Robespierre -

I love it when someone talks to me about his/her chase lounge. It saves so much time that I might have wasted in thinking I was dealing with a literate person.

My two cents. Chaise "lounge" is not French at all. It is chaise longue.(sometimes you can hear "lounge music" but the term is not very common) Longue is the feminine of long.
Un jour très long, une journée très longue.

Oh, there are plenty of other clues...

R -

C'est marrant.

One of my personal bugaboos is shrimp scampi...

Or potatoes oh grotten

Oh, no! Sound the alarm. Danger, Will Robinson!

Renovation Hardware is contributing to the deliquency of the marginally illiterate.

Was packing the car and RIGHT ON THE COVER of the Late Summer 2006 catalog are those damned long chairs! The description of the products on the cover can be found on page 7.

"ALL-WEATHER WICKER CLASSIC CHAISE - Grab your favorite poolside reading material and LOUNGE in superior comfort"

Have they NO idea what they are doing by using those two words "chaise" and "lounge" in such close proximity?!?!? Don't they realize they are perpetuating an alledged incorrect pronunciation that results in the elitists of the world giggling at "the middle of the IQ curve"?!?!?

I am so disappointed that, despite the continued attempts by the diligent, the spelling, chaise lounge, and pronunciation, chase lounge, will continue to be used by the uninformed masses.

Dictionaries and now Renovation Hardware. tsk, tsk. Maybe someone can start a campaign to have the copywriter fired.

Oh, now I get it. The best way to win an argument when one is wrong is to take evidence out of context. What does "lounge," used as a verb, have to do with this argument? And now Restauration Hardware has an audio catalogue? Give it up.

I have found that those who complain the most about mispronunciation of words from language A in language B are often monolingual themselves.

I've never noticed that - but then, I have done simultaneous interpreting from French to English.

I love to see how little alliances move from one thread to another.

Toupary, starrsville was being ironic. You really must learn to recognize irony.

LOL, starr. And very good taste in home decor I might add. Restoration Hardware and all...

I find it interesting that Robespierre never really responds to the point that words enter one language from another and that, while they may not move in a way that the language police would approve of, move they do. I think it upsets him to know this because it give him one less thing to feel superior about. The i.q. middlers are actually having the upper hand when it comes to usage. Quel horreur!

Which brings us to <b>Robespierre's Core Principle of Governance</b>, <i>viz</i>.,

&quot;In a democratic republic, all questions of political economy are ultimately decided by an aggregrate IQ of one hundred.&quot;

You wonder why things go wrong? Because all media (including the marketing of soap and political candidates) is aimed squarely at the demographic that lies within one standard deviation of the mean. You think commercial television is aimed at the average <i>Mensa</i> member? The voters who got GWB elected by mistakenly voting for Buchanan are only the tip of this deplorable iceberg.

Oh, I do, Toupary. I am very quick to acknowledge when I am wrong. But, I'm not in this instance.

Chaise lounge (pronounced as chase) is perfectly acceptable in use - and has been in the US since the 1800's. It is my opinion that psuedo-intellectuals that giggle and mock others are.....

I won't finish that. You probably can imagine.

No, I think the best evidence was the tip to type &quot;chaise lounge&quot; and &quot;chaise longue&quot; in the online dictionary to see if one can find any difference in definition or pronunciation. Answer = none.

Could it possibly be Robespierre's inadequacy in some area that gives him the need to feel superior to others...hmmm....????

starrsville, if you can't hear the difference between <b>'shAz-'lo[ng]</b> and <b>'shAz-'launj</b> (the pronunciation keys given in the M-W entries) and their corresponding sounds, you are way short of being qualified for this discussion.

wren, why don't you come on over and see for yourself (after placing a substantial bet on the outcome, of course)?

I have taught both English and French to non-native speakers, and I do notice certain patterns. Students who dwell endlessly upon trivial details of the incursions of one language into the other usually are rigorously monolingual and could not form a correct utterance in a language other than their own to save their souls. It's easiest to just let them talk, unless they are saying something that is actually incorrect.

You know, after I type this I am going to look outside to see if is snowing (during a 90+ day today) because I THINK I may be agreeing with Roby on something...and I find that a bit alarming.

Anyway, enough of a preamble...

I've been scratching my head over Shrub for the past few years, trying to figure out HOW it could get elected and someone FINALLY had a theory that may have some truth to it.

The theory is that folks would rather vote for someone they like who is not as intelligent as they think they are, than to vote for an intellectual.

Don't know. Perhaps true. I'll report in if I see snowflakes.

Roby, did you click on the audio link to hear the two (correct) pronunciations?

Yes. As I said, if you can't hear the difference, there is nothing further to discuss.

You're right on the pronunciation on &quot;longue&quot;. To be honest, I didn't even click on that pronunciation. My bad.

The two pronuciations I listed to were for &quot;chaise lounge&quot;. One of those two is the one often heard by folks who could care less about pretention.