Re: A prioi vs. A posteriori ?

En réponse à Tristan <kesuari@...>:

>
> BTW... do you want to check your email client's config? You seem to be
> replacing one linebreak with three or four.
>
I thought it was only a problem with how I viewed my own emails! I'm using a
webmail client with no config changes possible. But I know where the problem
comes from. I usually use IE to use my webmail, but today I've installed Opera
and I was trying it. Strangely enough, it seems that when going through Opera
it adds line breaks that shouldn't be there. I'll try to find out what's wrong.
Until then, I reverted to IE to read my email, so it should work correctly
again.

>
> Ahem. We work the right-way-around.
The wrong-way-round you mean. That it's your way doesn't mean it's the right
one ;)))) . That it's *my* way *automatically* means it's the right one ;))) .

 You're all upside down.

You're wrong guy. Because everybody knows you all have special shoes to prevent
you from falling! ;)))

 Haven't
> you
> looked at any Egyptian maps?
Well, the Egyptians were inversed in many ways, so that doesn't mean
anything :))) .

 And _The Age_ (Melburnian newspaper) has
> recently printed a map of Melbourne with the bay (south) at the top
> and
> the nothern suburbs at the bottom. The way it *should* be.
>
And who are you to decide of those things? ;))) Let the majority of the world
decide what orientation is correct. And the majority still lives in the
Northern hemisphere (not my fault, it's just where there's the most land ;))) .
Normal that it takes precedence :)) ).

>
> Yes, well they're just fools that don't count.
>
It never occured to you that *you* may be the fools that don't count? ;)))
Because I know I'm not personally :) .

>
> I betcha more languages have diphthongs than nasal vowels.
>
You're just proving my point :)) . That's why they are so vain. They have been
so much copied that they have lost all substance. Nasal vowels keep some charm
by staying original :)) .

>
> Why would people use an uvular sound to represent the sound of choking
> if it weren't because it sounds like choking?
>
But people don't use an uvular sound to represent the sound of choking. they
use glottal sounds instead :))) .

>
> Your kidding, right?
Nope. In 2000 the population growth in France was 0.5% and has been growing
ever since :)) . France is responsible for 2/3 of the population growth in
Europe while representing only 16% of its population.

 Even the Australian population is stagnating and
> most of our growth is being done by immigrants, and we're less
> European
> than Europe, for obvious reasons.
>
Hehe, French people are making more and more babies these days ;))) .

>
> Oh, okay. I didn't realise that. I guess that explains why that kind
> of
> /R/ is borrowed as null in words like louvre /l0:v/, livre /l@iv/, hor
> d'oeuvre /o:"d8:v/, rather than as /@/ like in just about every other
> language.
Probably. Just because you're so handicapped that you cannot pronounce such a
simple coda as [vR] ;))))) . I actually pity you...

>
> I generally skip the pronunciation of French, not having been brought
> up
> to pronounce a language where you have to choke to pronounce a sound
> family that shouldn't even exist but before a vowel.
>
What would you do with Arabic then? *That*'s choking. Compared to it, French
has only labial consonants!

>
> Now then, haven't others already been told off for calling people
> conservative?
>
I thought conservative meant wanting to keep things as they were in the past?
In this case, saying that what was good to your father is good enough for you
fits pretty much the definition doesn't it? ;)))))

At least I have a reason to use the word (and I used a smiley behind too ;)) ).

>
> What opportunity do I have?
Create them!

 Even if I was watching SBS (Special
> Broadcasting Service, the people who show most foreign-language stuff
> hereabouts, but it's hardly their main _raison d'être_), I'd be paying
> too much attention to the subtitles to hear a word of any French
> programming they may have.
>
But you're talking in the conditional, meaning you've not tried it ;)) . Never
say you can't when you just won't ;))) .

>
> Well... I know that there's a reasonable amount of English monoglots
> in
> at least one country with its own growing group of anti-Americans.
>
Of course, but nothing prevents them to learn French in order to be able to
listen to pioneers of the anti-globalisation movement like José Bové! (and note
that I'm *extremely* ironic here ;)))) )

> (Incidentally, rumor has it that if you can say something like (and my
> French is non-existent) 'Allo, je suis australien. Parlez-vous
> anglais?', you'll have a better time in France than if you tried
> saying
> 'Ja speak English?', partially because it shows you've been bothered
> trying to know *some* French, but also because you aren't American. Is
> this true?)
>
The first part is true, even today (but that's true everywhere in the world -
at least everywhere where English is not the L1 ;))) . It's just that in France
the difference of treatment between a person who has tried at least a sentence
in French and a person who hasn't tried at all is much bigger than in other
countries :)) ). The second part, on the other hand, was not really true when I
still lived in France. You would have had a better time if you were American
than if you were British for instance ;)) . Nowadays, with the international
conjoncture and the growing discontent against the actions of the American
government, I wouldn't know, but I think you may be right. I'd personally not
react this way, but I'm not the average French guy myself ;))) .

>
> Yeah, but something like /dZiz @str&ij@n. [do] v0: pa:lz &iNgl@iz/? (I
> have no idea if that's how it'd be. Forgive me and make better
> suggestions. And tell me what would most likely replace 'do'.)
>
LOL. It wouldn't be far from that actually (a typical Normand way to pronounce
this sentence would be [Syz ostRa"LE~. ty paRl"ti la~glE]? But that Normand-
influenced French rather than Normand proper). The most likely replacement
of 'do' would be [k] after a question word (from "que", the origin of it is a
very much eroded "est-ce que", which is present uneroded in standard spoken
French) or [ti] after the verb in a question without question word. Both are
typical question particles in Normand French.

>
> Hardly past tense. I've known of the term 'auxiliary verb' for longer
> than I've known that 'could' is theoretically the past tense of 'can'.
As I said, the past tense of the auxiliaries has nearly taken a life of its
own. But tense agreement still exists as far as I know (the past of "I do it
because I can" is "I did it because I could". I doubt "I did it because I can"
would have the same meaning, or would even be simply correct), so the idea
that "could" is the past tense of "can" is still not completely gone yet :) .

>
> I'll take my cues from someone else, I think (taking my life like a
> movie?).
>
Never heard of metaphors? ;)))

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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