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This is a French language article. I don't understand what this is supposed to be about. Is everyone commenting so far French?
by ginko 6y ago
This is a French language article. I don't understand what this is supposed to be about.
Is everyone commenting so far French?
- Fnoord 6y ago> Is everyone commenting so far French? You don't have to be French to understand French. There are other countries where French is the main language, and you can speak French as your second (or third, ..) language. You can use DeepL or Google Translate to translate to a language you understand.
- ginko 6y ago>You don't have to be French to understand French. There are other countries where French is the main language, and you can speak French as your second (or third, ..) language. Obviously. I still don't understand why this is on frontpage.
- Renaud 6y agoUsing the novel technology of the time (gramophone) to record hyper-local accents and witness someone discovering his own accent, probably one of the first ever to do so. It's an interesting turning point in the history of modern technology, a bit like the first time someone saw himself in a picture or in a movie.
- Fnoord 6y ago1912, the content would fit the term antique. It denotes, with proof, how accents evolve. The proof is relatively unique for its age. Hence, it is historic, it is history. Relevant history, even, given the uniqueness. For me, personally (YMMV), I am going to link it to my mother (born 1951, my father passed away) who has been to Paris in the 70s with my father, as well as with me about 10 years ago. She's also far better in French than I am. I'm curious on her take. Same with my mother-in-law; she loves the French language. Here's another example which shows how society changes. A Trip Down Market Street [1], San Francisco a couple of days or weeks before the 1906 earthquake. You can take from it what you want, what I found interesting I commented on in that item [2]. If people upvoted, it was deemed interesting. Regardless, you don't have to enjoy it. I know this is primarily a native English speaking website, but does that mean interesting history from outside of native English speaking regions is forbidden? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15944621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15944621 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16034871 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16034871
- jeanjogr 6y agoAnything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity is on-topic here
- _kyran 6y agoOne can read the french language without being french.
- maebert 6y agoPro tip: memorize the “stop words” (ie closed word classes: prepositions, pronouns, determiner, function words, modal verbs) of romance languages and you’ll be able to comprehend almost all simple text in all of them. “Trust me, I’m European”.
- pelasaco 6y agoSure, many Canadians do it everyday ;) Beside it, there are 300 million French speakers worldwide today, up almost 10% since 2014, and a recent survey showed that 44% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, a full 85% of French speakers could live on the continent, according to an estimate by an organisation that monitors statistics on who speaks the language.
- dmd 6y agoI don't know French at all (I'm one of those so-called monolinguals, aka 'American'), but I can generally understand enough of any romance language to get by, at least if there's subtitles.
- entropyie 6y agoIrish person here, but I speak French. Found the recording surprisingly understandable. Of course (French) sub-titles help...
- jgwil2 6y agoInterestingly, the guidelines say nothing about non-English language submissions. I think every now and then this is okay although obviously it would become a problem for moderation if it happened all the time.
- rjsw 6y agoI'm not French but it is my second language.
- hyakosm 6y agoIt's more about French language. It can possibly be interesting to listen even if you don't speak French.