French stuff

[violet@slip.net]

Okay, the goof re-send of all the stuff in L-H #105 reminded me that I
never finished with this.

I have since forgotten who wrote this (I'm sorry):
>It's been eight or nine years since my last class in French Literature,
>but as I recall, the poetic pronunciation of 'marche' only applies when
>the following word begins with a consonant or an aspirate h.  For example,
>the phrase 'marche vite' (walks quickly) would be pronounced 'mar=che vite'.
>However, 'marche avec' (walks with), ought to be pronounced 'marche a-vec',
>since 'avec' begins with a vowel.

I've confirmed with a friend of mine, who lives in Marseille, that this is
not true.  He says, "It would have been true if 'marche' was an adjective,
but it's a verb so it doesn't really apply here."  So pronouncing "marche"
as two syllables is correct.  My friend also tells me that he often notices
that American and English people use this kind of pronunciation when
speaking French.

He also believes that she is saying "L'amour marche avec un etranger."  The
other many variations don't make much sense to him.  And I covered them
all, believe me. :)  He feels that my interpretaion of this phrase as "Love
walks with a stranger" is accurate.  This would be said in the context of
"I had love, I don't any more.  Love is with somebody else, but not me."
Trying to say exactly how someone means something can be difficult, because
phrases can always be taken in many contexts.  If I were to say "My dog has
fleas" for example, you couldn't be 100% sure whether I meant they are ON
him or he keeps them in a jar.  However, I can say that the phrase
translates directly as "Love walks with a stranger" and let your own mind
decide what that means to you, which is what we do with all of Kate's
lyrics anyway. :)

Violet
xoxox

P.S. I no longer feel there's a need for me to go back and correct my  post
that hit the list sometime around the 18th, so I will let that go if it's
alright with everyone.  (It concerned contradictions to the above-mentioned
rule, but I got them all turned around, so I'd said that I would correct
them at a later point.)


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