The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #400   Message #12160
Posted By: Jerry Friedman, jfriedman@nnm.cc.nm.us
11-Sep-97 - 10:02 PM
Thread Name: Req/ADD: French folk songs
Subject: RE:
I too could help edit French lyrics now and then, until a native speaker comes along.

No, we don't have nightingales (in French, "rossignols") here in the New Improved World. Skylarks are also Old World birds, but oddly enough the answer to Tim's question is yes, you do have them in Canada, since they've been successfully introduced on Vancouver Island.

In France, "alouette" = "lark" ("Skylark" = "alouette des champs", lark of the fields) If memory serves, the bird the French-Canadians call "alouette" is the one we English-speaking North Americans call "robin" (although it's only distantly related to the European robin and even more distantly related to the larks). Unfortunately, my French-English dictionary has too strong a European bias to include American names for birds.