A Message for Sarkozy

[OGRE]

Sarkozy is in DC this week. Woot! And I have a message in reply to one of his statement. He is quoted:

"I wish to reconquer the heart of America in a lasting fashion." (Sarkozy)

To which I reply:

She is 23, lives in Paris, has a beautiful voice and an uncanny knack for capturing the hearts of people the world over.

[brad]

yeah he should bring Lili with him on all of his official visits

[Ben]

I don't want Lili anywhere near that guy. :P

[heyamigo]

lili for prez....

[ALS]

I'm volunteering to wine and dine her and Anne Lee while she is here.
Jeremy can pay his own way.

PS I like Sarko he is going to be good for France. Sometimes a little hell raising can get people more involved in their futures.

[OGRE]

Originally Posted by heyamigo

lili for prez....

And how would you pronounce that?


Just kidding. Don't answer that. Please...don't.
Ogre slaps hand. Bad Ogre.

[The Cap]

Originally Posted by OGRE

And how would you pronounce that?

"lili for prez..." would be pronounced with the medium-length i-sound, similar to the Swedish schwa, with a slight inflection mix, lingually infllected and radically dipthonged, of course - using the Lower-Bulgarian oomlaut sound, as in "harruphorrrRRRRR".

Unfortunately, if you are a native English speaker, you are not permitted to pronounce the French "i" sound, as - according to a supposedly unimpeachable expert on the matter - native English speakers are totally incapable of making this rare and apparently highly difficult sound.

Or so I've been told.

[sjcrookston]

Sarkozy speaks so fondly of America I love it. That guy loves America more than 99% of Americans

[Roman]

Oh man, I can't comment! Every one of these posts is just busting me up! Nice. Ok, I like sjcrookston's post though. Hey, being an American is not about loving America, it's about thinking that the form of government and commerce is more fair and effective than anywhere else - and about kicking ass in the rest of the world. Ok, I'm kidding about that last one and kind of kidding about the other. I love America as much as the next guy (maybe not Sarkozy). It is my mother land. And what the hell? I live in California, in a valley. Winter here is probably nicer than summer in most of Europe. Still, I don't know. This may not be the most appropriate place for me to live.
I think Ogre's point is the best one though. I mean seriously, all joking aside. Falling in love with a foreigner has a way of warming you up to their country.

[fsquared]

Originally Posted by The Cap

"lili for prez..." would be pronounced with the medium-length i-sound, similar to the Swedish schwa, with a slight inflection mix, lingually infllected and radically dipthonged, of course - using the Lower-Bulgarian oomlaut sound, as in "harruphorrrRRRRR".

Unfortunately, if you are a native English speaker, you are not permitted to pronounce the French "i" sound, as - according to a supposedly unimpeachable expert on the matter - native English speakers are totally incapable of making this rare and apparently highly difficult sound.

Or so I've been told.

That discussion has been closed (for good reason, I think) and I know RMJ was being rather unpleasant in that other thread, but just for the record, I want to emphasize that what you're saying is not what RMJ was saying. He was saying that native English speakers don't have the appropriate vowel in English, so you cannot explain how to make the French "i" using only English examples (that is, you can't really point to an English word X and go "it's the vowel in X"). He didn't say anything about whether native English speakers can learn to make the French "i", only that it doesn't exist in English words.

PS Bulgarian doesn't have an umlaut.