I have always thought that French is a charming language[1] ( 10=1 ) It is not a coincidence that the best perfumes in the world are French and French women tend to favour just a small drop, just enough to let their discreet yet refined presence linger in the air literally and metaphorically long after their departure.
Phonetics
If we were to treat phonetics as a perfume itself,
the vowels are the top notes. In French language they are open, bright, airy, nasal like the scent of jasmine or gardenia~~~~
The consonants are the base notes, in French their presence is often discreet they are hidden giving gravity without dominating. Final consonants are often not pronounced in words.
On the other hand the language has elision which is like the sillage, the trail that lingers in the air as someone passes by ~~~~~
French phonetics give rise to perfume which is not meant to overwhelm but to bloom into a delicate presence in the air ***
Nuances
In terns of perfumes, nuance is the undertone and the layering. Undertone is something that is not immediately obvious but which influences the whole. It could be a subtle trace of vanilla or musk that you don’t notice straight away but gives warmth to the whole.
In language it is the emotional colouring beneath the words, tenderness, hesitation, desire not explicitly mentioned but felt as resonance.
From an interrelated perspective nuance is also the perfume layering. The layering is how different elements interact. In language layering involves that meaning is never flat a single phrase can carry politeness on the surface doubt beneath and desire all at once.
French favours the delivery of veiled, nuanced, ambiguous messages.
- the Subjonctif lets speaker imply doubt – desire* fear ^ emotion instead of stating things bluntly with certainty
Il faut que tu viennes (You must come but not forceful there is a vulnerability in that form)
- the Conditionnel softens everything
Je voudrais is gentler than Je veux
- Even critiques sound elegant
Ce n’est pas tout fait ça it is not quite that ,meaning you are wrong.
French language avoids directness because it is curated not because it is evasive. French people let you speak truth without violence .
Instead of saying je pense que you can say On dirait que which deflects the ego.
World view
If phonetics is the scent itself and nuance is the undertone and layering the worldview is the philosophy of the culture, the way a culture interprets and wears scent
French philosophy, literature, culture, fashion, music, seems to centre around the same ideas. To site some examples it is the language of Baudelaire , Proust , Debussy, Channel, Juliette Binoche, personalities which support hovering beauty the same way that the language does. It seems to favour presence in absence like leading hotels of the world favour understated elegance, and linguistic eloquence is often linked to what is by design left unsaid .
From what has been said so far, French language and world view seem to be suspended, floating in the air. The whole system is designed to sustain movement, defer closure, glide without abrupt endings.
Η ov e r i n g Beauty
But how does hovering beauty manifest itself in language and world view?
I will talk about this i in more detail, the notion of je ne sais quoi exemplified marvellously by Yannis Ritsos Greek poem ‘The morning star’, as well as in relation to representatives from French philosophy, poetry, culture, fashion and music.
For the time being I will cite just a few examples so that you can picture the experience in your minds:
A child falling asleep in your arms – their eye lashes fluttering one last time before surrendering to sleep its tiny fingers resting gently on your chest in an act of vulnerable surrender .
The moment just before sunset in Santorini island when the red violet of the sky flirts with a tiny breeze and the scent of salty sea -until it gradually dissolves into darkness.
A woman loses someone dear and in the first weeks her sadness feels like a weight . One morning, while walking she sees a child releasing a balloon into the sky. Instead of feeling only loss, she suddenly senses that her grief too can rise, not disappear but hover, transform, The balloon doesn’t erase the sadness but it carries it upwards, softening it into a tender brightness. In that moment , the heaviness of mourning is transfigured into a quiet lightness that allows her to keep on moving.
Freckles have the same effect on me they evoke innocence, fragility, tenderness.
If we were to count the number of the vowels of the word hovering we would get 15+5+9 = 6+14=6=5=11=2 . Let’s keep the wonder intact and see where the Muse leads us to discover how 11=2 hovering and other concepts interrelate in the future ~~~
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Fragnace note
World Resonance – where language becomes depth nuance philosophy
Note : Hebrew ( yes that’s it) it gives depth gravity
Echoes: Greek, carrying archetypes, clarity
French: the lightest, exquisite but fleeting
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[1] Throughout the blog I take vowels of a word and add the numbers they have in the English Alphabet. For example as is 1 and i is 9. If I get a 2 digit number I add the digits again till I get a one digit number. This way I am creating connections between concepts arising as I keep on exploring.