La langue de Molière--et de Beaugrand et Beausoleil!

Don't let the manque de mots nouveaux fool you: I'm still pouring my language-learning energies into French at the moment, it's just that I didn't really see the benefits of trying to generate lists of new vocabulary from memory. I'm still picking up lots of new words, from my current reading and elsewhere. My favourite one at the moment is basculer. Totally looks like it should derive from a Latin diminutive, but in fact its roots couldn't be more humble: The element bas represents either bas "low; down" or a deformation of an inflected form of battre. No prizes for guessing what the next element is!

Also, ever since I found out that my buddy M³ is bedeviled by [uj], I've been on the lookout for words with ouille in them. I even put together a little tongue twister for him: "Des gribouilles[*] bredouillants bouillent une grenouille rouille." Since then I've learned the verb chatouiller "to tickle", which I totally would've used had I known it.

The real challenge I'm finding with French is, of course, register. Even just sticking with the standard means learning two distinct varieties, literary and colloquial, but of course how could I be satisfied with just that? No, in addition to a sort of generalised Parisian colloquial, I'm trying to brush up on colloquial Montréalais (since honestly this is the place I'm most likely to actually ever speak French) and learn a Cajun dialect as well.

My guide for the last of these is a description of the variety of Vermilion Parish as set out in a high school textbook by a teacher from Crowley (in neighbouring Acadia Parish) that an ex-coworker rescued from the trash for me. I figure if I have to learn some fruity European language, I'll pick up the most Americanised version I can! The biggest differences are in the lexicon--comme t'éxpéct'rais [sic!]--but also the verb morphology is quite different. All in all, deserving of a post of its own.

For Québec French, I'm finding plenty of good info in Wikipedia. tisoi has also posted links to some resources that I'm sure I'll find handy if I ever do make plans to visit Montréal. As for Standard French, of course the world is lousy with it. In my correspondence I've been writing very colloquially (with lots of "toi t'es" and the like), but I figured I should be prepared to write formally if it ever comes to that, so I picked up a copy of Le bon usage yesterday. It was actually the bookseller's personal copy until he acquired a more recent edition; personally I figure that having the most recent edition somehow goes against the whole purpose of having a Grevisse. So far, I've found at least one excellent use for it: Three paragraphs on the use of ne had monshu off in dreamland tout-de-suite!




[*] Vous pouvez remercier Honoré Beaugrand pour celui!