Re: French phonetics

From: Arnaud Fournet
Message: 62750
Date: 2009-02-02

>
> This phoneme definitely exists, not only in words like match which
> nicely translates into English as match,

'match' is an English loan in French.

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Irrelevant.
This word is now completely native to French
and there is no equivalent.
A.
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> but in other words like tchatche, tchatcher,

"tchatche [of which the verb tchatcher is a derivative]: argot pied-
noir dérivé de l'espagnol chachara, 'conversation animée mais
futile' (de chacharear, 'bavarder')."

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Irrelevant.
So ? what's the problem ?
A.
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> pitchoune,

"Région. (Provence)... Mot prov. signifiant 'petit'..., formé sur le
rad. expr. pitch- qui évoque la petitesse. Cf. a. prov. pichon
adj. 'petit'... et arg. pechon 'garçon mercelot, apprenti-gueux'."
I suggest to compare this Provençal word with Old Italian
piccino 'little one, child'.

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This is irrelevant.
The origin of the word has nothing to do with its current synchronic status
in the language.
A.
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> and tchat, tchater.

"tchat [of which the verb tchatcher is a derivative]: (XXe siècle)
Francisation de l'anglais to chat."

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So what ?
A.
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Thus, you provide two English loans, a Spanish loan, and a Provençal
word to demonstrate that the [ts^] phoneme exists in French?
Tsk, tsk...
Wouldn't you find out some Old French words to support your
assertion?

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I suggest you try to understand the difference between synchrony and
diachrony.
N is also now a phoneme in most French idiolects.
c^ as well
But I don't think dz^ or ts are phonemes. No real current words.

A.
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Pleade provide some valid examples from FRANCE!

> M. Brighenti, your survey of French rendition of Franc^esco is
> garbage.

I wouldn't say so. Why are you casting doubts on my personal
experience of that? Do you think I'm a liar?

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You bragged about having met "Thousands of French people"
and you _allegedly_ have not found one capable of saying Franc^esco.
I think this statement is just garbage.
Statistically idiotic.

I 'm not sure I met as many as "Thousands of French people"
and I know at least three ex-colleagues who can speak fluent Italian,
even though they are born in France from Italian immigrants.

A.
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You have still to show me that the [ts^] phoneme is part of the
genuine phonemic repertoire of French...

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You don't understand the words phoneme and synchrony.
Keep on providing good references.
This is what you do best.
A.
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