Re: isle > ile?

The dictionary of the French Academy (1777) has i^le.
A coin from the Isles du Vent (1731) has, well, isles.
So that gives a time frame in which it happened.

Padraic.

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?
>
>____________________________
>
>Yours truly,
>
>Cesar Javier Jaime Garcia
>