Coup de grace

[Peter A. McGraw]

When my wife and I went to a small appliance service store in Dayton, Ohio,
about 20 years ago to get a new carafe for our coffee maker, the woman who
waited on us said, pleasantly surprised, "Well, nice to hear you pronounce
it correctly!  Most people call it a 'carafay.'"  It caught on as one of
those family jokes, and we've called it a "carafay" ever since.

Peter Mc.

--On Thursday, May 27, 2004 6:02 AM -0700 James Smith
<jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Ever since this thread started, I've had in the back
> of my mind that there was another hypercorrection of
> French I frequently hear, but I couldn't think what it
> was.  Last night it came to me when I drove past the
> Villa Franche apartments just down the street from my
> house ... almost everyone who speaks of these
> apartments pronounces "Franche" with an acute accent
> on the "e", and no, there is no accent over the "e"
> where the name is displayed on the property.  No other
> examples of this type of hypercorrection come to mind
> readily, and this may be a very localized usage.
>
>
> =====
> James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
> South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
> jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
>                                |or slowly and cautiously.
>
>
>
>
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*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************