it’s pronounced toosh
Jul. 6th, 2020 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/2VU8kFc
I saw a meme, or like a gifset or something, go by some days ago, I don’t even remember what platform it was on, and I was only half-paying-attention, but as far as I understood it, one character was acknowledging someone’s verbal hit by saying the French word touché, only they were pronouncing it “toosh”, with an oo like the English word moon I assumed, and the other person was correcting their pronounciation to say it should be too-shay, which is what I’ve always heard English-speaking non-fencers say.
But here’s the thing.
I used to do Olympic-style fencing. And it’s refereed in French at the international level (it just is, I don’t know why; the sport’s highest governing body is the FIE, which acronym stands for its name in French which is how it is always referred to). And I don’t speak French so I dunno what’s right, but among the members of the club I fenced with were several former Olympians, so it’s not like they don’t know how fencing is refereed. It’s not like they’d mispronounce the thing that’s the word for how literally all the points are scored.
And when a fencer scores a touch, the referee calls it a touche, which is, in fact, pronounced toosh, with the oo like moon. And if you want to help the referee, you would acknowledge your opponent’s touch, and you would say touche, just like that, and make a little gesture with your hand.
Anyway.
IDK French, but I know it’s actually pronounced toosh. IDK if it’s spelled touché with the accent mark like that, I assume that’s some kind of verb form, and maybe that does have the e pronounced.
I saw a meme, or like a gifset or something, go by some days ago, I don’t even remember what platform it was on, and I was only half-paying-attention, but as far as I understood it, one character was acknowledging someone’s verbal hit by saying the French word touché, only they were pronouncing it “toosh”, with an oo like the English word moon I assumed, and the other person was correcting their pronounciation to say it should be too-shay, which is what I’ve always heard English-speaking non-fencers say.
But here’s the thing.
I used to do Olympic-style fencing. And it’s refereed in French at the international level (it just is, I don’t know why; the sport’s highest governing body is the FIE, which acronym stands for its name in French which is how it is always referred to). And I don’t speak French so I dunno what’s right, but among the members of the club I fenced with were several former Olympians, so it’s not like they don’t know how fencing is refereed. It’s not like they’d mispronounce the thing that’s the word for how literally all the points are scored.
And when a fencer scores a touch, the referee calls it a touche, which is, in fact, pronounced toosh, with the oo like moon. And if you want to help the referee, you would acknowledge your opponent’s touch, and you would say touche, just like that, and make a little gesture with your hand.
Anyway.
IDK French, but I know it’s actually pronounced toosh. IDK if it’s spelled touché with the accent mark like that, I assume that’s some kind of verb form, and maybe that does have the e pronounced.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-07 12:07 am (UTC)You probably knew all that, but I had to go digging anyway to make sure I wasn't getting dotty in my old age.