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 (hair = hatan; français = frankisk, écrevisse = krebiz; of the dialect of a large area as an individual whole, unless that échine=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 east). In the meantime, as Latin (with considerable in having is, not ish, for Latin k (c) before i and e; lsh, 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 ĕ+i. 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 (virginitet Eulalia = virginitatem; imagena language is Provençal. "Modern French "" means ordinary Alexis=imäginem-the popular forms would probably have been educated Parisian French. vergedel, emain). At the Renaissance they became very abundant, (c) Phonology-The history of the sounds of a language is, 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 than the body of a word, are composed of sounds. This fact, Teutonic, classical Latin or other, often receive some modifica- and the fact that unconscious changes are much more reducible tion at their importation, and always take part in all subsequent to law than conscious ones, render the phonology of a language natural phonetic changes in the language (Early Old French by far the surest and widest foundation for its dialectology, the adversarie, Modern French adversaire). Those French words importance of the sound-changes in this respect depending, which appear to contradict the phonetic laws were mostly intro- not on their prominence, but on the earliness of their date. For duced into the language after the taking place (in words already several centuries after the divergence between spoken and written existing in the language) of the changes formulated by the laws Latin, the history of these changes has to be determined mainly in question; compare the late imported laïque with the inherited by reasoning, aided by a little direct evidence in the misspellings lai, both from Latin laicum. In this and many other cases the of inscriptions the semi-popular forms in glossaries, and the Language possesses two forms of the same Latin word, one warnings of Latin grammarians against vulgarities. With the descended from it, the other borrowed (meuble and mobile from rise of Romanic literature the materials for tracing the changes mobilem). Some Oriental and other foreign words were brought become abundant, though as they do not give us the sounds in by the crusaders (amiral from amir); in the 16th century, themselves, but only their written representations, much wars, royal marriages and literature caused a large number difficulty, and some uncertainty, often attach to deciphering the of Italian words (soldat=soldato; brave=bravo; caresser= evidence. Fortunately, early Romanic orthography, that of carezzare) to be introduced, and many Spanish ones (alcôve Old French included (for which see next section), was phonetic, alcoba; kabler hablar). A few words have been furnished by as Italian orthography still is; the alphabet was imperfect, as Provençal (abeille, cadenas), and several have been adopted from many new sounds had to be represented which were not provided other dialects into the French of Paris (esquiver Norman or for in the Roman alphabet from which it arose, but writers aimed Picard for the Paris-French eschiver). German has contributed at representing the sounds they uttered, not at using a fixed a few (blocus=blochus; choucroule=sürkrût); and recently a combination of letters for each word, however they pronounced it. considerable number have been imported from England (drain, The characteristics of French as distinguished from the allied confortable, flirter). In Old French, new words are freely languages and from Latin, and the relations of its sounds, informed by derivation, and to a less extent by composition; inflections and syntax to those of the last-named language, belong Modern French, borrowing from Latin or other foreign languages to the general subject of the Romanic languages. It will be well, is the more usual course. Of the French words now obsolete however, to mention here some of the features in which it agrees some have disappeared because the things they express are with the closely related Provençal, and some in which it differs. obsolete; others have been replaced by words of native forma- As to the latter, it has already been pointed out that the two tion, and many have been superseded by foreign words generally languages glide insensibly into one another, there being a belt of literary origin; of those which survive, many have undergone of dialects which possess some of the features of each. French considerable alterations in meaning. A large number of Old and Provençal of the 10th century-the earliest date at which French words and meanings, now extinct in the language of documents exist in both―agree to a great extent in the treatment Paris, were introduced into English after the Norman Conquest; of Latin final consonants and the vowels preceding them, a and though some have perished, many have survived-strife matter of great importance for inflections (numerous French from Old French estrif (Teutonic stril); quaint from cointe examples occur in this section). (1) They reject all vowels, (cognitam); remember from remembrer (rememorare); chaplet except a, of Latin final (unaccented) syllables, unless preceded (garland) from chapelet (Modern French "chaplet of beads"); by certain consonant combinations or followed by nt (here, appointment (rendezvous) from appointement (now "salary"). as elsewhere, certain exceptions cannot be noticed); (2) they do Many also survive in other French dialects. 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 u 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 (dormitorium), with yowel dropped; the area in which it exists, and its present state. The local terms used are intentionally vague, and it does not, for instance, at all follow that because "Eastern" and "Western" are used to denote the localities of more than one dialectal feature, the

canevas (cannabaceum), armedure, later armeure, now armure (armātūram), with e=2, as explained below.

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

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), 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 (acrem), agre; ele (álam), East French eile, 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 ò-French or (aurum), Prov. aur; rober (Teutonic raubon), Prov. raubar; (6) in changing general Romanic é, from accented ĕ and not in position, into ciFrench 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 carlier sound-changes is only tentative.

diphthongs ei-Picard, Norman and Parisian pire (pejor), piz (pectus); Burgundian peire, peis. 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 (guttural n, as in sing), (palatal n), n and m were nasal in the 11th Alexis assonances to themselves, distinct from the assonances with century, such words as tant (tantum) and gent (gentem) forming in the a and e before non-nasal consonants. In the Roland umbre (ombre, umbram) and culchet (couche, collocat), fier (ferum) and chiens (canès), dit (dictum) and vint (venil), ceinte (cinctam) and veie (voie, viam), nasals shows a tendency to separation. The nasalization of 1 and brun (Teutonic brün) and fut(fuit) assonate freely, though o (a) 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 län!, ombre, not as now was or was not followed by a vowel, femme (féminam), 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 -vaunt (vanter, vanitäre), tauny other words) next to be mentioned. English generally has au (now (tanné (?) Celtic). (8) The assimilation of è (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 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 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 cere before nasals-rank (rang, Old French renc, Teutonic hringa), pansy (pensée, pënṣātam); 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-lànchier (lancer, lanceäre), but mèntrie (Old French menterie, from mentiri). (9) The loss of s, or rather z, 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 måle, 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, mespilärium). 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 (scutărium); Modern French fête, gécuyer, but espérer (spērāre). In the north-east s before is still retained-Walloon chestai (château, castellum), fiess (fête). English shows & 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 inam); and the English one of the Alexis cuntretha (contrālam), lothct (laudatum), and that of the Cambridge Psalter heriteth (hereditatem). 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 between vowels had probably been reduced through d and dh, appears in the 12th century and later as, rhyming on ordinary French final t-Picard and Burgundian pechiet (peccatum) apeleit (appellatum). 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 carilep (charité, caritatem), druš (Old French dru, Teutonic drud); generally the consonant is lost-country, charity. Middle High German shows the Eastern French final consonant-moraliteit (moralité, mörälitätem). (11) T from Latin final, 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 is an analogical insertion from such forms as dort-il (dormit), where the has always existed. (12) The change of the diphthong ai to èi 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 (reclămat), desfere (disfacere), the latter agreeing with the Modern French sound. Before nasals (as in laine=länam) and ié (as in payé pacatum), ai remained a diphthong up to the 16th century, being apparently ei, whose fate in this situation it has followed. English shows ai regularly before nasals and when final, and in a few other words-vain (vain, vänum), pay (payer, păcăṛe), wait (gueller, Teutonic wahten); but before most consonants it has usually èèpeace (pais, păcum), feat (fait, factum). (13) 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 (?) caesellum), escutcheon (écusson, scutiōnem); city (cité, civitatem), place. (2) Initial Teutonic w is retained in the north-east and along the north coast; elsewhere, as in the other Romance languages, 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 v-Modern Guernsey vason, 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 v in Eastern French, in Western French further changes to w, and forms the diphthong on with the preceding vowel -Norman amowe (amabam), portout (portabat); Burgundian ameve, portevet. -eve is still retained in some places, but generally the imperfect of the first conjugation is assimilated to that of the othersamoit, 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 org, 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, deh disappeared, giving the modern French chasser, jardin with ch shall dialects. The Modern French t of aime-t-il and similar forms and j=zh; but tsh is retained in Walloon, and deh in Lorraine. The Northern forms survive-Modern Guernsey cachier, 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), piez (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 (amäruni) 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

of i(y-consonant) following the consonant ending an accented French words had two forms; the Old French fort appeared as for syllable begins in the 12th century-Early Old French glorie (though still written fort) before a consonant, fort elsewhere. At a (gibriam), estudie (studium), olie (oleum); Modern French gloire, later period final consonants were lost (with certain exceptions) étude, huile. English sometimes shows the earlier form-glory, study; when the word stood at the end of a sentence or of a line of poetry; sometimes the later-dower (douaire, Early Old French doarie, but they are generally kept when followed by a word beginning detarium), oil (huile). (14) The vocalization of /preceded by a vowel with a vowel. (22) A still later change is the general loss of the and followed by a consonant becomes frequent at the end of the 12th vowel (written e) of unaccented final syllables; this vowel preserved century: when preceded by open è, an a developed before the in the 16th century the sound 2, which it had in Early Old French. while this was a consonant-11th century salse (salsa), beltet (belli- In later Anglo-Norman final 2 (like every other sound) was treated tatem), solder (solidare); Modern French sauce, beauté, souder. In exactly as the same sound in Middle English; that is, it came to be Parisian, final è followed the fate of èl before a consonant, becoming omitted or retained at pleasure, and in the 15th century disappeared. the triphthong èax, but in Norman the vocalization did not take In Old French the loss of final is confined to a few words and forms; place, and the was afterwards rejected-Modern French ruisseau, the 10th century saveiet (sapebat for sapiebat) became in the 11th Modern Guernsey russé (rivicellum). English words of French origin saveit, and ore (ad hōram), ele (illam) develop the abbreviated or, el. sometimes show I before a consonant, but the general form is u→ In the 15th century before a vowel generally disappears-mûr, Old -wald (échauder, excalidare), Walter (Gautier, Teutonic Waldhari); | French mëur (mātūrum); and in the 16th, though still written, a sauce, beauty, soder. Final el is kept-veal (veau, vitellum), seal after an unaccented vowel, and in the syllable ent after a vowel, (sceau, sigillum). (15) In the east and centre éi changes to di, while does the same vraiment, Old French vraiement (vērācā mente); the older sound is retained in the north-west and west-Norman avoient two syllables, as now (avaient), in Old French three syllables estreit (étroit, strictum), preie (proie, praedam), 12th century Picard, (as habebant). These phenomena occur much earlier in the anglicized Parisian, &c., estroit, proie. But the earliest (10th century) specimens French of England-13th century aveynt (Old French aveient). But of the latter group of dialects have éi-pleier (ployer, plicare) Eulalia, the universal loss of final e, which has clipped a syllable from half melreiet (mettrail, mittere habebat) Jonah. Parisian oi, whether from the French vocabulary, did not take place till the 18th century, after et or from Old French di, ói, became in the 15th century uè (spellings the general loss of final consonants; fort and forte, distinguished with one or ce are not uncommon-mirouer for miroir, mīrātōrium), at the end of a sentence or line in the 16th century as for! and fòrtǝ, and in the following, in certain words, è, now written ai-français, remain distinguished, but as for and fort. The metre of poetry is connaitre, from françois (franceis, franciscum), conoistre (conuistre, still constructed on the obsolete pronunciation, which is even revived cognoscere); where it did not undergo the latter change it is now ua in singing; "dites, la jeune belle," actually four syllables (dit, or wa―roi (rei, regem), croix (cruis, crucem). Before nasals and la zhan bel), is considered as seven, fitted with music accordingly, palatal, ei (now) was kept-veine (věna), veille (vigilä), and it and sung to fit the music (dita, la zhænə bèlə). (23) In Old French, everywhere survives unlabialized in Modern Norman-Guernsey as in the other Romanic languages, the stress (force, accent) is on the ételle (étoile, stella) with é, ser (soir, serum) with è. English shows syllable which was accented in Latin; compare the treatment of generally ei (or as) for original ei-strait (estreit), prey (preie); but the accented and unaccented vowels in latro, amas, giving lére, in several words the later Parisian oi-coy (coi, quietum), loyal (loyal, áime, and in latṛõnem, amātis, giving larón, améz, the accented vowels legalem). (16) The splitting of the vowel-sound from accented being those which rhyme or assonate. At present, stress in French Latin & or a not in position, represented in Old French by o and u is much less marked than in English, German or Italian, and is to a indifferently, into a, o (before nasals), and eu (the latter at first a certain extent variable; which is partly the reason why most native diphthong, now = German ö), is unknown to. Western French till French scholars find no difficulty in maintaining that the stress in the 12th century, and is not general in the cast. The sound in 11th living Modern French is on the same syllable as in Old French. century Norman was much nearer to u (Modern French ou) than to ó The fact that stress in the French of to-day is independent of length (Modern French 6), as the words borrowed by English show uu (at (quantity) and pitch (tone) largely aids the confusion; for though first written w, afterwards ou or ow), never oó; but was probably the final and originally accented syllable (not counting the silent e not quite x, as Modern Norman shows the same splitting of the as a syllable) is now generally pronounced with less force, it very scund as Parisian. Examples are-Early Old French espose or often has a long vowel with raised pitch. In actual pronunciation espuse (sponsam), nom or num (nömen), flor or flur (florem); Modern. the chief stress is usually on the first syllable (counting according French épouse, nom, fleur; Modern Guernsey goule (gueule, gulam), to the sounds, not the spelling), but in many polysyllables it is on nom, fileur. Modern Picard also shows u, which is the regular sound the last but one; thus in caution the accented (strong) syllable before flour; but Modern Burgundian often keeps the original cau, in occasion it is ca. Poetry is still written according to the Old French 6-vo (vous, vos). English shows almost always uu- original place of the stress; the rhyme-syllables of larron, aimez spouse, noun, flower (Early Middle English spuse, nun, flur); but are still roh and mez, which when set to music receive an accented sephow with éu (neveu, nepotem). (17) The loss of the u (or w) of qu❘ (strong) note, and are sung accordingly, though in speech the la dates from the end of the 12th century-Old French quart (quartum), and a generally have the principal stress. In reading poetry, as quitier (quietäre) with qu= kw, Modern French quart, quitter with qu= distinguished from singing, the modern pronunciation is used, both In Walloon the s is preserved-couâr (quart), cuiller; as to the loss of the final and the displacement of the stress, the the case in English-quart, quit. The w of gw seems to have been result being that the theoretical metre in which the poetry is kost rather earlier, English having simple g-gage (gage, older guage, written disappears. (24) In certain cases accented vowels were Teutonic wadi), guise (guise, Teutonic wisa). (18) The change of lengthened in Old French, as before a lost s; this was indicated in the diphthong du to uu did not take place till after the 12th century, the 16th century by a circumflex-bête, Old French beste (bestiam), such words as Anjou (Andegavum) assonating in the Roland on ame, Old French anme (anima). The same occurred in the plural of fort fortem); and did not occur in Picardy, where du became au many nouns, where a consonant was lost before the s of the flection; cous from older cous, cols (cous, collos) coinciding with caus from thus singular coc with short vowel, plural cos with long. The plural calz (chauds, calidos). English keeps du distinct from uu-vault for cos, though spelt cogs instead of cô (=kóó), is still sometimes to be Bat (Modern French route, volvitam), soder (souder, solidare). (19) heard, but, like other similar ones, is generally refashioned after The change of the diphthong i to simple é is specially Anglo-Norman, the singular, becoming kòk. In present French, except where a in Old French of the Continent these sounds never rhyme, in that difference of quality has resulted, as in côte (Old French coste, costam) of England they constantly do, and English words show, with rare with d and cotte (Old French cote), with o, short and long vowels exceptions, the simple vowel-fierce (Old French fiers, jerus), chief generally run together, quantity being now variable and uncertain; chef, caput), with teee; but pannier (panier, panarium). At the but at the beginning of this century the Early Modern distinctions beginning of the modern period, Parisian dropped the i of ie when appear to have been generally preserved. preceded by ch or j-chef, abréger (Old French abregier, abbreviare): where(except in verbs) ie is retained-fier (ferum), pitié (pietātem) Modern Guernsey retains ie afterch-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 (muttös). 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, vallès). (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 che. 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

as is

(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 ó (close o) and i had become y (French u, German ü), the letter u was used sometimes to denote the sound 6, sometimes the sound y; as Latin k (written c) had become tsh or is, 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 is; d for d

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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.

and dh (soft th); e for é, è, and ǝ; g for g and dzh; 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 is. Some new sounds had also to be provided for: where ish had to be distinguished from nonfinal is, chat first, as in Italian, denoting k before i and e (chi= Still, a marked effort towards the simplification of French ki from qui)—was used for it; palatal / was represented by ill, orthography was made in the third edition of the Dictionary of which when final usually lost one 1, and after i dropped its i; the French Academy (1740), practically the work of the Abbé palatal n by gn, ng or ngn, to which i was often prefixed; and d'Olivet. While in the first (1694) and second (1718) editions of the new letter w, originally uu (v), and sometimes representing this dictionary words were overburdened with silent letters, merely uv or vu, was employed for the consonant-sound still supposed to represent better the etymology, in the third edition denoted by it in English. All combinations of vowel-letters the spelling of about 5000 words (out of about 18,000) was represented diphthongs; thus ai denoted a followed by i, ou altered and made more in conformity with the pronunciation. either bu or du, ui either ói (Anglo-Norman ui) or yi, and similarly So, for instance, c was dropped in beinfaicteur and object, ‹ in with the others-ci, eu, oi, iu, ie, ue (and oe), and the triphthong sçavoir, d in advocat, s in accroistre, albastre, aspre and bastard, e in ieu. Silent letters, except initial h in Latin words, are very rare; the past part. creu, deu, veu, and in such words as alleure, souilthough MSS. copied from older ones often retain letters whose leure; y was replaced by i in cecy, celuy, gay, joye, &c. But those sounds, though existing in the language of the author, had dis- changes were not made systematically, and many pedantic appeared from that of the more modern scribe. The subsequent spellings were left untouched, while many inconsistencies still changes in orthography are due mainly to changes of sound, remain in the present orthography (sifler and persifler, soufler and find their explanation in the phonology. Thus, as Old and boursoufler, &c.). The consequence of those efforts in conFrench progresses, s, having become silent before voiced con- trary directions is that French orthography is now quite as sonants, indicates only the length of the preceding vowel; e traditional and unphonetic as English, and gives an even falser before nasals, from the change of ē (nasal e) to ã (nasal a), repre- notion than this of the actual state of the language it is supposed sents a; c, from the change of is to s, represents s; qu to represent. Many of the features of Old French orthography, and gu, from the loss of the w of kw and gw, represent early and late, are preserved in English orthography; to it we k and g (hard); ai, from the change of ai to è, represents è; ou, owe the use of c for s (Old English c=k only), of j (i) for dzh, of from the change of du and óu to u, represents u; ch and &, from v (u) for v (in Old English written f), and probably of ch for tsk. the change of tsh and dzh to sh and zh, represent sh and zh; eu The English w is purely French, the Old English letter being and ue, originally representing diphthongs, represent a (German the runic ). When French was introduced into England, kw had o); z, from the change of is and dz to s and s, represents s and z. not lost its w, and the French qu, with that value, replaced the The new values of some of these letters were applied to words Old English cp (queen for chen). In Norman, Old French & had not originally spelt with them: Old French k before i and e become very like u, and in England went entirely into it; o, was replaced by qu (evesque, eveske, Latin episcopum); Old which was one of its French signs, thus came to be often used French u and o for 6, after this sound had split into eu and u, for u in English (come for cume). U, having often in Old French were replaced in the latter case by ou (rous, for ros or rus, Latin its Modern French value, was so used in England, and replaced russum); s was accidentally inserted to mark a long vowel the Old English y (busy for bysi, Middle English brud for bryd), (pasle, pale, Latin pallidum); eu replaced ue and oe (neuf, nucf, and y was often used for i (day for dai). In the 13th century, Latin novum and novem); z replaced s after é (nez, nes, nāsum). when ou had come to represent u in France, it was borrowed by The use of x for final s is due to an orthographical mistake; the English, and used for the long sound of that vowel (sour for súr); MS. contraction of us being something like x was at last confused and gu, which had come to mean simply g (hard), was occasionwith it (iex for ieus, oculos), and, its meaning being forgotten, ually used to represent the sound g before i and e (guess for gesse). was inserted before the x (yeux) which thus meant no more than Some of the Early Modern etymological spellings were imitated s, and was used for it after other vowels (voix for vois, vocem). in England; fleam and autour were replaced by phlegm and As literature came to be extensively cultivated, traditional as authour, the latter spelling having corrupted the pronunciation. distinct from phonetic spelling began to be influential; and in the (e) Inflections. In the earliest Old French extant, the in14th century, the close of the Old French period, this influence, fluence of analogy, especially in verbal forms, is very marked though not overpowering, was strong-stronger than in England when these are compared with Latin (thus the present participles at that time. About the same period there arose etymological as of all conjugations take ant, the ending of the first, Latin antem), distinct from traditional spelling. This practice, the alteration and becomes stronger as the language progresses. Such isolated of traditional spelling by the insertion or substitution of letters inflectional changes as saveit into savoit, which are cases of regular which occurred (or were supposed to occur) in the Latin (or sup- phonetic changes, are not noticed here. posed 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 (debere) for devoir, faulx (falsum) for jaus, autheur (auctorem, roveret (rogaverat); it disappears before the 12th century. supposed to be authorem) 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 a) is not yet satisfactorily explained-amoms (amāmus, influenced by sumus), but amamés 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, è è, and giving amomes, &c. (3) In the present indicative, 2nd person pluṛ., e--for aimai, aimastes), which, though unsuccessful on the the ending es of the first conjugation (Latin atis) extends, even in whole, had some effect in correcting the excesses of the other, the earliest documents, to all verbs-aves, 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 recipitis, auditis) like amez (amatis); such forms as dites, faites drop; of those which remain, some (flegme for flemme or fleume, conjugation does not appear at such an early 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 porierez 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-eiz, -oiz, is dropped, and -er 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, while Western French has u (or o), as in the present; posciomes to distinguish cs from c=k before a, u and o-are due to the (posseamus) in the Jonah homily makes it probable that the latter 16th century. The replacement of oi, where it had assumed the is the older form-Picard aviemes, Burgundian aviens, Norman

(2)

soon supersede them, the language following the tendency of contemporaneous English. In continental French the declension-system was preserved much longer, and did not break up till the 14th century, though acc. forms are occasionally substituted for nom. (rarely nom. for acc.) before that date. It must be noticed, however, that in the current language the reduction of the declension to one case (generally the accusative) per number appears much earlier than in the language of literature proper and poetry; Froissart, for instance, c. 1400, in his poetical works is much more careful of the declension than in his Chronicles. In the 15th century the modern system of one case is fully established; the form kept is almost always the accusative (sing. without s, plural with s), but in a few words, such as fils (filius), sœur (soror), pastre (pastor), and in proper names such as Georges, Gilles, &c., often used as vocative (therefore with the form of nom.); the nom. survives in the sing. Occasionally both forms exist, in different senses-sire (senior) and seigneur (seniorem), on (homo) and homme (hominem). (2) Latin neuters are generally masculine in Old French, and inflected according to their analogy, as ciels (caclus for caelum nom.), ciel (caelum acc.), ciel (caeli for cacla nom.), ciels (carlos for caela acc.); but in some cases the form of the Latin neuter is preserved, as in cors, now corps, Lat. corpus; lens, now temps, Lat. tempus. Many neuters lose their singular form and treat the plural as a feminine singular, as in the related languages-merveille (mirabilia), feuille (folia). But in a few words the neuter plural termination is used, as in Italian, in its primitive sense-carre (carra, which exists as well as carri), paire (Lat. paria); Modern French chars, paires. (3) In Old French the I before s takes after it, and becomes dental , which afterwards changes to u or drops-fil (filium and filti) with palatal I, filz (filius and filios), afterwards fiz, with 2=ts (preserved in English Fitz), and then fis, as now (spelt fils). Many consonants before s, as the of fiz, disappear, and is vocalized—vif (vivum), mal (malum), nominative sing, and acc. plur. vis, maus (carlier mals). These forms of the plural are retained in the 16th century, though often etymologically spelt with the consonant of the singular, as in vifs, pronounced vis; but in Late Modern French many of them disappear, vifs, with f sounded as in the singular, being the plural of vif, bals (formerly baux) that of bal. In many words, as chant (cantus) and champs (campos) with silent and p (Old French chans in both cases), maux (Old French mals, sing, mal), yeux (oculos, Old French alz, sing, ail) the old change in the stem is kept. Sometimes, as in cieux (caelos) and ciels, the old traditional and the modern analogical forms coexist, with different meanings. (4) The modern loss of final s (except when kept as z before a vowel) has seriously modified the French declension, the singulars fort (for) and forte (fort) being generally undistinguishable from their plurals forts and fortes. The subsequent loss of in finals has not affected the relation between sing. and plur. forms; but with the frequent recoining of the plural forms on the singular present Modern French has very often no distinction between sing. and plur., except before a vowel. Such plurals as maux have always been distinct from their singular mul; in those whose singular ends in s there never was any distinction, Old French taz (now spelt lacs) corresponding to laqueus, laqueum, laquei and laqueos.

ariums (habēbāmus). (5) The subjunctive of the first conjugation bas at first in the singular no final e, in accordance with the final vowel laws-plur, plurs, plurt (plorem, plorés, ploret). The forms are gradually assimilated to those of the other conjugations, which, deriving from Latin am, as, at, have e, es, e(t); Modern French pleure, pleures, pleure, like perde, perdes, perde (perdam, perdas, perdat). (6) In Old French the present subjunctive and the 1st sing. pres. ind. generally show the influence of the i or e of the Latin iam, eam, 10, e-Old French maire or moerge (moriat for moriātur), liegne or tenge (teneat), muir or moerc (morio for morior), tieng or tiene (teneo). By degrees these forms are levelled under the other present formsModern French meure and meurs following meurt (morit for moritur), tienne and tiens following tient (tenet). A few of the older forms remain-the vowel of aie (habeam) and ai (habeo) contrasting with that of a (habef). (7) A levelling of which instances occur in the 11th century, but which is not yet complete, is that of the accented and unaccented stem-syllables of verbs. In Old French many verbsteins with shifting accent vary in accordance with phonetic laws parler (parabolare), amer (amare) have in the present indicative parol (paraboló), paroles (parabolás), parolet (parabolat), parlums (parabolimus), parlez (parabolātis), parolent (parabolant); aim (amo), aimes (amás), aimet (amat), amums (amāmus), amez (amätis), aiment (amant). In the first case the unaccented, in the second the accented form has prevailed-Modern French parle, parler; aime, aimer. In several verbs, as tenir (tenere), the distinction is retained-tiens, tiens, tient, tenons, tenez, tiennent. (8) In Old French, as stated above, ié instead of é from a occurs after a palatal (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 conjugation-preser (=prei-ier, precare), vengier (vindicare), laissier (laxare), aidier (adjüläre). At the close of the Old French period, those verbs in which the stem ends in a dental replace ie by the e of other verbs-Old French laissier, aidier, laissiez (laxātis), aidiezt (adjutătis); Modern French laisser, aider, laissez, aidez, by analogy of aimer, aimez. The older forms generally remain in Picardlaissier, audier. (9) The addition of e to the 1st sing. pres. ind. of all verbs of the first conjugation is rare before the 13th century, but is usual in the 15th; it is probably due to the analogy of the third person-Old French chant (canto), aim (amo); Modern French chante, aime. (10) In the 13th century s is occasionally added to the 1st pers. sing., except those ending in e (2) and ai, and to the 2nd sing. of imperatives; at the close of the 16th century this becomes the rule, and extends to imperfects and conditionals in ore after the loss of their e. It appears to be due to the influence of the 2nd pers. sing-Old French vend (vendo and vende), vendoie (vendēbam), parti (partii), ting (tenui); Modern French vends, vendais, partis, tins; and donne (dōnā) in certain cases becomes donnes. (11) The 1st and 2nd plur. of the pres. subj., which in Old French were generally similar to those of the indicative, gradually take an i before them, which is the rule after the 16th century-Old French perdons (perdamus), perdez (perdatis); Modern French perdions, perdiez, apparently by analogy of the imp. ind. (12) The loss in Late Old French of final s, t, &c., when preceding another consonant, caused many words to have in reality (though often concealed by orthography) double forms of inflection-one without termination, the other with. 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 diferent one. (13) The subsequent general loss of ea in unaccented final syllables has still further reduced the inflections, but not the destinctive forms-perd (perdit) and perde (perdat) being generally ditinguished as pèr and pèrd, and before a vowel as pèrt and perd. (L.) 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 ace 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. tors (taurus), lere (latra); tor (taurum), laron (latronem); tor (taurī), laron (latrōni for-nés); ters (tauros), larons (latronès); but fem. only ele (ala and Glam), for (florem); eles (álás), flors (flores nom. and acc.). About the end of the 11th century feminines not ending in e- take, by analogy of the masculines, s in the nom. sing., thus distinguishing nom. fors from acc. fior. A century later, masculines without s in the nom. sing. take this consonant by analogy of the other masculines, 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. fors (fortes), 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, mätrem), lettres royaux (literäs rēgālēs), 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 (grandiōrem), 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 (amārum) and amère (amāram), with their plurals amers and amères, have run together.