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From: Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French?
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 2024 11:14:30 +1300
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On 2024-03-31 18:40:37 +0000, suzeeq said:
> On 3/31/2024 10:56 AM, Rhino wrote:
>> On Sun, 31 Mar 2024 06:35:33 -0700
>> suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com> wrote:
>>> On 3/30/2024 10:03 PM, 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.
>>> 
>>> While GB officially went metric, many people still use the Imperial
>>> measurements, at least for linear measures, not so much for weight.
>> 
>> The Brits weigh themselves in "stones" not pounds or kilograms. (I
>> believe a stone is 14 pounds.) These stones are definitely not metric
>> but I'm not sure they can truly be called Imperial either since they
>> aren't used anywhere outside the UK, as far as I know.
> 
> Yeah, I don't know where stone comes from. I was thinking smaller, like 
> pounds and ounces.

    "Originally any good-sized rock chosen as a local standard,
     the stone came to be widely used as a unit of weight in
     trade, its value fluctuating with the commodity and region.
     In the 14th century England's exportation of raw wool to
     Florence necessitated a fixed standard."

    "Americans do not use the stone unit of weight. The stone
     was not a single standard at the time of American
     independence and, by the time it finally became a single
     standard, they had no need of it."