"je parle americain??"
Jan 11th, 2000, 04:27 PM
#1
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"je parle americain??"
Shortly after the World Cup finals in 1998, I was staying in the Latin Quarter in Paris. A group of young guys at a bar near my hotel, happily drunk from celebrating the French victory, began chanting and then singing "je parle americain" at the top of their lungs. Have you come across this and do you have any where it comes from?
Jun 6th, 2002, 06:24 PM
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It doesn't even seem like a funny expression to me - - right after 9/11 - - there were many expressions of "We are all American" - - so it's just another way of saying - - "we identify with you, since you won a match this year"<BR><BR>And it does make some sense to refer to "our" language as "americain", rather than "anglais". It is, at the very least, a different dialect of the language "English" - - as spoken in ENGLAND. Maybe not as different as Catalan from Castellano ("Spanish") - - but diverging a little further each year.<BR><BR>And that ain't "no joenin'..."<BR><BR>(need an explanation? http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020605.atc.18.ram for more info)<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>
Jun 6th, 2002, 08:43 PM
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Rex:<BR><BR>Enjoyed the following:<BR>http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020605.atc.18.ram <BR><BR>How do you find this stuff.
Jun 6th, 2002, 10:45 PM
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A few years ago, there were a couple of English language schools advertising that their programs focused on American rather than British English. I remember ads in the metro and on buses urging Parisians to "Learn to speak American!" It may have come from there.<BR>BTilke
Jun 6th, 2002, 11:58 PM
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In my mind, English is all English, it doesn't matter the dialect. I am living in Germany and I happened to notice that language schools actually refer to two seperate programs that they offer as English and as American. How can this be? I don't know a thing about the grammar in Australia, South Africa or New Zealand, but let me for example compare the grammar of Canadian English to the grammar of British English and American English: Canadians also have a language of their own, they use English grammar (filling in all the U's into words such as colour in our American school textbooks), but they tend to have a more American vocabulary, depending on where you go, and if you were to listen to the dialect from the Eastern provinces, you may think the person was Scottish! Furthermore, if American and English are really two different languages, than the Swiss don't speak German, nor do the Austrians, and the Belgians, Swiss and Canadians don't speak French! We could aslo add that the Argentinians don't speak Spanish and the Brazilians don't speak Portuguese. <BR>Food for thought ...
Jun 7th, 2002, 01:44 AM
#10
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Hey,<BR><BR>Unlike other Euro countries, French students choose to study either anglais or americain; look in bookstores, the dictionaries (les dicos) are either for anglais or americain, with flags on the covers. <BR><BR>This way they can differentiate between all the different idioms and vocab - very important, especially when doing business.<BR><BR>No clue on why they might have been singing that - mebbe they think that celebrating at the top of their lungs is tres a la mode des americains . . . ?
Jun 7th, 2002, 07:18 AM
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>And it does make some sense to refer >to "our" language as "americain", >rather than "anglais<BR><BR>I've seen French translations of books with the note "traduit de l'american".<BR>American is a dialect of standard English just as Australian, Yorkshire etc. are.
Jun 7th, 2002, 06:34 PM
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In response to:<BR><BR>Author: Randy ([email protected])<BR>Date: 06/07/2002, 12:43 am<BR>Message: Rex:<BR><BR>Enjoyed the following:<BR>http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20020605.atc.18.ram <BR><BR>How do you find this stuff.<BR><BR>==================================== =<BR><BR>Ummm... not too mysterious - - I heard it broadcast on Wednesday - - and so, I looked it up on www.npr.org to post here.<BR><BR>Doesn't everybody listen to NPR all the time?<BR><BR
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Jun 7th, 2002, 08:39 PM
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Had to think back - - not the first time a nifty little tidbit posted here from the npr.org website:<BR><BR>Author: Rex ([email protected])<BR>Date: 02/17/2001, 02:48 pm<BR><BR>Message: I was looking for something else (a story for my daughter on this weekend's "All Things Considered") - - and I stumbled on this story on the Feb 11 weekend edition, telling about Malcolm miller and his tours of Chartres Cathedral. <BR><BR>www.npr.org/ramfiles/watc/20010211.watc.06.rmm <BR><BR>Informative, if you have never enjoyed one of Mr. Miller's tours - - and a nice reminiscence, if you have. <BR><BR>Best wishes, <BR><BR>Rex <BR>
Jun 8th, 2002, 07:51 AM
#18
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Rex:<BR>Catalan and Spanish ARE different languages; Catalan is NOT a dialect of Spanish, but a different language which has existed for centuries.Both come from Latin. In fact, Catalan literature did develop autonomously before Spanish literature did.The Golden century for Catalan literature was the 15th century, that for Spanish literature the 16th-17th. <BR>American English, on the other hand, is a dialect of English (just as Canadian Engliah, Australian English, and so on).
Jun 9th, 2002, 07:05 PM
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I did not mean to imply that Catalan is a dialect of Castellano. I offered those two as divergent (i.e., distinct) "cousin" languages. I said that "American" is NOT so distinct from the English of England,<BR><BR>But the two "languages" (dialects) of American and England COULD diverge SOMEday enough to have a greater similarity to the divergence which separates Catalan from Castellano.<BR><BR>Sorry I wasn't clearer.<BR>
