Friday foolishness: foreign words

[Laurence Horn]

At 4:38 PM -0700 9/15/00, Salikoko Mufwene wrote:
>At 09:04 PM 9/15/2000 +0100, Lynne Murphy wrote:
>>>>
>>>>Why would "voie unique" bring up the idea of "unique views?"
>>>>
>>>>Sali.
>>>>
>>>Well, if you had absolutely no idea what a "voie" was but you figured
>>>it was something unique that could be found on (or near) the road you
>>>were driving along, 'view' might be a reasonable (though obviously
>>>completely wrong) guess.  And they even look sorta similar.
>>>
>>>larry
>>
>>Especially if you know a little French, and assume that 'voie' is
>>related to 'voir'.
>>
>      Unlike "voix" ('voice'), "voie" ('way') is ultimately from Latin
>"via". But my PETIT ROBERT here tells me that in the 11th century it turned
>to "veie" and "voie". On the other hand, "voix" is from Latin "vox" and it
>apparently turned to "voiz" around the same time. (By the way, is this
>where English got "voice?")

Yes, MIddle English adapted "voice" from M. Fr. "vois", back before
the [oi] became [wa].

>
>Sali.
>
Sorry, Sali, you know too much French (not to mention Latin) to be a
useful naive informant for this exercise.  I would have known that a
"voie unique" is not a place with a special view, but I might well
have wondered where "Umleitung" was, not to mention what it was that
those buses were claiming the USA condones.

larry