French words in English

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Revision as of 20:02, 15 March 2008 by imported>Ro Thorpe (New page: {{subpages}} There have been '''French words in English''' since the time of Chaucer, for example those that end in -sion or -tion (though he often also put -cion or -...)
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There have been French words in English since the time of Chaucer, for example those that end in -sion or -tion (though he often also put -cion or -cioun). More recent additions are ménû, machìne (-sh-), façàde (*fəssàd), crèpe and elìte (the accents show stress and pronunciation, see English phonemes). English more-or-less French pronunciation is typified by the proper names *Cítron, *Përzho and *Rénno for Cítroen, Pëugeot and Rénault. Pronouncing French words too Frenchly sounds pretentious in an English context. Why say Stephàne Grapellỳ when it is so much easier to say *Stéfən Grəpélly? Boulougne (*Bəlŏin, as opposed to French Bûlónyə) and Páris (with s sounded) have anglicised pronunciations, as do the painters Dègàs (*Dâygà for *Dəgá - the name was originally de Gas) and Rénoir (*Rénwà instead of *Rənwàr - the anglicised pronunciations are of course spurned by those anglophones who have learnt French, but even they - we - would not normally in an English context pronounce the final r in Renoir); by contrast the more recently famous Nigér has a French-style pronunciation, *Nìzhãir - in contrast to Nigêria (*Nîjêria).

See also