One my favorite aspects of languages is their orthography. How does the language translate into written language?
English is notoriously bad and inconsistent and Chinese is amazingly complex and interesting (for me at least!). Now after just a few weeks with French, my mind is already screaming in agony.
There are so many silent letters and phonology that does not translate into the script. For instance, pronunciation that blends with the previous word. Two examples I’ve seen that I can remember off the top of my head:
- My friend -> Mon ami -> Pronounced as “Maw na-mee”
- My child -> Mon enfant -> Pronounced as “Maw nahn-fahn”
This is confusing for me at the moment. Maybe this is just a teething problem, but I’ve heard quite a lot people say that French is much different than spoken that it’s written. Oh well, I don’t mind that it’s different. I like orthography. It’s like a puzzle to fit the sounds in with the script.
