On 9/20/05, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
The French spelligs do tend to be closer to the British for reasons that go back to the Norman conquest, but if the context requires full translation this is not likely to be noticed. The bulk of the translation is from English to French so that becomes an exercise in protecting French from the corruption of anglicisms of which ever type. The politically correct tendency in Quebec French is sometimes toward having a language that is more correct than what you might find in France.
Catching the thread just now. This is fun. ;)
Get your facts straight my friends.
*If anything, it's 'Lee-Bray-Ree', Librairie, not exactly Lie-bree, which sounds rather like wine and cheese (French enough, I might add) . But I may have lost the punch line, I am but a foreign-speaker. :)
France is hard to govern, as De Gaulle did put it, because it has "as many kinds of cheese as days in the year". Way more than 246, that is.
As for quatre-vingt-dix and the rest, here is the deal: The French say soixante-dix, quatre-vingt and quatre-vingt-dix The Belgians say septante, quatre-vingt and nonante The Swiss say septante, huitante and nonante, some even say octante. They are the only ones who got it straight. (And I am French)
And also:
The politically correct tendency in Quebec French is sometimes toward having a language that is more correct than what you might find in France.
I love Québec, but when they throw me an evil look about "week-end", I cannot help but smile at their "joke", or "chum". So I'd say that all in all, we're even. ;-)
And to add to the fun, I learned English in the US, with a British teacher freshly landed. That left me somewhere in between honor and the centre. I am still puzzled to this day.
Delphine