Re: YAC: Widse -- a conlang based on Ygyde

En réponse à John Cowan <jcowan@...>:

>
> Pretty random, I think:  a good case is "francais" vs. "danais", now
> spelled
> "danois".  It's not likely that one dialect was used for "French" and
> another for "Danish".
>
You got it the wrong way round. Originally they were both spelt "françois"
and "danois" (the first one is kept in the first name François, pronounced
with /wa/, another proof of the randomness of this change :)) ), but "françois"
became spelt "français" to follow the sound. In the same way, the imperfect
endings in French used to be spelt "-ois, -oit, -oient" (now "-ais, -ait, -
aient"). It's the reason why English has "conoisseur" for French "connaisseur".
They borrowed it before the spelling reform ;))) .

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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