Re: isle > ile?

On Fri, 12 Jan 2001, Barry Garcia wrote:

> I was looking at a book I had borrowed from my school's library, and in
> it, there is a French map of the Philippines dating from 1682. What struck
> me was that instead of ile, they used isle, for island (not odd in and of
> itself). It got me to wondering, was the s still pronounced then? If not,
> how long did it take for is to stop being pronounced in that word, and
> when did the French decide to write island as ile?
I don't have absolute dates, but the change in speech preceded the
writing reform by some centuries.  The circumflex is the last
trace of the s.

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter