A native French speaker said that to me, and at first I thought it must be a translations app. I figured out she was telling me she was French speaking. I had never heard that term before! Hmm, I learned something new today! Francophone! I like it.
He he! That French girl stumped me there for a minute! I have never heard that word used in a English phrase before. Like I said, I learn something new everyday! bonne journée
As Stanislav says, it's common here. I've seen a similarly-constructed word, Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking). Possibly, that word is the invention of one individual. The only time I've seen it was a few years ago, when our much-loved multilingual Carpathian preacher, the late "Uncle Janko" enquired if anybody had info on Lusophone distance ed. I had to show off, (don't I always?) so I posted a couple of Brazilian sources. Don't think I've seen the word since.
There are also Hispanophone and Russophone, which are self-explanatory. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Russophone *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographical_distribution_of_Russian_speakers *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanophone Yes - it seems Sinophone (Chinese-speaking) is legit, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinophone Quick, Batman! Get on the Francophone and call Justin Trudeau! :smile: J.
So, Abner - next time you speak to that French lady, you can tell her you're bilingual, too - Anglophone and Hispanophone. :smile: J.
New York? OK - so a Francophone, a Lusophone and a Spanglishophone walk into a bodega... https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/bodegas-of-new-york-city-photographer-david-katzenstein/ J.
I've heard of Francophone and Anglophone, but neither of these two. So now it looks like I'm right behind Abner and now I've learned something new today, too!!! Thanks for that :wave: Similarly, there is a very cool word in spanish- hispanohablante, which means "spanish speaker". It's cool, in my opinion, because while it's a fairly long compound word, it has a naturally smooth rhythm to it that makes it roll off the tongue. Also, due to it being a compound, it has an H in the middle of it, which is very rare for Spanish. Usually spanish Hs are in the very beginning of a word. The H, in general, is a really interesting feature to spanish. Unlike english, spanish spells over 99% of its words exactly phonetically, with the only common exception being that some words begin with H and the H is always silent unless it's preceded by a C (to make the CH sound which is the same in english as spanish). Why would any language, especially one as efficiently spelled as spanish, have a letter that is always silent and therefore serves no purpose? I find it utterly fascinating.
So do I. I'm just guessing, here. I think it serves to break up unintended diphthongs which might slightly alter pronunciation; the 'h' is possibly a way to show that the proximate vowels are independent and separate. (They could have also done that with a hyphen, I suppose.) I certainly notice this in Mexican native-originated words which have been absorbed into Spanish, like Teotihuacán or Chihuahua - Hey, those would have a triphthong without the H's. Chihuahua would even be a five-thong without h's, if there were such a thing! Imagine - Chiuaua - A 'thong for almost every day of the week! :smile: J.
A pentaphthong? Sounds vaguely Vietnamese -- or maybe Cambodian, but it would be Greek in origin... if it existed. J.
What ever happened with Bill's apostrophe. I remember a big brouhaha years ago about a huge sign for (IIRC) Bill's Drugs, in Canada, in which they were ordered to remove the apostrophe since it would not be used in French. (Was Telly Savalas a Tellyphone?)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-phone And for our Canadian friends: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/allophone#French allophone (plural allophones) (phonology) Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme. (Canada) A person whose mother tongue is neither English nor French. (Canada) A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority.