Path: ...!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Your Name Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv Subject: Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French? Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2024 20:05:50 +1300 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 51 Message-ID: References: <89sh0jhqg7bdvslduploopg6msqiheqmdf@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2024 07:05:51 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="742d1d711c171ecf2ca2b28d8df8b916"; logging-data="1662217"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/zH4TqCRxWNTyvUXUrmcmrW5/ff7ZJfJ4=" User-Agent: Unison/2.2 Cancel-Lock: sha1:HfOce+MZLjo2ZwaflV4XJtccdrQ= Bytes: 3392 On 2024-03-31 05:15:53 +0000, shawn said: > On Sun, 31 Mar 2024 18:03:50 +1300, Your Name > wrote: >> On 2024-03-31 03:48:30 +0000, suzeeq said: >>> On 3/30/2024 7:28 PM, 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. >>> >>> I wondered why the Brits call cookies 'biscuits'. Then I realized it >>> comes from the French word for cookies 'bicotte'. They also call >>> eggplants 'aubergines' and zucchini 'corgettes'. There's probably >>> dozens of other words I can't recall now. >> >> The English language originates from a melding of many sources with >> words being 'borrowed' from other languages, including French, German, >> Gaelic, Celtic, etc. Some words have altered over time, but some >> words (e.g. rendezvous) have stayed the same as the original. >> >> "American English" is a sub-version that has its own unique spellings >> and meanings for words. Partly because (despite hating the British >> rule) they have stubbornly stuck to out-dated versions of words, as >> well as out-dated measurement systems, that the original Pilgrims >> brought with them rather than staying contemporary with *real* English. > > Though my understanding is because of the spellings and words that we > have continued to use in the USA, our form of English is closer to the > English of Shakespeare than that being used in England today. Yep, that's what I said: "oudated". :-p New words have of course had to be made up for things that didn't exist back then, which is another reason there are different words for the same things in *real* English and "American English", and to a lesser extent "Australian English" or Canadian English", etc.). >> To a much lesser extent, there are also some different meanings (not >> spellings that I can think of) for words in "Australian English" and a >> few other regional variations.