Rory

[Greg Truby]

...can you explain your quote in your signature?

Rory, don't you dare! I wasted fifteen minutes finding out the answer -- Erik needs to do the same! (Hint: actually being able to speak French [like Erik] will put you at a distinct disadvantage.)

 

[erik.van.geit]

15 minutes, GREG??
Slow internet?

Humpty Dumpty
Sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty
Had a great fall.

I like to play language games, but to my sense they need to be "pure". These rhymes are supposed to be transposed into French phonetically, but there are several mistakes.

example

aux Halles

The x will always be pronounced as "z"

 

[Greg Truby]

15 minutes, GREG??
Slow internet?

Nope, slow brain... I kept trying to translate it. And since my French is terrible, I kept thinking it must be my fault for just not being able to figure out the "translation". Even after I found "humpty dumpty" on the internet it wasn't until the second or third time seeing it that it occured to me to just read it out loud.

 

[cornflakegirl]

Erik - that bugged me for ages, till I eventually worked out that I had to drop the liaison to make it work - most annoying!

(I'd seen the rhyme before, but don't think my French was very good then )

 

[RoryA]

There is no liaison there. 'Halles' is one of those words like 'haie' where the h is aspirated - so you say la haie, not l'haie for example.

 

[erik.van.geit]

yes, bad example, but it's still plenty of others

 

[Cindy Ellis]

I looked at it and knew that it reminded me of Humpty Dumpty, but didn't know why. I didn't say it out loud, but instead went about trying to translate it, getting more and more confused by Google's attempts at translation. So simple...so elegant
Cindy
(and to echo someone else's comment in another thread...Hello Erik!!)

 

[cornflakegirl]

'Halles' is one of those words like 'haie' where the h is aspirated

Funny and clever, eh?

 

[RoryA]

Funny and clever, eh?

I didn't get thrown out of Cambridge for nothing you know.

 

[cornflakegirl]

What did you get thrown out for?