Music Forts
Hans: “Mom, would you like me to keep the house clean or to keep the house filled with music?”
Mom: “Um, how would you fill the house with music?”
Hans: “I can play the piano and the house will burst with music!”
Mom: “Heh heh heh.”
Hans: “Mom, in the Martha book, they fill the house with music. They had a piano-FORT to make the house burst with music!”
Mom: “That’s piano-fort-ay. It means an old-fashioned piano.”
Hans: disappointed and crestfallen “Oh.”
Dad: “It’s a crazy word. It breaks the rules.”
Hans: “Yeah!”
Mom: “It’s a French word.”
Dad: “Crazy French.”
Hans: “Yeah, crazy French! I just say piano-fort because I’m not French!”
Actually…
You silly American. ;)
Oh yeah?
Crazy English: it’s both!
American Heritage says “piano-fortay” (forte, as in the music term), as do all the Jane Austen movies. ;) Where I was wrong is that it’s Italian, not French.
Besides, what Hans was envisioning was a fort with a piano in it or a piano as big as a fort. :)
American Heritage states:
“The word forte, coming from French fort, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word fort.”
Word fight!
Indefatigable!
It is my strongest word. For the fight.
I like that he was going to pronounce it acording to English rules because “he’s not French.” Reminds me of the Brittish Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Has Hans started on Hornblower yet? Maybe in a couple years…
Yes, it has tradition even in Shakespeare, with Henry V’s ambassador calling the Dauphin, “Dolphin.”
No Hornblower yet, but I’m sure it will be on the list eventually… :) Admittedly, I have only watched the A&E miniseries and not actually read them myself. :)