# Gingrich attack ad/Romney speaking French \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 13, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453 "2012-01-13T23:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/61 "2012-01-15T05:49:00Z")
OK, I guess he did pronounce it in French. His Mittness, his essential Yankee salesman voice, still comes through. I bought Kerry’s French more. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/62 "2012-01-15T05:57:50Z")
Found the whole intro in French here: [- YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP2M0DTch8) OK, he does at least know the phonics. I noticed him drop into a Yankee “r” once, but would like someone who actually knows French to comment. OK, one more crack and I’m done: Newt _cited_ French works, but he didn’t _read_ them, he just pretended they said what he wanted–because his love for this country is so much! Not like that Mitt frog! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/63 "2012-01-15T06:04:07Z")
Oh, the old “pad your bibliography to make you seem like you did more research than you did” angle? Er…um…I don’t know ANYBODY who did that! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/64 "2012-01-15T16:18:55Z")
Too bad Newt didn’t focus on how totally crazy it was to be a missionary in France. OTOH, one thing Newt doesn’t want to attack is the missionary position. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/65 "2012-01-15T18:14:31Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Are you under the impression that the language Cajuns speak is actually French? 😉 > [@Balance](#): > > I haven’t seen one try, so I can’t be sure. I once had the opportunity to observe a total communications breakdown between a schoolteacher from Paris and a Cajun tour guide. I ended up translating for them…even when they both switched from French to something that was ostensibly English. > > Cajun might be a little closer to the Québécois dialect, since it’s descended from what was spoken in Acadia and parts of Quebec before the Brits kicked a bunch of Acadians out around 1750-1760. It’s obviously drifted a lot in the past 250 years, though–just look at the change from “Acadian” to “Cajun”, for example. It’s also picked up vocabulary from several other languages, probably including some African tongues via Haitian Creole. I suspect that if the French and the Québécois can readily understand each another, neither will easily follow a Cajun. They could probably pick up the gist of it, but they’re not likely to understand everything. The (continental) French speakers that I know in Louisiana say that Cajun French is pretty damn hard to understand. It’s not just vocabulary and pronunciation that have drifted, it’s the syntax too. Still, I don’t want to be the one to tell Broussard clan that it’s not French they’re speaking 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/66 "2012-01-15T22:20:16Z")
Quebeckers can understand Parisians and Cajuns just fine. A certain type of French-from-France will insist that they can understand neither until they talk right. Endlessly entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/67 "2012-01-16T08:49:08Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Strangely, Newt Gingrich has a PhD and has worked as a college professor. You’d think that this anti-intellectual sentiment would work against him, too. Newt Gingrich is a demagogue who knows how to stroke the Republican base. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/68 "2012-01-16T18:55:53Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Found the whole intro in French here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP2M0DTch8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP2M0DTch8) > OK, he does at least know the phonics. I noticed him drop into a Yankee “r” once, but would like someone who actually knows French to comment. Romney has an obviously anglophone accent when he speaks French - I don’t have the ear or linguistic knowledge to say it’s clearly American over any other English dialect, but his French is still heavily accented. That said, he speaks it as someone who is comfortable with the grammar and syntax and isn’t simply repeating something phonetically - he knows these words, knows what they mean and how to use them, and is comfortable saying them. I’m rather impressed, actually - he speaks better French than Stephen Harper does! As for Cajun French…it’s pretty easily understandable by Québeckers. There are some odd word choices and _anglicisms_ and idioms to get past, but that’s pretty easy. If this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTqI7rF2ys&feature=related)is a fair representation, then Cajun sounds a lot like Frenglish to me - it’s a nice hybrid of English and French pronunciations of French words that I actually hear often enough, usually from anglophones speaking French. I can see how French-from-France people might struggle, based on their less frequent exposure to anglophones speaking French. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/69 "2012-01-16T19:38:07Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > As for Cajun French…it’s pretty easily understandable by Québeckers. There are some odd word choices and _anglicisms_ and idioms to get past, but that’s pretty easy. If this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTqI7rF2ys&feature=related)is a fair representation, then Cajun sounds a lot like Frenglish to me - it’s a nice hybrid of English and French pronunciations of French words that I actually hear often enough, usually from anglophones speaking French. I can see how French-from-France people might struggle, based on their less frequent exposure to anglophones speaking French. I’m not sure exactly how representative the video is–I don’t actually speak enough Cajun French to tell. The older people and a lot of the background talk in the café have the accent, but the ones actually speaking to the camera are speaking more slowly than I’m used to hearing. Some of the younger speakers seem to be speaking something closer to continental French, like they’re mixing French from school with what they picked up from their families and a bayou-English accent. The subject matter may also play a role; from what I could make out, they were mostly talking about family and the language itself, which may have avoided some of the more impenetrable thickets of loan-words. Still, like I said, I imagine that a Canadian francophone would have an easier time with it than, say, someone from Paris. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/70 "2012-01-16T20:07:11Z")
I listened to short clips from a few other videos as well, but picked that one since it seemed to have the most variety of people and voices. Either way, it wasn’t hard to understand at all. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/71 "2012-01-16T21:18:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Time there was when “Fighting-Cock France” was the stereotype. Old joke: why is the cock the national animal of France ? It’s the only bird that’ll still sing when knee-deep in shit. [QUOTE=foolsguinea] Found the whole intro in French here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP2M0DTch8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyP2M0DTch8) OK, he does at least know the phonics. I noticed him drop into a Yankee “r” once, but would like someone who actually knows French to comment. [/QUOTE] Pretty thick anglophone accent he’s got there. Not the worst I’ve ever heard, but it’s still extremely noticeable. He also accentuates his words as if they were English ones (stress on the next-to-last syllable, exceptions galore), like he says organis **A** tion where we’d say **O** rganisation. The rythm and pitch of his sentences similarly matches English form rather than French. Still, he’s very intelligible. And I’ll give him lots of credit for getting the “on” sound about right - it’s a bitch for Brits and Americans to get it down pat, about as hard as it is for us to get our "the"s anywhere in the vicinity of a proper thorn :p. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/72 "2012-01-16T21:47:39Z")
**Kobal2** - did you go hup the ill to count the tree threes? My siblings and I used to tease my aunt with that phrase, because she just couldn’t get it right 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/73 "2012-01-16T21:52:06Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Newt Gingrich is a demagogue who knows how to stroke the Republican base. Except for the fact that he’s getting the crap kicked out of him in South Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/74 "2012-01-17T07:25:31Z")
> [@littlespeedysuperbike](#): > > How is it that we have attack ads that mock a candidate for being too friendly _towards our oldest and most loyal ally_? Good point - wasn’t it France that gave you all \*that \*statue? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/75 "2012-01-17T15:59:09Z")
Speaking of speaking French, I give you [Stonekettle Station’s](http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/01/freedom-fried.html) take on the topic. And from the comments to that, [this offer from Canada](http://youtu.be/BrhA0sEkuaM) of a new entrant to the race. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/76 "2012-01-17T17:33:23Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Clearly, Newt and his people feel the word “Massachusetts” is seen as evil by most South Carolinians. Can’t find it on Youtube, but there was an episode of a TV drama (probably _The Practice_) where a Boston criminal lawyer had to argue a case in another state and the judge kept spitting out MasssssaCHEWsetttttts like it was a ten-syllable word and the ugliest curse word in Christendom. :rolleyes: This made me think of that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/77 "2012-01-18T02:00:24Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Good point - wasn’t it France that gave you all \*that \*statue? I’m pretty sure that was Lithuania. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/78 "2012-01-18T02:31:21Z")
Nah, but they gave us some nice lithographs. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/79 "2012-01-18T03:10:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Can Quebecers understand it? Well, I can understand Zachary Richard fine, but I’m sure that when he’s singing or appearing on television, he’s not using exactly the same French as when he’s hanging out with his buddies in Louisiana. > [@Balance](#): > > Cajun might be a little closer to the Québécois dialect, since it’s descended from what was spoken in Acadia and parts of Quebec before the Brits kicked a bunch of Acadians out around 1750-1760. Keep in mind that Canada and Acadia were different countries under the French regime, so Quebec French and Acadian French evolved separately. This said, people in Quebec are exposed to modern Acadian French, and there are parts of eastern Quebec inhabited by Acadians. > [@Kobal2](#): > > Pretty thick anglophone accent he’s got there. Not the worst I’ve ever heard, but it’s still extremely noticeable. I’ve heard much thicker accents. I’d say he’s doing a fine job. His cadence is a bit odd, but he’s probably reading his speech on the teleprompter. He stumbles a few times, but it’s not too bad. He obviously knows the language. I wouldn’t say he speaks it better than Stephen Harper though. 😉 And I’ve heard on the news that he actually uses his French to speak with Franco-Americans in New England. > [@mnemosyne](#): > > If this [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTqI7rF2ys&feature=related)is a fair representation, then Cajun sounds a lot like Frenglish to me - it’s a nice hybrid of English and French pronunciations of French words that I actually hear often enough, usually from anglophones speaking French. Some of these people actually learned (or relearned) French later in life to get in touch with their ancestral culture, so that’s why they’d sound like anglophones speaking French. In their speech I hear some features that remind me of how old Quebecers speak, which is disconcerting when it comes from a young person. The interviewer didn’t know what “lâche pas la patate” means, which I found striking since it’s still a common expression in Quebec today. It just means “hang on” or “don’t give up”. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453/80 "2012-01-18T05:05:15Z")
I think Romney’s French is better than Harper’s because I felt that he was much more comfortable speaking it. I give credit to Harper for vastly improving his French over the past few years (or at least gaining confidence in using the French he already knew), but I feel he’s still very unsure about a lot of the sounds/phonemes that Romney had closer approximations to. Your perception of the Louisiana “Frenglish” is interesting to me - I don’t associate it with “old” at all. Listening to the Louisiana video, I was often reminded of Ontarian French. I often get the weird feeling that Frano-Ontarians speak French with an English accent and English with a French accent! It was a fairly natural French that was being spoken (as opposed to some quality that I can’t define that made Romney sound like an FSL speaker) but with words and pronunciations and small grammar influences that are very English-influenced. My mom told me to 'lâche pas la patate" today. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gingrich-attack-ad-romney-speaking-french-edited-title/609453.md?page=5)