A little sketchy on the 9th (Day 9…still)

Number 9 wasn’t my best work, but I’m still patting myself on the back for sticking to a single set.

I’m also suddenly conscious of my choice of words in the post title…I wonder if people still say “sketchy”, and here’s why: I suspect that my English (and particularly my slang) has been stunted. I’ve been out of Canada for over 6 years now, speaking French more than 50% of the time, and speaking English mostly with non-anglophones (and of the anglophones, the majority are not Canadian, or even North American), so my slang is probably either outdated, or downright non-existent.

My friend Dave’s mom is from France, but has lived in Canada for 30 years or so. When Dave came to visit me several years ago, one of my friends commented that his French was perfect, but that he used really outdated expressions that were odd coming from someone our age. I wonder if that’s where my English is going…not to mention all the expressions I can no longer remember.

Actually, I master no languages really – at work we speak Frenglish, due to the fact that both marketing and the internet (software / web development…) contain unreasonable number quantities of English; further fueled by the pure bilingualism of the CEO, the fact that 90% of our clients work in English (keeping in mind, of course, the 87.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot), and that there has been a dramatic increase in the number (and proportion) of English speakers in the company I work for since I started (at which point I was the only one).

For good measure I like to through in a couple of words from other languages now and then, with the most frequent being (and now that I put this in writing, I bet it’s really annoying to other people) “ein moment bitte”. Actually, I bet I’m not even saying it right, but oh well.

So back to the subject at hand: tomorrow is the first big milestone I guess: day 10. Maybe I’ll celebrate by going out and climbing some walls

Morning! and other misnomers

What’s in a morning? Depends on whole you ask… and where. In the land of frogs and snails, a “morning” refers to a radio show hosted in the early part of the day: a morning show if you will. Yep, another case of taking an English term, and dropping the key part (i.e. the noun) and using the descriptive word(s) (adjective or otherwise) as the new term.

A personal favourite of mine is the “red hots”, better known in the anglo world as the “chili peppers”.

That plural also reminds me of another cute one: adopted anglo foods, like chips and cookies stay plural, even when they’re singular, as in “I would like a cookies, please”. This is particularly amusing since the French frequently don’t pronounce an “s” at the end of a word, particularly in the case of plurals (which makes sense , given that they aren’t usually pronounced in French).

Creating new realities through accepted (but initially incorrect) translations

I don’t talk often enough about the amusing translations from English to French (and vice versa) that can sometimes make for interesting misunderstandings, or at least just sound funny.

This one isn’t actually a translation, but a perversion on the pronunciation that turned “egg” into “love”. Hmm, when I put it that way, one could argue that the reverse could happen; turning love into an egg. Although that would turn this whole posting into a bizarre mix of low-brow and high-brow humour that I should really put a stop to right – - – about – - – now.

So, about those eggs. Back in the day (you know, the day), tennis was a sport of French princes and aristocracy (come to think of it, all things being relative in this world of globalisation, that hasn’t really changed all that much), but the key word here is “French”. When a player had no points on the board, this was referred to a “l’oeuf”: the egg…which must be what the zero on the board looked like to the hungry on-lookers (maybe it’s the French influence that makes me think about food so often…). Anyway, then the Brits started to play at this French past-time (when they were getting along with the French anyway, other times I’m sure they simply claimed it was a British creation), and the princes and aristrocracy showed off their faaaaabulous French, but using the French terms. Except, we all know how well the English typically do with speaking French (just kidding Liz, and Wendy, and John!) so the pronunciation was probably mildly bastardised. Then, as the sport moved to the lower classes (well, it never did get far, but you get the picture) and those still less skilled with foreign languages (too busy actually living their lives…except for when they were paying tennis, of course) people must have twisted the pronunciation to fit a word that they actually knew. Or perhaps it was deliberate, because they just LOVED tennis. So next time you’re officiating a tennis match, forget 15-love it’s 15-”the egg”.

For more totally random observations on our attempts to mutually destroy both languages, here are my thoughts on:
Dried fruit
Footwear
Sports
Words ending in -ing
Words (not actually) ending in é
Grapes
and, finally
More on food

Language learning – the next generation

At the risk of spam comments, here’s a bit about my latest discovery after my summer learning hiatus.

A few months ago, I told you about Babbel: a website that combines language learning with social networking, with 5 languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Italian) from which you can learn words and phrases based on photos submitted by the users, and audio provided by Babbel. I still like the site, and their latest evolution adding tutorials (even if I’m less than impressed with their attention to users, since it was they who approached me to ask if I wanted to test that function, then never gave me access until the testing was done and it became available to everyone).

Anyway, I recently discovered, thanks to my favourite blog for all kinds of interesting discoveries: lifehacker, I discovered Busuu, a language learning / social networking site with a much stronger emphasis on the social networking part of things. The vocabulary on the first (very basic) units I have tried so far is a little light, but combined with photos and sound, it’s a good review. What’s interesting is that the second level, after seeing the vocabulary, is writing a couple of sentences, which are then corrected by native or advanced speakers on the site to learn other languages. For me the clear lack is (as a beginner) trying to go from vocabulary to actually writing a sentence, but since I’ve started with Spanish, in which I have some “traditional” learning behind me, it was ok. With that basis though, it’s really an amazing way to move forward. I actually started by commenting on a couple of other users sentences in English, which gave me a first idea of how things worked. Besides, in this sort of community, there is little sense in taking (the advice/corrections of others) if you are not going to give (and help other users). I have helped a couple of people with their English, a couple of others with their French, and gotten some help on my Spanish. The site offers vocab for English, French, Spanish and German, but provides a full list of languages that you can indicate that you speak. You seem to be limited to “learning” 4 languages, but you can indicate any on the list (in addition to German and Spanish, I’ve added Italian and Japanese, following a recent decision with Luc to give that a try this year). I quickly became “friends” with two Spanish-speakers who are learning English, and who gave me some great help with my Spanish, as well as a Japanese speaker who is learning English. I’ve only been at this for a couple of hours though, so I’ll have to see how it pans out.

What’s interesting, is that I find myself automatically looking for people around my age, perhaps because I feel subconsciously like they will be the best help for me, and (who knows) the least judgmental. With users I’ve seen ranging from 16 to their 50s or 60s it seems like just about everyone can be that picky too

Mmmmmm Smooooooozie

So Tropicana has come out with Smoothies in France (actually it’s been quite a while now) but I can never help but laugh when I hear a Frenchie call it a “smoozie”. You’d think that in advertising they might make an effort, but no. Even the television commercials talk about smoozies. “Why? Because we’re Frensh”. I am so proud to come from a country that at least attempts to pronounce words like they are pronounced in their original language…well, most of the time…I think.

Passer du coq à l’âne

I love looking at how ridiculous some expressions sound as an outsider, but also the fantastic ways we find to express certain things. Why say “I’m changing the subject” when you can say (all risqué translations aside) “I’m going from the rooster to the donkey”?

We have more than our fair share of these expressions in English, and the late George Carlin (a favourite comedian of mine) does a few excellent bits on expressions and euphemisms, like this one.

Enjoy!

Anything but perfect

I sometimes laugh about the way English words work their way into French, and are forever after used erroneously to mean other things, or at least in other ways, but us anglos are far from innocent of this. Maybe it’s because I’m hungry (sooooo hungry) but the first ones that come to mind for me are food-related.

How did we manage to turn “entrée”, as in the “entry” to the meal; the first of at least 2 courses, into the main course? How often do French people get totally confused looking at a menu in North America and see the appetizer list and the entrée list…and then dessert? I always joke, particularly when food-related customs raise eyebrows, that us North Americans are just a bunch of cretins anyway (I mean really, eating pizza with our fingers? How dare we!). I am also suddenly reminded of a friend that told me that after a meal they had a yoghurt for dessert (very common here) but had some cheese afterwards. How could we be so backwards? Cheese ALWAYS comes before dessert (although I have since learned that in the past it was the opposite!). This train of thought also takes me to an old colleague who would happily finish anyone’s lunch if they couldn’t, but once he’d had his dessert, he refused all offers; once he’d had his dessert, there was no going back.

On a different note, I’m not sure if this can be called an error, and it can certainly come as a surprise crossing from one culture into another, but while ordering filet mignon in Canada will get you beef, in France you’ll end up with pork.

The world of bad translations is always good for a laugh too. I’m not exactly sure how I would translate “crudités” (salad? greens? …) but when I saw “crudities”, I couldn’t help but imagine the server pulling out a string of inappropriate words.

A restaurant in Colmar (I’ve forgotten the name) is touristy enough to have a bilingual menu, but the English is rife with words that make you hope the translator didn’t get paid. I can’t imagine a tourist figuring out that lardoons is bacon bits (from the French “lardons”; bacon being “lard” while “bacon” refers to salted back bacon).

I need to try to remember to write these things down when I see them, because there are some really really good ones that I can’t seem to think of.

Mortgages – one of those happy words

Mortgage. A word that doesn’t really make people happy, but the meaning behind it, which I discovered only recently, makes it worse. While not at all in use in modern French, knowing that it comes from French makes the first part of the word jump to life (so to speak): mort. dead. Well, starting from there it doesn’t get worse, fortunately, but I’m not sure that that’s any comfort. Finding no better way to say it myself, this comes from Bartleby.com (copyright The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.)

The great jurist Sir Edward Coke, who lived from 1552 to 1634, has explained why the term mortgage comes from the Old French words mort, “dead,” and gage, “pledge.” It seemed to him that it had to do with the doubtfulness of whether or not the mortgagor will pay the debt. If the mortgagor does not, then the land pledged to the mortgagee as security for the debt “is taken from him for ever, and so dead to him upon condition, &c. And if he doth pay the money, then the pledge is dead as to the [mortgagee].” This etymology, as understood by 17th-century attorneys, of the Old French term morgage, which we adopted, may well be correct. The term has been in English much longer than the 17th century, being first recorded in Middle English with the form morgage and the figurative sense “pledge” in a work written before 1393.

On the bright side, at least the “dead” part doesn’t refer to a person

Of grapes and language

A while ago, I wrote about my theory on grapes and raisins, and plums an prunes and how the names for the dried fruits were (probably) stolen from French and why. I’ve been wondering if the same can actually be said for the word “grape” itself, if we go further back into the linguistic evolution of English. Why? A “grappe” in French, is a bunch (most commonly a bunch of grapes). So here goes my corollary to my theory on dried fruits: we  (anglos) stole names for some wet fresh fruits too. Here’s what I think happened…

English guy: What’s that?
French guy: What? zis?
English guy: Yes, that. What is that?
French guy: Zis in a grappe.
English guy: A grape?
French guy: No, a “grappe”.
English guy: May I try one?
French guy: But of coorse.
English guy: Mmm, these are tasty…Hey guys! Check out these grapes!
French guy (rolls his eyes): Seelly Eengleesh.

And thus, the raisin became the grape, only to become a raisin once again, but in a different form.

For researched information along these lines, please check out this paper from someone who found my first post, and left this link. I particularly enjoy the part of about names of meat versus names of animals (it always comes back to food with me, I guess).

Turning the table

I’ve been picking apart French use of English terms, but us anglos are just as guilty of doing the reverse. When I was in high school, I sometimes liked going to “matinées” at the movie theatre, which was usually around noon on Sunday. That’s all well and good, except that “matinée” refers to the morning. An even more common one is the ever-present-in-restaurants “entrée”, which refers to the main course. But “entrée” literally means entry or beginning, and refers to the first course / appetizer. I’m actually quite curious as to how that one evolved in English to mean “main course”. I admit that I haven’t looked, but if you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them

In addition to warped meanings, we’re pretty good with warped translations too – ballet and croquet are forgivable, since the French sound for words ending in -et is harder to distinguish from “ée” for anglos, but the one that I find most amusing is lingerie. Why do we pronounce it lingerée? I guess it just sounds more French / sexy / je-ne-sais-quoi . Admittedly it does sound more appealing than the real pronunciation which sounds a bit more like “laingeree”, and certainly better than if we said “lingeree” since that sounds much to much like “laundry”.