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I don't know what the parent meant, but I can assure you that in France you're (usually) taught that the ^ stands for a lost letter -- it's what helps remember
by bambax 11y ago
I don't know what the parent meant, but I can assure you that in France you're (usually) taught that the ^ stands for a lost letter -- it's what helps remember where to put the accent.
- pif 11y agoWell, I meant: when you learn French in France _as a stranger_, they don't talk about the history of the language, thus the concept of a lost letter doesn't stand.
- gpvos 11y agoSuch courses tend to be very utilitarian, and not go into a language's history much. Although I guess it might actually be helpful to know while learning French as an Italian.
- 0x4a42 11y agoCorrect, this is something you learn in elementary school. :)
- agumonkey 11y agoI can assure you of the opposite. It has never been said to me once. I guessed it by correlating roots (foret - forestier). And globally phonetic or linguistic derivation from history was never mentioned (even in latin classes, we were taught translation but they never told about phonetic shifts). ps: I often cringed at the lack of reasoning in language studies here, I'm happy that I may be just unlucky and that you got proper information from your teachers.