Re: CHAT: Perceiving French (was Re: Introducing Paul Burgess

En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

> Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
>
> > "exp=E9rience" is French too ;))) .
>
> But doesn't it mean also "experiment", which would also fit here?
>
Indeed it does :) .

>
> Interestingly, "other" (one of whose meanings is the exact equivalent
> of
> Fr. "second") used to be the general ordinal for 2 in English;
I heard that on the list indeed. It's surprising. I would never have thought of
that. But it now gives me ideas to translate "other" in Maggel ;))) .

>
> Furthermore, your remarks about "foreigners" do not apply solely to
> non-francophone foreigners; in Quebec, I am told, an "article
> d'occasion"
> is called "un article de seconde main" (calquing English
> "second-hand")!
>
It's not specific of Quebec, and it's no calque of the English expression! We
have this expression alive and well in French, and in a productive way! :) I
mean that "article de seconde main" refers to something the person who's
selling it bought new. Once sold, it will have had only two owners until then,
hence the "*seconde* main" (but note that you can say as well "article de
deuxième main"). But if the new owner decides to sell it too, it becomes
an "article de troisième main"! And if the new owner sells it again too, it
becomes an "article de quatrième main", etc... And if you don't know how many
owners the article has had until now, you just say "article d'occasion" :))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

It takes a straight mind to create a twisted conlang.

Reply