Help with French, please--The French pronunciation thread

millianna · Post by **millianna** » October 7th, 2015, 9:27 am

Hello Jan,

The first three phrases are (almost) good French, but the two last ones are in some kind of dialect. Where does the gruff, elder male comes from?
Camille

jmoorehouse · Post by **jmoorehouse** » October 8th, 2015, 7:12 am

Greetings, Camille--
Thank you so much for your response! He is an older Russian man, a real "poser." My Proof Listener has signed off on my garbled version given the fact that our elderly Russian is always drunk, probably DOES NOT REALLY know any French, and undoubtedly never EVER met Napolean.

I received his PL OKAY message in the wee hours this morning and got up early to let you know that help is now not needed. But I have certainly learned, and am humbled by it, that my 61-year-old English-only mouth WILL NOT shape itself to make credibly French-sounding words! Alas!

Sincerely,
Jan

nickbulka · Post by **nickbulka** » March 15th, 2016, 11:36 am

If some kind soul would help me with French pronunciation of these passages, I would be appreciative:

Le plus grand tort de la plupart des maris envers
leurs femmes, c'est de les avoir épousées."

Je ne me sens jamais plus seulque loreqae je livre
mon coeur à quelque ami"

MAUPASSANT.

thanks
nick

Post by **ezwa** » March 15th, 2016, 12:19 pm

Here you are, Nick: http://uploads.librivox.org/ezwa/french4nickbulka_20160315.mp3

And here's what I read:
"Le plus grand tort de la plupart des maris envers
leurs femmes, c'est de les avoir épousées.

Je ne me sens jamais plus seul que lorsque je livre
mon coeur à quelque ami.

MAUPASSANT"

nickbulka · Post by **nickbulka** » March 15th, 2016, 12:52 pm

ezwa wrote:Here you are, Nick: http://uploads.librivox.org/ezwa/french4nickbulka_20160315.mp3

And here's what I read:
"Le plus grand tort de la plupart des maris envers
leurs femmes, c'est de les avoir épousées.

Je ne me sens jamais plus seul que lorsque je livre
mon coeur à quelque ami.

MAUPASSANT"

wow! that was fast. Thanks so much!

nick

jmoorehouse · Post by **jmoorehouse** » January 18th, 2019, 7:46 pm

Help please! This is (for me) a long passage to try to do credit to in French. A slow-mo recording would really be an assist. I can get the fast-mo version on Lingutec.

" £tes-vous sur que l'Angleterre soit parti du monde que nous habitons, nous les Russes ? Ici, on ne comprend rien a rien. Chez eux, on sait a l'avance tout
sur tout. C'est reposant, mais comme cela me parait vide."

Post by **ezwa** » January 18th, 2019, 11:05 pm

Here you are: https://librivox.org/uploads/ezwa/french4jmoorehouse_20190119.mp3

" Êtes-vous sûr que l'Angleterre soit parti du monde que nous _ habitons, nous les Russes ? Ici, on ne comprend rien _ à rien. Chez _ eux, on sait _ à l'avance tout
sur tout. C'est reposant, mais comme cela me parait vide."

jmoorehouse · Post by **jmoorehouse** » January 19th, 2019, 9:46 am

Oh my! Thank you SO MUCH! May I come back to you for more from time to time, until this book is complete?

Post by **ezwa** » January 19th, 2019, 9:58 pm

Yes, sure, Jan.
I'm sometimes a bit slow at replying but I'd get back to you at some point if it were the case.

Steven Seitel · Post by **Steven Seitel** » January 30th, 2019, 4:32 pm

I would very much appreciate it if someone could help me with these two short sentence fragments. I'm totally incompetent at French pronunciation, I blush to admit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vK9v7O8TSBrrR0ZwsO3Vv8Shz7EwLuHs/view?usp=sharing

If possible, a recording that I could just paste into the book I'm reading would be wonderful. Thanks so much for the help.

Steve Seitel

Post by **ezwa** » January 31st, 2019, 10:42 am

Hello Steve,

Here you are: https://librivox.org/uploads/ezwa/french4SteveSeitel_20190131.mp3

Steven Seitel · Post by **Steven Seitel** » January 31st, 2019, 11:20 am

Oh Thank you, thank you Ezwa. That’s exactly what is needed!

I’ll give you the credit in the chapter intro.

Steve

Steven Seitel · Post by **Steven Seitel** » January 31st, 2019, 12:48 pm

Oh, Dear...

[Request for help deleted; I managed to struggle through the last line with some coaching from a friend.]

Thank you, Steve

Steven Seitel · Post by **Steven Seitel** » February 18th, 2019, 2:40 pm

Will someone please help me speak 2 short excerpts from the Song Of Roland? I cannot begin to do justice to the spoken French myself:

1. Chanson de Roland

2. Mor est mis nies ki tant soleit cunquere
Encuntre mei revelerunt li Saisne
Et Hungre et Bugre et tante gent averse,
Romain, Puillain et tuit cil de Palerne
E cil d'Affrike e cil de Califerne

A recording--preferably moderately paced--that can be inserted into the English narration would be greatly appreciated. The book is A History of California: the Spanish Period, by Charles E. Chapman. The excerpts appear in Chapter 6. Here's a link to the source text, which is fascinating:

https://archive.org/details/historyofcalifor00chapuoft/page/n11

Of course I'll be sure to credit your help. Many thanks in advance,

Steve Seitel

Post by **Kitty** » February 19th, 2019, 12:38 pm

Steven Seitel wrote: ↑February 18th, 2019, 2:40 pm Will someone please help me speak 2 short excerpts from the Song Of Roland? I cannot begin to do justice to the spoken French myself:

hi Steve

for the record, this excerpt is in OLD French, not the modern language at all. So the pronunciation is quite tricky. I studied the chanson de Roland in my medieval courses at university and I can try to do it justice, but I'm far from being an expert. If you have time, I can do you a soundfile tomorrow, unless someone does it before me.

Do you also need a translation ?

Sonia