Funny what you think you hear

Not listening, but reading, while the radio burbled on in the background, I was suddenly brought to my senses by what I had just (thought) I heard.

BBC R4 You and Yours. No idea of the discussion but what shook me to the core was the presenter referring to a new caller ‘and now we go to Michel Barnier in Nottingham’. :astonished:

I know he has been in something of a mess in France lately, but is he claiming asylum? The mind boggles. The things you hear when you are not listening. :rofl:

3 Likes

I think he’s taking over from Nuno Espírito Santo as the manager of Nottingham Forest FC.

Who? :roll_eyes:

Sounds like a heretical addition to the Holy Trinity…

Speaking of misunderstanding what we hear in France……… When we moved to this part of Provence we were not familiar with the local accent. One day I passed a friendly villager on the street and we were both rather battling against the wind. He said to me what I thought was “Le vin! Le vin!” I supposed he thought I was already crocked at 09:00 in the morning.

After a few weeks I realised “le vin” is “le vent” with a local accent. I have also cultivated a reputation for temperance, so all is well.
:teapot:

1 Like

Around our bit of the SW your ‘le vin’ would probably be ‘lay ven-te’.

And equally incomprehensible…

But I do enjoy trying to use local pronunciations - even though it irritates my wife, who secretly wants to be mistaken for a Parisian (like Gigi) and says, “They’ll never mistake you for a local!”

And I’m sure that (for once) she’s right.

2 Likes

No, sorry to contradict but that t is silent except when it’s a verb, so le veng - noun, and il vengte - verb. Not bothering with the IPA sorry :slightly_smiling_face: the various dialects of Occitan have strict phonological rules (descriptive rather than prescriptive).

3 Likes

Travelling round, as I used to do, I noted all these differences. Round here they say le vam.

I wonder, if there are Francophone forums in the UK, they have similar discussions. Best of luck with Scouse and Geordy then. :rofl:

1 Like

Thanks - but no need to apologise when you’re teaching someone something :slight_smile:
Otherwise you’d spend your whole working day saying ‘sorry’ !