More Frenchified?

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:30 PM -0700 9/20/01, Kim & Rima McKinzey wrote:
>On the phone to the reservation person for the Westin Hotel chain, I
>asked if she knew how one got from the airport to the hotel in
>question.  She said, several times and very clearly, that I'd have to
>talk to the "conseeAIR."
>
>Could this be because this sounds more French than concierge?  It's a
>new one for me.
>
I'm sure it is.  The hyper-Frenchification I've noticed most often is
"COO D'GRAH" for coup de grace.  The rule seems to be "don't
pronounce the last consonant", period.  At least in your case the
reservation person might have had extra motivation for avoiding the
final -rzh cluster, but there's certainly no similar excuse for
avoiding [gras].

larry