OT: Pronunciation and Public Schools (was Richard's Motto)

Dear all,

When I first became interested in Richard III, I was
studying Latin, not French, in the American public
school system, but the French teacher told me that the
proper pronunciation was (please pardon my
approximation of phonetics): loy-AH-tay may lee (that
would be our U.S. long A and E but without the
diphthong. In defense of our educational system, I'd
like to note that I had four years of Latin and two
years of German when I was graduated from high school.

I suppose it's possible that the American public
schools have deteriorated considerably since my son
was a student, but he enjoyed four years of studying
Mandarin at his New Jersey public high school in the
late Eighties and early Nineties. I believe it is
still possible for most U.S. high school students who
desire it to pursue study of a foreign language or
languages.

--- Carol Rondou <lilith@...> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> As a product of the American Public School system, I
> am unable to speak or read any language but English.
>
>
> My question is, how is loyaulte' me lie
> pronounced?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Carol
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
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>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group//
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> >
> >
> > My question is, how is loyaulte' me lie
> > pronounced?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Carol

Hi, Carol,

I used to teach French at one time, though that was many lifetimes
ago. The best approximation I can come up with for the modern
pronunciation is:-
Lwa - yoh -tay muh Lee.

The "-e" in me has no accent, and is that mushy indistinct vowel
sound like you get in unstressed syllables in English (in fact, like
the 'a' in 'syllable').

Anyway, that's the modern French pronunciation. The second 'l' has
disappeared from the word loyaulte since then - the modern spelling
is just loyaute (with acute accent on e). I don't know how it would
all have been pronounced back then - perhaps something like Loy -ol -
tay muh - lee-uh.

Marie


> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been
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> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
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> > [email protected]
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> >