This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...(and). It will be as well to remember that, after pronunciation, tone, and accent, the question of liaison is the next in importance on the way to fluency. The addition of the final s, denoting the plural, causes no change in the pronunciation of a word except where the liaison is required. "Un grand homme " (A great ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 Excerpt: ...(and). It will be as well to remember that, after pronunciation, tone, and accent, the question of liaison is the next in importance on the way to fluency. The addition of the final s, denoting the plural, causes no change in the pronunciation of a word except where the liaison is required. "Un grand homme " (A great man). Here, the h being silent, the d is carried over to the syllable om. "Les grari9shSmmes " (The great men). In this case the d becomes silent, and the s is carried over in its stead. Again, one should never make the liaison where there is the slightest dinger of confusion. "Les francais aiment la chasse" (The French love hunting). The s of "francais" must neither be sounded nor carried across to the vowel of the next word, because, if it were, the sense of the remark would be altered, and it would sound to a native of France as follows: "Les frangaises aiment la chasse" (The Frenchwomen love hunting). There is a tendency among the British, as I have remarked before, to drawl and prolong unnecessarily the French vowels and diphthongs, particularly the oi, which, although it strongly resembles the wha of our " what," is not nearly so long. It is, on the contrary, a short crisp sound. Pronounce the following words aloud, giving full value to the other letters, yet throwing the tonic accent on the deliberately curtailed wha. Bois, wood (silent s)--pronounced as B'wha. Quoi f what? K'wha. Doigt, finger" D'wha. Oie, goose Wha. Foi, faith FVha. Joie, joy Zh'wha. Loi, law, L'wha. The h of wha must, of course, be unaspirated. There are no strong aspirates in French as in English, and a Frenchman finds it very difficult to breathe as forcibly as w...
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