Calvin and French Reform

[@briankelly5828]

I really appreciate your work and I hope it well get a wide airing in this 500th anniversary of the Reformation year. In particular I enjoy the social and political background you provide to the particular characters and events in church history.

[@RyanReevesM]

Thanks! I like the social/political background, too. I find too often it is either ignored or taught as if it determines theology. I rather see it as context we should all know.

[@mikebaker2436]

I think that your interpretation of Seneca's warning against passion is true for its use in "On Clemancy"... but the stoics really did oppose all passions in favor of reason and detachment. In their larger philosophy, the pleasures they warned against ncluded leasure (laetitia), pain (aegritudo), desire (libido), and fear (metus). This abandonment of all binding feeling was seen as a way to excercise true virtue and freedom. The goal of stoicism was to be able to lose everything (or be confronted by anything) and feel no alarm. This emotional coldness is why the Romans found stoicism so attractive. While this was the stoic ideal, no sage ever fully avoided passion (Marcus Aurelius being a prime example of a fairly sentimental stoic.)

[@Noone-dc9si]

All of your lectures are a blessing thanks so much Ryan

[@RyanReevesM]

Appreciate the encouragement! :)

[@jonathandoe1367]

Although I completely concur as to the high quality of the lectures, I would like to take the opportunity suggest some degree of improvement to your skills in foreign orthographies. As a dedicated student of linguistics, I find it simply painful, though I suppose you are in no small company in this erring. Still, I think it would be a good idea to make some strides in correct pronunciation and history of languages themselves. (And, if you were to post this progress on linguistics in video form, I would love to see it on your channel.) Either way, I hope you continue to create quality education for a long time to come.

[@lalainaramarivelo]

Awesome lecture... But It's read Brissoné :p the c-cédille is just a useless duplicate of soft c and s

[@jonathandoe1367]

Well, it's not useless. would be voiced between vowels. Actually, in French and German, (though not Italian) is also voiced between vowels. However, would not be pronounced like /budə/, as would be in German, where the word-final is always weakened to schwa. indicates /e/ and the indicates /y/, giving a pronunciation of /byde/. If that wasn't extreme enough for you, is pronounced /lɛfevrə/. Why do enUS speakers always drop the final /re/ in French words, anyway? Furthermore, he pronounces the word-final in Sorbonne as if , dropping the consonant for nasalization, which only occurs with word-final or pre-consonant nasal, and he pronounces word-final in French as /n/ when it should indicate nasalization. I really love Dr Reeves, but he needs to study at least a little in linguistics, preferably phonology.

[@lalainaramarivelo]

Jonathan Doe French is my 2nd language ;) and yes. It's redundant.

[@lalainaramarivelo]

Jonathan Doe I suspect it has to do w/ French-isation of Latin, which latinized Greek γ with c and κ with... Well k and σ w/ s. My point: c has no special use in French. It's there because of γ and the funny rule whether it should be a strong c (k) coco, comme, etc. or a soft c (c cédille or just c) ci, ça, reçu, leçon, recette, etc. (hugely telling that English chose s w/ lesson) is as dumb as the double pronunciation of s.

[@jonathandoe1367]

And how he pronounces Fontainbleau with an ending of /-ø/ as if were , when it should be /-o/, the same as for . At least he starts to correct himself with the in Budé though. (Although should still be /y/.)

[@jonathandoe1367]

I do agree with your theory on the Francization of Greek and Latin sources, and that French is a bit superfluous, and that ç is at times is completely arbitrary, and always a little funny. (Probably why modern Castilian did away with distinctions of from and from entirely.) English, though, actually does have some uses of the soft where not before a soft vowel, as in "facade", and of a hard before a soft vowel, as in "celtic". The difference? In English, diacritics aren't mandatory because readers are expected to simply know the pronunciation of words when they read them. That's just what makes English so troublesome. Either way, between vowels is /z/, is /s/, and tends to be /z (as in /, so whether or not it makes sense to you is really just a matter of opinion; I still love French, regardless.

[@jonathandoe1367]

If only there could have been a Collegium Quadrilingue, that also teaches Esperanto. One day...one day.