WWTBAM Bored

One of the interesting (to me) things about language is how one language relates to another. You have no doubt noticed, for example, how the Germanic ‘W’ typically becomes a ‘GU’ or ‘GA’ or ‘QU’ in the Romance languages (generally because the original word in the Romance language began with ‘QU’ in Latin); you see something similar in Russian and other Slavic languages, in which the corresponding word starts with a ‘K.’

In today’s QoD, I will present a list of common English words that begin with ‘W,’ and a list of common French words that begin with ‘GU’ or ‘GA’ or ‘QU,’ and you just have to match them up. Real easy if you happen to speak French (or another Romance language), but really, even if you do not, you should be able to puzzle out the matches, if you keep in mind the W:GU/GA/QU equivalence.

French includes a lot of accent marks-- the ‘acute accent’ and the ‘grave accent’ that often appear over the letters ‘a’ or ‘e’ (to express slight differences in pronunciation of the ‘a’ or ‘e’), or the cedilla that is attached as a tail to the letter ‘c’ (to show that the ‘c’ is pronounced like an ‘s,’ even though the next letter is an ‘a’ or an ‘o’ or a ‘u,’ in which case-- without the cedilla-- the ‘c’ would be pronounced like a ‘k,’ as is always the case in English).

My favorite diacritical mark is the circonflex accent-- the one that looks like an upside down ‘v’ that goes over some vowels in some French words. The circonflex tells you ‘something’ about the original Latin word from which the French word evolved, and it applies to every French word that includes the accent-- I am not sure if I can do a circonflex here, but if I could you would see it over the first vowel in ‘bête’ or ‘tête’ or ‘château.’ So who cares (besides me)? Well, the word ‘Guêpe’ in the list below (the fourth French word) should include a circonflex over the first ‘e,’ and if you happen to know what the circonflex tells you about the original Latin word from which ‘Guêpe’ evolved, it should be REALLY easy to make the match. But besides that little hint, if you can explain what the circonflex tells us about the original Latin word from which the French word evolved, you get two bonus points.

Oh, I recognize that some people may not accept the theory that French evolved from Latin: obviously, no one has ever observed or caused linguistic evolution in a laboratory, it is obviously an exceedingly complex thing to have happened, occurring over many generations, and is even more complex if you consider that this ‘evolution’ had to occur among millions of people, all of whom slowly but consistently changed their speech at the same time (so that they could continue to communicate with one another). So, if you prefer to believe that French did not evolve from Latin but instead was directly created by God (as I am sure every Frenchman believes), or if you believe that French is the result of some Intelligent Design, then you may skip the stuff about ‘evolution,’ and instead, you can earn the same two bonus points, just for explaining the significance/reason why the Intelligent Designer chose to spell some French words with a circonflex accent.

Herewith are the English words:

1. Waffle
2. Walter
3. War
4. Wasp
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’)
6. What
7. When
8. Who
9. Why
10. William

Herewith are the French words:

1. Garde
2. Gautier
3. Guaffre
4. Guêpe
5. Guerre
6. Guetter
7. Guillaume
8. Quand
9. Que or Quel or Quelle
10. Qui



Dang, in looking over this list, and people's responses, I see I included a typo that is causing some confusion. The 9th English word is not supposed to be 'Why,' it is supposed to be 'Watch (as in 'keep an eye on'). I don't know why I said 'why.' Mistakes were made. I'll play with the scoring to provide appropriate protection to anyone who answered this before I corrected it.

wintergreen48 wrote:One of the interesting (to me) things about language is how one language relates to another. You have no doubt noticed, for example, how the Germanic ‘W’ typically becomes a ‘GU’ or ‘GA’ or ‘QU’ in the Romance languages (generally because the original word in the Romance language began with ‘QU’ in Latin); you see something similar in Russian and other Slavic languages, in which the corresponding word starts with a ‘K.’

In today’s QoD, I will present a list of common English words that begin with ‘W,’ and a list of common French words that begin with ‘GU’ or ‘GA’ or ‘QU,’ and you just have to match them up. Real easy if you happen to speak French (or another Romance language), but really, even if you do not, you should be able to puzzle out the matches, if you keep in mind the W:GU/GA/QU equivalence.

French includes a lot of accent marks-- the ‘acute accent’ and the ‘grave accent’ that often appear over the letters ‘a’ or ‘e’ (to express slight differences in pronunciation of the ‘a’ or ‘e’), or the cedilla that is attached as a tail to the letter ‘c’ (to show that the ‘c’ is pronounced like an ‘s,’ even though the next letter is an ‘a’ or an ‘o’ or a ‘u,’ in which case-- without the cedilla-- the ‘c’ would be pronounced like a ‘k,’ as is always the case in English).

My favorite diacritical mark is the circonflex accent-- the one that looks like an upside down ‘v’ that goes over some vowels in some French words. The circonflex tells you ‘something’ about the original Latin word from which the French word evolved, and it applies to every French word that includes the accent-- I am not sure if I can do a circonflex here, but if I could you would see it over the first vowel in ‘bête’ or ‘tête’ or ‘château.’ So who cares (besides me)? Well, the word ‘Guêpe’ in the list below (the fourth French word) should include a circonflex over the first ‘e,’ and if you happen to know what the circonflex tells you about the original Latin word from which ‘Guêpe’ evolved, it should be REALLY easy to make the match. But besides that little hint, if you can explain what the circonflex tells us about the original Latin word from which the French word evolved, you get two bonus points.

Oh, I recognize that some people may not accept the theory that French evolved from Latin: obviously, no one has ever observed or caused linguistic evolution in a laboratory, it is obviously an exceedingly complex thing to have happened, occurring over many generations, and is even more complex if you consider that this ‘evolution’ had to occur among millions of people, all of whom slowly but consistently changed their speech at the same time (so that they could continue to communicate with one another). So, if you prefer to believe that French did not evolve from Latin but instead was directly created by God (as I am sure every Frenchman believes), or if you believe that French is the result of some Intelligent Design, then you may skip the stuff about ‘evolution,’ and instead, you can earn the same two bonus points, just for explaining the significance/reason why the Intelligent Designer chose to spell some French words with a circonflex accent.

Herewith are the English words:

1. Waffle
2. Walter
3. War
4. Wasp
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’)
6. What
7. When
8. Who
9. Why
10. William

Herewith are the French words:

1. Garde
2. Gautier
3. Guaffre
4. Guêpe
5. Guerre
6. Guetter
7. Guillaume
8. Quand
9. Que or Quel or Quelle
10. Qui

Spoiler

Herewith are the English words:

1. Waffle - Guaffre
2. Walter ???
3. War- Guerre
4. Wasp - Guêpe
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’)- Garde
6. What - Que or Quel or Quelle
7. When - Quand
8. Who - Qui
9. Why - quoi
10. William - Guillaume

Herewith are the French words:

2. Gautier

6. Guetter

wintergreen48 wrote:1. Waffle
2. Walter
3. War
4. Wasp
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’)
6. What
7. When
8. Who
9. Why
10. William

Herewith are the French words:

1. Garde
2. Gautier
3. Guaffre
4. Guêpe
5. Guerre
6. Guetter
7. Guillaume
8. Quand
9. Que or Quel or Quelle
10. Qui

Spoiler

Waffle -- Guaffre
Walter -- Gautier
War -- Guerre
Wasp -- Guêpe
Watch -- Garde
What -- Que/Quel/Quelle
When -- Quand
Who -- Qui
Why -- Guetter
William -- Guillaume

I learned that diacritical mark as the "circumflex." My guess is that it means the vowel is followed by an "s" sound.

--Bob

Spoiler

Herewith are the English words:

1. Waffle - Guaffre
2. Walter - Guetter
3. War - Guerre
4. Wasp - Guepe
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’) - Garde
6. What - Quand
7. When - Gautier
8. Who - Qui
9. Why - Que
10. William - Guillaume

lb13

Attempt at Bonus

Spoiler

The circonflex is supposed to indicate the shape of the mouth when pronouncing that vowel

wintergreen48 wrote:But besides that little hint, if you can explain what the circonflex tells us about the original Latin word from which the French word evolved, you get two bonus points.

My understanding is that words like bete used to have an "s," meaning bete was once beste, which sorta looks like our "beast." Anyway, killing off the s meant that some words might match words already in use, or that words without the s would have their vowels pronounced differently. So the circumflex was added to give readers a hint on how to say the word. Meaning it is possible that bete was pronounced like beste, though spelled bete. But I don't really know.

Spoiler

1. Waffle = 3. Guaffre
2. Walter = 2. Gautier
3. War = 5. Guerre
4. Wasp = 4. Guêpe
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’) = 1. Garde
6. What = 9. Que or Quel or Quelle
7. When = 8. Quand
8. Who = 10. Qui
9. Why (Watch??) = 6. Guetter
10. William = 7. Guillaume

ETA:

Real easy if you happen to speak French (or another Romance language),

I took Spanish from 3rd through 7th Grades, Latin in 8th Grade, and French for the duration of high school. Guess which one I remember the best?

Like I always say, "Cuando intento hablar Espanol, mes mots sortent en Francais!"

Herewith are the English words:

Spoiler

1. Waffle = 3. Guaffre
2. Walter = 2. Gautier
3. War = 5. Guerre
4. Wasp = 4. Guêpe
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’) = 1. Garde
6. What = 9. Que or Quel or Quelle
7. When = 8. Quand
8. Who = 10. Qui
9. Why = 6. Guetter
10. William = 7.Guillaume

Yea for language questions! And for fun expository essays!

Spoiler

1. Waffle - 3. Guaffre
2. Walter - 2. Gautier
3. War - 5. Guerre
4. Wasp - 4. Guêpe
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’) - 1. Garde
6. What - 9. Que or Quel or Quelle
7. When - 8. Quand
8. Who - 10. Qui
9. Watch - 6. Guetter
10. William - 7. Guillaume

Bonus: A circumflex accent over a vowel indicates that the vowel in the corresponding Latin word was followed by an "s".

wintergreen48 wrote:
1. Waffle
2. Walter
3. War
4. Wasp
5. Watch (as in ‘protect’)
6. What
7. When
8. Who
9. Why
10. William

Herewith are the French words:

1. Garde
2. Gautier
3. Guaffre
4. Guêpe
5. Guerre
6. Guetter
7. Guillaume
8. Quand
9. Que or Quel or Quelle
10. Qui

Spoiler

1. Waffle/3. Guaffre?
2. Walter/2. Gautier?
3. War/5. Guerre
4. Wasp/4. Guêpe?
5. Watch/1. Garde
6. What/9. Que or Quel or Quelle?
7. When/8. Quand
8. Who/6. Guetter?
9. Why/10. Qui?
10. William/7. Guillaume

Hmm, if this keeps up it could get ugly...