Before I could speak words I was talking. Mum’s eyes light up when she tells the story of how I would chatter on and on and on in some kind of language before I was yet one year old. She says she would sit and listen and reply in english words and then i would reply to her in my ‘words’. She recalls that I was indeed having a conversation and was fully aware of what I was saying, it’s just that no one else understood. When I did learn to speak words that everyone understood, I continued to chatter away.
And so I was nicknamed little miss ‘chatterbox’.
Just the other day, French Boy taught me the French word for chatterbox. It’s pipelette! (pronounced: pip-let) And this is my new favourite word. From now on I have self-titled myself as Pia La Pipelette. French boy has a continual smirk on his face when I get into ‘pipelette’ mode, he finds it rather hilarious. Another friend likes to call my chatterings as ‘passionate ranting’. Obviously there is a continual theme in my life… I talk. alot.
Most of the time I have great trouble with this blog, as all I want to do is chatter away with you. The last two weeks were excruciating to only have time to post one or two photos. But here I am, back in the (blog)house, and I’m afraid I may be pipelette-ing away. You’ve been warned my lovelies!
It’s good to be back. I missed you.
Good to have you talking miss pipelette!!
April 29th, 2008 | #
pipelette away! love listening to you
April 29th, 2008 | #
that is darling and charming.
My mom tells how I would play with my toy telephone and do all the right intonations all in jibberish…
talky little girls grow up to be bloggers.
April 29th, 2008 | #
looking forward to the chatter…. I think piplette could be used to desacibe me as well,
April 29th, 2008 | #
great comments! thanks girls, i’m so glad you don’t mind me pipelette-ing away. bethany i loved your remark that talky little girls grow up to be bloggers. jo, you may need to self-title yourself too…”Hi I’m Jo, and I’m a pipelette”…
April 29th, 2008 | #
I could be wrong but to me pipelette has gossipy undertones, or gives me a sense that what the person talks about isn’t welcome. You’ll say that about someone who talks behind your back. ‘bavarde’ would be more neutral but it’s not that cute to pronounce.
April 30th, 2008 | #
hi corine! we actually think the opposite – that bavarde has negative overtones and pipelette is more innocent and is like chatterbox. Could it be a regional thing? French boy is from Jura, and his parents and him use pipelette with the children as an affectionate term. hit me back with your thoughts! xx
April 30th, 2008 | #
welcome back pia…for what it’s worth, i love your chatter…chatter away please. My little millie totally chatters in her strange baby language. it’s rather delightful and now i plan fully to call her pipelette on a regular basis!
xo
April 30th, 2008 | #
oh, that’s a GOOD word, “pipelette.” i think i qualify as one too. when i was little, i could not keep my mouth shut during class. it was such a huge problem. the teacher would have to put my desk in a corner all by myself, away from the other kids so i would not tempt them. i just couldn’t control the chatter instinct! glad you’re back and ready to chat 🙂
May 1st, 2008 | #
Bring on the pip-letteing I say :-)!!!
You make me laugh 🙂
May 1st, 2008 | #
laughing – cos i’m a bit of a chatterbox too!
good to have you back!
May 3rd, 2008 | #
why does everything sound so much better in french?
June 12th, 2008 | #
I was trying to find the translation of a word in a song by Charles Trenet. Neither an on-line translator nor dictionary could help. So I did a general search and found you. The song is, “Menilmontant” and the lines go:
La midinette fait sa dinette au bistro
La pipelette
Lit ses journaux.
Something like:
The shopgirl makes her doll’s tea party at the bar (maybe cafe)
The chatterboxes
Read their newspapers.
Maybe that’s all wrong!
And there is something wrong with the following line:
Alors te v’la de retour (there is an accent on the a of la)
Can’t find out what they mean at all. Maybe the French boy will know.
Best wishes,
John.
April 17th, 2009 | #
Midinette is a tough one to translate, it is a word that went mainstream in the 50s or 60s I believe. It is said of a fashion girl who is also a fan of popular singers (think shouting girls at the beatles concerts). Shopgirl sounds good to me. As to pipelette, it is indeed chatterbox.
Note that “La pipelette” is singular so I would translate this way:
The shopgirl makes her doll’s tea party at the cafe
The chatterbox
Reads her newspapers
Alors te v’là de retour is a “contraction” of
Alors te voilà de retour which translates to
“So you are back” or “Here you are back again”
April 17th, 2009 | #
Very many thanks, French Boy, for your welcome help with my question about the meaning of Midinette. Maybe we might have called her a “Groupie” back then: a follower of a pop group. Perhaps nowadays she is more of an indulger in “Retail Therapy”!
I had a theory v’là was a contraction of “voilà ” but couldn’t see how it would fit in with the other words. In the song the words, ending in a question mark, are spoken by the squeaking door to the singer’s old home, so I guessed (after researching “Alors” and finding it meant “so” at the beginning of a sentence) the line meant something like: “So, have you returned for good?”
Have you heard “Berceuse” by Charles Trenet?
I was in tears when I first heard it without even understanding the words! When I translated it, the tears flowed even more. It is so full of pathos. If he wrote no other song, this would have been enough. What a sentimental fool I am!
Thanks again,French boy and Pia, so much.
John.
April 21st, 2009 | #
Pia the Pipelette, you are so adorable! Thank goodness for your chattering, it brightens many people’s days 🙂
May 18th, 2009 | #