French -ois (jara: YAC: Widse -- a conlang based on Ygyde)
| From: | Jan van Steenbergen <ijzeren_jan@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, January 30, 2003, 18:12 |
|---|
--- Christophe skrzypszy:
> 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 ;))) .
Wasn't the ending |-ois| originally pronounced [we] in Old French? That's at
least what I remember from the year when I studied musicology (and my favourite
subject was Medieval music, especially Guillaume de Machaut and the Ars
Subtilior).
Jan
=====
"Originality is the art of concealing your source." - Franklin P. Jones
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Everything you'll ever need on one web page
from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts
http://uk.my.yahoo.com
Replies