soc.history.war.world-war-ii

Hal Hanig wrote:

> The spelling of your name threw me.....my face is suitably red. Where I
> come from, Michele with an "e" at the end would be a feminine name, but
> perhaps your parents were disappointed when you showed up and said "the hell
> with it.....leave the "e" on the end"!

Wow, talk about adding insult to injury, thankfully I had put down my
cup before reading this, otherwise I'd be wiping my keyboard just from
imagining Italian readers jumping up and down in reaction...

Foreigners are, well, foreign. They don't do things like regular
people. Which is why they're called foreigners in the first place,
come to think of it.

So someone named Michael will be Michel in French and Michele in
Italian. The feminine (in French, not in Italian!) version will be
Michelle, as in the Beatles song.

Note that Michele spells very much like Michelle but isn't pronounced
the same at all.

For your further edification, Andrew in Italian is Andrea so don't go
around imagining that the Italians named their Andrea Doria battleship
after a pretty girl as opposed to a very good (and definitely male)
Genoese admiral.

Furthermore, Michele's fellow Italian poster Davide P. has an "e" at
the end of his first name but don't go around and call him "cherie" as
he'd make a really ugly girl... Now that we've settled the matter of
the Italian wannabe transvestites, I suggest that you be consistent
and start addressing everyone whose first name ends with an "e" as
girls. The various Mike's patronizing this newsgroup may not speak
French too well, though, so you may want to use "honey" rather than
"ma cherie". Don't try that stunt on the current US president though,
if you know what's good for you...


LC