Phonological Changes from Latin to Old French
Phonology
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International
Phonetic Alphabet
Vowels
- Collapse of Vowel system from Latin to Old French
- Initial
- Unstressed
- Stressed
- Nasal
- Influence of Yod
Consonants
- Consonants in Latin
- Initial Consonants
- Consonant Clusters
- Palatalization
- Preconsonantal /k/ and /g/
- Influence of Yod
- Medial Consonants
- Intervocalic
- Assimilation
- Consonant Clusters
- Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- Secondary Consonant Clusters
- Epenthesis
- Vocalization of /l/ and formation of diphthongs
- Phonetic modifications due to flexional -s
- Dialectical differences
Phonology: How sounds are organized in the system.
Phonetics: A description of the sounds.
Phoneme: A phoneme is the smallest functional unit of language. The way a phoneme is identified is through a minimal pair. By looking at the words, law and low we can see that /p/ and /f/ are separate phonemes because law and low mean two
different things. If the substitution of a different sound in the same place doesn't change the meaning then the two sounds are merely allophones. For example, the words full and like in English have two different sounds for the letter "l." Ye
t if like were pronounced with the sound of the letter "l" in full, it would not be interpreted as a completely different word. In this case, the two representations would be alophones of the same phoneme.
Vowels
Classical Latin had a system of 10 vowels. The five main vowels that had counterparts that differed only in length. The way in which these vowels passed from Latin to Western Romance is represented in the following diagram:
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Intial Vowels
Loss of Vowel
- QUIRITARE>crier
- DIRECTU>droit
- *VERACU>OFverai(veraiement)
Apheresis
- ATAVIA > OFl'ataie > la taie cf. OF m'amie > ma mie
- APOTECA > boutique
- HEMICRANIA > migraine
Acretion
- IN DE MANE > OFl'endemain>lendemain
- HYDERA > l'ierre > lierre
Initial /a/
- AMICU > ami
- PARTIRE > partir
- ABBATE > abbé
Initial /au/
Initial /E/
- MINUTU > menu (open syll)
- VENIRE > venir (open syll)
- FIRMARE > fermer (closed cyll)
- SECURU > sëur > sû:r (reduction of 2 Vowels into hiatus)
Initial /O/
- CORONA > couronne
- LAUDARE > louer
- DORMIRE > dormir
- PORTARE > porter
Initial /i/
- HIBERNU > hiver
- CIVITATE > cité
- FIDARE > fier
Initial /u/
- DURARE > durer
- FUMARE > fumer
- MUTARE > muer
Unstressed
Stressed
Nasal
Influence of Yod
Consonants
A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X
Pronunciation of Consonants in Latin
| BS and BT | /ps/ and /pt/ | URBS | /urps/ |
| C always | /k/ | CIVIS | /kiwis/ |
| G always | /g/ | GERO | /gero/ |
| intitial I | /j/ | IUSTUS | /justus/ |
| S, SS | /s/ never /z/ | MISISTIS | /misistis |
| V | /w/ | VIVO | /wiwo/ |
| X | /ks/ | MIXTUM | /mikstu/ |
| CH | /k/ | CHORUS | /korus/ |
| TH | /t/ | THESARU | /tesaru/ |
| PH | /p/ | COLAPHU | /kolapu/ |
| or /f/ | PHILOSOPHIA | /filosofia/ |
| H | 0 | HORTUS | /ortus/ |
Initial Consonants
Initial consonants are generally retained. As in:
Some Germanic words changed from /w/ to /g/, as in:
Consonant Clusters
Initial consonant clusters: most remained the same, except with
Palatalization
Palatalization occurs most often in the following places: