Philip Taylor <[email protected]> a écrit: > "M'aidez" v. "Aidez-moi" v. "Mayday" : the OED has this to say -- > > > Etymology: < French m'aidez or m'aider ‘help me!’ (the latter being > > either the imperative infinitive or short for venez m'aider ‘come and > > help me!’; < me , first person direct object pronoun + aider : see > > aid v.). > > as a result of which many Britons (myself included, obviously) have > come to believe that "m'aidez" is correct in modern French (the OED, > on which reliance can usually be placed, does not suggest otherwise).
The OED is right: both “m’aidez” (with the pronoun before the verb) and “m’aider” (with an infinitive) were allowed in Old French. What the OED does *not* say, I bet you, is that anything borrowed to another language can be easily reused to speak that language... especially when said language has been changing for centuries. Best, Paul -------------------------------------------------- Subscriptions, Archive, and List information, etc.: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex
