Phonetic Analysis

1) ADCAPTĀVIT /ad.kap.ta.wit/> acata /a.ka.tǝ/ > acheta /aʃǝt/

AD|CAP|TĀV|IT         Acheter: to buy

ADCAPTĀVIT /ad.kap.ta.wit/ > Acatāvi /a.ka.ta.wi/

A – Complete lenition of syllable-final consonants /d/, /p/ and /t/ in coda position.

Acatāvi /a.ka.ta.wi/ > acata /a.ka.ta/

B – Lenition of consonant /w/ in unprotected intervocalic position, and loss of final vowel /i/.

Acata /a.ka.ta/ > Acata /a.ka.tǝ/

C – Word-final /a/ becomes the mid central /ǝ/.

Acata /a.ka.tǝ/ > Acheta /atʃǝtǝ/

D – Plosive velar voiceless /k/ in palatal cluster /ka/ evolves into the new affricate palatal voiceless /tʃ/.

Acheta /atʃǝtǝ/ > acheta /atʃǝt/

E – /tʃ/ deaffricates and becomes the new fricative palatal voiceless /ʃ/, and word final /ǝ/ is lost.

——–

2) TŌRNICARE /tor.ni.ka.re/ > Tournoyer /tur.no.je/

TŌR|NI|CA|RE           Tournoyer: to turn round and round

TŌRNICARE /tor.ni.ka.re/ > Tournicare /tur.ni.ka.re/

A – Classical Latin long /ō/ becomes Vulgar Latin high mid rounded /o/, which, when in a blocked syllable, evolves as the high rounded /u/, represented as grapheme “ou”.

Tournicare /tur.ni.ka.re/ > Tournire /tur.ni.re/

B – Syncope of unstressed syllable “ca” /ka/.

Tournire /tur.ni.re/ > Tournoire /turn.wa.re/

C – Classical Latin short /i/ becomes Vulgar Latin high mid front /e/, which becomes pronounced as /wa/ and written as grapheme “oi” in Old and modern French.

Tournoire /tur.nwa.re/ > Tournoier /tur.no.je/

D – Metathesis of /re/ > /er/

Tournoier */tur.nwa.je/ > Tournoyer */tur.nwa.je/   Tour|no|yer

E – Consonantal phoneme /y/ inserted into cluster to divide vowels into two separate syllables à no|yer

            —-

Using the verb tournoyer as the source, the noun tournoiement was created. From Old French, the word evolved into a shorter form, analyzed below.

—-

Tour|noi meaning: tournament, tourney

Tournoiement /tuʀn.wamɑ̃/ > Tournoi /turn.wa/

Tournoiement /tuʀn.wamɑ̃/ > Tournoie /turn.wa/

A – Lenition of unstressed syllable /mɛ̃/at end of word

Tournoie /turn.wa/ > Tournoi /turn.wa/

B – Loss of word-final “e” in modern French

——–

3) DŌNANT/do.nant/ > doinst /dwɑ̃st/ > donnez /don.ne/

DO|NANT       Donner meaning: to give

DONANT /do.nant/ > Doeunant /dœ.nant/

A – Classical Latin long /o/ becomes Vulgar Latin /o/, which in turn evolves to French “(o)eu”, open-mid front /œ/

Doeunant /dœ.nant/ > Doeunt /dœnt/

B – Syncope of unstressed /na/ syllable

Doeunt /dœnt/ > Doint /doint/

C – Open-mid front vowel /œ/ becomes close-mid back /o/ + close front /i/, changing the vowel cluster to /oi/

Doint /doint/ > Doint /dwɑ̃t/

D – Phonetic pronunciation of “doint” changes – “oi” pronounced /oi/ “oy” changes to /wa/, and /a/ is nasalized.

Doint /dwɑ̃t/ > Doinst /dwɑ̃st/

E – /s/ inserted between nasalized /a/ and /t/

Doinst /dwɑ̃st/ > Doinn /dwɑ̃/

F – /t/ lost, and /s/ lost to progressive assimilation (becomes “n” in grapheme)

Doinn /dwɑ̃/ > Donnez /dɔne/

G – Close front /i/ lost, “ez” /e/ added, “oi” /w + ɑ̃/ changed to “o” open-mid back /ɔ/

——–

4) WARTET /war.tet/ > gart /gart/ > garde /gaʀd/

3rd person singular present indicative form of warten is WARTET, matching the conjugation of the word found in the medieval text (gart) and modern text (garde).

WAR|TET       Garder meaning: to guard, keep, take care of

WARTET /war.tet/ > Wart /wart/

A – Syncope of unstressed word-final syllable

Wart /wart/ > Gart /gart/

B – In German, “w” /w/ evolved to be pronounced like “g” /g/ sound, so the word began to be written as “gart” in Old French.

Gart /gart/ > Garde /gaʀd/

C – Lenition of plosive dental voiceless phoneme /t/ became plosive post-alveolar voiced phoneme/d/ in the evolution from Old French to modern French. “E” was added to the end of the word, but is not pronounced, it is pronounced as /gaʀd/. At this stage of evolution, it is possible that this word is a doublet, which means that two distinct evolutionary pathways were occurring simultaneously. Both pathways affected the formation of the modern reflex. In the second evolution, “gart” became “garte”, and following partial lenition of /t/, /t/ became /d/ and the word was “garde”.

——-

5) COMPUTĀRE /com.pu.ta.re/ > Contar /con.tar/ > Conter /con.te/

COM|PU|TA|RE         Conter meaning: to tell, to narrate

COMPUTĀRE /com.pu.ta.re/ > Comtāre /com.ta.re/

A – Syncope of unstressed syllable /pu/

Comtāre /com.ta.re/ > Contāre /con.ta.re/

B – Lenition of nasal bilabial phoneme /m/ > nasal post-alveolar phoneme /n/

Contāre /con.ta.re/ > Contere /con.te.re/

C – Classical Latin long /ā/ becomes Vulgar Latin mid front /e/ when in a free syllable

Contere /con.te.re/ > Conter /con.te/

D – Word-final /e/ is dropped

——-

6) PRŌ /pro/ QUID /kwid/ > pour coi > pourquoi

The evolution of the two etymons is analyzed separately below.

PRŌ     Pourquoi meaning: why

PRŌ /pro/ > Pōr /por/

A – Metathesis of phonemes /r/ and /o/, allowing /o/ to be in a blocked syllable.

Pōr /por/ > Pour /pur/

B – Classical Latin grapheme “ō”, mid back /o/ becomes Vulgar Latin grapheme “ou”, high back /u/.

QUĬD

QUĬD /kwid/ > Quĭ /kwi/

C – Complete lenition of grapheme “d” in coda position

Quĭ /kwi/ > Quoi /kwa/

D – Classical Latin short “i” becomes mid front “e” in Vulgar Latin, and in French it becomes /wa/ “oi” because it’s in a free syllable.

——-

7) CĀNTIONEM /kan.tio.nem/ > canchon /kan.on/ > chanson / ʃan.son/

CAN|TI|O|NEM          Chanson meaning: song

CĀNTIONEM /kan.tio.nem/ > Cantione /kan.tio.ne/

A – Lenition of final consonant /m/ in coda position.

Cantione /kan.tio.ne/ > Cantion /kan.tion/

B – Lenition of word-final /e/.

Cantion /kan.tion/ > canchon /kan. tʃon/

C – Palatal sound /t + j/ (yod sound) yields the affricate palatal voiceless /tʃ/ in Old French, written graphemically as “ch”. However, this is not the regular evolution. Likely due a doublet, the middle consonantal cluster does not do as it should, which is to become affricate alveolar voiceless /ts/ first, then to evolve to fricative alveolar /s/ later, not affricate palatal voiceless /tʃ/.

Canchon /kan.tʃon/ > canson /kan.son/

D – Palatal sound /tʃ/ in Old French yields /s/ in modern French (see above – /ts/ > /s/; /tʃ/ > /s/.

Canson /kan.son/ > Chanson /tʃan.son/

E – Plosive velar voiceless /k/ followed by /a/ (/ka/) yields > / tʃa/ in Old French, which in turn yields > fricative palatal voiceless /ʃa/ of modern French.

——–

8) VŌLUNTARIE /wo.lun.ta.rie/ > Volentiers /vo.len.tier/ > Volontiers /vo.lon.tier/

VŌ|LUN|TA|RIE        Volontiers meaning: willingly

VŌLUNTARIE /wo.lun.ta.rie/ > Volentarie /wo.len.ta.rie/

A – Sporadic change of high back /u/ > mid front /e/ due to nasalization, which affects normal evolution of vowel change

B – In Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin, the grapheme “v” was pronounced phonetically as voiced labial-velar approximant /w/, but later was pronounced as fricative labiodental voiced /v/

Volentarie /wo.len.ta.rie/ > Volentaier /wo.len.ta.jer/

C – Metathesis of /r/ in final syllable

Volentaier /wo.len.ta.jer/ > Volentier /vo.len.tjer/

D – Metathesis of /r/ to end of word, and /w/ changed to /v/ (phonetically described above)

Volentier /vo.len.tjer/ > Volentiers /vo.len.tjers/

E – Word-final /s/ added

Volentiers /vo.len.tjers/ > Volontiers /vo.lon.tie/

F – Vowel change mid front /e/ > mid back /o/

——–

9) BELLUS /bel.lus/ > Biaus /bi.os/ > Beau /bo/

BĔL|LUS         Beau meaning: fine, beautiful

BĔLLUS /bel.lus/ > Bĕls /bels/

A – Syncope of unstressed vowel /u/ and preceding consonant /l/

Bĕls /bels/ > Bĕus /be.us/

B – Lenition of lateral approximant /l/ in coda position into close back /u/

Bĕus /be.us/ > Bieus /be.us/

C – Classical Latin short /ĕ/ becomes Vulgar Latin /ie/ when placed in a free syllable

Bieus /be.us/ > Biaus /be.os/

D – Vulgar Latin close-mid front /e/ becomes open front /a/ in Old French graphemically, while phonetically “u” changes from close back /u/ to close-mid back /o/

Biaus /be.os/ > Beaus /bos/

E – Close front vowel /i/ becomes close-mid front vowel /e/, phonetically pronounced /bos/, the word becomes one syllable.

Beaus /bos/ > Beau /bo/

F – Word-final /s/ is dropped from both the grapheme and the phonetic pronunciation

———

10) CULTELLUS /kul.tel.lus/ > Coutel /ku.tel/ > Couteau /ku.to/

CUL|TEL|LUS             Couteau meaning: knife

CULTELLUS /kul.tel.lus/ > Cultel /kul.tel/

A – Loss of final syllable

Cultel /kul.tel/ > Coultel /kul.tel/

B – Classical Latin short “u”, high back /u/ becomes French “ou” /u/.

Coultel /kul.tel/ > Coutel /ku.tel/

C – Lenition of first lateral approximant /l/ in coda position

Coutel /ku.tel/ > Couteau /ku.to/

D – In Old French, grapheme “l” is pronounced as “u”, so the grapheme spelling becomes “eu”, with /a/ inserted to the cluster, also “eau” is pronounced as close-mid back /o/.

———

11) AUCELLUS /o.kel.lus/ > Oisel /wa.sel/ > Oiseau /wa.zo/

AU|CEL|LUS               Oiseau meaning: bird

AUCELLUS /o.kel.lus/ > Aucel /o.kel/

A – Loss of final syllable

Aucel /o.kel/> Auçel /o.sel/

B – Classical Latin “c” /k/ becomes “ç” /s/ in French

Auçel /o.sel /> Oiçel /wa.sel/

C – This is not the regular evolution for Classical Latin /u/, because instead of “oi” /wa/, it should be /œ/ or /u/. This is another instance where it is possible that a doublet was occurring: two parallel evolutions affecting the formation of the new form. Anyway, /osel/ was pronounced as /wasel/.

Oiçel /wa.sel/> Oisel /wa.sel/

D – Fricative palatal /ç/ becomes fricative alveolar /s/, graphemic spelling remains the same.

Oisel /wa.sel/ > Oiseau /wa.zo/

E – In Old French, lateral approximant /l/ is pronounced as high back /u/, so the grapheme spelling becomes “eau”, with /a/ inserted to the cluster. In addition, fricative alveolar voiceless /s/ came to be pronounced as fricative alveolar voiced /z/ in modern French.

———

12) PINC + ONEM /pink/ + /on.em/ > Pinçon /pin.son/ > Pinson /pin.son/

PINC = Celtic root // ONEM = Classical Latin diminutive suffix

PINCONEM                Pinson meaning: finch

PINCONEM /pin.ko.nem/ > Pincon /pin.kon/

A – Complete lenition of unstressed syllable /em/

Pincon /pin.kon/ > Pinçon / pɛ̃.sɔ̃/

B – Original plosive velar voiceless “c” /k/ becomes fricative alveolar voiceless “ç”/s/, also close front /i/ becomes nasalized open-mid front /ɛ̃/ and close-mid back /o/ becomes nasalized open-mid back /ɔ̃/

Pinçon / pɛ̃.sɔ̃/ > Pinson /pɛ̃.sɔ̃/

C – Phoneme of fricative alveolar voiceless “ç” /s/ becomes written as matching grapheme “s” /s/

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *