Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Languages and Linguistics

Lydia Leftcoast

(48,221 posts)

1. The thought has occurred to me, too

Reply to Odin2005 (Original post)

Mon Mar 26, 2012, 02:58 PM

Mar 2012

Written French looks like discreet words, because it preserves a lot of historic letters that are no longer pronounced. But if you listen to it, everything all runs together, and the elision can be tricky.

If French were a previously unknown language that anthropologists were studying for the first time with no knowledge of its Latin derivation, they would probably write it down as at least partly polysynthetic.

Edit history

Please sign in to view edit histories.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

6 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

French is becoming a polysythetic language?!?!?!? [View all] Odin2005 Mar 2012 OP

The thought has occurred to me, too Lydia Leftcoast Mar 2012 #1

Spam deleted by Paulie (MIR Team) ghjfhgf Sep 2012 #2

Can you give us an example of what you mean? I can't wrap my mind around it. raccoon Sep 2012 #3

It's difficult to explain with examples from English Lydia Leftcoast Oct 2012 #4

Thank you. This is why I like Spanish--words are spelled phonetically. Not a bunch of archaic raccoon Oct 2012 #5

Do not go to Puerto Rico... a la izquierda Dec 2012 #6