Whistles en français

catachrest · Post by **catachrest** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:55 pm

Hi everyone,

Does anyone here speak French?

I am considering trying to translate my group's website into french, but am unsure how best to translate my whistle. My french teachers have told me I should go with "flute irlandais" but we also have an Irish Flute (sideblown, black, etc), and I don't know how to differentiate the two in a way that would make sense in French and make it clear which was which.
I've been told that "siffle" which is literally whistle, doesn't work as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Catachrest

canpiper · Post by **canpiper** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:06 pm

Well, you might call it a flageolet, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with 'le Whistle':

http://www.lecoant.com/

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:46 pm

You could use "pipeau," but that's not really what we call a whistle. As far as I know, most French speakers (in Canada, France, and elsewhere) use the English term and call it "le whistle."

Brother Steve's Whistle pages has a French version, and you could have a look at that for starters.

Whitmores75087 · Post by **Whitmores75087** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:05 pm

In both Spanish and French it's known as an Irish Flute. Flute Irlandaise in French.

Aanvil · Post by **Aanvil** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:26 pm

Le tooter avec six trous

or you can be a little more historic

Le whistle qui est meilleure qu'un galoubet.

You might want to ask a native speaker.

Sylvester · Post by **Sylvester** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:05 am

I'd just write 'whistle' or 'tin whistle' since most of ITM fans will know the meaning of that. It is true that in some translations to Spanish, the whistle is referred to as 'Irish flute' but that leads to misunderstanding and I particularly hate that inaccuraccy.

If you don't have the words, just use the proper native one rather than long inexpressive describing sentences such as (small tin or wood or plastic diatonic flute with six holes...).

That's my 0.5 cent.

StevieJ · Post by **StevieJ** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:43 am

I've also seen it spelled as "le ouissel" - for fun of course.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:36 am

pm Azalin, on this forum, as he's one of the several French Canadians, and would know what they call it there.

We have several French members, but I haven't heard from them recently. Oh, Claudine. PM her.

StevieJ · Post by **StevieJ** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:43 am

emmline wrote:pm Azalin, on this forum, as he's one of the several French Canadians, and would know what they call it there.

Not necessary, Emm. Brad and I live in the same city as Az and we know what he and the rest of us call the thing - "le whistle." Anyway he's at the Catskills this week and would be slow to respond.

In any case, what we call it in conversation may or may not be the best choice for a website, depending on the intended audience and level of formality. FWIW the lads who translated Brother Steve are both French-from-France, living in Montreal at the time, and they chose "tin-whistle" for starters, and "whistle" thereafter.

If you want further corroboration, ferret around in http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/irishwhistle/.

Steve

catachrest · Post by **catachrest** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:10 am

Thank you everyone!!! That really does help a lot. Merci beaucoup!

So, if we call a whistle "le whistle", would flute irlandais then be understood to refer to the (transverse) Irish flute?

bradhurley · Post by **bradhurley** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:32 am

catachrest wrote:Thank you everyone!!! That really does help a lot. Merci beaucoup!

So, if we call a whistle "le whistle", would flute irlandais then be understood to refer to the (transverse) Irish flute?

The transverse Irish flute would be "la flûte irlandaise" and I've heard it referred to that way both here and in France, although people also call it "la flûte traversière en bois" (transverse flute in wood), which is more accurate (unless your flute happens to be made of plastic!) You can also call it flûte à système simple (simple-system flute) which distinguishes it from the Boehm-system flute that is commonly used today.

hydromel89 · Post by **hydromel89** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:47 pm

It might be a little late to give you an answer, but...

A good translation for whistle would be flûte irlandaise... and irish flute would become flûte traversière irlandaise.
On this latter, you can even be more accurate by using the terms sans clefs which stands for keyless or avec clefs which stands for with keys.
Low whistle would be flûte basse and high whistle would be flûte soprano.

I also agree with one of the posts saying that whistle or tin whistle would be understood by most people knowing a little bit about the subject.

French being my native language, I hope this can help you... although it might be a little too late!

regor · Post by **regor** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:18 pm

Jean Pierre Le Meur, (French Whistle Maker: http://www.webreizh.net/jplemeur/), simply use the term: "Tin Whistle" in his French web site.

dfernandez77 · Post by **dfernandez77** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 1:34 am

Ask this fellow:
http://www.lecoant.com/

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:34 am

We can easily conclude that the french language doesnt really have a good word for the "whistle". The word "Flageolet" comes to mind, yes, but it's very similar to the verb "flageoler" which means to whip someone, in other words some form of torture!

Also, a recorder in french is a "flûte à bec", so when we use the word "flûte" by itself, people think you're talking about a recorder, at least here in Québec. So people will call your whistle a "flûte" because they think it's a recorder.

So yeah, I would rather use "flûte irlandaise" than "flageolet", but "whistle" is what most french speakers I know use for the instrument.

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