Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Rhino Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French? Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2024 23:00:47 -0400 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 32 Message-ID: <20240330230047.00003c68@example.com> References: <20240330222810.000036a5@example.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2024 03:00:49 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="79f0389e4ce69ebbe2ccbfaed224fc22"; logging-data="1565935"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18oo1z5aaiMBTrjzad6jGVw3tm8HkypU30=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:t+dMm6Ww/DkSozq4Gp+TCd7x0C0= X-Newsreader: Claws Mail 4.2.0 (GTK 3.24.41; x86_64-w64-mingw32) X-Antivirus: Avast (VPS 240330-4, 3/30/2024), Outbound message X-Antivirus-Status: Clean Bytes: 2404 On Sun, 31 Mar 2024 02:41:46 -0000 (UTC) "Adam H. Kerman" wrote: > Rhino wrote: > > >I apologize in advance to Americans who are inevitably aggrieved by > >all things French just on principle but this video actually makes a > >pretty good case for saying that English is badly-pronounced French > >to a large extent. > > >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUL29y0vJ8Q [18 minutes] > > >When he explains all the English words that are borrowed from French > >with only slight spelling and pronunciation changes, you may well be > >persuaded by his argument. > > Of course it is. The Norman invasion turned English into the > international language that it is, with about 45% words with Latin > roots. Thereafter, English borrowed any word from any language it > needed. Didn't make the spelling work too good. > > In the nineteenth century, French scholars threw out their loan words > and purified the language, making it useless as an international > language. French was the court language of many monarchies, including the Russian one, and also the language of diplomacy until WW I. But it certainly wasn't widely spoken by the masses outside France and its empire. -- Rhino