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From:  "Cynthia Donnell" <csdonnell@m...>
Date:  Mon May 22, 2000  4:15 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] French diction/errors Moriarity

About the Moriarity -
Elizabeth, you should be afraid of the French police!
Moriarity caveat:  Please note the continuation of gross errors in the French diction section in the new edition.  Everything listed as ELISION should be called LIAISON.  Every use of ELIDE should be changed to LINK or "make a liaison." With this one MAJOR exception the book is quite useful.  However, because students have a tough time disregarding what is in print I no longer use the book.
Liason and elision are two entirely different things.
In French diction- 
Liaison deals with the pronunciation of a normally silent final consonant when followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a mute "h." 
In French, elision deals with the elimination of the vowel of the definite article when followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a mute 'h."  In genernal use, elision is the elimination or suppression of a vowel or syllable.
The mnemonic I use with my diction students is:
elision/elide/eliminate - the words begin with vowels and the terms deal with vowels only.
liaison/link - the words begin with consonants and the terms deal with consonants only.
le homme - l'homme /lOm/elision                   les hommes  /lE zOm/ liaison
OK, I'm stepping off my soap box now.
Cindy Donnell (who's taught diction for 25 years and grew up speaking French.)
I bought John Moriarty's "Diction for Singers" on the recommendation of my
teacher.  (She studied with Moriarty at BCM.)  Took about six weeks to get it from Amazon.com.
[Lana, can you do something about that?]

Anyway, Moriarty uses IPA and a fairly comprehensible assortment of rules. 
But I'm still afraid of the French Police.

Elizabeth Finkler

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