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adopted from the language of the Teutonic conquerors of Gaul | boundary line between the two divisions is the same in each case. is large (guerre werra; laid=laidh; choisir=kausjan). The It is, indeed, because, dialectal differences as they arise do not words were imported at different periods of the Teutonic supre- follow the same boundary lines (much less the political divisions macy, and consequently show chronological differences in their of provinces), but cross one another to any extent, that to speak, sounds (haïr halan; français = frankisk, écrevisse = krebiz; of the dialect of a large area as an individual whole, unless that echine skina). Small separate importations of Teutonic words area is cut off by physical or alien linguistic boundaries, creates resulted from the Scandinavian settlement in France, and the only confusion. Thus the Central French of Paris, the ancestor commercial intercourse with the Low German nations on the of classical Modern French, agrees with a more southern form North Sea (friper=Norse hripa; chaloupe=Dutch sloop; est= of Romanic (Limousin, Auvergne, Forez, Lyonnais, Dauphiné) Old English cast). In the meantime, as Latin (with considerable in having is, not tsh, for Latin k (c) before i and e; tsh, not k, for alterations in pronunciation, vocabulary, &c.) continued ink (c) before a; and with the whole South in having gu, not w, literary, official and ecclesiastical use, the popular language for Teutonic w; while it belongs to the East in having oi for borrowed from time to time various more or less altered classical earlier ei; and to the West in having é, not ei, for Latin a; and i, Latin words; and when the popular language came to be used not ei, from Latin ěti. It may be well to denote that Southern in literature, especially in that of the church, these importations French does not correspond to southern France, whose native largely increased (virginilel Eulalia = virginitâlem; imagena language is Provençal. "Modern French" means ordinary Alexis imaginem-the popular forms would probably have been educated Parisian French. vergedet, emain). At the Renaissance they became very abundant, and have continued since, stifling to some extent the develop-to a considerable extent, that of its inflections, which, no less mental power of the language. Imported words, whether Teutonic, classical Latin or other, often receive some modification at their importation, and always take part in all subsequent natural phonetic changes in the language (Early Old French adversarie, Modern French adversaire). Those French words which appear to contradict the phonetic laws were mostly introduced into the language after the taking place (in words already existing in the language) of the changes formulated by the laws in question; compare the late imported laïque with the inherited lai, both from Latin laicum. In this and many other cases the language possesses two forms of the same Latin word, one descended from it, the other borrowed (meuble and mobile from mobilem). Some Oriental and other foreign words were brought in by the crusaders (amiral from amir); in the 16th century, wars, royal marriages and literature caused a large number of Italian words (soldat soldato; brave=bravo; caresser carezzare) to be introduced, and many Spanish ones (alcôve alcoba; hâbler-hablar). A few words have been furnished by Provençal (abeille, cadenas), and several have been adopted from other dialects into the French of Paris (esquiver Norman or Picard for the Paris-French eschiver). German has contributed a few (blocus=blochūs; choucroute=sürkrül); and recently a considerable number have been imported from England (drain, confortable, flirter). In Old French, new words are freely formed by derivation, and to a less extent by composition; in Modern French, borrowing from Latin or other foreign languages is the more usual course. Of the French words now obsolete some have disappeared because the things they express are obsolete; others have been replaced by words of native formation, and many have been superseded by foreign words generally of literary origin; of those which survive, many have undergone considerable alterations in meaning. A large number of Old French words and meanings, now extinct in the language of Paris, were introduced into English after the Norman Conquest; and though some have perished, many have survived-strife from Old French estrif (Teutonic stril); quaint from cointe (cognitum); remember from remembrer (rememorare); chaplet (garland) from chapelet (Modern French "chaplet of beads"); appointment (rendezvous) from appointement (now "salary"). Many also survive in other French dialects.

(c) Phonology-The history of the sounds of a language is, than the body of a word, are composed of sounds. This fact, and the fact that unconscious changes are much more reducible to law than conscious ones, render the phonology of a language by far the surest and widest foundation for its dialectology, the importance of the sound-changes in this respect depending, not on their prominence, but on the earliness of their date. For several centuries after the divergence between spoken and written Latin, the history of these changes has to be determined mainly by reasoning, aided by a little direct evidence in the misspellings of inscriptions the semi-popular forms in glossaries, and the warnings of Latin grammarians against vulgarities. With the rise of Romanic literature the materials for tracing the changes become abundant, though as they do not give us the sounds themselves, but only their written representations, much difficulty, and some uncertainty, often attach to deciphering the evidence. Fortunately, early Romanic orthography, that of Old French included (for which see next section), was phonetic, as Italian orthography still is; the alphabet was imperfect, as many new sounds had to be represented which were not provided for in the Roman alphabet from which it arose, but writers aimed at representing the sounds they uttered, not at using a fixed combination of letters for each word, however they pronounced it. The characteristics of French as distinguished from the allied languages and from Latin, and the relations of its sounds, inflections and syntax to those of the last-named language, belong to the general subject of the Romanic languages. It will be well, however, to mention here some of the features in which it agrees with the closely related Provençal, and some in which it differs. As to the latter, it has already been pointed out that the two languages glide insensibly into one another, there being a belt of dialects which possess some of the features of each. French and Provençal of the 10th century-the earliest date at which documents exist in both-agree to a great extent in the treatment of Latin final consonants and the vowels preceding them, a matter of great importance for inflections (numerous French examples occur in this section). (1) They reject all vowels, except a, of Latin final (unaccented) syllables, unless preceded by certain consonant combinations or followed by nt (here, as elsewhere, certain exceptions cannot be noticed); (2) they do not reject a similarly situated; (3) they reject final (unaccented) (b) Dialects. The history of the French language from them; (4) they retain final s. French and Northern Provençal period of its earliest extant literary memorials is that of the also agree in changing Latin @ from a labio-guttural to a labiodialects composing it. But as the popular notion of a dialect palatal vowel; the modern sound (German #) of the accented as the speech of a definite area, possessing certain peculiarities vowel of French lune, Provençal luna, contrasting with that in confined to and extending throughout that area, is far from Italian and Spanish luna, appears to have existed before the correct, it will be advisable to drop the misleading divisions into earliest extant documents. The final vowel laws generally apply "Norman dialect," "Picard dialect" and the like, and take to the unaccented vowel preceding the accented syllable, if it is instead each important feature in the chronological order (as preceded by another syllable, and followed by a single consonant far as can be ascertained) of its development, pointing out roughly-matin (mātūtinum), dortoir (dormitörium), with yowel dropped; the area in which it exists, and its present state. The local terms canevas (cannabāceum), armedure, later armëure, now armure used are intentionally vague, and it does not, for instance, at all (armātūram), with e=2, as explained below. follow that because "Eastern" and "Western" are used to denote the localities of more than one dialectal feature, the

On the other hand, French differs from Provençal: (1) in uniformly preserving (in Early Old French) Latin final, which

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diphthongs ei-Picard, Norman and Parisian pire (pejor), piz (pectus); Burgundian peire, peiz. The distinction is still preserved -Modern French pire, pis; Modern Burgundian peire, pei. English words show always i-price (prix, pretium) spite (dépit, despectum). (7) The nasalization of vowels followed by a nasal consonant did not take place simultaneously with all the vowels. A and e before i (guttural n, as in sing), Я (palatal n), n and m were nasal in the 11th century, such words as lant (tantum) and gent (gentem) forming in the Alexis assonances to themselves, distinct from the assonances with

is generally rejected in Provençal-French aimet (Latin amat), | Provençal ama; aiment (amant), Prov. aman; (2) in always rejecting, absorbing or consonantizing the vowel of the last syllable but one, if unaccented; in such words as angele (often spelt angle), the e after the g only serves to show its soft soundFrench veintre (now vaincre, Latin vincere), Prov. vencer, with accent on first syllable; French esclandre (scandalum), Prov. escandol; French olie (dissyllabic, i=y consonant, now huile),a and e before non-masal consonants. In the Roland umbre (ombre, Prov. oli (oleum); (3) in changing accented a not in position into ai before nasals and gutturals and not after a palatal, and elsewhere into é (West French) or ei (East French), which develops an i before it when preceded by a palatal-French main (Latin manum), Prov. man; aigre (âcrem), agre; ele (alam), East French cile, Prov. ala; meitié (medietatem), East French moitieit, Prov. meitat; (4).in changing a in unaccented final syllables into, brh. The nasalization took place whether the nasal consonant the vowel, intermediate to a and e; this vowel is written a in one or two of the older documents, elsewhere e-French aime (Latin amā), Prov. ama; aimes (amās), Prov. amas; aimet (amat), Prov. ama; (5) in changing original au into d-French or (aurum), Prov. aur; rober (Teutonic raubon), Prov. raubar; (6) in changing general Romanic é, from accented ĕ and not in position, into eiFrench veine (vēnam), Prov. vena; peil (pilum), Prov. pel.

As some of the dialectal differences were in existence at the date of the earliest extant documents, and as the existing materials, till the latter half of the 11th century, are scanty and of uncertain locality, the chronological order (here adopted) of the earlier sound-changes is only tentative.

umbram) and culchet (couche, collocat), fier (ferum) and chiens (canès),
dit (dictum) and vint (venit), ceinte (cinctam) and veie (voie, viam),
nasals shows a tendency to separation. The nasalization of i and u
brun (Teutonic brün) and fut(fuit) assonate freely, though o (u) before
(= Modern French u) did not take place till the 16th century; and
in all cases the loss of the following nasal consonant is quite modern,
the older pronunciation of tant, ombre being tänt, ömbre, not as now
was or was not followed by a vowel, femme (feminam), honneur.
(honorem) being pronounced with nasal vowels in the first syllable
till after the 16th century, as indicated by the doubling of the nasal
consonant in the spelling and by the phonetic change (in femme and
often reduced to a) for Old French d-vaunt (vanter, vanitäre), lawny
other words) next to be mentioned. English generally has au (now
(tanné (?) Celtic). (8) The assimilation of a (nasal e) to a (nasal a)
did not begin till the middle of the 11th century, and is not yet
universal, in France, though generally a century later. In the
gent) in the assonances, though the copyist (a century later) often
Alexis nasal a (as in tant) is never confounded with nasal e (as in
writes a for nasal e in unaccented syllables, as in amfant (enfant,
infantem); in the Roland there are several cases of mixture in the
assonances, gent, for instance, occurring in ant stanzas, tant in ent
ones. English has several words with a for e before nasals-rank
(rang, Old French renc, Teutonic hringa), pansy (pensée, pensālam);
but the majority show e-enter (entrer, intrare), fleam flamme,
Old French fleme, phlebotomum). The distinction is still preserved
in the Norman of Guernsey, where an and en, though both nasal,
have different sounds-lanchier (lancer, lanceare), but mentrie (Old
French menterie, from mentiri). (9) The loss of s, or rather s, before
voiced consonants began early, s being often omitted or wrongly
inserted in 12th century MSS.-Earliest Old French masle (mas-
culum), sisdre (sīceram); Modern French mâle, cidre. In English
it has everywhere disappeared-male, cider; except in two words,
where it appears, as occasionally in Old French, as d-meddle (mêler,
misculare), medlar (néflier, Old French also meslier, mespilàrium).
The loss of s before voiceless consonants (except f) is about two
centuries later, and it is not universal even in Parisian-Early Old
French feste (festam), escuier (scularium); Modern French fête,
retained-Walloon chestai (château, castellum), fiess (fête). English
shows s regularly-feast, esquire. (10) Medial dh (soft th, as in
then), and final th from Latin tor d between vowels, do not begin
to disappear till the latter half of the 11th century. In native
French MSS, dh is generally written d, and th written ; but the
German scribe of the Oaths writes adjudha (adjutam), cadhuna
(Greek katá and unam); and the English one of the Alexis cuntretha
(contratam), Lothet (laudatum), and that of the Cambridge Psalter
heriteth (hērēditātem). Medial dh often drops even in the last-named
MSS., and soon disappears; the same is true for final th in Western
French-Modern French contrée, loué. But in Eastern French final
th, to which Latin t between vowels had probably been reduced
through d and dh, appears in the 12th century and later as t, rhyming
on ordinary French final-Picard and Burgundian pechiel (peccatum)
apeleit (appellātum). In Western French some final ths were
saved by being changed to f-Modern French soif (sitim), mœuf
(obsolete, modum). English has one or two instances of final th, none
of medial dh-faith (foi, fidem): Middle English caritep (charité,
caritātem), druš (Old French dru, Teutonic drud); generally the
consonant is lost-country, charity. Middle High German shows
the Eastern French final consonant moraliteit (moralité, möräli-
totem). (11) T from Latin final t, if in an Old French unaccented
syllable, begins to disappear in the Roland, where sometimes aimet
(amat), sometimes aime, is required by the metre, and soon drops in
all dialects. The Modern French t of aime-t-il and similar forms
is an analogical insertion from such forms as dort-il (dormit), where
the t has always existed. (12) The change of the diphthong ai to di
and afterwards to èè (the doubling indicates length) had not taken
place in the earliest French documents, words with ai assonating
only on words with a; in the Roland such assonances occur, but
those of ai on è are more frequent-faire (facere) assonating on
parastre (patraster) and on estes (estis); and the MS. (half a century
later than the poem) occasionally has ei and e for ai-recleimet
(reclamat), desfere (disfacere), the latter agreeing with the Modern
French sound. Before nasals (as in laine-länam) and ié (as in payé
pāçātum), ai remained a diphthong up to the 16th century, being
apparently ei, whose fate in this situation it has followed. English
shows a regularly before nasals and when final, and in a few other
words-vain (vain, vānum), pay (payer, pācāre), wait (guetter.
Teutonic wahlen); but before most consonants it has usually
peace (pais, păcum), feat (fait, factum). (15) The loss or transposition

(1) Northern French has tsh (written c or ch) for Latin k (c) and t before palatal vowels, where Central and Southern French have is (written c or 2)-North Norman and Picard chire (ceram), brach (brachium), plache (plateam); Parisian, South Norman, &c., cire, braz, place. Before the close of the Early Old French period (12th century) is loses its initial consonant, and the same happened to tsh a century or two later; with this change the old distinction is maintained-Modern Guernsey and Picard chire, Modern Picard plache (in ordinary Modern French spelling); usual French cire, place. English, having borrowed from North and South Norman (and later Parisian), has instances of both tsh and s, the former in comparatively small number-chisel (Modern French ciseau= (?) cuesellum), escutcheon (écusson, scutiōnem); city (cilé, civitātem), place. (2) Initial Teutonic w is retained in the north-east and along the north coast; elsewhere, as in the other Romance languages, gécuyer, but espérer (spērāre). In the north-east s before is still was prefixed-Picard, &c., warde (Teutonic warda), werre (werra); Parisian, &c., guarde, guerre. In the 12th century the u or w of gu dropped, giving the Modern French garde, guerre (with gu=g); w remains in Picard and Walloon, but in North Normandy it becomes Modern Guernsey vâson, Walloon wazon, Modern French gazon (Teutonic wason). English has both forms, sometimes in words originally the same-wage and gage (Modern French gage, Teutonic wadi); warden and guardian (gardien, warding). (3) Latin b after accented a in the imperfect of the first conjugation, which becomes in Eastern French, in Western French further changes to w, and forms the diphthong ou with the preceding vowel -Norman amowe (amabam), portout (portabat); Burgundian ameve, portevel. -eve is still retained in some places, but generally the imperfect of the first conjugation is assimilated to that of the others amoit, like avoit (habebat). (4) The palatalization of every then existing k and g (hard) when followed by a, i or e, after having caused the development of i before the e (East French ei) derived from a not in position, is abandoned in the north, the consonants returning to ordinary k or g, while in the centre and south they are assibilated to tsh or dzh-North Norman and Picard cachier (captiäre), kier (carum), cose (causam), eskiver (Teutonic skiuhan), wiket (Teutonic wik+illum), gal (gallum), gardin (from Teutonic gard); South Norman and Parisian chacier, chier, chose, eschiver, guichet, jal, jardin. Probably in the 14th century the initial consonant of tsh, dzh disappeared, giving the modern French chasser, jardin with ch=sh and j=sh; but Ish is retained in Walloon, and dzh in Lorraine. The Northern forms survive-Modern Guernsey cackier, gardin; Picard cacher, gardin. English possesses numerous examples of both forms, sometimes in related words-catch and chase; wicket, eschew; garden, jaundice (jaunisse, from galbanum). (5) For Latin accented a not in position Western French usually has é, Eastern French ei, both of which take an i before them when a palatal precedesNorman and Parisian per (parem), oicz (audiatis); Lorraine peir, oieis. In the 17th and 18th centuries close é changed to open è, except when final or before a silent consonant-amer (amārum) now having è, aimer (amare) retaining é. English shows the Western close peer (Modern French pair, Old French per), chief (chef, caput); Middle High German the Eastern ei-lameir (Modern French l'amer, l'aimer, la mer Latin mare). (6) Latin accented e not in position, when it came to be followed in Old French by i unites with this to form i in the Western dialects, while the Eastern have the

French words had two forms; the Old French fort appeared as fòr (though still written fort) before a consonant, fort elsewhere. At a later period final consonants were lost (with certain exceptions) when the word stood at the end of a sentence or of a line of poetry; but they are generally kept when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. (22) A still later change is the general loss of the vowel (written e) of unaccented final syllables; this vowel preserved in the 16th century the sound a, which it had in Early Old French. In later Anglo-Norman final 2 (like every other sound) was treated exactly as the same sound in Middle English; that is, it came to be omitted or retained at pleasure, and in the 15th century disappeared. In Old French the loss of final a is confined to a few words and forms; the 10th century saveiet (sapebat for sapiebat) became in the 11th saveit, and ore (ad hōram), ele (illam) develop the abbreviated or, el. In the 15th century a before a vowel generally disappears-mûr, Old French mëur (mālūṛum); and in the 16th, though still written, a after an unaccented vowel, and in the syllable ent after a vowel, does the same vraiment, Old French vraiement (vērācā mente): avoient two syllables, as now (avaient), in Old French three syllables (as habebant). These phenomena occur much earlier in the anglicized French of England-13th century aveynt (Old French aveient). But the universal loss of final e, which has clipped a syllable from half the French vocabulary, did not take place till the 18th century, after the general loss of final consonants; fort and forte, distinguished at the end of a sentence or line in the 16th century as fòrt and fòrta, remain distinguished, but as for and fòrt, The metre of poetry is still constructed on the obsolete pronunciation, which is even revived in singing; "dîtes, la jeune belle," actually four syllables (dit, la zhan bel), is considered as seven, fitted with music accordingly, and sung to fit the music (dita, la zhanə bèlə). (23) In Old French, as in the other Romanic languages, the stress (force, accent) is on the syllable which was accented in Latin; compare the treatment of the accented and unaccented vowels in latro, amas, giving lére, áime, and in latrōnem, amātis, giving larón, améz, the accented vowels being those which rhyme or assonate. At present, stress in French is much less marked than in English, German or Italian, and is to a certain extent variable; which is partly the reason why most native French scholars find no difficulty in maintaining that the stress in living Modern French is on the same syllable as in Old French. The fact that stress in the French of to-day is independent of length (quantity) and pitch (tone) largely aids the confusion; for though the final and originally accented syllable (not counting the silent e as a syllable) is now generally pronounced with less force, it very often has a long vowel with raised pitch. In actual pronunciation the chief stress is usually on the first syllable (counting according to the sounds, not the spelling), but in many polysyllables it is on the last but one; thus in caution the accented (strong) syllable cau, in occasion it is ca. Poetry is still written according to the original place of the stress; the rhyme-syllables of larron, aimez are still ron and mez, which when set to music receive an accented (strong) note, and are sung accordingly, though in speech the la and at generally have the principal stress. In reading poetry, as distinguished from singing, the modern pronunciation is used, both as to the loss of the final and the displacement of the stress, the result being that the theoretical metre in which the poetry is written disappears. (24) In certain cases accented vowels were lengthened in Old French, as before a lost s; this was indicated in the 16th century by a circumflex-bête, Old French beste (bestiam), âme, Old French anme (anima). The same occurred in the plural of many nouns, where a consonant was lost before the s of the flection; thus singular coc with short vowel, plural cos with long. The plural cos, though spelt cogs instead of cổ (=kóó), is still sometimes to be heard, but, like other similar ones, is generally refashioned after the singular, becoming kòk. In present French, except where a difference of quality has resulted, as in côte (Old French coste, costam) with ò and cotte (Old French cote), with o, short and long vowels generally run together, quantity being now variable and uncertain; but at the beginning of this century the Early Modern distinctions appear to have been generally preserved.

of i (=y-consonant) following the consonant ending an accented | syllable begins in the 12th century-Early Old French glorie (gloriam), estudie (studium), olie (oleum); Modern French gloire, étude, huile. English sometimes shows the earlier form-glory, study; sometimes the later-dower (douaire, Early Old French doarie, dőtárium), oil (huile). (14) The vocalization of preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant becomes frequent at the end of the 12th century; when preceded by open è, an a developed before the while this was a consonant-11th century salse (salsa), beltet (bellitalem), solder (solidare); Modern French sauce, beauté, souder. In Parisian, final el followed the fate of èl before a consonant, becoming the triphthong èau, but in Norman the vocalization did not take place, and the was afterwards rejected-Modern French ruisseau, Modern Guernsey russé (rīvicellum). English words of French origin sometimes show before a consonant, but the general form is u -scald (échauder, excalidare), Walter (Gautier, Teutonic Waldhari); sauce, beauty, soder. Final èl is kept-real (veau, vitellum), seal (sceau, sigillum). (15) In the east and centre éi changes to di, while the older sound is retained in the north-west and west-Norman estreit (étroit, strictum), preie (proie, praedam), 12th century Picard, Parisian, &c., estroit, proie. But the earliest (10th century) specimens of the latter group of dialects have ĉi-pleier (ployer, plicare) Eulalia, meltreiet (mettrait, mittere habebat) Jonah. Parisian di, whether from ei or from Old French òi, ói, became in the 15th century uè (spellings with one or oe are not uncommon-mirouer for miroir, mīrätörium), and in the following, in certain words, è, now written ai-français, connaître, from françois (franceis, franciscum), conoistre (conuistre, cognoscere); where it did not undergo the latter change it is now ua or wa-roi (rei, regem), croix (cruis, crucem). Before nasals and palatal 1, ei (now) was kept-veine (věna), veille (vigilä), and it everywhere survives unlabialized in Modern Norman-Guernsey ételle (étoile, stella) with é, ser (soir, serum) with è. English shows generally ei (or at) for original ei-strait (estreit), prey (preie); but in several words the later Parisian oi-coy (coi, quietum), loyal (loyal, legalem). (16) The splitting of the vowel-sound from accented Latin ō or u not in position, represented in Old French by o and u indifferently, into u, o (before nasals), and eu (the latter at first a diphthong, now German ō), is unknown to Western French till the 12th century, and is not general in the east. The sound in 11th century Norman was much nearer to u (Modern French ou) than to 6 (Modern French 6), as the words borrowed by English show uu (at first written u, afterwards ou or ow), never oó; but was probably not quite u, as Modern Norman shows the same splitting of the sound as Parisian. Examples are-Early Old French espose or espuse (sponsam), nom or num (nömen), flor or flur (florem); Modern. French épouse, nom, fleur: Modern Guernsey goule (gueule, gulam), nom, flleur. Modern Picard also shows u, which is the regular sound before r-flour; but Modern Burgundian often keeps the original Old French ovo (vous, võs). English shows almost always uuspouse, noun, flower (Early Middle English spuse, nun, flur); but nephew with éu (neveu, nepōtem). (17) The loss of the u (or w) of qu dates from the end of the 12th century-Old French quart (quartum), quitier (quietare) with qu = kw, Modern French quart, quitter with qu = In Walloon the w is preserved-couâr (quart), cuilter; as is the case in English-quart, quit. The w of gw seems to have been lost rather earlier, English having simple g-gage (gage, older guage, Teutonic wadi), guise (guise, Teutonic wisa). (18) The change of the diphthong du to uu did not take place till after the 12th century, such words as Anjou (Andegāvum) assonating in the Roland on fort (fortem); and did not occur in Picardy, where ou became au caus from older cous, còls (cous, collos) coinciding with caus from calz (chauds, calidos). English keeps du distinct from uu-vault for vaut (Modern French voûte, volvitam), soder (souder, solidare). (19) The change of the diphthong ié to simple é is specially Anglo-Norman, in Old French of the Continent these sounds never rhyme, in that of England they constantly do, and English words show, with rare exceptions, the simple vowel-fierce (Old French fiers, ferus), chief (chief, caput), with ie ce; but pannier (panier, panarium). At the beginning of the modern period, Parisian dropped the i of ie when preceded by ch or j-chef, abréger (Old French abregier, abbreviare): elsewhere(except in verbs) ie is retained-fier (ferum), pitié (pietātem) Modern Guernsey retains ie after ch-ap'rchier (approcher ad propeāre). (20) Some of the Modern French changes have found their places under older ones; those remaining to be noticed are so recent that English examples of the older forms are superfluous. In the 16th century the diphthong au changed to do and then to 6, its present sound, rendering, for instance, maux (Old French mals, malos) identical with mots (multos). The au of eau underwent the same change, but its e was still sounded as a (the e of que); in the next century this was dropped, making veaux (Old French veels, vitellos) identical with vaux (vals, valles). (21) A more general and very important change began much earlier than the last; this is the loss of many final consonants. In Early Old French every consonant was pronounced as written; by degrees many of them disappeared when followed by another consonant, whether in the same word (in which case they were generally omitted in writing) or in a following one. This was the state of things in the 16th century; those final consonants which are usually silent in Modern French were still sounded, if before a vowel or at the end of a sentence or a line of poetry but generally not elsewhere. Thus a large number of

k.

(d) Orthography.-The history of French spelling is based on that of French sounds; as already stated, the former (apart from. a few Latinisms in the earliest documents) for several centuries. faithfully followed the latter. When the popular Latin of Gaul was first written, its sounds were represented by the letters of the Roman alphabet; but these were employed, not in the values they had in the time of Caesar, but in those they had acquired in consequence of the phonetic changes that had meantime taken place. Thus, as the Latin sound u had become 6 (close o) and i had become y (French u, German ), the letter u was used sometimes to denote the sound 6, sometimes the sound y; as Latin k (written c) had become tsh or ts, according to dialect, before e and i, c was used to represent those sounds as well as that of k. The chief features of early French orthography (apart from the specialities of individual MSS., especially the earliest) are therefore these:- stood for k and ish or ts; d for d

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and dh (soft th); e for è, è, and ǝ; g for g and dzk; h was often written in words of Latin origin where not sounded; i (j) stood for i, y consonant, and dzh; o for 6 (Anglo-Norman u) and ò; s for s and z; for t and th; u (v) for 6 (Anglo-Norman u), y and v; y (rare) for i; z for dz and ts. Some new sounds had also to be provided for: where ish had to be distinguished from nonfinal is, ch-at first, as in Italian, denoting k before i and e (chi= ki from qui)—was used for it; palatal / was represented by ill, which when final usually lost one I, and after i dropped is i; palatal n by gn, ng or ngn, to which i was often prefixed; and the new letter w, originally uu (vv), and sometimes representing merely uv or vu, was employed for the consonant-sound still denoted by it in English. All combinations of vowel-letters represented diphthongs; thus ai denoted a followed by i, ou either óu or ou, ui either ói (Anglo-Norman ui) or yi, and similarly with the others—ci, eu, oi, iu, ie, ue (and oe), and the triphthong icu. Silent letters, except initial h in Latin words, are very rare; though MSS. copied from older ones often retain letters whose sounds, though existing in the language of the author, had disappeared from that of the more modern scribe. The subsequent changes in orthography are due mainly to changes of sound, and find their explanation in the phonology. Thus, as Old French progresses, s, having become silent before voiced consonants, indicates only the length of the preceding vowel; e before nasals, from the change of ē (nasal e) to ā (nasal a), represents a; c, from the change of is to s, represents s; qu and gu, from the loss of the w of kw and gw, represent k and g (hard); ai, from the change of ai to è, represents è; ou, from the change of òu and óu to u, represents u; ch and &, from the change of tsh and dzh to sh and zh, represent sh and zh; eu and ue, originally representing diphthongs, represent a (German ö); z, from the change of is and dz to s and z, represents s and z. The new values of some of these letters were applied to words not originally spelt with them: Old French k before i ande was replaced by qu (evesque, eveske, Latin episcopum); Old French u and o for 6, after this sound had split into eu and u, were replaced in the latter case by ou (rous, for ros or rus, Latin russum); s was accidentally inserted to mark a long vowel (pasle, pale, Latin pallidum); eu replaced we and oe (neuf, nuef, Latin novum and novem); s replaced s after é (nez, nes, nāsum), The use of x for final s is due to an orthographical mistake; the MS. contraction of us being something like x was at last confused with it (iex for ieus, oculōs), and, its meaning being forgotten, u was inserted before the x (yeux) which thus meant no more than s, and was used for it after other vowels (voix for vois, vocem). As literature came to be extensively cultivated, traditional as distinct from phonetic spelling began to be influential; and in the 14th century, the close of the Old French period, this influence, though not overpowering, was strong-stronger than in England at that time. About the same period there arose etymological as distinct from traditional spelling. This practice, the alteration of traditional spelling by the insertion or substitution of letters which occurred (or were supposed to occur) in the Latin (or supposed Latin) originals of the French words, became very prevalent in the three following centuries, when such forms as debvoir (with the sense of the perfect) occasionally occurs-avret (habuerat), (i.) Verbs. (1) In the oldest French texts the Latin pluperfect (děbère) for devoir, faulx (falsum) for jaus, autheur (auctorem, roveret (rogaverat); it disappears before the 12th century. supposed to be authōrem) for auteur, poids (supposed to be from The u of the ending of the 1st pers. plur. mus drops in Old French, pondus, really from pensum) for pois, were the rule. But besides except in the perfect, where its presence (as) is not yet satisfactorily explained-amoms (amamus, influenced by sumus), but amames the etymological, there was a phonetic school of spelling (Ramus, (amavimus). In Picard the atonic ending mes is extended to all tenses, in 1562, for instance, writes èime, èimates-with e-é, èè, and giving amomes, &c. (3) In the present indicative, 2nd person plur., e--for aimai, aimastes), which, though unsuccessful on the the ending ez of the first conjugation (Latin atis) extends, even in whole, had some effect in correcting the excesses of the other,recipitis, auditis) like amez (amatis); such forms as dites, faites the earliest documents, to all verbs-avez, recevez, oez (habetis, so that in the 17th century most of these inserted letters began to (dicitis, facitis) being exceptional archaisms. This levelling of the drop; of those which remain, some (flegme for flemme or fleume, conjugation does not appear at such an carly time in the future Latin phlegma) have corrupted the pronunciation. Some im- (formed from the infinitive and from habetis reduced to ētis); in portant reforms-as the dropping of silent s, and its replace- ing on rei (roi, regem), and the younger porteres on citet (cité, the Roland both forms occur, portereiz (portare habētis) assonatment by a circumflex over the vowel when this was long; the civitatem), but about the end of the 13th century the older form frequent distinction of close and open e by acute and grave eis, -ois, is dropped, and -ez becomes gradually the uniform ending accents; the restriction of i and u to the vowel sound, of j and v for this 2nd person of the plural in the future tense. (4) In Eastern to the consonant; and the introduction from Spain of the cedilla French the 1st plur., when preceded by i, has e, not o, before the nasal, to distinguish cs from c=k before a, u and oare due to the (posseamus) in the Jonah homily makes it probable that the latter while Western French has 4 (or o), as in the present; posciomes 16th century. The replacement of oi, where it had assumed the is the older form-Picard aviemes, Burgundian aviens, Norman

value è, by ai, did not begin till the last century, and was not the rule till the present one. Indeed, since the 16th century the changes in French spelling have been small, compared with the changes of the sounds; final consonants and finale (unaccented) are still written, though the sounds they represent have disappeared.

Still, a marked effort towards the simplification of French orthography was made in the third edition of the Dictionary of the French Academy (1740), practically the work of the Abbé d'Olivet. While in the first (1694) and second (1718) editions of this dictionary words were overburdened with silent letters, supposed to represent better the etymology, in the third edition the spelling of about 5000 words (out of about 18,000) was altered and made more in conformity with the pronunciation. So, for instance, c was dropped in beinfaicteur and object, ‹ in sçavoir, d in advocat, s in accroistre, albastre, aspre and bastard, e in the past part. creu, deu, veu, and in such words as alleure, souilleure; y was replaced by i in cecy, celuy, gay, joye, &c. But those changes were not made systematically, and many pedantic spellings were left untouched, while many inconsistencies still remain in the present orthography (siffler and persifler, soufler and boursoufler, &c.). The consequence of those efforts in contrary directions is that French orthography is now quite as traditional and unphonetic as English, and gives an even falser notion than this of the actual state of the language it is supposed to represent. Many of the features of Old French orthography, early and late, are preserved in English orthography; to it we owe the use of c for s (Old English c=k only), of j (i) for dzh, of v (u) for v (in Old English written f), and probably of ch for ish. The English w is purely French, the Old English letter being the runic p. When French was introduced into England, kw had not lost its w, and the French qu, with that value, replaced the Old English cp (queen for chen). In Norman, Old French & had become very like u, and in England went entirely into it; o. which was one of its French signs, thus came to be often used for u in English (come for cume). U, having often in Old French its Modern French value, was so used in England, and replaced the Old English y (busy for bysi, Middle English brud for bryd), and y was often used for i (day for dai). In the 13th century, when ou had come to represent u in France, it was borrowed by English, and used for the long sound of that vowel (sour for sūr); and gu, which had come to mean simply g (hard), was occasionally used to represent the sound g before i and e (guess for gesse). Some of the Early Modern etymological spellings were imitated in England; fleam and autour were replaced by phlegm and authour, the latter spelling having corrupted the pronunciation. (e) Inflections. In the earliest Old French extant, the influence of analogy, especially in verbal forms, is very marked when these are compared with Latin (thus the present participles of all conjugations take ant, the ending of the first, Latin antem), and becomes stronger as the language progresses. Such isolated inflectional changes as saveit into savoit, which are cases of regular phonetic changes, are not noticed here.

(2)

aviums (habebamus). (5) The subjunctive of the first conjugation soon supersede them, the language following the tendency of conhas at first in the singular no final e, in accordance with the final temporaneous English. In continental French the declension-system vowel laws-plur, plurs, plurt (plorem, plorės, plöret). The forms are was preserved much longer, and did not break up till the 14th gradually assimilated to those of the other conjugations, which, century, though acc. forms are occasionally substituted for non. deriving from Latin am, as, at, have e, es, e(t); Modern French pleure, (rarely nom. for acc.) before that date. It must be noticed, however, pleures, pleure, like perde, perdes, perde (perdam, perdås, perdat). that in the current language the reduction of the declension to one (6) In Old French the present subjunctive and the 1st sing. pres. case (generally the accusative) per number appears much earlier ind. generally show the influence of the i ore of the Latin iam, eam, than in the language of literature proper and poetry; Froissart, for io, ed Old French muire or moerge (moriat for moriatur), liegne or instance, c. 1400, in his poetical works is much more careful of the tienge (leneat), muir or moerc (morio for morior), tieng or tienc (leneo). declension than in his Chronicles. In the 15th century the modern By degrees these forms are levelled under the other present forms- system of one case is fully established; the form kept is almost Modern French meure and meurs following meurt (morit for moritur), always the accusative (sing, without s, plural with s), but in a few tienne and tiens following tient (tenet). A few of the older forms words, such as fils (filius), sœur (soror), pastre (pastor), and in proper remain-the vowel of aie (habeam) and ai (habeo) contrasting with names such as Georges, Gilles, &c., often used as vocative (therefore that of a (habet). (7) A levelling of which instances occur in the 11th with the form of nom.); the nom, survives in the sing. Occasionally century, but which is not yet complete, is that of the accented and both forms exist, in different senses-sire (senior) and seigneur unaccented stem-syllables of verbs. In Old French many verb- (seniorem), on (homo) and homme (hominem). (2) Latin neuters are stems with shifting accent vary in accordance with phonetic laws generally masculine in Old French, and inflected according to their parler (parabolare), amer (amare) have in the present indicative analogy, as ciels (caclus for caelum nom.), ciel (caelum acc.), ciel (caeli parol (parabolo), paroles (parabolás), parolet (parabolat), parlums for caela nom.), ciels (caelos for caela acc.); but in some cases the (parabolamus), parlez (parabolatis), parolent (parabolant); aim form of the Latin neuter is preserved, as in cors, now corps, Lat. (amo), aimes (amas), aimet (amat), amums (amamus), amez (amális), corpus; tens, now temps, Lat. tempus. Many neuters lose their aiment (amant). In the first case the unaccented, in the second singular form and treat the plural as a feminine singular, as in the the accented form has prevailed-Modern French parle, parler; related languages-merveille (mirabilia), feuille (folia). But in a few aime, aimer. In several verbs, as tenir (tenere), the distinction is words the neuter plural termination is used, as in Italian, in its retained-tiens, liens, lient, tenons, tenez, tiennent. (8) In Old primitive sense-carre (carra, which exists as well as carrī), paire French, as stated above, ie instead of é from a occurs after a palatal (Lat. paria); Modern French chars, paires. (3) In Old French the (which, if a consonant, often split into i with a dental); the diph-inflectional s often causes phonetic changes in the stem; thus palatal thong thus appears in several forms of many verbs of the Ist con- I before s takes after it, and becomes dental /, which afterwards jugation-preter (=prei-ier, precare), vengier (vindicăre), laissier changes to u or drops-fil (filium and filii) with palatal 1, filz (filius (laxare), aidier (adjutare). At the close of the Old French period, and filios), afterwards fiz, with 2=15 (preserved in English Fitz), those verbs in which the stem ends in a dental replace ie by the e and then fis, as now (spelt fils). Many consonants before s, as the of other verbs-Old French laissier, aidier, laissiez (laxatis), aidies of fiz, disappear, and is vocalized-vif (vivum), mal (malum), (adjutätis); Modern French laisser, aider, laissez, aidez, by analogy nominative sing. and acc. plur. vis, maus (carlier mals). These forms of aimer, aimez. The older forms generally remain in Picard- of the plural are retained in the 16th century, though often etylaissier, aidier. (9) The addition of e to the 1st sing. pres. ind. mologically spelt with the consonant of the singular, as in vifs, of all verbs of the first conjugation is rare before the 13th century, pronounced vis; but in Late Modern French many of them disbut is usual in the 15th; it is probably due to the analogy of the appear, vifs, with f sounded as in the singular, being the plural third person-Old French chant (cantö), aim (ame); Modern French of vif, bals (formerly baux) that of bal. In many words, as chant chante, aime. (10) In the 13th century s is occasionally added to the (cantus) and champs (campos) with silent and p (Old French chans 1st pers. sing., except those ending in e (2) and ai, and to the 2nd in both cases), maux (Old French mals, sing. mal), yeux (oculos, sing. of imperatives; at the close of the 16th century this becomes Old French alz, sing, ail) the old change in the stem is kept. Somethe rule, and extends to imperfects and conditionals in oie after the times, as in cieux (caelos) and ciels, the old traditional and the modern loss of their e. It appears to be due to the influence of the 2nd pers. analogical forms coexist, with different meanings. (4) The modern sing.-Old French vend (vendo and vende), vendoie (vendebam), parti loss of final s (except when kept as z before a vowel) has seriously (partivi), ting (tenui); Modern French vends, vendais, partis, tins; modified the French declension, the singulars fort (for) and forte and donne (dona) in certain cases becomes donnes. (11) The 1st and fort) being generally undistinguishable from their plurals forts and 2nd plur. of the pres. subj., which in Old French were generally fortes. The subsequent loss of in finals has not affected the relation similar to those of the indicative, gradually take an i before them, between sing. and plur. forms; but with the frequent recoining of which is the rule after the 16th century-Old French perdons (per- the plural forms on the singular present Modern French has very damus), perdez (perdatis); Modern French perdions, perdiez, appar- often no distinction between sing, and plur., except before a vowel. ently by analogy of the imp. ind. (12) The loss in Late Old French Such plurals as maux have always been distinct from their singular of final s, t, &c., when preceding another consonant, caused many mal; in those whose singular ends in s there never was any diswords to have in reality (though often concealed by orthography) tinction, Old French taz (now spelt lacs) corresponding to laqueus, double forms of inflection-one without termination, the other with. laqueum, laquei and laqueos. Thus in the 16th century the 2nd sing. pres. ind. dors (dormis) and the 3rd dort (dormit) were distinguished as dorz and dort when before a vowel, as dors and dort at the end of a sentence or line of poetry, but ran together as dor when followed by a consonant. Still later, the loss of the final consonant when not followed by a vowel further reduced the cases in which the forms were distinguished, so that the actual French conjugation is considerably simpler than is shown by the customary spellings, except when, in consequence of an immediately following vowel, the old terminations occasionally appear. Even here the antiquity is to a considerable extent artificial or delusive, some of the insertions being due to analogy, and the popular language often omitting the traditional consonant or inserting a different one. (13) The subsequent general loss of e in unaccented final syllables has still further reduced the inflections, but not the distinctive forms-perd (perdit) and perde (perdat) being generally ditinguished as pèr and pèrd, and before a vowel as pèrt and pird. (ii.) Substantives.-(1) In Early Old French (as in Provençal) there are two main declensions, the masculine and the feminine; with a few exceptions the former ditinguishes nominative and accusative in both numbers, the latter in neither. The nom. and acc. sing. and acc. plur. mas. correspond to those of the Latin 2nd or 3rd declension, the nom. plur. to that of the 2nd declension. The sing. fem. corresponds to the nom. and acc. of the Latin 1st declension, or to the acc. of the 3rd; the plur. fem. to the acc. of the 1st declension, or to the nom. and acc. of the 3rd. Thus masc. Lors (taurus), lere (latro); tor (taurum), laron (latrōnem); tor (tauri), laron (latrōni for -nes); tors (tauros), larons (latrones); but fem. only ele (ala and alam), flor (florem); eles (álás), flors (flōrès nom. and acc.). About the end of the 11th century feminines not ending in ea take, by analogy of the masculines, s in the nom. sing., thus distinguishing nom. flors from acc. flor. A century later, masculines without s in the nom, sing, take this consonant by analogy of the other mascu lines, giving leres as nom. similar to tors. In Anglo-Norman the accusative forms very early begin to replace the nominative, and

(iii) Adjectives.-(1) The terminations of the cases and numbers of adjectives are the same as those of substantives, and are treated in the preceding paragraph. The feminine generally takes no e if the masc. has none, and if there is no distinction in Latin-fem. sing. fort (fortem), grant (grandem), fem. plur. forz (fortès), granz (grandes), like the acc. masc. Certain adjectives of this class, and among them all the adjectives formed with the Latin suffix -ensis, take regularly, even in the oldest French, the feminine ending e, in Provençal a (courtois, fem. courtoise; commun, fem. commune). To these must not be added dous (Mod. Fr. dolz, dous), fem. douce, which probably comes from a Low Latin dulcius, dulcia. In the 11th century some other feminines, originally without e, begin in Norman to take this termination-grande (in a feminine assonance in the Alexis), plur. grandes; but other dialects generally preserve the original form till the 14th century. In the 16th century the e is general in the feminine, and is now universal, except in a few expressions-grand mère (with erroneous apostrophe, grandem, mātrem), lettres royaux (literäs rēgālès), and most adverbs from adjectives in ant, -ent-couramment (currante for -ente mente), sciemment (sciente mente). (2) Several adjectives have in Modern French replaced the masc. by the feminine-Old French masc. roit (rigidum), fem. roide (rigidam); Modern French roide for both genders. (3) In Old French several Latin simple comparatives are preserved-maiur (majorem), nom. maire (major); graignur (grandiorem), nom. graindre (grandior); only a few of these now survive-pire (pejor), meilleur (meliorem). with their adverbial neuters pis (pejus), mieux (melius). The few simple superlatives found in Old French, as merme (minimum). pesme (pessimus), proisme (proximum), haltisme (altissimum), this last one being clearly a literary word, are now extinct, and, when they existed, had hardly the meaning of a superlative. (4) The modern loss of many final consonants when not before vowels, and the subsequent loss of final 2, have greatly affected the distinction between the masc. and fem. of adjectives-fort and forte are still distinguished as for and fòrt, but amer (amârum) and amère (amāram), with their plurals amers and amères, have run together.

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