Re: Conlang baby-talk

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Christophe Grandsire
<christophe.grandsire@F...> wrote:

 > > Probably cause she's a babe.  I find it quite endearing.  =D
 > >
 >
 > Macho! ;)))

Not at all, it's more of a romantic thing...  a macho would
probably rather have her say dirty words in a low voice.  ;-P



 > > Surely you wouldn't find it that annoying if a cute *guy* talked that
 > > way?
 >
 > I would probably find it worse! ;))

So the cliché effeminately tootling TV gay guy isn't all that
attractive to real gays?  Interesting.  ;-)



 > > Then you haven't seen "Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie" (sorry, no
 > > accents on this freaking Unix keyboard...).
 >
 > Yes I saw it.

I pity everyone who hasn't seen it.



 >   They pronounce "Lady Di"
 > > as [led_ji'd_ji], bordering on [ledz_ji'dz_ji].
 > >
 >
 > Who is "they"? Because I remember the movie quite well, and *only* Jamel
 > Debbouze, who played Lucien, had this pronunciation. But with him
it's meant as
 > a comical effect which is always present in his own idiolect (he is a
comic,
 > and the main part of his humour is this strange absolutely found
nowhere else
 > accent).

I thought the glass bone guy and the TV announcers used it too,
but I really don't remember.



 > > Also, I remember the cutie-cute Aurelie from my language studies in
 > > California, who spoke le plus gnangnamment possible, and used to add
 > > a voiceless palatal fricative release after stressed final i's.  For
 > > instance, her name would be something like [ore'liC].  ;-)
 > >
 >
 > That, on the other hand, is common in girlish talk. My sister had it
too. In
 > cliche "salope" talk, the [C] becomes a full blown [S] ;)) .

At least one thing I'm not imagining.  ;-)



 > > I'll try to record some samples of my "gare" when I get home.
 > >
 >
 > I'm eager to hear them. I find this thing about palatalised
consonants quite
 > strange. I never heard it in my life except in extreme situations, having
 > nothing to do with common use (like I explained) so I'd really like to
 > understand what foreigners find "palatalised" here.

Here are two examples, probably not very representative...  both
examples sound strange to me when I hear them!  =P  This is
probably due to the fact that I haven't spoken French for years,
so the phonemes stick in my mouth sideways, and I don't really
have a relaxed, unforced "ground state" pronunciation.

Anyway, the second (palatised) version does sound more French to
me.  Probably because I identify Frenchness with gnangnanism to
a certain degree.

      http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/reference/lagare.mp3



-- Christian Thalmann

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