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Frenglish

By Alex | July 22, 2008

Phrases like “j’ai checké la boîte postale” (I checked the mail box) or “elle est très cute” (she’s very cute) are often uttered by Quebecers.

And in the conversations I have with D we often mix Romanian, English, and sometimes a bit of French and Spanish - stuff like “vamonos chica!” or “muchas gracias mi amor“.

So you see, I revolve in polyglot circles. But sometimes I take it to the extreme, or the opposite of extreme - I make up new words and pronunciations.

You see, at McGill I speak mostly English all the time. And when I go to the store/restaurant I usually order in English and say a hearty merci at the end. To balance things out. That’s because the Quebec accent still has its pitfalls as far as I’m concerned and I reckon it’s better to stay on the safe side. So I don’t get to practice my French that much, you see.

That’s why one day while having a debate with D about the French participe passé I actually mispronounced the word fille (girl). That’s kindergarten level vocabulary! Instead of saying something that sounds like fee, I said something that sounds like feel. I, unconsciously committed the abominable sin of mispronouncing the ll in a French word. To the guillotine! And the worst part about it is that to me it all sounded so natural.

Another of these multi-language events gone bad was when I was talking to D about some Maths stuff. I wanted to say infiniment proche de zéro (infinitely close to zero) and what came out was infinitely proche to zero. Which again sounded VERY natural since I pronounced proche in a very American way, almost Southern-like.

And to this D replied “Your English very very bad!” with an Indian accent. Like the one Babu from Seinfeld has.

Now enjoy some pictures:

Magnolias (this spring, Montreal)