Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

I don't know about the sceptics; that's how I explained it.

Looking it up I saw that this derivation was 'hotly disputed' on the grounds that it doesn't account for the disappearance of the 'c'. Hmmph. No problem. Coming just before the d, it voices and then diminishes into a sort of glottal stop. Hui, hoy lose the d too, and oggi palatalises d + ĭ.

Checking Cassells, it gives the feminine as 'Esp.' a particular day or fixed date. Most of the examples suggest one single day/date, though Cicero uses it as an anniversary (but not having the quotation, I suppose even that could mean one particular birthday, rather than the recurring day).

[Bryn]

Ebagum, he's thrown the towel.

[french frank]

Ebagum, he's thrown the towel.

Who that then, Bryn?

[jean]

Looking for a winter coat, I came upon this:

The Gerard Darel brand was established in 1971 by founders Gerard and Daniele Darel. Championing a simple, chic and ultra-feminine aesthetic, Gerard Darel has embodied French elegance for over 40 years. From its first collection, the brand has continually displayed soft, dulcet tones and classic chic cuts at the core of its timeless and refined pieces.

Strange...I always thought the sweetness implied by dulcet referred to sound rather than colour...

[french frank]

Looking for a winter coat, I came upon this:

Strange...I always thought the sweetness implied by dulcet referred to sound rather than colour...

And since French doux/douce means soft anyway … and tones are … is this synesthesia?

I was wondering if you were commenting on this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42073148

I'm with the grammarians, French grammatical masculine-feminine is not a question of gender. A table is not 'feminine', a picture is not 'masculine': they have no gender. Even if you say that, going back to Latin, female-denoting words tend to belong in one grammatical conjugation, male-denoting in another, even that isn't rigid, with some first conjugation nouns being masculine, for example, and 2nd declension considered feminine (trees).

In English it's a different matter as most words denote neither masculine nor feminine, and only a few words are occasionally 'assigned' a gender as in 'she' for a ship.

[Richard Tarleton]

Looking for a winter coat, I came upon this:

Strange...I always thought the sweetness implied by dulcet referred to sound rather than colour...

Chic, timeless, ultra-feminine....doesn't say much about whether their "pieces" would keep you warm and dry - but that's fashion for you

[vinteuil]

I was wondering if you were commenting on this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42073148

I'm with the grammarians, French grammatical masculine-feminine is not a question of gender. A table is not 'feminine', a picture is not 'masculine': they have no gender. Even if you say that, going back to Latin, female-denoting words tend to belong in one grammatical conjugation, male-denoting in another, even that isn't rigid, with some first conjugation nouns being masculine, for example, and 2nd declension considered feminine (trees).

.

... here is a slightly fuller discussion concerning this 'inclusive writing'

http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2017/11/23/cinq-idees-recues-sur-l-ecriture-inclusive_5219224_4355770.html

.

[french frank]

... here is a slightly fuller discussion concerning this 'inclusive writing'

http://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2017/11/23/cinq-idees-recues-sur-l-ecriture-inclusive_5219224_4355770.html

I thought it ironic a few years back, when some French friends were discussing the recent introduction of the form 'la professeure', that this went in entirely the opposite direction from in English where actresses became actors. Yet we were inconsistent in insisting that the masculine singular personal pronouns and adjectives should not be used as gender non-specific: masculine and feminine should both be specified (and by analogy 'actor' and 'actress') or replaced by the plural 'they', even when a grammatical singular is required. Oh, what a tangled web …

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I thought it ironic a few years back, when some French friends were discussing the recent introduction of the form 'la professeure', that this went in entirely the opposite direction from in English where actresses became actors. Yet we were inconsistent in insisting that the masculine singular personal pronouns and adjectives should not be used as gender non-specific: masculine and feminine should both be specified (and by analogy 'actor' and 'actress') or replaced by the plural 'they', even when a grammatical singular is required. Oh, what a tangled web …

Use of "they" as a singular pronoun would be OK if the verb that followed were not pluralised: he is; she is; they is.

[french frank]

Use of "they" as a singular pronoun would be OK …

I'm shocked, Alpie. I'm shocked to the core!! Are you weakening?

[Serial_Apologist]

Use of "they" as a singular pronoun would be OK if the verb that followed were not pluralised: he is; she is; they is.

That can't be right, surely!!!

(From recollection, the Bristolian equivalents would be more consistent, eg "we'm, you'm and they'm)

[vinteuil]

(From recollection, the Bristolian equivalents would be more consistent, eg "we'm, you'm and they'm)

... or from my Wiltshire childhood, 'we do be, you do be, they do be' etc .


.

[ahinton]

... or from my Wiltshire childhood, 'we do be, you do be, they do be' etc.

Do-be-do-wa-wa...

[french frank]

(From recollection, the Bristolian equivalents would be more consistent, eg "we'm, you'm and they'm)

Well, I've never heard Bristolians say "we'm, you'm and they'm". Perhaps they say it in Gloucestershire. In Somerset we said, a bit like young M. Vinteuil, I be, you be, he, she or it be; we be, you be, they be.

[ahinton]

Well, I've never heard Bristolians say "we'm, you'm and they'm". Perhaps they say it in Gloucestershire. In Somerset we said, a bit like young M. Vinteuil, I be, you be, he, she or it be; we be, you be, they be.

Surely Brizzle's more renowned for bistn't, casn't and the like, me babby?...