MovieChat Forums > The Bank Dick (1940) Discussion > Accent grave

Accent grave

posted 12 years ago by albawhall
2 replies | jump to latest

The grave accent on the letters a and u has no effect on pronunciation and only serves to distinguish homonyms that are otherwise spelled the same. It distinguishes the preposition à ("to/belonging to/towards") from the verb a (the third-person singular present tense of avoir), as well as the adverb là ("there") and the feminine definite article la; it is also used in the word déjà and the phrase çà et là ("hither and thither"; without the accent, it would literally mean "it and the"). It is used on the letter u only to distinguish où ("where") and ou ("or"). È is rarely used to distinguish homonyms, except in dès/des ("since/some"), ès/es ("in/are"), and lès/les ("near/the").

Sousé is Sousè which is the correct pronunciation of Fields' character, which describes him to a T. The accent é is his affectation of pseudo-Français lineage, which his bottle-nose alone debars him effectively from.

[–] OldFilmLover 9 years ago

albawhall:

I studied oral and written French for 6 years, and more written French after that. Your comments on the spelling and pronunciation of Sousé are expressed in a confusing way, and at least partly erroneous.

You seem to be trying to say that the correct spelling of Fields' character's name should be Sousè (with accent grave). There is no basis for this. The name on the mailbox at the opening of the movie is clearly Sousé (with accent aigu). Further, it is spelled Sousé in both opening and closing credits.

Possibly what confused you is that fact that the second lady standing at the mailbox, explaining to her friend the pronunciation of Sousé, refers to the accent as "accent grave" when it is in fact an accent aigu (i.e., acute accent). She pronounces the accent correctly, but labels it incorrectly. Either the actress made a slip, or the screenwriter made an error there.

Regarding the pronunciation of the name, let's start with the final é. The approximate English pronunciation of this sound is "ey" as in "they" or "ay" as in "day." So when Fields pronounces his name as "Sous-ay" he is pronouncing it correctly. In fact, several other characters in the film use the same pronunciation, including the manager and assistant manager of the bank, the little kid referring to Fields' daughter by her surname, and the second lady at the mailbox at the beginning. There is no "affectation" on Fields' part here; all the characters are using the standard English pronunciation.

It is likely that the choice of name was a joke on the screenwriter's part. The spelling of the word, without the accent, is "souse", and in English someone who is "soused" is drunk, plastered, etc. We are made to notice this by the first lady at the mailbox, who pronounces the name as "souse" before the other lady corrects her. Of course "souse" is a good name for a character played by W.C. Fields, whose trademark is drinking. The accent suggests that the screenwriter is deliberately inventing a non-existent (but appropriate to the story) French verb "souser", of which the past participle would be Sousé (past participles of -er verbs end in e with accent aigu). So the man's family name would mean "soused" -- again, appropriate.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

Bingo. Fields could obviously do physical comedy, but he LOVED word-play. Boy, has THAT become a lost art today, where "Fuck you, douche bag"'passes for wit. Of COURSE he was playing with the slang word for drunkard, while also demonstrating his literacy by showing that he knew what "accent grave" (as opposed to "accent ague") meant. A belated thank you for the pleasure of an informed and intelligent post.