Re: YADPT (D=Dutch)

Jean-Fran?ois Colson scripsit:

> "Wagon" is a borrowing from English but in France it's pronounced [vago~].
> Why? Because it's used in French for long enough (since the 19th century)?
> Because the English pronunciation has changed?
Certainly not the last:  English "w" is [w] everywhere but in a few
borrowings from German, and has been so since the Old English period.
(There are a few dialects in which "w" is, or was, [v], but not likely
to be ones that influenced Standard French.)

> > Is it because Germanophones are closer there, so that you want to
> > separate strongly from them? :)))
>
> It isn't. It's simply because, as anyone else, I learned to speak by
> repeating what I heard. Ce n'est qu'un belgicisme parmi d'autres.
The "you" in the question is plural, one of those lovely ambiguities
of the English tongue.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_