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Re: Question about Questions

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Monday, September 17, 2001, 15:00
Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> En réponse a Michael Poxon <m.poxon@...>: >>I read somewhere in a linguistics book a few years back how the French >>a-t-il? construction was observed to be reinterpreted as phonetically >>/ti:/ > > I wonder what dialect of French you're talking about.
I think he is referring to the overextension of "-t-il" to places where it historically was not grammatical, as follows: Dans l'interrogation [...] la langue familière a créé une particule *ti* ou *til*, du genre: "Tu viens-ti?" ou encore "Qui c'est-(t)il?" But hey, what can you expect from a language that 1) tells us that what is not clear is not French, and 2) uses "la belle age" for youth but "une belle age" for old age? :-) -- Not to perambulate || John Cowan <jcowan@...> the corridors || http://www.reutershealth.com during the hours of repose || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan in the boots of ascension. \\ Sign in Austrian ski-resort hotel

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Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>