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

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> 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 ;))) .
Latin followed the same path as English, replacing "alter" > autre as the
general ordinal with the participle "secundus" meaning "following".  I was
quite surprised on first opening a Latin Testament to see "Secundus Marcus",
meaning not "the second Mark" but "according to (= following) Mark".

> 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!
A triumph of French Reason in the service of pure madness, as Ursula Le Guin
said about the translation of her early novel _Rocannon's World_, wherein a
typo ("burrowing Clayfish" for "burrowing Clayfolk") was literally rendered.

--
John Cowan   <jcowan@...>   http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
"One time I called in to the central system and started working on a big
thick 'sed' and 'awk' heavy duty data bashing script.  One of the geologists
came by, looked over my shoulder and said 'Oh, that happens to me too.
Try hanging up and phoning in again.'"  --Beverly Erlebacher