Miguel:
> mettre /mEtr/ "to put"
> mètre /mE:tr/ "meter"
> maître /mE::tr/ "master"
Me:
>Erh, I have to ask. Who says that besides you?
Miguel:
> My French dictionary. Confirmed on sci.lang by Jacques Guy,
> 5 or 6 years ago, I'd guess.
What "French dictionary" and who the hell is Jacques Guy?
The above three words are homophonous, at least how I and many
other native francophones would pronounce them. If there is any
difference in pronunciation, it's a matter of the quality of the
vowel (a difference between [E] and [e]) not vowel length. There
in fact is a difference in some areas regarding the distinction
between "j'irai" meaning "I'll go" and "j'irais" meaning "I would
go". Some say [Zi're] for the former and [Zi'rE] for the latter.
However many do not, such as myself. Some also pronounce instances
of e-circonflexe as [e] while again others simply pronounce it
the same as e-accent-grave [E] (again, the latter is me).
Now, after perusing for your lover, Mr Guy, on the worldWideWeb(),
I've found no sensible posts from him on sci.lang, the closest
being the post on the 21st of April entitled strangely enough as
"Today's phoque Eengleesh". Let's see what intelligent things
Jacques has to contribute to our pursuit of knowledge:
Overall, women were slightly more likely to change their
plans (11 per cent) than males (8 per cent).
You no calla dat phoque? I say eez phoque. I rite:
"women... men...", I say "females... males..." et visse
Versailles (<-- eez phoque Phrensh two)
Hmm. Indeed, quite humurous but... insane.
So let me get this straight, Miguel. You are going to go on the
word of some phreak with a "Phrensh" sounding name living in
Australia who can't even string meaningful sentences together
over and above real information in a library that could show you
how what you're saying is wrong and how double-long vowels exist
in neither French nor English on the phonemic level?
Again, I'd like to know what French dictionary would ever describe
French has having a phonemic three-way length contrast. If you're
talking about PHONETICS, then alright maybe (or rather, "maybe"
with a big giant question mark next to it), but never phonemically.
= gLeN