From: joe_f@verizon.net   
      
   "Ben Brumfield"  writes:   
      
   > Speaking of religion and the French language, have you ever sung   
   > with a group of French speakers, and discovered that suddenly all   
   > the silent E's are pronounced?   
      
   Not all of them, actually (unless, I suppose, the song is old enough   
   that they were once pronounced routinely).  It is done facultatively,   
   to fill out the scansion.  Listen to Marlene Dietrich sing "La Vie en   
   Rose".  In the line   
      
     Et ça me fait quelque chose   
      
   the e's in "quelque chose" are pronounced -- and the one in "me"   
   isn't!   
   --   
   ---  Joe Fineman    joe_f@verizon.net   
      
   ||:  Our vices do more than our virtues to make us socially  :||   
   ||:  acceptable.                                             :||   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)