Re: USAGE: Circumfixes

San-Antonio is a character invented by the French
author Frederic Dard, who died a few years ago. He is
a police commissary, spending lots of his time
shooting, fighting, getting knocked out and screwing
lovely young ladies in all possible positions (among
them, the "Zanzibar wheelbarrow"). His friend is the
ignoble inspector Berurier, also called Beru, who
looks like a barrel wrapped in dirty, greasy and
disgusting clothes, and who behaves the most disliking
way, thus very sympathetic. The interest of the whole
series (about 200 novels I believe) lies in the style
and the language used by the author : they have no
equivalent in French literature, except, but in a
different register, his predecessor Louis-Ferdinand
Celine. The language is a mixture of slang, literary
style, word games and personal invented vocabulary,
difficult to understand for a normal French reader,
and quite impossible to get for a foreigner (IMO). It
is the kind of books that can give you an
uncontrollable laughter and make your belly ache if
you like it. Frederic Dard had very much success with
his San Antonios, he got so rich that he had to go and
live in Switzerland to escape French taxes.

A few samples, taken from the "Dictionnaire San
Antonio", by S.Le Doran, F.Pelloud and Ph.Rosé (Fleuve
Noir):

"Et, tout en m'causant, elle ouvrait ses brancards un
peu mieux, comme si d'se pencher l'eusse contrainte à
l'faire. Le mouton à cinq pattes, c'était tonton Béru
dans sa niche ! Je miraculais des trucs fabules !
Sombres, mais esplendides."

"Moi, je, c'est le fer de lance de toutes leurs
converses à la con. Ils moijegent sans le vouloir,
d'instinct".

"Honte et peste, et notion de leur destin merdique, à
ces suce-pets, à ces coliques ensablées, à ces odeurs
d'entrailles qui n'en finissent pas parce qu'ils n'ont
jamais commencé".

"Slave étant dit, apprends à esposer les faits d'un
ton suce sein, mon pote !"

"Il morfle le coup de buis avec la sidérance d'un
bovin et choit de lui comme un cache-pot d'une console
à Asnam (ex-Orleansville).

"Je balance Lurette sur le sentier de la reniflette,
qu'il aille grenouiller dans ses coinceteaux
malodorants pour lever une piste à propos des
craqueurs de coffiots".

--- Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
>
> That's a new one.  What are "San Antonios"?? French
Westerns?,


=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/

Replies