CASTELLUM [castelum] > “Chasteaulx” [tʃatolks] > châteaux [ʃɑto] (singular Château)
English: “castle”
- Castellum > chastellum: palatalization of the stop velar unvoiced [k] to the affricate [tʃ]
- Chastellum > chastellum: middle affricate stage of “ch,” [tʃ] to the fricative post-alveolar voiceless [ʃ]
- Chastellum à chastell: lenition of word final consonant “m”, lenition of word final vowel that is not “a”
- Chastell > chastel: degimination of word final [LL] cluster to singular [L]
- Chastel > chasteaul: high mid front [e] “e” becomes high mid back rounded [o] “eau”
- Chasteaul > chasteau: deletion of unstressed “L” in coda position
- Chasteau > château: lenition of “s” in coda position, addition of accent to show non etymological change
VOSTER [voster] > “Vostre” [vɔstrə] > vôtre [vɔtʁ]
English: “your”
- Voster > vostre: metathesis of “er” cluster to “re”
- Vostre > vostre: evolution of [ŏ] in stressed syllable in Classical Latin becomes low mid back rounded [ɔ] in Vulgar Latin, subsequently remaining [ɔ] in Middle French in a blocked syllable
- Vostre > votre: lenition of fricative alveolar voiceless “s” in coda position
- Votre > votre: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French
- Votre > vôtre: addition of circumflex accent to low mid back rounded [ɔ] to show non etymological deletion of “s” above
- Vôtre > vôtre: word final [ə] in Middle French becomes unpronounced in Modern Standard French
SANGUIS [sangɥis] > “sanc” [sank] > sang [sã]
English: “blood”
- Sanguis > sangui: lenition of word final “s” in coda position
- Sangui > sang: lenition of word final “ui” [ɥi] vowel cluster in coda position
- Sang > sanc: evolution of voiced velar stopped [g] to voiceless velar plosive [k]
- Stressed vowel [ă] in Classical Latin becomes low front [a] in Vulgar Latin, and remains in Middle French in a blocked syllable
- Sanc > sanc [sãnk]: nasalization of “a” low front [a] becomes low front nasal [ã],
- Sanc > sang [sã]: lenition of final consonant in coda position, hypercorrection of spelling to reflect Latin etymon
ILEX [il.eks] > “Eulz” [ølz] > eux [ø]
English: “them”
- Ilex > elex: stressed short [i] in Classical Latin becomes [e] in Vulgar Latin, which remains the same in French.
- Elex > eulex: non etymological evolution of stressed short [i] in Classical Latin becomes the high mid front “e” [e] in Vulgar Latin, when, in a free syllable, becomes high mid front rounded “eu” [ø]
- Eulex [ølekse] > eules [øles]: evolution of cluster [kse] “x” into [s] “s”
- Eules > eulez: lenition of stopped consonant “x” [ks] to fricative alveolar “z” [z]
- Eulez > eulz: syncope of high mid front [e] in unstressed syllable
- Eulz: > eux: syncope of “L” in unstressed position, overcorrection of “z” to previous spelling “x”
CREDENTE [credente] > “miscreans” [miscrejn] > mécréants [mekʁeɑ̃] (singular mécréant)
English: “Miscreants”
- Credente > mescredente: Old French negative prefix “mes” added to Latin word “credente” meaning “to believe”
- Mescredente > miscredente: non etymological change of low mid front [ɛ] to high front [i]
- Miscredente > miscredante: non etymological change of high mid front [e] to low front [a] in Middle French
- miscredante > miscreante: lenition of intervocalic [d]
- Miscreante > miscreante: evolution of long [e] in Classical Latin to high mid front [e] in Vulgar Latin, which remains in the French blocked syllable
- Miscreante > miscreant: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə], word final [ə] becomes unpronounced and is deleted from the grapheme
- Miscreant > miscrean: lenition of [t] in coda position
- Miscrean > miscrean: nasalization and lenition of word final [n]
- miscrean > mécrean: the diacritic (aigu) marks the deletion of the fricative alveolar voiceless consonant [s]
- mécrean > mécreant: non etymological overcorrection with reinsertion of “t”, which remains unvoiced with the nasal “n”
- mécreant > mécréant: addition of second diacritic (aigu) to protect the phonetic position of [e]
ACQUAERERE [akajrĕre] > “acquerre” [akerə] > acquérir [akeʁiʁ]
English: “acquire”
- acquaerere > acquerere: evolution of the Classical Latin diphthong “ae”[aj] to [e] in Vulgar Latin, which remains in Middle French
- acquerere > acquerre: syncope of interconsonantal “e,” creation of germinate “RR” cluster which reflects the evolution of [r] into [ʀ]
- acquerre > acquerr: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced and is deleted from the grapheme
- acquerr > acquerir: degemination of “i” in the consonant cluster “RR”
- acquerir > acquérir: addition of diacritic (aigu) on the high mid front [e]
DESTRUERE [destruere] > “destruire” [destrɥirə] > détruire [detʁɥiʁ]
English: “destroy”
- destruere > destruire: non etymological change of high mid front [e] to high front [i]
- destruire > détruire: the diacritic (aigu) marks the deletion of the fricative alveolar voiceless consonant [s]
- détruire [detrɥire] > détruire [detrɥir]: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced in Modern Standard French
- détruire [detrɥir] > détruire [detʁɥiʁ]: evolution of [r] in Vulgar Latin to [ʁ] in Modern Standard French
MĪLLE [mīle] > “miles” [milə] > mille [mil]
English: “thousands”
- mille > mile > mille: temporary instability of the “LL” palatal cluster to singular “L” due to spelling during a sound change of word final vowel “e”
- Mille > mille: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced in Modern Standard French
CAPITANEUS [kapitanus] > “chevetaine” [tʃevetajnə] > cheftaine [ʃɛftɛn]
English: “Captain”
- capitaneus > chapitaneus: palatalization of the stop velar unvoiced [k] to the affricate [tʃ]
- chapitaneus > chapitaneus: middle affricate stage of “ch,” [tʃ] to the fricative post-alveolar voiceless [ʃ]
- chapitaneus > chabitaneus: in French, the stopped bilabial voiceless [p] evolves to the stopped bilabial voiced [b]
- chabitaneus > chavitaneus: in French, the stopped bilabial voiced [b] evolves to the fricative labiodental voiced [v]
- chavitaneus > chavitaneu: lenition of word final “s” in coda position
- chavitaneu > chavitane: lenition of word final “u” in coda position
- Chavitane > chavitaine: stressed [a] in a free syllable diphthongizes to [aj], which motivates the “ai” grapheme
- Chavitaine > chevitaine: non etymological change of low front [a] from Vulgar Latin in a free syllable becomes high mid front [e] in Middle French
- chevitaine > chevetaine: non etymological change from short ĭ in Vulgar Latin to become high mid front [e] in free syllable
- chevetaine > chevitaine: overcorrection of grapheme to reflect Latin etymon
- chevitaine > chevtaine: syncope of unstressed vowel [i] in coda position
- chevtaine > cheftaine: devoicing of [v] in coda position
- cheftaine [ʃɛftɛne] > cheftaine [ʃɛftɛn]: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced in Modern Standard French
COMPĀNIŌNEM [kompāniōnem] > “compaignon” [kɔmoajɲɔn] > compagnon [kɔ̃paɲɔ̃]
English: “companion”
- companionem > companione: lenition of word final [m] in coda position
- companione > companion: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced in Modern Standard French, and word final vowel “e” is deleted from the grapheme
- companion > compainon: stressed [a] in a free syllable diphthongizes to [aj], which motivates the “ai” grapheme
- compainon > compaignon: formation of nasal palatal voiced “gn” [ɲ] from palatal consonant cluster /N + yod/ = /N + j/ in “nio”
- compaignon > compagnon: overcorrection from Middle French into Modern Standard French by removing the “i” that was not present in the Latin etymon
- Compagnon kɔmpaɲɔn > compagnon [kɔ̃mpaɲɔ̃n]: [ŏ] in Classical Latin becomes [ɔ] in Vulgar Latin, both [ɔ] vowels become nasalized [ɔ̃] before the nasal consonants [n] and [m]
- Compagnon [kɔ̃mpaɲɔ̃n] > compagnon [kɔ̃paɲɔ̃]: [m] and [n] nasal vowels in coda position become unvoiced
PROPHETIA [profetia] > “prophecie” [profetsi] > prophétie [pʁɔfesi]
English: “prophecy”
- prophetia > prophetie: word final [a] in Vulgar Latin becomes the mid central [ə] represented as “e”
- prophetie > prophecie: affricate middle stage [ts] “cie” in Middle French
- prophecie > prophecie: palatalization of unvoiced alveolar stopped in the palatal cluster [t+j] “c” to fricative alveolar voiceless [s].
- prophecie > prophetie: overcorrection from Middle French into Modern Standard French by reverting the “c” to the “t” that was present in the Latin etymon, but the pronunciation remains [s]
- prophétie [pʁɔfesiə] > Prophétie[pʁɔfesi]: mid central [ə] becomes unvoiced in Modern Standard French, but the grapheme “e” remains
CONQUAERĔRE [konkajrĕre] > “conquerre” [konkerə] > conquérir [kɔ̃keʀiʀ]
English: “conquer”
- conquaerere > conquerere: evolution of the Classical Latin diphthong “ae”[aj] to [e] in Vulgar Latin, which remains in Middle French
- conquerere > conquerre: syncope of interconsonantal “e,” creation of germinate “RR” cluster which reflects the evolution of [r] into [ʀ]
- conquerre > conquerr: word final [e] in Vulgar Latin becomes stable [ə] in Middle French, which becomes unvoiced and is deleted from the grapheme
- conquerr > conquerir: degemination of “i” in the consonant cluster “RR”
- conquerir [konkeʀiʀ] > conquerir [kɔnkeʀiʀ]: [ŏ] in Classical Latin becomes [ɔ] in Vulgar Latin
- conquerir [kɔnkeʀiʀ] > conquerir [kɔ̃keʀiʀ]: nasalization of vowel [ɔ] before nasal consonant [n], subsequent syncope of [n], which remains unpronounced in the grapheme
- conquerir > conquérir: addition of diacritic (aigu)