Phonétique
Our phonétique lecturer didn't see why we should lose out because of the strike, so our language lab session was rescheduled to this afternoon.
She had wonders up her sleeve for us. Firstly lots of practice in leaving out the letter e. So that, for example:
La petite fille a pris le panier de fruits dans le jardin
becomes:
La p'tite fille a pris'l panier'd fruits dans'l jardin.
This is a contrast to the Bordeaux accent which has a tendency to pronounce every e, and even stick some extras in for jolly good luck (as they say).
Then a bit on the aspirate h (which isn't aspirated) and on the glottal stop, which is never used in French (except when it is, for example in le hangar)
Then we did some work on the prosody of the language - taking a deep breath and reading out long sentences in one breath, in a monotone, making every syllable the same length. I was quite good at this. Could it be because of being a preacher? We have to practice at home. The neighbours already think we are odd. I'm just glad it's winter and the windows are closed.
Incidentally it has rained a lot here over the past few days. Well, not like Cardiff*, but quite a bit all the same. The river has been on a flood warning in places, but I expect we'll still have a drought in the summer.
* In Cardiff it used to rain so hard the raindrops would bounce off the road.
She had wonders up her sleeve for us. Firstly lots of practice in leaving out the letter e. So that, for example:
La petite fille a pris le panier de fruits dans le jardin
becomes:
La p'tite fille a pris'l panier'd fruits dans'l jardin.
This is a contrast to the Bordeaux accent which has a tendency to pronounce every e, and even stick some extras in for jolly good luck (as they say).
Then a bit on the aspirate h (which isn't aspirated) and on the glottal stop, which is never used in French (except when it is, for example in le hangar)
Then we did some work on the prosody of the language - taking a deep breath and reading out long sentences in one breath, in a monotone, making every syllable the same length. I was quite good at this. Could it be because of being a preacher? We have to practice at home. The neighbours already think we are odd. I'm just glad it's winter and the windows are closed.
Incidentally it has rained a lot here over the past few days. Well, not like Cardiff*, but quite a bit all the same. The river has been on a flood warning in places, but I expect we'll still have a drought in the summer.
* In Cardiff it used to rain so hard the raindrops would bounce off the road.
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