Resent in real time:
> From: "Christophe Grandsire"
>
> > En réponse à James <Kvasir_postia@...>:
>
> > > equivalent of the -é ending is of course -ée as in repartée.
>
> > "repartée"? Not a French word that I know. Or do you mean "répartie"?
>
> Do you mean "repartie"? :)
>
> What I *suspect* happened is that "repartie" got imported into English,
> spelled "repartee" to keep the /i/ sound so you didn't get /rEpartaI/.
Then
> by analogy with words like "fiancee", it came to be pronounced /reparte/
> (which sounds *ever* so French to an English ear) and then got
back-derived
> to "repartée", the accent adding even more prestige. I must admit, I've
> usually heard and used it myself in expressions like, "witty repartée"
> (/wIti rEparte/), in the meaning of "witty banter", "lively conversational
> sparring", with no knowledge of the real French borrowing. I'd've thought
it
> was spelled "repartée" til now.
>
> Et maintenant, un moment de honte et de seppuku :)
>
> Kou