Re: Old French II

On Tuesday, July 16, 2002, at 09:50 , John Cowan wrote:

> Christophe Grandsire scripsit:
>
>>>                 Charles li reis, nostre emperesdre magnes,
>>>                 Set anz totz pleinz ad ested in Espagnes.
>
> [snip]
>
>> Yep, Old French.
>
> Okay, since the text dates from 1100, we can agree that anything after
> that is French.
>
>> Well, I don't seem to be able to translate the second line, its syntax
>> looks
>> much too alien for me :(( .
>
> Well, I don't want to spoil your fun.  For me the key was to realize
> that "set" is modern "sept".
Well, yes the {p} is a post-renaissance learned interloper.   /pt/ had
become
/tt/ in western Romance way back in Vulgar Latin times, cf.
Italian:   sette
Catalan:   set
Spanish:   siete
Port.      sete

It was part of the same "learned movement" that stuck {b} into _debt_ and
_doubt_ which shouldn't really have them since they are derived from Old
French _dette_ and _doute_ respectively.   The French have sensibly
resisted
the attempt in these two words.

There were also some quite erroneous attempts to "restore" letters; e.g.
_diner_
(<-- V.L. *disjejunare) got spelt 'dipner' from a supposed connexion with
Greek
_deipnein_ 'to dine', and _savoir_ (<-- Lat. sape:re) got spelt 'sçavoir'
[second
letter is c-cedilla] from a mistaken connexion with Latin _scire_ 'to know'
.
Happily the French did not take to these spellings.  One false etymology
however
did stick: a completely silent and unwarranted {d} got stuck into _poids_
(weight)
from a mistaken connexion with Latin _pondus_.  The word is in fact
derived from
V.L. *pesU  (classical _pe:nsum_).    The intrusive {d} was unknown in Old
French.

set anz totz pleinz
all 7 years full

> FWIW, supposedly "ad ested" was pronounced [aD'Est@D].
till summer ?

Help - there doesn't seem to be a verb.

So, what does it mean?

Ray.

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