[Vocabulary] gay Paris

[maiabulela]

The man says: "I just got back from gay Paris."

What is the meaninf of "gay Paris"? Is it a place in Paris?

 

[mmasny]

No, it means "joyful Paris". It's a phrase often used referring to the city.

 

[BobK]

:up: ...and the pronunciation makes a gesture towards French but with English vowels: /geɪ pə'ri:/ (sometimes with /æ/ instead of /ə/, which is only slightly better ;-))

b

 

[mmasny]

:up: ...and the pronunciation makes a gesture towards French but with English vowels: /geɪ pə'ri:/ (sometimes with /æ/ instead of /ə/, which is only slightly better ;-))

b

Why did you bold what you bolded? I'm not very good at these signs and probably don't understand something obvious

 

[maiabulela]

hahaha, that was for me. I do understand ;-) Thanks a lot both of you :up::up:

 

[BobK]

Why did you bold what you bolded? I'm not very good at these signs and probably don't understand something obvious

I emphasized 'slightly' as a (perhaps rather snobbish?) reference to the version /æ/ being an improvement on the version with schwa , but still not being accurate French.

b

 

[mmasny]

So you pronounce Paris with a shwa? I've never heard it I think. It's interesting. So you don't pronounce it like this?

 

[BobK]

That site is very confusing - it uses two transcription systems, one of which uses "'" after a stressed syllable and the other uses the same sign before a stressed syllable. The transcriptions that use the IPA synbols are surrounded by "[]". The other system uses "()".

In English, 'Paris' is normally stressed on the first syllable. In the phrase 'gay Paris', it's stressed on the second. This makes the first syllable unstressed, and unstressed syllables often become schwa.

b

 

[mmasny]

OK, I have it now!