Two nations, divided by a common language
Jun. 5th, 2010 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jl_merrowI've always been keen on foreign languages. Some I find easier to learn than others: I never could get my tongue round French pronunciations, but I actually rather like those German composite nouns that go on for a page and a half. Well, somebody has to!
Sometimes words trip you up: they may look and sound like a word you know from English, but turn out to mean something else entirely. Like the German weil, which doesn't mean while, not to mention wo and wer, which seem to have got together and swapped meanings for a laugh.
And then there's the really tricky case, where you think you speak the language already...
I'm talking, of course, about American, or US English as she is known. It's amazing how possible it is to hear a character in your head, clear as day, saying something someone of that nationality would never say. Thank goodness for patient friends across the pond, that's all I can say! (Yes, Stephanie and J, I mean you!) ;)
It's only with their help that I can bring you my new Torquere Sip, out today: Epiphany
A chance encounter with a young British pianist on the streets of New York leads to an afternoon to remember for body-builder Vinnie. But can there be a future together for him and Gray?
Click here to read an excerpt, and a little bit extra.
Sometimes words trip you up: they may look and sound like a word you know from English, but turn out to mean something else entirely. Like the German weil, which doesn't mean while, not to mention wo and wer, which seem to have got together and swapped meanings for a laugh.
And then there's the really tricky case, where you think you speak the language already...
I'm talking, of course, about American, or US English as she is known. It's amazing how possible it is to hear a character in your head, clear as day, saying something someone of that nationality would never say. Thank goodness for patient friends across the pond, that's all I can say! (Yes, Stephanie and J, I mean you!) ;)
It's only with their help that I can bring you my new Torquere Sip, out today: Epiphany
A chance encounter with a young British pianist on the streets of New York leads to an afternoon to remember for body-builder Vinnie. But can there be a future together for him and Gray?
Click here to read an excerpt, and a little bit extra.
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no subject
Date: 2010-06-06 11:51 pm (UTC)And here in the US, particularly in the north east, we have multiple French varieties to contend with - the standard, Parisian French that we were supposed to be learning, and the Quebecquois French that you hear spoken. There are still little pockets of Quebecquois French speakers here in Manchester, left over from the days when it was a textile mill town.
My teacher had grown up with that French, and while he tried very hard to avoid passing it on in class, I'm sure things slipped through, particularly once I got to the point of writing essays. (What? You mean I can't just tack -ER on the end of any multi-syllable English verb and conjugate it?)
German made so much more sense, and had nice phonetic spelling.