Re: [OT] Is English just badly pronounced French?

On 2024-03-31 06:06:45 +0000, anim8rfsk said:

Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

 I apologize in advance to Americans who are inevitably aggrieved by all
things French just on principle but this video actually makes a pretty
good case for saying that English is badly-pronounced French to a large
extent.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUL29y0vJ8Q [18 minutes]
 When he explains all the English words that are borrowed from French
with only slight spelling and pronunciation changes, you may well be
persuaded by his argument.

 Once again, Cecil Adams had the answer:
 https://www.straightdope.com/21341920/what-s-the-international-language-of-business-french-or-english   What’s the international language of business, French or English?
By  Cecil Adams    Aug 3, 1989, 11:00pm MST
 Dear Cecil: Our high school French teacher always insisted learning French
was important because it was going to become the international language of
business. Now I hear English is mandatory in international aviation, and
the Chinese students in Beijing spoke English to the international media.
Was our French teacher shucking us? Merde! Les Petites, South Boston

French comes in at number 20 in the current list of most widely spoken native languages. English comes in at number 3, just after Mandarin and Spanish.
   Mandarin Chinese = 941 million native speakers
   Spanish          = 486 million native speakers
   English          = 380 million native speakers
   ...
   French           =  74 million native speakers
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers> For the astronauts, the two languages they have to know are English and Russian, because of course all launches to the International Space Station had to be done by Russia when the Americans dropped stupidly discontinued the Space Shuttle without any sensible replacement option.

Cecil replies:
 Now, now. He/she probably just didn’t know any better. French teachers lead
such empty lives as it is that no one has the heart to tell them the awful
truth, which is that French is a language on the way down, not up. Once the
language of diplomacy, French was used in the royal courts of Germany,
Russia, and Italy during the 19th century. Fifty years ago Somerset Maugham
called it “the common language of educated men” (women too, one presumes).
But it’s been in a state of decline since World War II, having long ago
been supplanted by — you guessed it — English.
 English is the primary language of more than 400 million people and is the
second language of hundreds of millions more. It’s essential in science,
technology, economics, and finance. It’s the official language of airport
control towers, might as well be the official language of computer
software, and of course is vital to a perfect comprehension of MTV,
Madonna, and other pillars of modern culture. French is the primary
language of maybe 114 million, including such outposts of world commerce as
Haiti, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso, and is essential chiefly to reading
menus at Le Cirque.
 The French have been desperately attempting to reverse this trend. In
addition to hosting international conferences of “Francophone”
(French-speaking) nations, France as of 1986 was spending $750 million per
year to support 20,000 French teachers in 155 countries. It also employs
language police to guard against un-Gallic intrusions such as le
compact-disc. But all in vain.
 Not that French doesn’t have its uses. Au contraire. It remains the
language of international pretension par excellence, having a certain je ne
sais quoi that appeals irresistibly to the nouveaux riches. Also, let’s
face it, je t’aime sounds infinitely classier than “luv ya, babe.” But
French is more likely to come in handy in the intimate hours after the
business meeting than during.
 Cecil Adams