Re: Norman French (was: Thorn vs Eth)
| From: | julien eychenne <eychenne.j@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, July 25, 2002, 8:12 |
|---|
>At 8:43 PM +0000 07/13/02, Ray Brown wrote:
>Could the -th be the same as found on words like truth, width,
>length, breadth, filth, strength, health, etc? The French root would
>then be fai- ...
I don't know exactly, but I am sure that french used to have word /fe:D/ (sorry
brackets don't work with this windows email client ). So it gave <foi> /fu^a/
(one could say this in not a diphtong, but I believe it is) from /e:/ > /e^i/
(diphtonguization) > /o^i/ (dissimation) > /u^e/ (mutual assimilation) > /u^E/
(influence of the velar /u/) > /u^a/ . The /D/ comes from regular latin
intervocalic /d/ (<fides> if I remember well).
But <oi> was concurrenced by <ai>, "I was" was <j'estois> or <j'estais> (now
<j'étais>), and that should explain the <ai> in english.