
Another Nameo Occasional Reader
8 hours ago edited
I have sources inside the Nashville, Tennessee police department who do not trust the FBI. So, I have a copy of the actual manifesto that they turned over to the FBI. And that will be released once the FBI releases the fake manifesto that they are now writing.
The “therapist” label is retracted, however, the Telegraph reports
PHOTO caption: “ Pastor Chad Scruggs was being hunted by Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale who instead killed his daughter”
“Note: Jim Bachmann said in later interviews that he had been mistaken in drawing a connection between Pastor Chad Scruggs and Hale.“I’ve had several messages from an assortment of people that not only was there no counselling between those two, that he didn’t even know her,” Mr Bachmann told the New York Post.The Covenant School confirmed he was incorrect….
THUS, two new likelihoods arose: the stories need re-straightening, and the SOURCE may also be reflecting polarising bias — and possibly, an erroneous story.
=====================
The claim is that the FBI is Still FIB-ing and being used to re-write this unshared Manifesto.
Finally, the poster claims the local police are wise to this evil-doing and that he or she has been given a copy of the real Manifesto — to be divulged when the FIB do there lying dog and pony show.
WOW. DAmnable WOW.
On first and second pass, I DO NOT find this tale implausible.
It’s like a redux of the case of David Riemann over 40 years ago, documented by book and a PBS Frontline style hour-long program in the 1990s.
A botched foreskin circumcision job resulted in a stubby penis. Given the fact that David had a twin brother, Prof. John Money (John Hopkins Medical School) seized on this case in order to “prove” his theory that mere hormones and surgery could make for an effective female (trans-)person.
BUT WORSE. The attempt failed, and to keep his reputation alive, he frauded his future as a “success”! And he became an oracle for trans-liberation until his death.
But David rejected his treatments and counselling , eventually reconstructing his life as a man, marrying, but eventually still committing suicide.
WHAT’S old is new again. Only with errors perpetrated on the larger institutions of life, the city, the feds, and a Christian school — all of these are involved.
We’ll see how this plays out. I am painfully riveted by this story. Another Nameo could be real.
Future Congressional investigations called for, should the story hold up? Because this sure sounds like a possible Whistle-Blower.
Leave a Reply
HTML tags allowed in your
comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
English cannot hold a candle to spoken French when it comes to not pronouncing some of the letters in words. Sometimes it seems that the French can discard half the alphabet because they never seem to pronounce many letters .
Ironically, when you hear songs in French they literally pronounce every letter, especially at the ends of the words; just listen to Edith Piaf’s songs.
When William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 he and his nobles spoke French and introduced many French words into the english language. At least, that’s my understanding of how so many French-type words wound up in the english language.
This was linked at the Instapundit yesterday, with an insight that is obvious when I think about it, but I never thought about it this way.
https://stream.org/american-psycho-the-hatred-for-women-that-lurks-in-gay-and-trans-culture/
Othering is evil.
The othering of conservatives/Republicans is nearly complete. Here’s another example. https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=21712
Why is there a G in sign? Because it’d be a sin to leave it out.
JohnTyler,
Frederick the Great ruled what was Germany in the mid-18th century and spoke French. I’m not even sure he spoke German. Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin… French has been infiltrating other languages for a long time.
Good one, windbag!
Kate,
A woman on Twitter posted a thread with a similar, tangential theory that is related to your comment: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1638738447379890178.html
Jeff Goldstein’s “Re-Declaration of Independence” is well worth a read:
https://jeffgoldstein.substack.com/p/a-re-declaration-of-independence
Even folks who disagree with his opinions should agree with the ferocity he defends his independence.
Ironically, when you hear songs in French they literally pronounce every letter, especially at the ends of the words; just listen to Edith Piaf’s songs.
JohnTyler:
There are many French accents. My rough understanding is that the clipped letters and syllables evolved in Parisian French, upon which today’s Standard French is based. However, in other regions, for instance Marseilles, people speak slower and more completely.
I guess the the Big City Folks were too important and busy to bother saying all the letters! I suspect it worked as a class distinction too.
As I hear Piaf, she does clip the last letter as in Parisian French. She was born in Paris, so I assume her accent is Parisian. However, her long rolled Rs are a device singers used to amplify their voices before microphones.
The French pop songs from the 60s onward I’ve been listening to all sing Standard French.
Spoken French is the most difficult to understand among the Romance languages. When the final letter or letters are clipped, many more words sound alike and their meanings must be derived from context.
Then there is the “liaison” problem, where the silent last consonant wakes up and is pronounced if the first letter of the next word is a vowel. Though not always.
I’m happy with my progress in reading French, but understanding spoken French is much slower.
signal
andrew tate and his brother released from prison
portuguese to my ear, had a extra consonant sounds and seemingly extra syllables I learned that when I tried to learn it in south florida
Here’s a word ending in -gn, directed at Nancy Pelosi: RESIGN.
Caroline Glick: https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-new-phase-in-u-s-israel-relations/
Gee.
” … it’d be a sin to leave it out.”
Because you will get singed when you put it back in and are assigned, aligned, resigned, and consigned to Hell.
After complaining about French, I’m happy to be reminded what a nightmare English can pose to second-language learners.
For instance, our “th” sound is only found in 7% of other languages. And actually, without noticing it, we pronounce “th” in two different ways, voiced and unvoiced: “that” and “them”.
Then there’s George Bernard Shaw’s well-known example that we might as well spell “fish” as “ghoti” from “enough”, “women” and “motion.”
Olly Richards is another YouTube polyglot. He emphasizes “Story Learning” as a great way to learn languages. He has a playful style of teaching.
____________________________
Are you a native English speaker? Consider yourself lucky! You got to learn one of the world’s most difficult languages the “easy” way. Or if you are learning English as a foreign language, you have my sincere sympathies! From rare sounds, to whacky spellings, to illogical rules, there are so many ways in which English is ridiculously difficult to learn.
In this video, I dive into the many strange facets of English that make it a truly strange and challenging language. Fasten your seat belts, folks; it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!
–Olly Richards, “10 Reasons English is Ridiculously Hard”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrlX-L4o2KM
____________________________
To be fair, as I understand these matters, it’s relatively easy to learn to make oneself understood in English since gender, noun/pronoun declensions, verb conjugations and word order are lesser considerations.
But to master English close to native level must be maddening.
Olly quotes this:
___________________________
English doesn’t just borrow words from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys to beat them unconscious and rifle through their pockets for new vocabulary.
–(not sure, seems to be based on something Terry Pratchett wrote)
___________________________
Good for a laugh.
There are long discussions about what language has the largest vocabulary. Turns out no one is quite sure how to count words in a language. Finnish, arguably, has an infinitely large vocabulary.
But there’s no denying English borrows words wholesale and indiscriminately from other languages. It’s the Wild West.
We have a huge number of synonyms and we know the subtle shades of difference and which words work better with other words, because we grew up with them.
Aren’t you glad you don’t have to learn them now?
French has the Académie Française, established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, to regulate the vocabulary and grammar of the French Language. It’s still going strong.
BIG NEWS LEAKS AT INSTAPUNDIT COMMENT THREAD, regarding the Trans-Nashville Christian school shooting. (Somebody get him or her on Tucker Tonight, stay!)
He or she dishes on the hidden Trans Manifesto — it’s juicy, powerful and quite plausibly just — BUT sinister powers are forcing a new narrative, it is claimed.
HERE’S the post:
Another Nameo
8 hours ago edited
This is all stray voltage to cover up the “manifesto” the killer wrote, which blames CNN, her sexual abusing “progressive” therapist (the daughter of whom she murdered in her kill spree because she couldn’t find him), the many people who tried to convince her that she was not a woman but was instead a man and ruined her life.
That’s what the manifesto says that the FBI is now hiding from you.
But I’ve seen it.
They are writing a new manifesto, to be released to the public. And once they do, the real manifesto, which I have a copy of from police sources in Nashville, will be released. Just waiting on the FBI to make its stupid move.
3
0
Reply
•
FOLLOWUP, in answer to who the therapist is, is THIS reply:
Another Nameo cbenoistd
8 hours ago edited
Chad Scruggs.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk…[hot link in original. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/30/nashville-shooting-audrey-hale-hunting-pastor-counselling/ ]
ANOTHER Commenter “Occasional Reader” claims this poster has a history at IP of being nutty but “Another Nameo” defends, saying he or she gives sources and references.
AGAIN, Challenged by the same, and asked to be more forthcoming, An other Nameo responds:
Another Nameo Occasional Reader
8 hours ago edited
I have sources inside the Nashville, Tennessee police department who do not trust the FBI. So, I have a copy of the actual manifesto that they turned over to the FBI. And that will be released once the FBI releases the fake manifesto that they are now writing.
https://instapundit.com/577458/#disqus_thread
The “therapist” label is retracted, however, the Telegraph reports
PHOTO caption: “ Pastor Chad Scruggs was being hunted by Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale who instead killed his daughter”
“Note: Jim Bachmann said in later interviews that he had been mistaken in drawing a connection between Pastor Chad Scruggs and Hale.“I’ve had several messages from an assortment of people that not only was there no counselling between those two, that he didn’t even know her,” Mr Bachmann told the New York Post.The Covenant School confirmed he was incorrect….
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/30/nashville-shooting-audrey-hale-hunting-pastor-counselling/
THUS, two new likelihoods arose: the stories need re-straightening, and the SOURCE may also be reflecting polarising bias — and possibly, an erroneous story.
=====================
The claim is that the FBI is Still FIB-ing and being used to re-write this unshared Manifesto.
Finally, the poster claims the local police are wise to this evil-doing and that he or she has been given a copy of the real Manifesto — to be divulged when the FIB do there lying dog and pony show.
WOW. DAmnable WOW.
On first and second pass, I DO NOT find this tale implausible.
It’s like a redux of the case of David Riemann over 40 years ago, documented by book and a PBS Frontline style hour-long program in the 1990s.
A botched foreskin circumcision job resulted in a stubby penis. Given the fact that David had a twin brother, Prof. John Money (John Hopkins Medical School) seized on this case in order to “prove” his theory that mere hormones and surgery could make for an effective female (trans-)person.
BUT WORSE. The attempt failed, and to keep his reputation alive, he frauded his future as a “success”! And he became an oracle for trans-liberation until his death.
But David rejected his treatments and counselling , eventually reconstructing his life as a man, marrying, but eventually still committing suicide.
WHAT’S old is new again. Only with errors perpetrated on the larger institutions of life, the city, the feds, and a Christian school — all of these are involved.
We’ll see how this plays out. I am painfully riveted by this story. Another Nameo could be real.
Future Congressional investigations called for, should the story hold up? Because this sure sounds like a possible Whistle-Blower.