Melungeon-L Archives

From: friend9 <>
Subject: [Melungeon] from Curtis: Melungeon/melange
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 18:51:31 -0800

Sorry, Nancy -- but this has to be said . . .

Just as in Japan, Korea, and China the English taught in school is normally
taught by non-native speakers of English . . . leading to VERY POOR
pronunciation by most Japanese and Chinese . . . the FRENCH taught in many
American schools is NOT taught by native speakers of French. Consequently,
MOST Americans have VERY pronounced accents when they speak French. My own
sister--who teaches French in Lexington--at least spent time in high school
going to school in French-speaking Belgium, going to school in the French
section of an International school [while living with me and my (then)
Belgian wife there].

Even the accent differences between the Walloon (French-speaking) part of
Belgium and France is VERY different! The French laugh derisively about it
when they speak with Belgian tourists. And even the relatively accent-free
Bruxellois can be easily distinguished from the "pure" Parisian French
[just as "BBC English" is often called the standard for British English].
Furthermore, different parts of France have notoriously THICK accents --
just as some of our Melungeon cousins have in Appalachia and the South [no
offense, forks !].

My guess, Nancy --and I am trying to say this in the kindest possible way--
either the French teacher who most influenced your "ear" in French spoke
with a regional accent from France, or Belgium, or the Congo (for an example
of another Francophonique place where one would hear a distinctive accent),
OR you learned French from a non-Native speaker of French -- and perhaps
from someone whose regional AMERICAN accent bled over into their
pronunciation of French.

We haven't had a toe-to-toe discussion for a while, so there you have it.
I challenge your assessment, and I base that challenge on what appears to be
your stubborn insistence on YOUR accent in French being correct.

My sense of it is that IF the word "Melungeon" derives from the French, then
it PROBABLY sounded like this:

meh-LU(N)-jhyu(n) or meh-lu(n)-jhyu(n)

>where the first "e" was roughly between the "a" in "bay" and the "e" in
"bet" -- pretty much the same pronunciation as the French word fete
(missing the accent circumflex over the first "e," and meaning celebration /
holiday);
>where the "u" sounds ALMOST, like the "o" in "long" but compressed to
nearly the sound of the "u" in "luck" at the end of it >>> so that the vowel
starts open but the coral cavity closes somewhat in the saying of it,
squeezing the "o" sound to a "u" sound . . . in much the way the "y" in
"boy" squeezes the "o" into a long "e" --and the "N" is NOT closed all the
way as it would be in English.
>where the "-geon" is NOT said like the "-geon" in in "dungeon" or
"pigeon" -- which are simple "jun" sounds, but rather a fluid sound
starting with a "J" sound, progressing to the connective "Y" sound, and then
to the soft French "un" in which the "N" is NOT sounded like our hard "N" at
all, but rather like the "N" in their word "danse" (dance) which is
pronounced "dah(n)ss" and the "N" never hits bottom but DOES influence the
direction of the sound. So, say "jhyun" where the "N" sound is never
brought all the way to a tongue-on-palate stop -- but is left open like the
end of the FRENCH version of the man's name "Alain" . . . in which the
second syllable gets the accent and the "N" is never completed in our
unsubtle way of saying it.

Don't take my OR Nancy's word for it. Those who want to pursue whether this
version of how the word was PROBABLY said originally, take it to a native
speaker of French and ask how it WOULD HAVE BEEN SAID if it were a word
derived from French in the 17th Century (or thereabouts).

Curtis





-----Original Message-----
From: <>
To: <>
Date: Monday, November 06, 2000 11:26 AM
Subject: [Melungeon] Re: Melungeon/melange


>In a message dated 00-11-05 22:07:29 EST, you write:
>
><< They might have heard melange used to
> describe the people, so they added this ending to that word even though
> it wasn't grammatically and linguistically correct >>
>
>Note that you said they might have HEARD the word. IF they had heard it,
they
>would have heard MAY-Lawnj which sounds noting like Muh-lunge' -uhn. Sorry
>guys. Words don't work this way. If some one had added an ending to that
word
>we would be calling ourselves MAY-LAWNJ- UHNS. Melange is NOT the root
word
>of Melungeon, no matter how you explain it.
>Love
>NancyS
>
>
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>

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• [Melungeon] from Curtis: Melungeon/melange by friend9 <>

  • [Melungeon] Re: from Curtis: Melungeon/melange by