Re: CHAT: An introduction

En réponse à Mark J. Reed :


>I think living, spoken French is the most different of any language
>I've encountered from the written language you learn in class.
>And I don't mean just the  discrepancies between orthography and
>pronunciation, but the actual choice of vocabulary.  It seems that
>the word "nous" exists only in written French, for instance; you
>won't hear it on the street in Paris (unless it's coming from a
>non-native speaker).
True, but Paris is the worst example to use for Spoken French. Go around
the country and you will see that "nous" is still alive, even if rare
(lately I've been hearing "nous on" very often ;))) . So "nous" is still
used as subject, but "on" is added and the verb agrees in third person
singular ;))) . Again a proof that the subject pronouns have actually
become conjugation prefixes :) ).

>   This fact does not seem to be mentioned
>anywhere in my high school French textbook _Allons_Y!_, which leaves
>one with the impression that "nous" is as common in spoken French as
>"we" is in spoken English. :)
True, it's less common. But not yet so rare. At least it doesn't sound
strange in my ears, only maybe a little affected.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.

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