Hi!
I have a true story about spellings, language, culture and translations.
I am a US Wisconsinite from Milwaukee. (Here we use the word "bubbler" for "drinking fountain").
In 1980, I went to France for 8 months to study French at La Sorbonne. In my lit class there, we were asked to read Perrot's
Cinderella in it's original "old french" language as a study in French etymology to give us a deeper understanding of the language.
As per usual, I was reading the story out loud to myself. I was enjoying identifying the subtle changes in spellings from the old french to the new french. Just at the part where the subject of the infamous "glass slipper" was introduced, I noticed that that the old french words for "glass slipper" were:
~ chaussure en ver ~
I thought there must be a typo because the word for "glass" is "verre".
Then I thought perhaps the old french spelling for "verre" is "ver".
Then I thought to ask the professor the next day.
Then I thought, "Naw.. I'm being too particular about these spellings… what difference could it make?"
Well… the next day at the end of class, the professor asked if there were any final questions about the reading. Despite my fear of being laughed at, accused of asking insignificant questions and/or summarily discounted and shunned… I raised my hand and asked anyway.
S'il vous plait, professeur? Pourquoi est-ce qu'on y epele le mot "verre" V-E-R ?
{If you please, professor? Why here does one spell the word "verre" V-E-R?}
At first he did not understand my question because "verre" and "ver" are pronounced the same way.
It took a minute before I was able to figure out and communicate to him that when I said "verre" I was referring to "glass" (he didn't speak english).
After a round of classroom laughter at the confusion of terms came the most astonishing news.
He explained:
In Perrot's day, one of the ways people knew your economic and/or social status was to see what kind of shoes you wore. Women of royalty always wore shoes "en ver"… considered the highest of status and reserved for the wealthiest.
"Mais, qu'est-ce que ca veut dire… "ver"?"
{But what does "ver" mean?}
After his brief explanation, all the americans in the class (3 out of 20) gasped.
"ver" means "
FUR" !!!
So… all these years we thought Cinderella's slipper was made out of glass. Well… now ya know!
"Yo, yo, yo Baby!. You got it all goin' on!" vs "Hello. You look very nice this evening"
"Gimme some scratch!" vs "I'm interested in acquiring a position with your firm. Would you happen to have any employment opportunities?"
