English invasion 'threatens Fwench language more than Nazisdid'
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From: Earl Evleth on 12 Jan 2010 02:33 On 12/01/10 0:23, in article RdOdnRlTXsNmL9bWnZ2dnUVZ8iqdnZ2d(a)giganews.com, "John Rennie" <john-rennie(a)talktalk.net> wrote: > Officially perhaps but 'great' goes back to the 13th century And of course Bretagne is in France. So if Britain wishes to also use the name it has to be Grande Bretagne.
From: Earl Evleth on 12 Jan 2010 13:00 On 12/01/10 18:42, in article LsOdnZWr2Z0ZKdHWnZ2dnUVZ8vli4p2d(a)giganews.com, "Nightjar <"cpb"@" <"insertmysurnamehere>> wrote: > The French have been griping about franglaise for at least half a century. Relatively little. In fact I don't remember anybody griping here (my 35 years of a half o century living in Paris). Some French think it "chic" to throw in a few English words, it makes them look like they know English. In fact the word "chic" comes from German, Schick (skill, fitness, elegance), the verb schicken means to outfit oneself.
From: Earl Evleth on 12 Jan 2010 15:41 On 12/01/10 20:33, in article SPKdnRknCaEdU9HWnZ2dnUVZ8q9i4p2d(a)giganews.com, "John Rennie" <john-rennie(a)talktalk.net> wrote: > Which means you weren't there when DeGaulle was > the big man. Barely, we spent a year here in 65-66. Then 68 came and that did him in. The young were not interested about too much English coming in but how things were generally run, old foggy style. Some things were Americanized, like big shopping centers at the edge of towns. McDonalds had not yet appeared. Eventually some things were Americanized, but only that which the French wanted. DeGaulle was pass�, kaput, fini. Changes occurred here but Americans still pictured the French in berets riding down the street with a baguette staps to the back.
From: Donna Evleth on 12 Jan 2010 16:22
> From: John Rennie <john-rennie(a)talktalk.net> > Reply-To: john-rennie(a)talktalk.net > Newsgroups: alt.activism.death-penalty,uk.politics.misc,rec.travel.europe > Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:33:34 +0000 > Subject: Re: English invasion 'threatens Fwench language more than Nazis did' > > Earl Evleth wrote: >> On 12/01/10 18:42, in article LsOdnZWr2Z0ZKdHWnZ2dnUVZ8vli4p2d(a)giganews.com, >> "Nightjar <"cpb"@" <"insertmysurnamehere>> wrote: >> >>> The French have been griping about franglaise for at least half a century. >> >> Relatively little. In fact I don't remember anybody griping here (my >> 35 years of a half o century living in Paris). > > Which means you weren't there when DeGaulle was > the big man. He really hated the English > mainly because he knew he should be grateful > to them. Earl may give this impression, but we lived in France for the first time in 1965-66. 1966 was when de Gaulle threw NATO out of France. I still remember the vicious anti-American feeling I encountered at that time. We were living in a rented apartment in the 18th arrondissement. Once our concierges found out that we were American, there was an immediate bond. The man of the couple had been gassed in WWI. During his rather long hospital stay, he was in the same ward with an American soldier who had also been gassed. They became friends. By the time we lived in this building, both of the two had forgotten each other's language. I became a translator for them (start of a long career). The day that Time Magazine announced that de Gaulle had "thrown the Americans out of France", I had to go to some important appointment, where it would have been inconvenient to take our then 5-year-old daughter, our concierges volunteered to babysit, no charge. I look back on this obviously vicious burst of anti-Americanism with amusement, especially since our relatives in the US all contacted us, worrying about our safety. Later our concierge (the man) who was an amateur painter, did a watercolor of our daughter and our dog in the snow (there was a major snow crisis in Paris in December-January 1965-1966). I still have it, and treasure it. Unlike de Gaulle, we were just real people, who knew and liked each other. I have kept that in mind ever since, and thus try to avoid chips on my shoulder. Donna Evleth > > > > > >> >> Some French think it "chic" to throw in a few English words, >> it makes them look like they know English. >> >> In fact the word "chic" comes from German, Schick >> (skill, fitness, elegance), the verb >> schicken means to outfit oneself. >> |