So, I was looking for interesting books set in the Regency time period and saw a recommendation for The Spymaster’s Lady
It’s the kind of book with a bare-chested male model on the cover, one who has ripped his jacket and his ruffled shirt open and is staring into the distance with great fervor. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you like bare-chested male models.
But it’s also very well-written and has a firebrand of a little French heroine who is a fighter, and by that, I mean, a fighter. Oh, she’s a spy, but in the first 70 pages or so we’ve seen lots of fighting. I’m not complaining. I like her a lot.
But I’m wondering about this one thing. I don’t speak French and know nothing about how the French language is constructed, etc. Her dialogue feels very French to me; I can hear her French accent when she speaks, but then, how would I know? I don’t speak French.
The theory is that if you want to have a character’s English dialogue reflect the fact that they aren’t native speakers, you can have them use English words but in constructions that are true to that of that their native language. For example, by that theory, a Spaniard or Italian would never say, “I’d swear on my mother’s grave,” but would instead say, “I swear on the grave of my mother,” because there is no possessive in the Romance languages.
Also, you’d get rid of contractions. Or rather, you would get rid of contractions. Like that.
So, if you speak French or are moderately familiar with it, perhaps you can tell me whether the following dialogue is French in its construction?
“Most likely I did, and you are being composed and manly about it. Though it is obvious I did not break your neck, which was my great fear. I will tell you I am not sorry in the least, even if I hurt you gravely, because you should not make off with me this way. It is wholly despicable to entrap women and kidnap them with you across France and force them to wear indecent nightclothes only because you do not trust them.”
Any takers?
(I am not offering firebrand French spies in indecent nightclothes. I am asking for volunteers to assess the French-or-not-French construction. Some of you have hopeful dirty minds.)
, by Mary Ann Shaffer
, by Marion Chesney
, by Marion Chesney
, by Ariana Franklin
by Margiad Evans
by Jo Beverley
by Jo Beverley
by Jo Beverley
planet pooks 
Some of this passage sounds a little French in construction, such as the non use of contractions.
Some of it doesn’t, for example, it seems as if she would say, “I am not sorry, not at all” instead of “I am not sorry in the least.”
Overall, pas mal (not bad), which means idiomatically, quite good. LOL.
I was sent here by Candace because I pretend to speak French (only learning it, and quite terribly, I might add). Kitty hit on what I would’ve said, the lack of contractions is definitely good.
I have a French friend whose English is FAR better than my French, and I still catch her adding an s to words that already mean more than one such as ‘stuff’ and ‘media,’ but there really isn’t an instance of that here.
It sounds plausible, but I’m far from an expert. Which doesn’t really help, does it. 🙂
Someone I know (hey, Mmmad!) pointed out that Dickens did this quite effectively in A Tale of Two Cities. That the young French heroine’s English was constructed after French grammar. Example, she constantly referred to her father as “my father,” as in, “mon pere.” (Did I spell that correctly?)
Yeah, one of the things French speakers do is add plurals to things we don’t.
At a village where we stayed once, on a wall near our place was graffiti, that cracked us up every time we drove by. The graffiti was urging support of the “blacks panthers.”
Oh that’s funny. Blacks Panthers.
Hi Pooks,
Try Sue Marcus for more info. She is pretty fluent in French I think. She and her hubby are in Paris right for a few weeks. I’m sure she’d help you out.
Oh, great idea! Send me her email address privately, would you? I don’t have it any more. Thanks!