Etymological Comment

Phonetic Analysis

1. VERVECARIUS /wer-wɛ-ká-rjus/ > bergiere /ber-ʒje-Re/ > bergère /ber- ʒeR/
   1. VERVECARIUS /wer-wɛ-ká-rjus/ > VERVECERIUS /wer-wɛ-ke-rjus/ after evolution of the stressed low center /a/ in the free penultimate syllable
   2. VERVECERIUS /wer-wɛ-ke-rjus/ > VERVECIERUS /wer-wɛ-kje-rus/ after metathesis of the jod /j/
   3. VERVECIERUS /wer-wɛ-kje-rus/ > BERVECIERUS /ber-wɛ-kje-rus/ after fortition of the word-initial voiced bilabial glide /w/ to a voiced bilabial stop /b/
   4. BERVECIERUS /ber-wɛ-kje-rus/ > BERCIERUS /ber-kje-rus/ after syncope of the unstressed antepenultimate syllable “ve” /wɛ/
   5. BERCIERUS /ber-kje-rus/ > BERCIERE /ber-kje-Rə/ after lenition of the final syllable “rus” /rus/
   6. BERCIERE /ber-kje-Rə/ > BERGIERE /ber-gje-Rə/ after lenition of the voiceless lingua-velar stop /k/ to the voiced lingua-velar stop /g/. This yields the Old French spelling.
   7. BERGIERE /ber-gje-Rə/ > BERGIERE /ber-dʒje-Rə/ after palatalization of the voiced lingua-velar /g/ to the voiced lingua-alveolar affricate /dʒ/. This is the Old French pronunciation.
   8. BERGIERE /ber-dʒje-Rə/ > BERGIERE /ber-ʒje-Rə/ after de-affrication of the voiced lingua-alveolar affricate /dʒ/ to the voiced lingua-palatal /ʒ/
   9. BERGIERE /ber-ʒje-Re/ > BERGÈRE /ber-ʒe-Re/ after de-diphongization of /ie/ to the high mid front /e/. This is where the Modern French spelling comes from.
   10. BERGÈRE /ber-ʒe-Re/ > BERGÈRE /ber-ʒeR/ after the loss of the word-final high mid front /e/
   11. *Exception: normally, the word-initial voiced bilabial glide /w/ yields the voiced labio-dental fricative /v/ in French, but here, it yields the voiced bilabial stop /b/. In addition, the voiceless lingua-velar stop /k/ in the stressed penultimate syllable of the Latin etymon is not intervocalic or post-syllabic, so one would not expect it to undergo lenition, but it does.
2. COR/kŏr/ > cuer /kweR/ > cœur /kœR/
   1. COR /kŏr/ > CUER /kweR/ after the stressed Classical Latin short mid back /ŏ/ becomes the Vulgar Latin low mid back /ᴐ/. It then diphthongizes to /we/ in Old French. This is the Old French form of the word, “cuer.”
   2. CUER/kweR/ > COEUR /kœR/ The stressed vowel is in a blocked syllable in the Modern French reflex, so the diphthong /we/ yields the low mid front rounded /œ/.
   3. *Exception: the stressed syllable in the Latin etymon is blocked, so the stressed vowel should stay the low mid back /ᴐ/. Instead, it evolves as if it were in a free syllable in the etymon, diphthongizing to /we/ and then yielding /œ/.

1. DISLIGATUM /dis-li-gá-tum/ > desliée /des-li-e/ > délié /de-li-e/
   1. DISLIGATUM /dis-li-gá-tum/ > DISLIGÉTUM /dis-li-ge-tum/ after evolution of the stressed low center /a/ in the free, penultimate syllable into the mid high front /e/. Since this /e/ evolved from /a/, it is written in French as “é.”
   2. DISLIGÉTUM /dis-li-ge-tum/ > DESLIGÉTUM /des-li-ge-tum/after the unstressed short high front /i/ in the first syllable yields the high mid front /e/
   3. DESLIGÉTUM /des-li-ge-tum/ > DESLIÉTUM /des-li-e-tum/after complete lenition of the unprotected, intervocalic voiced velar stop /g/
   4. DESLIÉTUM /des-li-e-tum/ > DESLIÉE /des-li-e/ after syncope of the final syllable “tum” /tum/. At first, the spelling keeps a final “e” to indicate mark where “tum” /tum/ used to be. This stage is where the spelling of the Old French “desliée” comes from.
   5. DESLIÉE /des-li-e-e/ > DESLIÉ /des-li-e/ after assimilation of the two mid high front /e/ vowels. The pronunciation would have changed before the spelling changed, so the Old French “desliée” probably would have been pronounced /des-li-e/.
   6. DESLIÉ /des-li-e/ > DELIÉ /de-li-e/ after complete lenition of the unprotected post-consonantal voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/
   7. *Exception: The word-final vowel is usually lost in French. Here, however, the word-final high mid front /e/ stays, because it is part of the conjugation.
2. DULCEM /dúl-kem/ > doulce /dᴐw-tse/ > douce /dus/
   1. DULCEM /dúl-kem/ > DOLCEM /dᴐl-kem/ after evolution of the stressed short high back /ŭ/ to the mid low back /ᴐ/
   2. DOLCEM /dᴐl-kem/ > DOULCEM /dᴐw-kem/ after lenition of the voiced lingua-alveolar liquid /l/ to the voiced bilabial glide /w/. Although the grapheme “l” is no longer pronounced, it is kept in the spelling for next few steps.
   3. DOULCEM /dᴐw-kem/ > DOULCE /dᴐw-ke/ after complete lenition of the word-final voiced bilabial nasal /m/
   4. DOULCE /dᴐw-ke/ > DOULCE /dᴐw-tse/ after palatalization of the voiceless velar stop /k/ to the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/. This is the Old French form of the word.
   5. DOULCE /dᴐw-tse/ > DOULCE /dᴐw-se/ after continued palatalization of the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ to the voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/
   6. DOULCE /dᴐw-se/ > DOUCE /du-se/ after evolution of the diphthong /ᴐw/ into the high back /u/. It keeps the “ou” spelling to differentiate it from the rounded high front /y/, which is spelled “u.”
   7. DOUCE /du-se/ > DOUCE /dus/ after the final high mid front /e/ is dropped from the pronunciation. Normally, it would also be dropped from the spelling, but here, it is kept to mark the word as feminine.
3. SCRIPTIS /s-kríp-tis/ > escripz /es-kRipts/ > écrits /e-kRi/
   1. SCRIPTIS /s-kríp-tis/ > ESCRIPTIS /es-krip-tis/ after prosthesis of high mid front /e/
   2. ESCRIPTIS /es-krip-tis/ > ESCRIPTS /es-kRipt’s/ after syncope of the unstressed high front /i/ in the final syllable. This syncope creates the cluster “pts,” and the “ts” in that cluster is pronouned as the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/. That affricate is written as “z” in Old French, which is why the Old French form of this word is spelled “escripz.”
   3. ESCRIPTS /es-kRipt’s/ > ESCRITS /es-kRits/ after complete lenition of the syllable-final voiceless bilabial stop /p/
   4. ESCRITS /es-kRits/ > ÉCRITS /e-kRits/ after complete lenition of the preconsonantal voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/. In French, the word-initial vowel is written “é” to indicate this loss.
   5. ÉCRITS /e-kRits/ > ÉCRITS /e-kRi/ after complete lenition of the word-final affricate /ts/. This change is not shown in the spelling, so the Modern French reflex is still spelled “écrits.”
4. STATUS /s-tá-tus/ > esté /es-te/ > été /e-te/
   1. STATUS /s-ta-tus/ > ESTATUS /es-ta-tus/ after prosthesis of high mid front /e/
   2. ESTATUS /es-ta-tus/ > ESTÉTUS /es-te-tus/ after evolution of stressed low center /a/ in the free, penultimate syllable into the mid high front /e/. This /e/ is written as “é” because it evolved from /a/.
   3. ESTÉTUS /es-te-tus/ > ESTÉUS /es-te-us/ after complete lenition of the intervocalic voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/
   4. ESTÉUS /es-te-us/ > ESTÉU /es-te-u/ after complete lenition of word final voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/
   5. ESTÉU /es-te-u/ > ESTÉ /es-te/ after syncope of the word-final high back /u/
   6. ESTÉ /es-te/ > ÉTÉ /e-te/ after complete lenition of the syllable-final voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/. The word-initial /e/ is written “é” to indicate that it used to be followed by /s/.
5. OBLITATUM /o-bli-tá-tum/ > obliée /o-bli-e/ > oubliée /u-bli-e/
   1. OBLITATUM /o-bli-ta-tum/ > OBLITÉTUM /o-bli-te-tum/ after evolution of the stressed low center /a/ into the high mid front /e/ in the penultimate syllable
   2. OBLITÉTUM /o-bli-te-tum/ > OBLITÉUM /o-bli-te-um/ after complete lenition of the intervocalic voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/
   3. OBLITÉUM /o-bli-te-um/ > OBLITÉU /o-bli-te-u/ after complete lenition of the final voiced bilabial nasal /m/
   4. OBLITÉU /o-bli-te-u/ > OBLITÉE /o-bli-te/ after syncope of the word-final high back /u/. There is a final “e” in the spelling where the “u” was, but it is not pronounced.
   5. OBLITÉE /o-bli-te/ > OBLIÉE /o-bli-e/ after complete lenition of the intervocalic voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/. This is the Old French form.
   6. OBLIÉE /o-bli-e/ > OUBLIÉE /u-bli-e/ after evolution of the unstressed high mid back /o/ into the high back /u/
   7. *Exception: normally, /o/ only becomes /u/ in a blocked syllable, but here, that evolution happens in a free syllable. Additionally, in normal phonetic evolution, the silent final “e” would be lost, but here, it stays to mark a feminine word.
6. PORTAREAT /pᴐr-tá-rɛ-at/ > pourteroit /pᴐr-te-roj/ > porterait /pᴐr-te-rɛ/
   1. PORTAREAT /pᴐr-ta-rɛ-at/ > PORTEREAT /pᴐr-te-rɛ-at/ after evolution of the stressed low center /a/ in the free penultimate syllable to the high mid front /e/
   2. PORTEREAT /pᴐr-te-rɛ-at/ > PORTEREAT /pᴐr-te-rjat/ after simplification of the mid low front /ɛ/ and low center /a/ to the diphthong /ja/
   3. PORTEREAT /pᴐr-te-rjat/ > PORTERAET /pᴐr-te-rajt/ after metathesis of the yod /j/
   4. PORTERAET /pᴐr-tè-rajt/ > PORTERAET /pᴐr-te-ràjt/ after changing the stressed syllable from the penultimate “te” to the final “rajt.” This occurs because the word changes from the “portare” form to the “habebat” form.
   5. PORTERAET /pᴐr-te-rajt/ > PORTEROIT /pᴐr-te-rojt/ after evolution of the stressed diphthong from /aj/ to /oj/
   6. PORTEROIT /pᴐr-te-rojt/ > PORTEROIT /pᴐr-te-roj/ after complete lenition of the word-final voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/. This is the Old French form.
   7. PORTEROIT /pᴐr-te-roj/ > PORTERAIT /pᴐr-te-rɛ/ after continued evolution of the stressed vowel
   8. *Exception: the spelling of the vowel in the first syllable changes from “o” to “ou” and back to “o.”
7. POTERE /po-té-rɛ/ > povoir /po-vojR/ > pouvoir /pu-vwaR/
   1. POTERE /po-te-rɛ/ > POVERE /po-ve-rɛ/ after lenition of the intervocalic voiceless lingua-alveolar /t/ to the voiceless labiodental fricative /v/
   2. POVERE /po-ve-rɛ/ > POVER /po-ver/ after the loss of the word-final low mid back /ɛ/
   3. POVER /po-ver/ > POVOIR /po-vojR/ after diphthongization of the stressed high mid front /e/ to the high mid back followed by a jod /oj/
   4. POVOIR /po-vojR/ > POVOIR /po-vwaR/ after continued evolution of the stressed vowel from /oj/ to the diphthong of a voiced bilabial glide followed by a low center /wa/
   5. POVOIR /po-vwaR/ > POUVOIR /pu-vwaR/ after evolution of the unstressed high mid front /o/ to the high front /u/
   6. *Exception: Normally, when /t/ undergoes lenition, it is completely lost. In French, /v/ usually comes from /w/. However, in this case, /t/ undergoes lenition to yield /v/.
8. REGEM /ré-gem/ > roy > roi /Rwa/
   1. REGEM /re-gem/ > ROYGEM /roj-gem/ after the stressed high mid front /e/ in the penultimate, free syllable diphthongizes to /oj/
   2. ROYGEM /roj-gem/ > ROY /Roj/ after syncope of the unstressed final syllable “gem.” This is the Old French form of the word.
   3. ROY /Roj/ > ROI /Rwa/ after the stressed vowel continues to evolve from the high mid back followed by a jod /oj/ to a glide followed by the low center /wa/.
9. VERA /wɛ́-ra/ > voire /voj-Rɛ/ > vraie /vRɛ/
   1. VERA /wɛ-ra/ > VERA /vɛ-ra/ after fortition of the voiced bilabial glide /w/ to the voiced labiodental fricative /v/
   2. VERA /vɛ-ra/ > VOIRA /voj-ra/ after evolution of the stressed low mid front /ɛ/ to the diphthong /oj/. This is the Old French form.
   3. VOIRA /voj-ra/ > VOIRE /voj-Rɛ/ after evolution of the word-final low center /a/ to the low mid front /ɛ/. This is the Old French form.
   4. VOIRE /voj-Rɛ/ > VOIRE /vwa-Rɛ/ after continued evolution of the stressed vowel /oj/ to the diphthong of a voiced bilabial glide followed by a low center /wa/
   5. VOIRE /vwa-Rɛ/ > VROIE /vRwa-ɛ/ after metathesis of the voiced lingua-palatal liquid /r/ and the diphthong /wa/
   6. VROIE /vRwa-ɛ/ > VRAIE /vRɛ/ after simplification of the diphthong /wa/ and the unstressed low mid front /ɛ/
10. VIRTUS /wír-tus/ > vertuz /ver-tyz/ > vertus /ver-ty/
    1. VIRTUS /wir-tus/ > VERTUS /wer-tus/ after evolution of the stressed short high front /i/ to the mid high front /e/
    2. VERTUS /wer-tus/ > VERTUS /ver-tus/ after fortition of the word-initial voiced bilabial glide /w/ to the voiced labio-dental fricative /v/
    3. VERTUS /ver-tus/ > VERTUS /ver-tys/ after evolution of the unstressed long high back /u/ to the rounded high front /y/
    4. VERTUS /ver-tys/ > VERTUZ /ver-tyz/ after lenition of voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/ to the voiced lingua-alveolar fricative /z/. This is the Old French form.
    5. VERTUZ /ver-tyz/ > VERTUS /ver-ty/ after continued lenition of the word-final fricative

 

Analysis of  Verbal Morphology

TENĒBAT /tenēbat/ > TENOIT /tenojt/ > TENAIT /tenɛ/

“Tenoit” is in the third person singular and the indicative imperfect tense. It comes from the Latin “tenēbat,” a conjugated form of the infinitive “tenere.” Its stem is the arhizotonic plural stem for the indicative present conjugation, “ten” /ten/. As usual for the third person singular indicative imperfect, there was complete lenition of the intervocalic voiced bilabial stop /b/, evolution of the stressed mid high /e/ to the diphthong /oj/, and evolution of the /unstressed low center /a/ to the mid center schwa /ə/, yielding the ending “-oiet” /ojət/. Then the unstressed schwa /ə/ was lost, yielding the ending “-oit” /-ojt/ that appears in my text. A similar change happened in the evolution of the present subjunctive of “estre,” “soiet” to “soit,” so this change might be by analogy. There was complete lenition of the word-final voiceless lingua-alveolar /t/, although it was kept in the spelling. Then the stressed diphthong /oj/ continued to evolve to /wɛ/ and then into two variants, /wa/ and /ɛ/. Eventually, the indicative imperfect endings were designated as the mid low front /ɛ/.

 

REDDAT /redat/ > RENDRA /RãndRa/ > RENDRA /RãdRa/

“Rendra” is in the third person singular, indicative future tense. The Latin etymon, “reddat” comes from the stem “redd” and the ending “at,” which comes from the third person singular, indicative present form of “habeo,” “habet.” In both Old French and Modern French, the stem “rendr” is a shortened form of the French infinitive “rendre.” As for the ending, the word-final voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/ is lost, as usual. In normal phonetic evolution, the final low center /a/ would change to an unpronounced “e.” However, the resulting “rendre” would be indistinguishable from the infinitive, so the low center /a/ stays in both pronunciation and spelling.

 

DŌNAT /dōnat/ > DONNE /dᴐnə/ > DONNE /dᴐn/

“Donne” is a Class I verb in the third person singular, indicative present tense. It is rhizotonic, meaning the stress is in the stem. There is gemination of the voiced lingua-alveolar nasal /n/. The word-final “e,” which is pronounced as the mid center schwa /ə/ in Old French and not pronounced in Modern French, comes from normal evolution of the Latin ending “at” /at/.

 

RESTAURAVIT /restawrawit/ > RESTORA /RɛstᴐRa/ > RESTAURA /RɛstᴐRa/

“Restora” is in the third person singular, passé simple tense. Since the infinitive form of the etymon, “restaurare” /restawrare/ is a Class I verb, its perfect “restau ravit” is weak, with the stress off the root. The low center /a/ is the thematic vowel, so it is stressed. The ending evolves normally, with loss of the final syllable “vit” /wit/. This could have happened in one step, but it is more likely that the final voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/ was lost first, then the unstressed high front /i/, then the voiced bilabial glide /w/. In normal evolution, the final low center /a/ would then evolve to a silent “e,” but here, it is the stressed vowel and indicates the conjugation, so it stays. In the stem, although the Latin diphthong /aw/ evolves to the low mid back /ᴐ/ as usual, the spelling changes back to the Latin “au” between Old and Modern French.

 

MIRANTUR /mirantur/ > MIRENT /mirə/ > MIRENT /mir/

“Mirent” is a third person plural, indicative present verb that comes from the Latin “mirantur.” The Latin infinitive “mirare” looks like a Class I verb, but it is not conjugated like other Class I verbs. However, the Old French and Modern French Latin conjugations do look like other Class I, third person plural, indicative present conjugated verbs. This suggests that all forms of the verb evolved by analogy with other Class I verbs.

 

VIDĒTIS /widētis/ > VÉEZ /veje/ > VOYEZ /vwaje/

“Véez” is in the second person plural, imperative tense. In French, the imperative is conjugated the same way as the present indicative. The infinitive of the Latin etymon, “videre,” is a Class II verb, and it shows stress-induced allomorphy. In Latin, the position of the stressed vowel varies in the boot pattern, so for the stressed syllable is in the ending for the second person plural form. The second person plural inflexion evolves from /-etis/ to /-e/ by syncope of the unstressed high front /i/ and complete lenition of the resulting voiceless lingua-alveolar affricate /ts/. The short high mid front /ĭ/ in the stem diphthongizes to /oj/ and then /wa/ as usual in free syllables. The jod /j/ separates the stem and inflexion. The word-initial glide /w/ undergoes fortition to the voiced labiodental fricative /v/.

 

Analysis of Noun and Adjective Morphology

• Phrase : Et toy, Pucelle beneurée

Modern translation : Et toi, Pucelle bienheureuse

English translation: And you, blessed Maid

The Old French “toy” /toj/ evolved from the Latin second-person singular subject pronoun /tū/. The normal evolution of the Latin stressed long high back /ū/ would yield the rounded high front /y/, as in the French atonic second-person singular subject pronoun “tu” /ty/. However, the tonic form evolves by analogy with the tonic first-person singular subject pronoun “moi” /mwa/. The stressed vowel dipthongizes to /oj/ and then evolves to /wa/. Since “toi” is a tonic pronoun, it is used to add emphasis.

• Phrase : Que as la corde desliée

Modern translation : que tu as délié la corde

English translation: that you untied the rope

The Old French “corde” /kᴐrdə/ comes from the Latin singular accusative “chordam” /kŏrdam/. “Chordam” is in the first declension, and it is feminine. It follows normal evolution from /kŏrdam/ to /kᴐrdə/ to /kᴐrd/. The final “e” is etymological, but it also marks “corde” as a feminine noun in Modern French.

• Phrase : En qui le Saint Esprit réa à sa grant grace

Modern translation : En qui le Saint-Esprit versa sa grande grâce

English translation: In whom the Holy Spirit poured his great grace

The Old French “grant” /grãnt/ comes from the Latin singular feminine accusative “grandem” /grandem/. Since “grandem” is in the third declension, the masculine and feminine singular forms all simplify to “grande” /grande/ in Popular Latin. In the case of “grandem,” this step of evolution consists simply of complete lenition of the final bilabial voiced nasal /m/. Then, the final mid high front /e/ is dropped, the low center /a/ becomes nasalized, and the voiced lingua-alveolar stop /d/ undergoes fortition to become the voiceless lingua-alveolar stop /t/, yielding the Old French “grant” /grãnt/. Next, the voiced lingua-alveolar nasal /n/ undergoes complete lenition, and the /t/ undergoes lenition to become /d/ again. Then the resulting “grand” /grãd/ gains a non-etymological final “e” by analogy with feminine nouns, yielding the Modern French “grande” /grãd/.

• Phrase : Que puet-il d’autre estre dit plus ne des grans faiz des temps passez?

Modern translation: Que peut-on dire de plus d’autres personnes ou de grands faits de temps passé ?

English translation: What people or deeds of time past could be praised more?

The Old French “faiz” /fɛts/ comes from the Latin masculine plural dative “factis” /faktis/. Usually, the stressed penultimate low center /a/ would not change, because it is in a blocked syllable, but this is an exception, and it evolves to the low mid front /ɛ/ as in a free syllable. Then the postsyllabic voiceless lingua-velar stop /k/ undergoes complete lenition, and there is syncope of the unstressed high front /i/. The resulting cluster /ts/ becomes the voiced alveolar affricate /ts/, which is written as “z” in Old French. The grapheme for that affricate changes back to “ts” before Modern French. In normal evolution, the word-final voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/ would be dropped, and it is dropped in pronunciation, but it is kept in spelling to mark a plural noun.

• Phrase : Qui donne à France la mamelle

Modern translation : Qui donne à la France la mamelle

English translation: Who gives France the breast

The Old French “la” /la/ comes from the Latin feminine “ĭlla” /ĭlla/. This etymon started out as an adjective, but over time, it became used more as a definite article than as an adjective. Normally, the stressed short high front /ĭ/ would evolved to the high mid front /e/, and the final low center /a/ would change to “e” in the spelling and would be dropped from the pronunciation, yielding “elle.” However, “elle” was already a French third-person singular tonic pronoun. Therefore, instead of evolving normally, the penultimate syllable /ĭl/ was dropped, yielding /la/. The word does not change between Old and Modern French.

• Phrase : Qui furent dames de grant pris

Modern translation : Qui furent dames de grand mérite

English translation: Who were women of great merit

The Old French “dames” /damə/ comes from the Latin plural accusative “dominas” /dominas/. By Old French, the word-final voiceless lingua-alveolar fricative /s/ was already dropped from the pronunciation. According to normal evolution, the final “s” would also be dropped in spelling, but here, it is kept to mark a plural noun. Then the unstressed low center /a/ evolved as if the fricative /s/ were not there, yielding the low center schwa /ə/ in Old French and disappearing completely in the Modern French pronunciation. As in normal evolution, the final “e” is kept in the spelling, so it is etymological, but in this case, it also marks a feminine noun. Thus, although the ending “es” is no longer pronounced in Modern French, it marks a feminine plural noun.