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

On 2024-03-31 18:40:37 +0000, suzeeq said:

On 3/31/2024 10:56 AM, Rhino wrote:

On Sun, 31 Mar 2024 06:35:33 -0700
suzeeq <suzee@imbris.com> wrote:

On 3/30/2024 10:03 PM, Your Name wrote:

On 2024-03-31 03:48:30 +0000, suzeeq said:

On 3/30/2024 7:28 PM, Rhino 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.

 I wondered why the Brits call cookies 'biscuits'. Then I realized
it comes from the French word for cookies 'bicotte'. They also
call eggplants 'aubergines' and zucchini 'corgettes'. There's
probably dozens of other words I can't recall now.

 The English language originates from a melding of many sources with
words being 'borrowed' from other languages, including French,
German, Gaelic, Celtic, etc.   Some words have altered over time,
but some words (e.g. rendezvous) have stayed the same as the
original.
 "American English" is a sub-version that has its own unique
spellings and meanings for words. Partly because (despite hating
the British rule) they have stubbornly stuck to out-dated versions
of words, as well as out-dated measurement systems, that the
original Pilgrims brought with them rather than staying
contemporary with *real* English.

 While GB officially went metric, many people still use the Imperial
measurements, at least for linear measures, not so much for weight.

 The Brits weigh themselves in "stones" not pounds or kilograms. (I
believe a stone is 14 pounds.) These stones are definitely not metric
but I'm not sure they can truly be called Imperial either since they
aren't used anywhere outside the UK, as far as I know.

 Yeah, I don't know where stone comes from. I was thinking smaller, like pounds and ounces.

    "Originally any good-sized rock chosen as a local standard,
     the stone came to be widely used as a unit of weight in
     trade, its value fluctuating with the commodity and region.
     In the 14th century England's exportation of raw wool to
     Florence necessitated a fixed standard."
    "Americans do not use the stone unit of weight. The stone
     was not a single standard at the time of American
     independence and, by the time it finally became a single
     standard, they had no need of it."