Talk:Fête

Pronunciation

Article needs pronunciation guide for the word. (In plain English not IPA of course.) Tempshill (talk) 14:39, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

The key in the article gives a pronunciation that rhymes with "bet". In my experience (southern England) I've only heard anyone pronounce it it rhyming with "late". matt (talk) 13:40, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Matt. In British English Fête is usually a homophone for fate. The Oxford English Dictionary gives this as the preferred pronunciation, but also permits the alternative originally given.Tmal222 (talk) 17:28, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Germany

It is also widely used in Germany. Like in birthday Fete or a Fete in general. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.153.221.249 (talk) 14:17, 1 August 2010 (UTC)

North America

The article suggests "The American and Canadian equivalent [to a Fête] would be the County Fair or City Fair".

I think that an American County Fair corresponds to a British County Show. A British Fête is usually smaller - typically confined to a village, church, or school.Tmal222 (talk) 17:40, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

In the United States, the common (and, I believe, correct American) pronunciation is “fet” like “bet.” Onehsancare (talk) 18:50, 10 October 2021 (UTC)onehsancare

bonne fête as happy birthday

This article claimed that bonne fête means happy birthday in French. I've never heard of this. I consulted two dictionaries; neither mentions birthday in connection with fete. I removed the claim. Btrem (talk) 17:40, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

this is true, the Canadiens tend to say this instead of 'bonne anniversaire', see, for example: http://mpcapistran.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/bonne-fete-vs-bon-anniversaire.html

Ok, 5 days I will revert your edit.....92.20.227.207 (talk) 20:15, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure you should reinsert it. I have no doubt that you are correct about the use of the term in Canadian French, but this is the English Wikipedia, and Wikipedia is not a dictionary. The use of the word fête in other languages is off-topic for this article. It does belong on Wiktionary, but this use of the term is already listed there.--Srleffler (talk) 05:36, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

English

I would say 'British', what is this obsession with separating out parts of the UK? Fetes occur across the country, not just in England! See, for example http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5741519/Red-tape-forces-cancellation-of-village-fetes.html

Ok, I will give it 5 days for responses then I will edit the page.......

92.20.227.207 (talk) 20:08, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Today's edits

Copied from my talk page:

Hi Srleffler, I have reinstated the FET pronunciation and de-bolded "village fête" (I only bolded it as I thought village fête redirected there – my mistake), but I can't see any logic for your wholesale revert of other edits. Why should "carnival" be capitalised? It's not a proper noun. Why should be etymology section be at the bottom of the page, and not at the top, in common with other articles? What is wrong with linking to Wiktionary? It's common practice. And per WP:ENGVAR, "organised" – with an "s" – should be used, as Americans/Canadians, as explained in the article, don't really have fêtes. Best, — Jon C.^ॐ 09:07, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I should have explained in more detail here. There was too much going on to cover in an edit summary. First, though: regarding your edit comment today. If you looked closer you would have seen that I did not just blanket reverse you, and you should not have simply undone my edit. As my edit comment said, I reverted many of your changes, but there were some that I kept and I made some changes that should not be controversial.

Thanks for reinstating the other pronunciation and unbolding village fête. My rationale for keeping the existing variety of English is precisely that this article is not village fête. Fêtes of various kinds are held around the world, even in North America. As such, the article is not particular to England, and per the guidelines should retain the variety of English in which it was first created.

A carnival is a traveling amusement show. The event that occurs before Lent is Carnival, and yes it is a proper noun, describing a specific event. Note that most occurrences of the name as a noun in the latter article are capitalized.

I don't have any objection to linking to Wiktionary; I just moved the link from External links up to See also, which is a common location for Wiktionary links. My reference to WP:NOTDICT was regarding the placement and content of the etymology section. Wikipedia articles are, by policy, about things, not about the words that describe them. The proper subject of this article is the event, party, or celebration, not the word fête. Etymology is off topic. In most cases, Wikipedia articles should not have an etymology section at all. Sometimes the etymology is interesting or relevant enough that it should be covered, but even then it usually shouldn't be prominent. A Wikpedia article should always define and describe its subject before describing the origin of the subject's name. I agree that placment of etymology right after the lede or even in the lede is common, but it is a common error that should be fixed on sight, not replicated elsewhere.--Srleffler (talk) 17:57, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

In the phrase "The term fête is widely used...", the word fête needs to be in italics due to the use-mention distinction.--Srleffler (talk) 18:03, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

I split up my changes into several edits today, to make it easier to see what is going on. Most of the changes should not be controversial. I left the variety-of-English issue for now, until we have a chance to discuss it here.--Srleffler (talk) 18:23, 22 November 2012 (UTC)

Quebec French pronunciation

The word fête is pronounced "fight" in Quebec French. Fête (talk) 02:29, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

That would be a good fact to add to the Wiktionary entry, but not to the article here. This is an English-language encyclopedia, not a dictionary. Pronunciation is not especially relevant here even for English words, and the pronunciation of the word in some other language is completely off topic.--Srleffler (talk) 06:55, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Actually, the Wiktionary entry already has a Parisian French pronunciation and three different Québecois ones, complete with audio samples.--Srleffler (talk) 06:58, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

Numbers are declining

I don't know about that, the same fêtes have been going on every year for over a decade in my area with no change.

I hardly think one single newspaper article is enough evidence to support the claim that fêtes are declining. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TraitorBagel (talk • contribs) 08:32, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

At least, the newspaper article could only establish that they were declining in 2009; it can't support the claim that they are still declining now. Additionally, that article itself didn't really seem to establish that fêtes were declining overall. Ignoring the headline and the summary line below it, the article doesn't unambiguously say that fêtes were declining. The headline and summary were probably not written by the reporter who wrote the rest of the article (they usually aren't), and it seems like the editor took some liberty with the facts to make the summary more catchy.

I removed the statement from the article.--Srleffler (talk) 02:10, 11 September 2015 (UTC)

Why bring in the bit about Australia?

This article says that in Australia, fetes may be held at schools and sometimes churches. It is not necessary to say "in Australia" - in the United Kingdom (which is where I live) fetes are organized by and held at churches and fetes, too. Vorbee (talk) 15:42, 1 July 2017 (UTC)

I think the point is just that fêtes are held in Australia as well, and it suggests that the Australian ones are typically smaller affairs, organized by one school or church rather than a wider-based committee.--Srleffler (talk) 16:32, 1 July 2017 (UTC)