Comments on: Odds and Sods http://www.readright.be/WDJ/2009/07/odds-and-sods/ Words - spiffing and copacetic Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:00:38 +0000 hourly 1 By: Tom Joad http://www.readright.be/WDJ/2009/07/odds-and-sods/comment-page-1/#comment-801 Tom Joad Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:00:15 +0000 http://www.readright.be/WDJ/?p=204#comment-801 Thanks for the hearty 'welcome back' Daphne =) I found myself reading a nature magazine in the hairdresser's yesterday, and realized there are simply *hundreds* of animal names in French that I don't know. My favourite discovery was the praying mantis (<em>mante religeuse</em>). One that I already knew, but which has always troubled me, is the French for 'bat' (the mammal, not the thing for hitting other things with). <em>Chauve-souris</em>? It's a <strong>flying</strong> mouse, damn it! Why do the francophones only care about whether it has hair or not? Isn't being a mammal <strong>and</strong> flying spectacular enough for them? And besides, they're not even bald. Any native French speakers reading this? Would you care to explain why a language with such a broad palette for description could have got this one so wrong? Thanks for the hearty ‘welcome back’ Daphne =)

I found myself reading a nature magazine in the hairdresser’s yesterday, and realized there are simply *hundreds* of animal names in French that I don’t know. My favourite discovery was the praying mantis (mante religeuse). One that I already knew, but which has always troubled me, is the French for ‘bat’ (the mammal, not the thing for hitting other things with). Chauve-souris? It’s a flying mouse, damn it! Why do the francophones only care about whether it has hair or not? Isn’t being a mammal and flying spectacular enough for them? And besides, they’re not even bald.

Any native French speakers reading this? Would you care to explain why a language with such a broad palette for description could have got this one so wrong?

]]> By: Daphne Wayne-Bough http://www.readright.be/WDJ/2009/07/odds-and-sods/comment-page-1/#comment-797 Daphne Wayne-Bough Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:36:57 +0000 http://www.readright.be/WDJ/?p=204#comment-797 Huzzah! Tom Joad is back with us. Despite my totally fluent French, hemhem, I was surprised to find on a trip last week to La Rochelle, that there were a whole slew of French words I didn't know, like "estran" (foreshore), "ressac" (undertow), "pertuis" (channel or straits) and "rose trémière" (hollyhock). Words that make it pretty obvious I had never been to the Atlantic coast before. You're never too old to learn something new. Huzzah! Tom Joad is back with us. Despite my totally fluent French, hemhem, I was surprised to find on a trip last week to La Rochelle, that there were a whole slew of French words I didn’t know, like “estran” (foreshore), “ressac” (undertow), “pertuis” (channel or straits) and “rose trémière” (hollyhock). Words that make it pretty obvious I had never been to the Atlantic coast before. You’re never too old to learn something new.

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