Quell'

[Douglas Bigham]

In a message dated 8/31/2002 1:39:01 PM Central Daylight Time,
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:


> Just curious--why the feminine?  How can we tell whether "(fucking)
> drag", "(fashion) mistake", or the noun "retarded" is modifying are
> feminine or masculine above?  Not that "quel" would be pronounced any
> differently, but...
>
> larry
>

Beats me.  That's how Coupland wrote it, and I haven't noticed it in print as
"quel", so I chose the fem. for my personal quotation as well.  I mean,
there's really no reason, I guess.  Is there any historical preference for
fem vs. masc French loans into English?

-dsb
Douglas S. Bigham
University of Texas - Austin