The amazing vanishing e! (but it's still there...)
The poor thing. I mean, we were all a bit far gone, so we were not completely in control of ourselves, but in Wednesday's phonétique session on where the e caduc (the vanishing e) vanishes we all finally cracked.
The thing is, our phonétique teacher has a Bordeaux accent, which means that when the e caduc should vanish, it doesn't quite. So she says to us "Repetez, je vais en France" (to choose a silly example!) and pronounces the final e quietly, so we all say, "je vais en frongser", and she says "Non! c'n'est pas je vais en Franceee (loudly), c'est je vais en France." If we then say "je vais en frongs" she says "bon", but if we say what SHE said, she says "non" again.
(I don't know why she would think a bunch as varied as us - native English, American, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Swahili, Spanish and Serb speakers should suddenly catch the habit of sticking "er" everywhere except from our phonétique teacher! I mean, it's a bit fishy, what?)
Anyway, she can't hear her own e! Well anyway on Wednesday we finally cracked and told her that she is putting in quiet little e's where she is telling us to drop them. She still can't hear her own voice do it, but I think she now believes us when we say she does! Tomorrow I am going to record her class and present it to her on a CD!
She still won't be able to hear them, of course...
The thing is, our phonétique teacher has a Bordeaux accent, which means that when the e caduc should vanish, it doesn't quite. So she says to us "Repetez, je vais en France" (to choose a silly example!) and pronounces the final e quietly, so we all say, "je vais en frongser", and she says "Non! c'n'est pas je vais en Franceee (loudly), c'est je vais en France." If we then say "je vais en frongs" she says "bon", but if we say what SHE said, she says "non" again.
(I don't know why she would think a bunch as varied as us - native English, American, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Swahili, Spanish and Serb speakers should suddenly catch the habit of sticking "er" everywhere except from our phonétique teacher! I mean, it's a bit fishy, what?)
Anyway, she can't hear her own e! Well anyway on Wednesday we finally cracked and told her that she is putting in quiet little e's where she is telling us to drop them. She still can't hear her own voice do it, but I think she now believes us when we say she does! Tomorrow I am going to record her class and present it to her on a CD!
She still won't be able to hear them, of course...
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