doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com French Shotgun, any info?

Well Pete, there's a good bit more difference between spoken Flemish and standard Dutch than there is between French spoken in France vs Belgian. Difference enough that, on TV programs using informal speech, they subtitle the Flemish into Dutch if it's broadcast in the Netherlands, and vice versa (Dutch into Flemish) for broadcast into Belgium. That does not happen with French. And the Parisians get picky about lots of stuff, but we're talking mainly accent rather than a very different vocabulary--sort of like NY City to Texas. The French spoken in Quebec, especially away from Montreal-Quebec City . . . then you get some more significant differences. But Cajun French is even worse.

I served with a Military Intelligence officer who was Dutch. He took the Army language tests in Flemish and Afrikaans as well.

About 20 years ago I sat on the porch of a building on the banks of the big swamp near Lafeayette Louisanna (forget how to spell the swamp name) chating with retired Cajun propietor awaiting a swamp tour done by his son. Within a period of about 10-15 minutes 4 couples arrives, all appearing to be in their 20's. In each case the lady of the pair said Bon-Jour & nothing else. The old Cajun identified each one as being from Paris; France but not Paris (Lyon as I recall; Belgium & finally French Canadian. All from the way they said Bon-Jour.

Miller, In English, I can pick up the difference between someone from the East Coast, Ontario, Ontario (Ottawa Valley), Manitoba and farther west. And that's just in Canada. Add the US and the UK and Ireland and we have a lot of different accents and a few dialects.

I don't even speak French but I can hear the difference between a French speaker and a Quebecois.

A few years back--in Medora, ND of all places--I met a young lady working in a motel who was bilingual. One parent French, the other American. Lived in France until she was a teenager, at which time her father's job took them to Quebec. She told me that it took her some time to catch much of what her schoolmates said, when they were speaking at a normal speed.

I took high school French students to Quebec on a couple of occasions, spent about a week there. The disturbing thing to me was that when I came home, I'd hear a bit of the Quebecois accent in my own French.

Yes, I can pick up a lot of different "lingos" from across the US also. However for such precise location it usually takes me a bit more than just Good Day.

Miller, accept my apology. It was late last night and I had had a long day and it wasn't until after I hit the post button that I realized your point was based on the brief two words uttered by the old gentleman.

I was born in Wisconsin, as a young boy I lived in south Florida, then moved to and lived all over the Chicago area. After high school I spent 6 years going to school in Southern Illinois. By the time I was out in the working world my speach was such a mixture of different regional accents that people always had a difficult time picking out where I grew up.
Steve

Hell I am still working on English.

My North Texas accent is heavy influenced by my Dad who was from West Tennessee, especially in word choice.

canvasback;
No apoplogy necessary. It did just amaze me though how quickly this older gentleman was able to correctly state where all 4 of those couples were from by just those two words.
My wife came from Southern Illinois so I'm usually pretty good at picking up when someone is from there. Other places not as quick. I suppose though this gentleman had met a lot of folks & had practised some previously, particularly for those speaking French.

I once knew a guy who had an Austin accent atop his childhood Chicaaaaago. Oy. Almost as scary as one of my platoon sergeants, who spoke German with a Puerto Rican accent. Germans would hear him talk and shake their heads like they were full of bees.