🇫🇷👂The Spirited Story of a Strange French Word ⚗️
Bonjour !
Gone are the days of monstrously long lessons. This time, I'm sending you a short, easy-to-digest bit of insight into my language.
It may very well have been inspired by the digestif my uncle and I enjoyed last weekend...
But it wasn't. It was inspired by Jean-François Roussot, a man who's passionate about his —rare— craft.
Honest Spelling: What you hear
🗣️👂 ɛ̃-na-lɑ̃-bik
Note: the tiny squished 'N' on top of the ɛ̃/ɑ̃ signals a Nasalised sound. We spell those sounds "un/an/am" but we make exactly zero N sound, so it makes more sense to use a special character. More on that in a future lesson.
What we write
🔡📜 un alambic
What it means
🇬🇧🇺🇸 a still ⚗️
🗝️📜 Beyond Rote: Get To Know The Words
🌊 These stories are meant to help French stick, but it's perfectly fine if some don't resonate with you. Just keep reading.
- 🤓 Language travels just like the spirits made in an alambic. Here's where that strange-looking word comes from:
- Greek: ἄμβιξ - ámbix
- Arabic: الأنبيق - al-anbīq
Note: 'al' means 'the'. That's true of all words of Arabic origin: 'alcohol/alcool', 'algebra/algèbre', 'algorithm/algorithme', 'alchemy/alchimie'... - French: alambic
- 🍇🥃 In France, l'alambic is used to distil some of our most treasured spirits, from the golden cognac of Charente to the fruity eau-de-vie of Alsace. But, as you'll see this week, Jean-François uses it differently...
C'est tout pour aujourd'hui, that's all for today, folks! The lessons are getting a significant upgrade this week. I called it Start with life, not with grammar. More on that tomorrow, and more on Jean-François on Friday (since you'll now be getting shorter emails, they'll also be more frequent).
Bonne digestion,
Valentin
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