Re: formal prefixes
Re: formal prefixes
- Subject: Re: formal prefixes
- From: Axel Luttgens <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:13:50 +0200
On 25/09/06 19:43, Christopher Nebel wrote:
As long as we're on the topic and have a French native present, where
is the distinction between the French "Mme" and "Mlle" drawn? Is it,
like English "Mrs" and "Miss", a matter of marital status, or merely
of age?
(According to <http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/mademoiselle>, if my
French is holding up, it's primarily a matter of age, but the
"married" definition is #2, though curiously only for commoners,
Yes, that's rather curious, unless one refers to the article's source:
the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française as edited in the early thirties.
That is, there must be some implicit (but at that time obvious)
asumption: one is describing the language habits of *noble* people.
and I can't understand #3.
Which isn't astonishing at all, as it is frankly illegible... ;-)
I guess it must be interpreted as follows.
Once upon a time, there was a king. His brother was known as "Monsieur"
(with a capitalized "M"). Monsieur's elder daughter (the "première dame
*de* sang"), while not married, was known as "Mademoiselle" (with a
capitalized "M" too).
That meaning was an absolute one: it was sufficient (at least at the
Court) to speak about "Monsieur" or "Mademoiselle".
Hmmm... I always have liked this list. ;-)
Axel
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