Réponses à cette discussion

Lien permanent Réponse de Joan Vermette le 8 janvier 2009 à 18:33

Actually, my Memere pronounced it something like "GUH-tawhn." Any way you say it or spell it, it sure is yummy!

Lien permanent Réponse de Joseph Theriault le 8 janvier 2009 à 19:26

Now that you point it out, I always heard gortons pronounced just like that (and sometimes guh-tawhnz) even though its spelling makes it look different.

Lien permanent Réponse de Michael Josef Horace Leduc le 26 mars 2009 à 10:27

moi aussi! Every francophone I knew in southeastern mass pronounced it that way, exactly as you wrote it, with a heavy Guh. That is, except for one friend whose Mémère called it cretons, with the plural end. We all thought she was crazy. hah. culture shock.

Lien permanent Réponse de Don Levesque le 9 janvier 2009 à 17:29

In northern Maine they are and still are "cortons" ... kind of a combination of the pronunciations put forth in this forum.
C'est toute la même chose, though.

Lien permanent Réponse de Brooke Plourde Dupuy le 26 mai 2009 à 22:38

So, I want to preface my reply by stating that I am a linguist! I love language and how it works, and I studied Franco French for my masters and worked for a couple of years transcribing interviews of francos from all over New England. So, I will try not to get too technical, but I am passionate about this stuff, so forgive me if I ramble...

So, cretons can sometimes be pronounced like cortons, gortons, gretons, all kinds of different ways. They're all fine, they are all acceptable, and they all taste good! :)

So, why the pronunciation difference? Well, variation is normal for any language, as is evidenced by the differences in the way a Mainer speaks English as opposed to someone from Georgia or Texas or California or wherever. Variation is normal and expected, even, so there is nothing "wrong" about a pronunciation difference. It's just different. Not better, not worse.

So, where do these differences come from? Well, in franco French, there is a phenomenon called "metathese". It's when 2 sounds are switched around. So, sometimes instead of "le" you might hear "el". No, it's not Spanish, and no,, it's not a mistake or a typo. It happens naturally for some varieties of Franco French. That's that happened with the 'cre' becoming "cer" or "cor" or whatever. If you represent a consonant sound with a C and a vowel sound with a V, in the word "cretons" you have CCVCV. But, sometimes the second C and the first V change places and you get "corton" CVCCV.

The changing of a "k" sound to a "g" sound is also common in some types of Franco French. If you pronounce a k and a g and think about what your mouth is doing when you're saying each sound, you'll realize that the 2 sounds are very close. So, it seems kinda conceivable to me that they can sort of take each other's places, linguistically speaking. There are all sorts of words that I could list that have a k for some people and a g for others. Or words that started off hundreds of years ago with a k, that have changed to a g or vice versa.

I'm a dorky linguist, and I know way too much about a topic most people would find horribly boring, so I'm gonna leave it at that. That's a very plain and simple explanation of it, I think. If you want to know more, jsut ask! :)

Lien permanent Réponse de Joseph Theriault le 27 mai 2009 à 22:40

=:-O

C'était impréssionant! Could I get you all revved up if I asked where the invisible 's' in petit and poutine comes from? :-)

Il y a un blogue que je suis, et l'année passé il a eu un billet/une affiche que je pense que tu trouverais intéressant: How the New Hampshire accent is disappearing – Part I. L'autour est yankois et étudiant de linguistique.

Lien permanent Réponse de Brooke Plourde Dupuy le 26 mai 2009 à 22:40

P.S. My dad is from Lewiston, and he always says 'cortons' or something that sounds like guh-tons, even, but he always writes it as "cretons". Interesting....