Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/668

 632 F K A N C E [LANGUAGE. (here, as elsewhere, certain exceptions cannot be noticed) ; (2) they do not reject a similarly situated; (3) they reject final (unaccented) m ; (4) they retain final s, French and Northern Provencal also agree in changing Latin u from a labio-guttural to a labio-palatal vowel ; the modern sound (German u) of the accented vowel of French lune, Provencal luna, contrasting with that in Italian and Spanish luna, appears to have existed before the earliest extant documents. Ths final vowel laws generally apply to the unaccented vowel preceding the accented syllable, if it is preceded by another syllable, and followed by a single consonant matin (matiitinnm), dortoir (dormitorium), with vowel dropped ; canevas (cannabaceum), armedure, later armeure, now armure (armdtHram), with e =, as explained below. On the other hand, French differs from Provencal: (1) in uniformly preserving (in Early Old French) Latin final t, which is generally rejected in Provencal French aimet (Latin amat), Provencal ama; aiment (amauf), aman; (2) iu always rejecting, absorbing, or consonantizing the vowel of the last syllable but one, if unaccented; in such words as anr/ele (often spelt angle), the e after the g only serves to show its soft sound French veinlre (vaincre, Latin viitcere), Provencal veneer, with accent on first syllable; French esclandre (scandal am), Provengal escandol; French olie (dis syllabic, i = y consonant, now huile), Proven9al oli (oleum); (3) in changing accented a not in position into ai before nasals and gutturals and not after a palatal, and elsewhere into e (West French) or ei (East French), which develops an i before it when preceded by a palatal French main (Latin manum), Provencal man; aif/re (dcrem), agre; ele (dlam), East French eile, ala; meitie (medietatetn), East French moitieit, meitat; (4) in changing a in unaccented final syllables into the vowel d, intermediate to a and e; this vowel is written a in one or two of the older documents, elsewhere e French aime (Latin ama), Provencal ama; aimes (amds), amas; aimet (amat), ama; (5) iu changing original an into o French or (aurvni), Provencal anr; rober (Teutonic raubun), ranbar; (6) in changing general Piomanic e, from accented e and I not in position, into ei French veine (venam), Provencal vena; peil (piluni), pel. As some of the dialectal differences were in existence at the date of the earliest extant documents, and as the exist ing materials, till the latter half of the llth century, are scanty and of uncertain locality, the chronological order (here adopted) of the earlier sound- changes is only tentative. (1.) Northern French has tsh (written c or cli) for Latin k (c) and t before palatal vowels, where Central and Southern French have ts (written c or z) North Norman .and Picard chirc (ceram), brack (brdchium), placli-c (platcam); Parisian, South Norman, &c., cire, orax, place. Before the close of the Early Old French period (12th century) ts 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 c.hirc, Modern Picard plache (in ordinary Modern French spelling) ; nsual 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- (?) cacsellum), escutcheon (ecusson, scutioncm) ; city (cite, clvitdtcm), place. (2. ) Initial Teutonic w is retained in the north-east and along the north coast ; elsewhere, as in the other Romance languages, g was prefixed Picard, &c., wards (Teutonic icarda), werre (iverra); Parisian, &c., guarde, guerre. In the 12th century the u or w of ffu dropped, giving the Modern French garde, guerre (with gu*=g); to remains in Picard and Walloon, but in North Normandy it becomes -(.---Modern Guernsey vason, Walloon wazon, Modern French gazon (Teutonic wason). English has both forms, sometimes in words originally the same waye 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 v in Eastern French, in Western French further changes to w, and forms the diphthong on with the preceding vowel Norman amowc (amdbam), portout (portdbat); Burgundian amcve, portcvct. Eve is still retained in some places, but gene rally 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) vhen followed by a, i, or c, after having caused the development of i before the e (East French ci) 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 dJi North Norman and Picard cachicr (capliarc), kicr (cdrum), cose (caiisam), cskivcr (Teu tonic skiuhan), wikcl (Teutonic wik+ittum), fjal (gallum), garditi (from Teutonic gard); South Norman and Parisian chacicr, ehier, chose, cschiver, guichct, jal, jardin. Probably in the 14th century the initial consonant of tsh, dzh disappeared, giving the modern French chasscr, jardin with ch~ sh a.ndj=zh; but tsh is retained in Walloon, and dzh in Lorraine. The Northern forms survive Modern Guernsey cachier, gardtn; Pic.ard cacher, (jardin. 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 e, Eastern French ci, both of which take an i before them when a palatal precedes Norman and Parisian per (parcm). oicz (tiudidtis); Lorraine jmr, oieis. In the 17th and 18th centuries close e changed to open e, except when final or before a silent consonant am-er (amdrum) now having e, aimer (ama re) retaining P. English shows the Western close e peer (Modern French pair, Old French per), chief (chef, caput); Middle High German the Eastern ci lameir (Modern French Vainer, I aimer, la mcr = 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 diphthong ei Picard, Norman, and Par isian juiVc (pejor),piz(pcctus);nurgun&amp;lt;i&npcire,pciz. The distinction is still preserved Modern French pirc, pis; Modern Burgundian pcire, pei. English words show always i price (prix, prclium), spite (depit, despectwri). (7.) The nasalization of vowels followed by a nasal consonant did not take place simultaneously with all the vowels. A and e before n (guttural n, as in sing), n (palatal n), n, and in were nasal in the llth century, such words as tant (tantum) and gent (gentcm) forming in the Alexis assonances to themselves, distinct from the assonances with a and c before non-nasal con sonants. In the Roland umbre (ombre, umbram) and ctikJtcl (couche, collocat), ficr (fcruiu) and chicns (canes), dit (dictum) and lint (venit), ccinte (cinctam) and veie (voie, viam), brim (Teutonic brun) and fut (fuit) assonate freely, though o (n) before nasals shows a tendency to separation. The nasalization of i and u ( = 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 tdwt, (Jmbrd, not as now id, obrh. The nasalization took place whether the nasal consonant was or was not followed by a vowel, femmc (feminam), honneur (honor cm) 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 (infemme and other words) next to be mentioned. English generally has aa (now often reduced to a) for Old French d vaunt (ranter, vdnitdrc), tawny (tanne, (?) Celtic). (8.) The assimilation&quot; of e (nasal c) to d (nasal a) did not begin till the middle of the llth century, and is not yet universal in France, though generally a century later. In the Alexis nasal a (as in tant) is never confounded with nasal e (as in gent) in the assonances, though the copyist (a century later) often writes a for nasal e in unaccented syllables, as in am f ant (enfant, infantem); in the Roland there are several cases of mixture in the assonances, gent, for instance, occurring in ant stanzas, tant in enl ones. English has several words with a for c before nasals rank (rang, Old French renc, Teutonic hringa), pansy (pensee, 2)ensdtam); but the majority show e enter (cntrer, intrdrc), fleam (Jlamme, Old French flemc, phlebotom u m). The distinction is still preserved in the Norman of Guernsey, where an and en, though botli nasal, have different sounds Idnchicr (lancer, lahccdre), but meiitric (Old French mtnterie, from mentlrl). (9.) The loss of s, or rather z, be fore voiced consonants began early, s being often omitted or wrongly inserted in 12th century MSS. Earliest Old French masle (mas- culum), sisdre (sltcram); Modern French male, cidrc. In English it has everywhere disappeared male, cider ; except in two words, where it appears, as occasionally in Old French, asd meddle (meler, misculdrc), medlar (neflicr, Old French also mcslier, mcspiJdrium). The loss of s before voiceless consonants (except /) is about two centuries later, and it is not universal even in Parisian Early Old French fcste (festam), escuicr (scutdrium) ; Modern French fete, ecuyer, but espercr (sperdrc). In the north-east s before t is still retained Walloon c/icstai (chateau, castcllum},ji ess (fete). English shows s regularly feast, esquire. (10.) Medial dh (soft th, as in then), and final th from Latin t or d between vowels, do not begin to disappear till the latter half of the llth century. In native French MSS. dh is generally written d, and th written t ; but t he- German scribe of the Oaths writes adjudfia (adjutam), cadhmia (Greek katti and unam); arid the English one of the Alexis cuntrclha (contrdtam), lothet (laudd/um), and that of the Cambridge Psalter hcritcth (hereditdtem). 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 contree, lout. But in Eastern French final th, to which Latin t between vowels had probably been