--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
[largely snipped]
> If you must pick a pointless argument with me,
Then kindly don't start a load of pointless
rubbish about the purity of French words in
English usage!
> [snip]
>
> >> If one is going to use French for some
> >> supposed glamorous or prestigious reasons
> >> (who understands
> >> the minds of advertisers?), then one should
> >> at least IMHO take the trouble to do so
> >> properly.
> >
> > Sure. But they're not using French. They're
> > using English.
>
> Then why did they write it with the trema?
Part of the sex appeal, apparently.
> Of course they thought they were using French -
A supposition, at best. Unless you worked on the
project?
> I can hardly believe the pointless folly of
> what has been written nor the unwarranted
> personal attack on me.
I'm sorry, I must have missed the personal
attack.
> For my part, if the advertisers had written
> 'Noel' (not uncommon as a name), I'd have
> written nothing.
Fair enough. That's probably where the name will
end up eventually.
> The only observation I was making is that if
> you are consciously
> using a _modern_ French word and are attempting
> to write it with
> diacritics, then you might, out of respect for
> the language and its people, make sure the
> diacritics are correct.
And I'm pointing out that in English we have no
reason to do so. It is no longer just a French
word - it is an English word.
I'm also pointing out that we do not feel the
need to use Greek or Latin or any other borrowed
words "correctly".
Padraic.
=====
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