Hispanofranglais

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Ignorance" is not the issue here.  Words are generally adapted to local or
in-country pronunciation norms, no matter the country.  The French source
clearly knows what the word means; she's simply changed the
pronunciation--or borrowed the British pronunciation, as Robertson
suggests.  We've discussed this phenomenon several times on the list, I
believe.

At 12:04 PM 3/5/01 -0500, you wrote:
>This shows that it's not only Americans who are ignorant of the origins of
>words.
>
>
>Steve
>
>  -----Original Message-----
>From:   David M. Robertson [mailto:dmsnake at usit.net]
>Sent:   Sunday, March 04, 2001 11:46 AM
>To:
>Subject:        Hispanofranglais
>
>I saw a TV news segment last night on a new French law mandating that there
>be
>women candidates for certain elective offices. They interviewd a French
>female
>politician who (speaking English) said something like: Politics in France
>has been
>a male culture, or, as we say in French, a "macho" culture.
>
>She pronounced it in what I would consider the British fashion, as
>"match-o." This
>would make me think that it was adopted into French from British English,
>rather
>than directly from Spanish, or even from American English.
>
>    Snake


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm