Re: Reindeer: another ideer

From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 62192
Date: 2008-12-19

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...>>
> >
> A new I deer?
> Bunny day, as they say in French
>
> ========
>
> Bunny day, as they say in French
>
> Could you explain, s'il vous plait ?
>
> Je n'ai rien compris.
>
> A.
>

"Bonne idée" as pronounced in French sounds almost the same as "Bunny
day" as pronounced in English. The French /O/ sounds rather similar
to the English /V/ (as in <cut>), I've often found, i.e. French /O/ is
a bit less rounded than in other languages such as German or Slavic.
I could be wrong though.
Rick, sorry to steal your thunder if I've replied before you.

Andrew
========

That's an interesting point of view.
I'm afraid it tells more about the way you inadequately perceive French
than about what French really is.
Personally, I would equate "bonne idée" with "bawn eedeh"
To be frank, I feel like the most important syllable in "bonne idée" is the
first "i-(dée)"
which explains I did not get it at all
while bunny day with -y in bunny is the weakest.
I would never equate the u in bunny with the o of bonne.
In general, French people equate the u in bunny with eu not o.
Fun in English and German Föhn sound the same
when pronounced with French phonological system.
And Bonne (idée) would rhyme with German Bonn (ex-capital).

I disagree with your approach that French /o/ is not rounded
Bob Dylan's way of saying "alOne" is the clOsest way to standard French /o/.
I would agree that French eu is only weakly rounded
and that also explains why modern French "schwa" is eu.
The problem with German öh and oh is these vowels are somehow over-heavily
rounded and long (from the French PofV)

Some people in Paris suburbs do not make a clear difference between eu and
o,
but most people in France do.

A.