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| Gaulish | |
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Further information: List of French words of Gaulish origin
Gaulish, one of the survivors of the continental Celtic languages in Roman times, slowly became extinct during the long centuries of Roman dominion. Only several dozen words (perhaps 200) of Gaulish etymology survive in modern French, for example chêne, ‘oak tree’ and charrue ‘plough'; Delamarre (2003, pp. 389–90) lists 167.
[edit] Tags:Modern French,List Of French Words Of Gaulish Origin,Gaulish,Celtic Languages,Etymology,Gaul,B,D,V,Z,H,R,E, | |
| Latin | |
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Old French began when the Roman Empire conquered Gaul during the campaigns of Julius Caesar, which were almost complete by 51 BC. The Romans introduced Latin to southern France by 120 BC when it came under Roman occupation.
Beginning with Plautus's time (254–184 BC), the phonological structure of classical Latin underwent change, which would eventually yield vulgar Latin, the common spoken language of the western Roman empire. This latter form differed strongly from its classical counterpart in phonology; it was the ancestor of the Romance languages, including Old French. Some Gaulish words influenced Vulgar Latin and, through this, other Romance languages. For example, classical Latin equus was replaced in common parlance by vulgar Latin caballus, derived from Gaulish caballos (Delamare 2003 p. 96), giving Modern French cheval, Catalan cavall, Occitan caval (chaval), Italian cavallo, Portuguese cavalo, Spanish caballo, Romanian cal, and (borrowed from Anglo-Norman) English cavalry and chivalry.
[edit] Tags:France,Romance,Western,Roman Empire,Julius Caesar,Latin,Plautus,Classical Latin,Vulgar Latin,Phonology,Romance Languages,Equus,Cheval,Cavall,Cavallo,Cavalo,Caballo,Cal,Anglo-norman,Cavalry,Norman, | |
| Frankish | |
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Further information: List of French words of Germanic origin
The Old Frankish language had a significant influence on the vocabulary, syntax, and the pronunciation of Old French after the conquest, by the Germanic tribe of the Franks, of the portions of Roman Gaul that are now France and Belgium during the Migration Period. The name français is derived from the name of this tribe. A number of other Germanic peoples, including the Burgundians and the Visigoths, were active in the territory at that time; the Germanic languages spoken by the Franks, Burgundians, and others were not written languages, and at this remove it is often difficult to identify from which specific Germanic source a given Germanic word in French is derived. Philologists such as Pope (1934) estimate that perhaps fifteen percent of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, including a large number of common words like haïr ‘to hate’, bateau ‘boat’, and hache ‘axe’. It has been suggested that the passé composé and other compound verbs used in French conjugation are also the result of Germanic influences.[citation needed]
Other Germanic words in Old French appeared as a result of Norman, i.e. Viking, settlements in Normandy during the 10th century. The settlers spoke Old Norse and their settlement was legitimised and made permanent in 911 under Rollo of Normandy.
[edit] Tags:Belgium,List Of French Words Of Germanic Origin,Old Frankish,Vocabulary,Syntax,Pronunciation,Germanic Tribe,Franks,Migration Period,Germanic Peoples,Burgundians,Visigoths,Germanic Languages,Philologists,Passé Composé,Compound Verbs,Conjugation,Viking,Normandy,Old Norse,Rollo Of Normandy, | |
| Earliest written Old French | |
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At the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language (either Romance or Germanic), since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin.
The earliest documents said to be written in French after the Reichenau and Kassel glosses (8th and 9th centuries) are the Oaths of Strasbourg (treaties and charters into which King Charles the Bald entered in 842):
Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d’ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa... (For the love of God and for the Christian people, and our common salvation, from this day forward, as God will give me the knowledge and the power, I will defend my brother Charles with my help in everything...)
The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for linguistic reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling.
The royal House of Capet, founded by Hugh Capet in 987, inaugurated the development of northern French culture in and around Ile-de-France, which slowly but firmly asserted its ascendency over the more southerly areas of Aquitaine and Tolosa (Toulouse). The Capetians' Langue d'oïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution.
[edit] Tags:Glosses,Oaths Of Strasbourg,Charles The Bald,Eulalia Sequence,House Of Capet,Hugh Capet,Ile-de-france,Aquitaine,Toulouse,Capetians,Langue D'oïl,French Revolution, | |
| Phonology | |
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Old French was constantly changing and evolving. However, the form in the late 12th century, as attested in a great deal of mostly poetic writings, can be considered standard. The writing system at this time was more phonetic than that used in most subsequent centuries. In particular, all written consonants (including final ones) were pronounced, except for s preceding non-stop consonants and t in et, and final e was pronounced [ə]. The phonological system can be summarised as follows:[1]
[edit] Tags:Stop Consonants,ə, | |
| Consonants | |
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Old French consonants
Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental/
alveolar
Postalveolar/
palatal
Velar
Glottal
Nasal
m
n
ɲ
Plosive
p b
t d
k ɡ
Fricative
f v
s z
(h)
Affricate
ts dz
tʃ dʒ
Lateral
l
ʎ
Trill
r
Notes:
The affricates /ts/, /dz/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ became fricatives ([s], [z], [ʃ], [ʒ]) in Middle French. /ts/ was written as c, ç, -z, as in cent, chançon, priz ("a hundred, song, price"). /dz/ was written as -z-, as in doze "twelve".
/ʎ/ (l mouillé), as in conseil, travaillier ("advice, to work"), became /j/ in Modern French.
/ɲ/ appeared not only in the middle of a word, but also at the end, as in poing "hand". At the end of a word, /ɲ/ was later lost, leaving a nasalized vowel.
/h/ was found only in Germanic loanwords and was later lost. In native Latin words, /h/ was lost early on, as in om, uem, from Latin homō.
[edit] Tags:Middle French,Bilabial,Labio-, | |
| Vowels | |
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In Old French, the nasal vowels were not separate phonemes, but occurred as allophones of the oral vowels before a nasal stop. This nasal stop was fully pronounced; thus bon was pronounced [bõn] (Modern French [bɔ̃]). Nasal vowels were present even in open syllables before nasals, where Modern French has oral vowels, as in bone [bõnə] (Modern French bonne [bɔn]).
[edit] Tags: | |
| Monophthongs | |
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Old French vowels
Front
Central
Back
Close
oral
i y
u
nasal
(ĩ) (ỹ)
Close-mid
oral
e
ə
nasal
(ẽ)
(õ)
Open-mid
ɛ
ɔ
Open
oral
a
nasal
(ã)
Notes:
/o/ had formerly existed, but closed to /u/; it would later appear again when /aw/ monophthongized, and also when /ɔ/ closed in certain positions (e.g. when followed by original /s/ or /z/, but not by /ts/, which later became /s/).
[edit] Tags: | |
| Diphthongs and triphthongs | |
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Late Old French diphthongs and triphthongs
IPA
Example
Meaning
f a l l i n g
Oral
/aw/
chevaus
horse
/oj/
toit
roof
/ow/
coup
blow
/ew/ ~ /øw/
neveu
nephew
Nasal
/ẽj/
plein
full
/õj/
loing
far
r i s i n g
Oral
/je/
pié
foot
/ɥi/
fruit
fruit
/we/ ~ /wø/
cuer
heart
Nasal
/jẽ/
bien
well
/ɥĩ/
juignet
July
/wẽ/
cuens
count (nom. sg.)
t r i p h t h o n g s
stress always falls on middle vowel
Oral
/e̯aw/
beaus
beautiful
/jew/
dieu
god
/wew/
jueu
Jew
Notes:
In Early Old French (up to about the mid-12th century), the spelling ⟨ai⟩ represented a diphthong /aj/, instead of the later monophthong /ɛ/,[2] and ⟨ei⟩ represented the diphthong /ej/, which became /oj/ in Late Old French.
In Early Old French the diphthongs described above as "rising" may have been falling diphthongs (/ie̯/, /yj/, /ue̯/). In earlier works with vowel assonance, the diphthong written ⟨ie⟩ did not assonate with any pure vowels, suggesting that it cannot have simply been /je/.
The pronunciation of the vowels written ⟨ue⟩ and ⟨eu⟩ is debated. In very early Old French, they represented (and were written as) /uo/, /ou/, and by Middle French, they had both merged as /ø ~ œ/, but it is unclear what the transitional pronunciations were.
[edit] Tags:Ipa, | |
| Nouns | |
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Old French maintained a two-case system, with a nominative case and an oblique case, for longer than did some other Romance languages (e.g. Spanish and Italian). Case distinctions, at least in the masculine gender, were marked on both the definite article and on the noun itself. Thus, the masculine noun li voisins, "the neighbour" (Latin vicínus /wiˈkiːnus/ > Proto-Romance */veˈtsinu(s)/ > OF voisins /vojˈzĩns/; Modern French le voisin) was declined as follows:
Latin
Old French
Singular
Nominative
ille vicīnus
li voisins
Oblique
illum vicīnum
le voisin
Plural
Nominative
illī vicīnī
li voisin
Oblique
illōs vicīnōs
les voisins
In later Old French, these distinctions became moribund. As in most other Romance languages, it was the oblique case form that usually survived to become the modern French form: l'enfant (the child) represents the old oblique; the OF nominative was li enfes. But in some cases where there were significant differences between nominative and oblique forms, the nominative form survives, or sometimes both forms survive with different meanings:
Both li sire (nominative, Latin sénior) and le seigneur (oblique, Latin seniórem) survive in the vocabulary of later French as different ways to refer to a feudal lord.
Modern French sœur "sister" is the nominative form (OF suer < Latin nominative sóror); the OF oblique form seror (< Latin nominative sorórem), no longer survives.
Modern French prêtre "priest" is the nominative form (OF prestre < présbyter); the OF oblique form prevoire, later provoire (< presbýterem) survives only in the Paris street name Rue des Prouvaires.
Modern French indefinite pronoun on "one" continues OF nominative om "man" (< hómo); homme "man" continues the oblique form (OF ome < hóminem).
In a few cases where the only distinction between forms was the nominative -s ending, the -s was preserved in spelling to distinguish otherwise homonymous words. An example is fils "son" (< Latin nominative filius), spelled as such to distinguish it from fil "wire". In this case, a later spelling pronunciation has resulted in the modern pronunciation /fis/ (earlier /fi/).
As in Spanish and Italian, the neuter gender was eliminated, and old neuter nouns became masculine. Some Latin neuter plurals were re-analysed as feminine singulars, though; for example, Latin gaudiu(m) was more widely used in the plural form gaudia, which was taken for a singular in Vulgar Latin, and ultimately led to modern French la joie, "joy" (feminine singular).
Nouns were declined in the following declensions:
Class I (feminine)
Class II (masculine)
Class I normal
Class Ia
Class II normal
Class IIa
meaning
"woman"
"thing"
"city"
"neighbor"
"servant"
"father"
sg.
nominative
la fame
la riens
la citéz
li voisins
li sergenz
li pere
oblique
la rien
la cité
le voisin
le sergent
le pere
pl.
nominative
les fames
les riens
les citéz
li voisin
li sergent
li pere
oblique
les voisins
les sergenz
les peres
Class III (both)
Class IIIa
Class IIIb
Class IIIc
Class IIId
meaning
"singer"
"baron"
"nun"
"sister"
"child"
"priest"
"lord"
"count"
sg.
nominative
li chantere
li ber
la none
la suer
li enfes
li prestre
li sire
li cuens
oblique
le chanteor
le baron
la nonain
la seror
l'enfant
le prevoire
le seigneur
le conte
pl.
nominative
li chanteor
li baron
les nones
les serors
li enfant
li prevoire
li seigneur
li conte
oblique
les chanteors
les barons
les nonains
les serors
les enfanz
les prevoires
les seigneurs
les contes
Class I is derived from the Latin first declension. Class Ia mostly comes from feminine third-declension nouns in Latin. Class II is derived from the Latin second declension. Class IIa generally stems from second-declension nouns ending in -er and from third-declension masculine nouns; note that in both cases, the Latin nominative singular did not end in -s, and this is preserved in Old French.
Those classes show various analogical developments, like -es from the accusative instead of -Ø (-e after a consonant cluster) in Class I nominative plural (Latin -ae), li pere instead of *li peres (Latin illi patres) in Class IIa nominative plural, modelled on Class II, etc.
Class III nouns show a separate form in the nominative singular that does not occur in any of the other forms. IIIa nouns ended in -átor, -atórem in Latin, and preserve the stress shift; IIIb nouns likewise had a stress shift from -o to ónem. IIIc nouns are an Old French creation and have no clear Latin antecedent. IIId nouns represent various other types of third-declension Latin nouns with stress shift or irregular masculine singular (sóror, sorórem; ínfans, infántem; présbyter, presbýterem; sénior, seniórem; cómes, cómitem).
Regular feminine forms of masculine nouns are formed by adding an 'e' to the masculine stem, apart from when the masculine stem already ends in e. For example bergier (shepherd) becomes bergiere (Modern French berger and bergère).
[edit] Tags: | |
| Adjectives | |
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Adjectives agree in terms of number, gender and case with the noun they are qualifying. Thus a feminine plural noun in the nominative case requires any qualifying adjectives to be feminine, plural and in the nominative case. For example, in femes riches, riche has to be in the feminine plural form.
Adjectives can be divided into three declensional classes:[3]
Class I corresponding roughly to Latin 1st and 2nd declension adjectives
Class II corresponding roughly to Latin 3rd declension adjectives
Class III containing primarily the descendants of Latin synthetic comparative forms in -ior, -iōrem.
Class I adjectives have a feminine singular form (nominative and oblique) ending in -e. This class can be further subdivided into two subclasses based on the masculine nominative singular form. Class Ia adjectives have a masculine nominative singular ending in -s:
E.g. bon "good" (< Latin bonus, > modern French bon)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Nominative
bons
bon
bone
bones
bon
Oblique
bon
bons
—
For Class Ib adjectives, the masculine nominative singular ends in -e, like the feminine. This subclass contains descendants of Latin 2nd and 3rd declension adjectives ending in -er in the nominative singular.
E.g. aspre "harsh" (< Latin asper, > modern French âpre)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Nominative
aspre
aspre
aspre
aspres
aspre
Oblique
aspres
—
For Class II adjectives, the feminine singular is not marked by the ending -e.
E.g. granz "big, great" (< Latin grandis, > modern French grand)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Nominative
granz
grant
granz/grant
granz
grant
Oblique
grant
granz
grant
—
An important subgroup of Class II adjectives are the present participial forms in -ant.
Class III adjectives exhibit stem alternation resulting from stress shift in the Latin imparisyllabic declension, and a distinct neuter form:
E.g. mieudre "better" (< Latin melior, > modern French meilleur)
Masculine
Feminine
Neuter
Singular
Plural
Singular
Plural
Singular
Nominative
mieudre(s)
meillor
mieudre
meillors
mieuz
Oblique
meillor
meillors
meillor
—
[edit] Tags: | |
| Verbs | |
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Verbs in Old French show the same extreme phonological deformations as other Old French words. Morphologically, however, Old French verbs are extremely conservative, preserving intact most of the Latin alternations and irregularities that had been inherited in Proto-Romance. Old French has much less analogical reformation than in Modern French, and significantly less than the oldest stages of other languages (e.g. Old Spanish), despite the fact that the various phonological developments in Gallo-Romance and Proto-French led to complex alternations in the majority of commonly-used verbs.
For example, the Old French verb laver "to wash" is conjugated je lef, tu leves, il leve in the present indicative and je lef, tu les, il let in the present subjunctive, in both cases regular phonological developments from Latin indicative lavō, lavās, lavat and subjunctive lavem, lavēs, lavet. This paradigm is typical in showing the phonologically regular but morphologically irregular alternations of most paradigms:
The alternation je lef ~ tu leves is a regular result of final devoicing, triggered by loss of final /o/ but not /a/.
The alternation laver ~ tu leves is a regular result of the diphthongization of stressed (but not unstressed) open syllable /a/ into /ae/ > /æ/ > /e/.
The alternation je lef ~ tu les ~ il let in the subjunctive is a regular result of the simplification of the final clusters /fs/,/ft/ resulting from loss of /e/ in final syllables.
Modern French, on the other hand, has je lave, tu laves, il lave in both indicative and subjunctive, reflecting significant analogical developments: analogical borrowing of unstressed vowel /a/; analogical -e in the first singular (from verbs like j'entre, where the -e is regular); and wholesale replacement of the subjunctive with forms modeled on -ir/-oir/-re verbs. All of these serve to eliminate the various alternations in the Old French verb paradigm. Even modern "irregular" verbs are not immune from analogy: For example, Old French je vif, tu vis, il vit (vivre "to live") has yielded to modern je vis, tu vis, il vit, eliminating the "unpredictable" -f in the first-person singular.
The simple past also shows extensive analogical reformation and simplification in Modern French as compared with Old French.
The Latin pluperfect was preserved in very early Old French as a past tense with a value similar to a preterite or imperfect. For example, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (878 AD) has past-tense forms such as avret (< Latin habuerat), voldret (< Latin voluerat), alternating with past-tense forms from the Latin perfect (continued as the modern "simple past"). Old Occitan also preserved this tense, with a conditional value; Spanish still preserves this tense (the -ra imperfect subjunctive), as does Portuguese (in its original value as a pluperfect indicative).
[edit] Tags:Gallo-romance, | |
| Verb alternations | |
| 4>
In Latin, stress was determined automatically by the number of syllables in a word and the weight (length) of those syllables. This resulted in certain automatic stress shifts between related forms in a paradigm, depending on the nature of the suffixes added. For example, in pensō "I think", the first syllable was stressed, while in pensāmus "we think", the second syllable was stressed. In many Romance languages, vowels diphthongized in stressed syllables under certain circumstances, but not in unstressed syllables, resulting in alternations in verb paradigms: e.g. Spanish pienso "I think" vs. pensamos "we think" (pensar "to think"), or cuento "I tell" vs. contamos "we tell" (contar "to tell").
In the development of French, no fewer than five vowels diphthongized in stressed, open syllables. Combined with other stress-dependent developments, this yielded 15 or so types of alternations in so-called strong verbs in Old French. For example, /a/ diphthongized to /ai/ before nasal stops in stressed, open syllables, but not in unstressed syllables, yielding aim "I love" (Latin amō) but amons "we love" (Latin amāmus).
The different types are as follows:
Vowel alternations in Old French verbs
Vowel alternation
Environment
Example (-er conjugation)
Example (other conjugation)
Stressed
Unstressed
Latin etymon
3rd singular
pres. ind.
Infinitive
meaning
Latin etymon
3rd singular
pres. ind.
Infinitive
/ Other Form
meaning
/e/
/a/
free /a/
lavāre
leve
laver
"to wash"
parere >
*parīre
pert
parir
"to give birth"
/ãj̃/
/ã/
free /a/ + nasal
amāre
aime
amer
"to love"
manēre
maint
manoir
"to remain"
/je/
/e/
palatal + free /a/
*accapāre
achieve
achever
"to achieve"
/i/
/e/
palatal + /a/ + palatal
*concacāre
conchie
concheer
"to shit out?"
jacēre
gist
gesir
"to lie (down)"
/a/
/e/
palatal + blocked /a/
*accapitāre
achate
acheter
"to buy"
cadere >
*cadēre
chiet
cheoir
"to fall"
/a/
/e/
intertonic /a/ + palatal?
*tripaliāre
travaille
traveillier
"to work"
/je/
/e/
free /ɛ/
levāre
lieve
lever
"to raise"
sedēre
siet
seoir
"to sit"
/jẽ/
/ẽ/
free /ɛ/ + nasal
*cremere
crient
cremant
"to fear"
/i/
/oj/
/ɛ/ + palatal
pretiāre
prise
proisier
"to value"
exīre
ist
oissir
"to go out"
/ɛ/
/e/
intertonic /ɛ,e/ + double cons.
appellāre
apele
apeler
"to call"
/oj/
/e/
free /e/
*adhaesāre >
*ad(h)ēsāre
adoise
adeser
"to touch"
/ẽj̃/
/ẽ/
free /e/ + nasal
mināre
meine
mener
"to lead"
/i/
/e/
palatal + free /e/
/oj/
/i/
intertonic /e/ + palatal
*carridiāre?
charroie
charrier
"?"
/we/
/u/
free /ɔ/
*tropāre
trueve
trouver
"to find"
morī >
*morīre
muert
mourir
"to die"
/uj/
/oj/
/ɔ/ + palatal
*appodiāre
apuie
apoiier
"to lean"
/ew/
/u/
free /o/
dēmōrāri
demeure
demourer
"to stay"
cōnsuere >
*cōsere
queust
cousdre
"to sew"
/u/
/e/
intertonic blocked /o/
*corruptiāre
courouce
courecier
"to get angry"
/ũ/
/ã/
intertonic blocked /o/ + nasal
*calumniāre
chalonge
chalengier
"to challenge"
In Modern French the verbs in the -er class have been systematically leveled. Generally the "weak" (unstressed) form predominates, but there are some exceptions (e.g. modern aimer/nous aimons). The only remaining alternations are in verbs like acheter/j'achète and jeter/je jette, where unstressed /ǝ/ alternates with stressed /ɛ/, and in (largely learned) verbs like adhérer/j'adhère, where unstressed /e/ alternates with stressed /ɛ/. Many of the non-er verbs have become obsolete and many of the remaining verbs have been leveled. A few alternations remain, however, in what are now known as irregular verbs, such as je tiens, nous tenons or je meurs, nous mourons.
Some verbs had a more irregular alternation between different-length stems, with a longer stressed stem alternating with a shorter unstressed stem. This was a regular development stemming from the loss of unstressed intertonic vowels, which remained when stressed:
j'aiu/aidier "help" < adiūtō, adiūtāre
j'araison/araisnier "speak to" < adratiōnō, adratiōnāre
je deraison/deraisnier "argue" < dēratiōnō, dēratiōnāre
je desjun/disner "dine" < disjējūnō, disjējūnāre
je manju/mangier "eat" < mandūcō, mandūcāre
je parol/parler "speak" < parabolō, parabolāre
The alternation of je desjun, disner is particularly complicated; it appears that disjējūnāre > Western Romance /desjejuˈnare > /desjejˈnare/ (preliminary intertonic loss) > /desiˈnare/ (triphthong reduction) > /disiˈnare/ (metaphony) > /disˈner/ (further intertonic loss and other proto-French developments). Note the both of the stems have become Tags: | |
zote monety |