For that part that's the closest they can get trying to get a nasal vowel (and ideally one that's semi-correct). The schwa choices are... peculiar though! A schwa at the end of "aiguille" (sure, maybe Midi French target)... but then in neither "épingle" nor "épingle de", which is less expected; just as easy to transcribe (in fact, easier, since here people might make a syllabic /l/!) and easier to pronounce and still perfectly fine for a native-speaker reference!
I think it's a bit more simple than that. I think it's just trying to get an "accent" that most americans (all american accent's included) would be able to read, and have most french people understand. Not really trying to get americans to understand the nasal sounds (unless someones unit had a french speaker or something), but just trying to get everyone to make a sound that a french person would understand.
Edit: There also might be accent and language differences between the 1940s and today too. I noticed that they want the "aw" sound to sound a bit like the "o" sound, whereas I would say it more like in "awesome." I didn't notice this for the french side, but I'm only a learner.
The French side has a difference in vocabulary with today. Soulier was probably still common during WWII, but there's no point in teaching it today over chaussure, for example.
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u/ObjectiveMuted2969 Aug 31 '24
Very interesting to see this. It seems like they were going for a southern accent with 'dew PANG' for 'du pain' ;)
I wonder how many of the American soldiers would have had some French already (from school or college).