FRENCH GUINEA

french guinea, a french colony in west africa, formerly known as rivieres du sud. it is bounded w. by the atlantic, n. by portuguese guinea and senegal, e. by upper senegal and the ivory coast, and s. by liberia and sierra leone. with a sea-board running n.n.w. and s.s.e. from 10 deg. 50' n. to 9 deg. 2' n., a distance, without reckoning the indentations, of 170 m., the colony extends eastward 450 m. in a straight line and attains a maximum width n. to s. of nearly 300 m., covering fully 100,000 sq. m., and containing a population estimated at 2,000,000 to 2,500,000. _physical features._--though in one or two places rocky headlands jut into the sea, the coast is in general sandy, low, and much broken by rivers and deep estuaries, dotted with swampy islands, giving it the appearance of a vast delta. in about 9 deg. 30' n., off the promontory of konakry, lie the los islands (q.v.), forming part of the colony. the coast plain, formed of alluvial deposits, is succeeded about 30 m. inland by a line of cliffs, the susu hills, which form the first step in the terrace-like formation of the interior, culminating in the massif of futa jallon, composed chiefly of archean and granite rocks. while the coast lands are either densely forested or covered with savannas or park-like country, the futa jallon tableland is mainly covered with short herbage. this tableland, the hydrographic centre of west africa, is most elevated in its southern parts, where heights of 5000 ft. are found. near the sierra leone frontier this high land is continued westward to within 20 m. of the sea, where mount kakulima rises over 3300 ft. east and south of futa jallon the country slopes to the basin of the upper niger, the greater part of which is included in french guinea. the southern frontier is formed by the escarpments which separate the niger basin from those of the coast rivers of liberia. besides the niger, gambia and senegal, all separately noticed, a large number of streams running direct to the atlantic rise in futa jallon. among them are the great and little scarcies, whose lower courses are in sierra leone, and the rio grande which enters the sea in portuguese guinea. those whose courses are entirely in french guinea include the cogon (or componi), the rio nunez, the fatalla (which reaches the sea through an estuary named rio pongo), the konkure, whose estuary is named rio bramaya, the forekaria and the melakori. the cogon, fatallah and konkure are all large rivers which descend from the plateaus through deep, narrow valleys in rapids and cataracts, and are only navigable for a few miles from their mouth. _climate._--the climate of the coast district is hot, moist and unhealthy, with a season of heavy rain lasting from may to november, during which time variable winds, calms and tornadoes succeed one another. the mean temperature in the dry season, when the "harmattan" is frequent, is 62 deg. fahr., in the wet season 86 deg.. throughout the year the humidity of the air is very great. there is much rain in the futa jallon highlands, but the niger basin is somewhat drier. in that region and in the highlands the climate is fairly healthy for europeans and the heat somewhat less than on the coast. _flora and fauna._--the seashore and the river banks are lined with mangroves, but the most important tree of the coast belt is the oil-palm. the dense forests also contain many varieties of lianas or rubber vines, huge bombax and bamboos. gum-producing and kola trees are abundant, and there are many fruit trees, the orange and citron growing well in the susu and futa jallon districts. the cotton and coffee plants are indigenous; banana plantations surround the villages. the baobab and the karite (shea butter tree) are found only in the niger districts. the fauna is not so varied as was formerly the case, large game having been to a great extent driven out of the coast regions. the elephant is rare save in the niger regions. the lion is now only found in the northern parts of futa jallon; panthers, leopards, hyenas and wild cats are more common and the civet is found. hippopotamus, otter and the wild boar are numerous; a species of wild ox of small size with black horns and very agile is also found. the forests contain many kinds of monkeys, including huge chimpanzees; antelope are widespread but rather rare. serpents are very common, both venomous and non-venomous; the pythons attain a great size. fights between these huge serpents and the crocodiles which infest all the rivers are said to be not uncommon. turtles are abundant along the coasts and in the los islands. oysters are found in large numbers in the estuaries and fixed to the submerged parts of the mangroves. freshwater oysters, which attain a large size, are also found in the rivers, particularly in the niger. fish are abundant, one large-headed species, in the susu tongue called _khokon_, is so numerous as to have given its name to a province, kokunia. birds are very numerous; they include various eagles, several kinds of heron, the egret, the marabout, the crane and the pelican; turacos or plantain-eaters, are common, as are other brilliantly plumaged birds. green and grey parrots, ravens, swallows and magpies are also common. _inhabitants._--on the banks of the cogon dwell the tendas and iolas, primitive negro tribes allied to those of portuguese guinea (q.v.). all other inhabitants of french guinea are regarded as comparatively late arrivals from the interior who have displaced the aborigines.[1] among the earliest of the new comers are the baga, the nalu, the landuman and the timni, regarded as typical negroes (q.v.). this migration southward appears to have taken place before the 17th century. to-day the baga occupy the coast land between the cogon and the rio pongo, and the landuman the country immediately behind that of the baga. the other tribes named are but sparsely represented in french guinea, the coast region south of the nunez and all the interior up to futa jallon being occupied by the susu, a tribe belonging to the great mandingan race, which forced its way seaward about the beginning of the 18th century and pressed back the timni into sierra leone. futa jallon is peopled principally by fula (q.v.), and the rest of the country by malinke and other tribes of mandingo (q.v.). the mandingo, the fula and the susu are mahommedans, though the susu retain many of their ancient rites and beliefs--those associated with spirit worship and fetish, still the religion of the baga and other tribes. in the north-west part of futa jallon are found remnants of the aborigines, such as the tiapi, koniagui and the bassari, all typical negro tribes. the white inhabitants number a few hundreds only and are mainly french. many of the coast peoples show, however, distinct traces of white blood, the result chiefly of the former presence of european slave traders. thus at the rio pongo there are numerous mulattos. south of that river the coast tribes speak largely pidgin english. _towns._--the principal towns are konakry the capital, boke, on the rio nunez, dubreka, on the coast, a little north of konakry, benty, on the melakori, timbo and labe, the chief towns of futa jallon, heremakono and kindia, on the main road to the niger, kurussa and siguiri, on a navigable stretch of that river, and bissandugu, formerly samory's capital, an important military station east of the niger. konakry, in 9 deg. 30' n., 13 deg. 46' w., population about 20,000, is the one port of entry on the coast. it is built on the little island of tombo which lies off the promontory of konakry, the town being joined to the mainland by an iron bridge. during the administration of noel ballay (1848-1902), governor of the colony 1890-1900, konakry was transformed from a place of small importance to one of the chief ports on the west coast of africa and a serious rival to freetown, sierra leone. it has since grown considerably, and is provided with wharves and docks and a jetty 1066 ft. long. there is an ample supply of good water, and a large public garden in the centre of the town. in front of government house is a statue of m. ballay. konakry is a port of call for french, british and german steamship companies, and is in telegraphic communication with europe. it is the starting-point of a railway to the niger (see below). the retail trade is in the hands of syrians. the town is governed by a municipality. _products and industry._--french guinea possesses a fertile soil, and is rich in tropical produce. the chief products are rubber, brought from the interior, and palm oil and palm kernels, obtained in the coast regions. cotton is cultivated in the niger basin. gum copal, ground-nuts and sesame are largely cultivated, partly for export. among minor products are coffee, wax and ivory. large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are raised in futa jallon; these are sent in considerable numbers to sierra leone, liberia and french congo. the trade in hides is also of considerable value. the chief grain raised is millet, the staple food of the people. the rubber is mainly exported to england, the palm products to germany, and the ground-nuts to france. the principal imports are cotton goods, of which 80% come from great britain, rice, kola nuts, chiefly from liberia, spirits, tobacco, building material, and arms and ammunition, chiefly "trade guns." the average annual value of the trade for the period 1900-1907 was about l1,250,000, the annual export of rubber alone being worth l400,000 or more. the great bulk of the trade of the colony is with france and great britain, the last-named country taking about 45% of the total; germany comes third. since april 1905 a surtax of 7% has been imposed on all goods of other than french origin. _communications._--the railway from konakry to the niger at kurussa, by the route chosen a distance of 342 m., was begun in 1900, and from 1902 has been built directly by the colony. the first section to kindia, 93 m., was opened in 1904. the second section, to near timbo in futa jallon, was completed in 1907, and the rails reached kurussa in 1910. from kurussa the niger is navigable at high water all the way to bamako in upper senegal, whence there is communication by rail and river with st louis and timbuktu. besides the railway there is an excellent road, about 390 m. long, from konakry to kurussa, the road in its lower part being close to the sierra leone frontier, with the object of diverting trade from that british colony. several other main roads have been built by the french, and there is a very complete telegraphic system, the lines having been connected with those of senegal in 1899. _history._--this part of the guinea coast was made known by the portuguese voyagers of the 15th century. in consequence, largely, of the dangers attending its navigation, it was not visited by the european traders of the 16th-18th centuries so frequently as other regions north and east, but in the rio pongo, at matakong (a diminutive island near the mouth of the forekaria), and elsewhere, slave traders established themselves, and ruins of the strongholds they built, and defended with cannon, still exist. when driven from other parts of guinea the slavers made this difficult and little known coast one of their last resorts, and many barracoons were built in the late years of the 18th century. it was not until after the restoration of goree to her at the close of the napoleonic wars that france evinced any marked interest in this region. at that time the british, from their bases at the gambia and sierra leone, were devoting considerable attention to these rivieres du sud (i.e. south of senegal) and also to futa jallon. rene caillie, who started his journey to timbuktu from boke in 1827, did much to quicken french interest in the district, and from 1838 onward french naval officers, bouet-willaumez and his successors, made detailed studies of the coast. about the time that the british government became wearied of its efforts to open up the interior of west africa, general faidherbe was appointed governor of senegal (1854), and under his direction vigorous efforts were made to consolidate french influence. already in 1848 treaty relations had been entered into with the nalu, and between that date and 1865 treaties of protectorate were signed with several of the coast tribes. during 1876-1880 new treaties were concluded with the chief tribes, and in 1881 the almany (or emir) of futa jallon placed his country under french protection, the french thus effectually preventing the junction, behind the coast lands, of the british colonies of the gambia and sierra leone. the right of france to the littoral as far south as the basin of the melakori was recognized by great britain in 1882; germany (which had made some attempt to acquire a protectorate at konakry) abandoned its claims in 1885, while in 1886 the northern frontier was settled in agreement with portugal, which had ancient settlements in the same region (see portuguese guinea). in 1899 the limits of the colony were extended, on the dismemberment of the french sudan, to include the upper niger districts. in 1904 the los islands were ceded by great britain to france, in part return for the abandonment of french fishing rights in newfoundland waters. (see also senegal: _history_.) french guinea was made a colony independent of senegal in 1891, but in 1895 came under the supreme authority of the newly constituted governor-generalship of french west africa. guinea has a considerable measure of autonomy and a separate budget. it is administered by a lieutenant-governor, assisted by a nominated council. revenue is raised principally from customs and a capitation tax, which has replaced a hut tax. the local budget for 1907 balanced at l205,000. over the greater part of the country the native princes retain their sovereignty under the superintendence of french officials. the development of agriculture and education are objects of special solicitude to the french authorities. in general the natives are friendly towards their white masters. see m. famechon, _notice sur la guinee francaise_ (paris, 1900); j. chautard, _etude geophysique et geologique sur le fouta-djallon_ (paris, 1905); andre arcin, _la guinee francaise_ (paris, 1906), a valuable monograph; j. machat, _les rivieres du sud et la fouta-diallon_ (paris, 1906), another valuable work, containing exhaustive bibliographies. consult also f. rouget, _la guinee_ (paris, 1908), an official publication, the annual _reports_ on french west africa, published by the british foreign office, and the carte de la guinee francaise by a. meunier in 4 sheets on the scale 1:500,000 (paris, 1902). footnote: [1] numerous remains of a stone age have been discovered, both on the coast and in the hinterland. see l. desplagnes, "l'archeologie prehistorique en guinee francaise," in _bull. soc. geog. comm. de bordeaux_, march 1907, and the authorities there cited. french language. i. _geography._--french is the general name of the north-north-western group of romanic dialects, the modern latin of northern gaul (carried by emigration to some places--as lower canada--out of france). in a restricted sense it is that variety of the parisian dialect which is spoken by the educated, and is the general literary language of france. the region in which the native language is termed french consists of the northern half of france (including lorraine) and parts of belgium and switzerland; its boundaries on the west are the atlantic ocean and the celtic dialects of brittany; on the north-west and north, the english channel; on the north-east and east the teutonic dialects of belgium, germany and switzerland. in the south-east and south the boundary is to a great extent conventional and ill-defined, there being originally no linguistic break between the southern french dialects and the northern provencal dialects of southern france, north-western italy and south-western switzerland. it is formed partly by spaces of intermediate dialects (some of whose features are french, others provencal), partly by spaces of mixed dialects resulting from the invasion of the space by more northern and more southern settlers, partly by lines where the intermediate dialects have been suppressed by more northern (french) and more southern (provencal) dialects without these having mixed. starting in the west at the mouth of the gironde, the boundary runs nearly north soon after passing bordeaux; a little north of angouleme it turns to the east, and runs in this direction into switzerland to the north of geneva. ii. _external history._--(a) _political._--by the roman conquests the language of rome was spread over the greater part of southern and western europe, and gradually supplanted the native tongues. the language introduced was at first nearly uniform over the whole empire, latin provincialisms and many more or less general features of the older vulgar language being suppressed by the preponderating influence of the educated speech of the capital. as legions became stationary, as colonies were formed, and as the natives adopted the language of their conquerors, this language split up into local dialects, the distinguishing features of which are due, as far as can be ascertained (except, to some extent, as to the vocabulary), not to speakers of different nationalities misspeaking latin, each with the peculiarities of his native language, but to the fact that linguistic changes, which are ever occurring, are not perfectly uniform over a large area, however homogeneous the speakers. as gaul was not conquered by caesar till the middle of the first century before our era, its latin cannot have begun to differ from that of rome till after that date; but the artificial retention of classical latin as the literary and official language after the popular spoken language had diverged from it, often renders the chronology of the earlier periods of the romanic languages obscure. it is, however, certain that the popular latin of gaul had become differentiated from that of central italy before the teutonic conquest of gaul, which was not completed till the latter half of the 5th century; the invaders gradually adopted the language of their more civilized subjects, which remained unaffected, except in its vocabulary. probably by this time it had diverged so widely from the artificially preserved literary language that it could no longer be regarded merely as mispronounced latin; the latin documents of the next following centuries contain many clearly popular words and forms, and the literary and popular languages are distinguished as _latina_ and _romana_. the term _gallica_, at first denoting the native celtic language of gaul, is found applied to its supplanter before the end of the 9th century, and survives in the breton _gallek_, the regular term for "french." after the franks in gaul had abandoned their native teutonic language, the term _francisca_, by which this was denoted, came to be applied to the romanic one they adopted, and, under the form _francaise_, remains its native name to this day; but this name was confined to the romanic of northern gaul, which makes it probable that this, at the time of the adoption of the name _francisca_, had become distinct from the romanic of southern gaul. _francisca_ is the teutonic adjective _frankisk_, which occurs in old english in the form _frencise_; this word, with its umlauted _e_ from _a_ with following _i_, survives under the form _french_, which, though purely teutonic in origin and form, has long been exclusively applied to the romanic language and inhabitants of gaul. the german name _franzose_, with its accent on, and _o_ in, the second syllable, comes from _francois_, a native french form older than _francais_, but later than the early old french _franceis_. the scandinavian settlers on the north-west coast of france early in the 10th century quickly lost their native speech, which left no trace except in some contributions to the vocabulary of the language they adopted. the main feature since is the growth of the political supremacy of paris, carrying with it that of its dialect; in 1539 francis i. ordered that all public documents should be in french (of paris), which then became the official language of the whole kingdom, though it is still foreign to nearly half its population. the conquest of england in 1066 by william, duke of normandy, introduced into england, as the language of the rulers and (for a time) most of the writers, the dialects spoken in normandy (see also anglo-norman literature). confined in their native country to definite areas, these dialects, following their speakers, became mixed in england, so that their forms were used to some extent indifferently; and the constant communication with normandy maintained during several reigns introduced also later forms of continental norman. as the conquerors learned the language of the conquered, and as the more cultured of the latter learned that of the former, the norman of england (including that of the english-speaking lowlands of scotland) became anglicized; instead of following the changes of the norman of france, it followed those of english. the accession in 1154 of henry ii. of anjou disturbed the norman character of anglo-french, and the loss of normandy under john in 1204 gave full play to the literary importance of the french of paris, many of whose forms afterwards penetrated to england. at the same time english, with a large french addition to its vocabulary, was steadily recovering its supremacy, and is officially employed (for the first time since the conquest) in the proclamation of henry iii., 1258. the semi-artificial result of this mixture of french of different dialects and of different periods, more or less anglicized according to the date or education of the speaker or writer, is generally termed "the anglo-norman dialect"; but the term is misleading for a great part of its existence, because while the french of normandy was not a single dialect, the later french of england came from other french provinces besides normandy, and being to a considerable extent in artificial conditions, was checked in the natural development implied by the term "dialect." the disuse of anglo-french as a natural language is evidenced by english being substituted for it in legal proceedings in 1362, and in schools in 1387; but law reports were written in it up to about 1600, and, converted into modern literary french, it remains in official use for giving the royal assent to bills of parliament. (b) _literary._--doubtless because the popular latin of northern gaul changed more rapidly than that of any other part of the empire, french was, of all the romanic dialects, the first to be recognized as a distinct language, and the first to be used in literature; and though the oldest specimen now extant is probably not the first, it is considerably earlier than any existing documents of the allied languages. in 813 the council of tours ordered certain homilies to be translated into rustic roman or into german; and in 842 louis the german, charles the bald, and their armies confirmed their engagements by taking oaths in both languages at strassburg. these have been preserved to us by the historian nithard (who died in 853); and though, in consequence of the only existing manuscript (at paris) being more than a century later than the time of the author, certain alterations have occurred in the text of the french oaths, they present more archaic forms (probably of north-eastern french) than any other document. the next memorials are a short poem, probably north-eastern, on st eulalia, preserved in a manuscript of the 10th century at valenciennes, and some autograph fragments (also at valenciennes) of a homily on the prophet jonah, in mixed latin and eastern french, of the same period. to the same century belong a poem on christ's passion, apparently in a mixed (not intermediate) language of french and provencal, and one, probably in south-eastern french, on st leger; both are preserved, in different handwritings, in a ms. at clermont-ferrand, whose scribes have introduced many provencal forms. after the middle of the 11th century literary remains are comparatively numerous; the chief early representative of the main dialects are the following, some of them preserved in several mss., the earliest of which, however (the only ones here mentioned), are in several cases a generation or two later than the works themselves. in western french are a verse life of st alexius (alexis), probably norman, in an anglo-norman ms. at hildesheim; the epic poem of roland, possibly also norman, in an a.-n. ms. at oxford; a norman verbal translation of the psalms, in an a.-n. ms. also at oxford; another later one, from a different latin version, in an a.-n. ms. at cambridge; a norman translation of the four books of kings, in a probably a.-n. ms. at paris. the earliest work in the parisian dialect is probably the travels of charlemagne, preserved in a late anglo-norman ms. with much altered forms. in eastern french, of rather later date, there are translations of the dialogues of pope gregory, in a ms. at paris, containing also fragments of gregory's moralities, and (still later) of some sermons of st bernard, in a ms. also in paris. from the end of the 12th century literary and official documents, often including local charters, abound in almost every dialect, until the growing influence of paris caused its language to supersede in writing the other local ones. this influence, occasionally apparent about the end of the 12th century, was overpowering in the 15th, when authors, though often displaying provincialisms, almost all wrote in the dialect of the capital; the last dialect to lose its literary independence was the north-eastern, which, being the romanic language of flanders, had a political life of its own, and (modified by parisian) was used in literature after 1400. iii. _internal history._--though much has been done in recent years, in the scientific investigation of the sounds, inflexions, and syntax of the older stages and dialects of french, much still remains to be done, and it must suffice here to give a sketch, mainly of the dialects which were imported into england by the normans--in which english readers will probably take most interest, and especially of the features which explain the forms of english words of french origin. dates and places are only approximations, and many statements are liable to be modified by further researches. the primitive latin forms given are often not classical latin words, but derivatives from these; and reference is generally made to the middle english (chaucerian) pronunciation of english words, not the modern. (a) _vocabulary._--the fundamental part of the vocabulary of french is the latin imported into gaul, the french words being simply the latin words themselves, with the natural changes undergone by all living speech, or derivatives formed at various dates. comparatively few words were introduced from the celtic language of the native inhabitants (_bec_, _lieue_ from the celtic words given by latin writers as _beccus_, _leuca_), but the number adopted from the language of the teutonic conquerors of gaul is large (_guerre_ = _werra_; _laid_ = _laidh_; _choisir_ = _kausjan_). the words were imported at different periods of the teutonic supremacy, and consequently show chronological differences in their sounds (_hair_ = _hatan_; _francais_ = _frankisk_; _ecrevisse_ = _krebiz_; _echine_ = _skina_). small separate importations of teutonic words resulted from the scandinavian settlement in france, and the commercial intercourse with the low german nations on the north sea (_friper_ = norse _hripa_; _chaloupe_ = dutch _sloop_; _est_ = old english _east_). in the meantime, as latin (with considerable alterations in pronunciation, vocabulary, &c.) continued in literary, official and ecclesiastical use, the popular language borrowed from time to time various more or less altered classical latin words; and when the popular language came to be used in literature, especially in that of the church, these importations largely increased (_virginitet_ eulalia = _virginitatem_; _imagena_ alexis = _imaginem_--the popular forms would probably have been _vergedet_, _emain_). at the renaissance they became very abundant, and have continued since, stifling to some extent the developmental power of the language. imported words, whether teutonic, classical latin or other, often receive some modification at their importation, and always take part in all subsequent natural phonetic changes in the language (early old french _adversarie_, modern french _adversaire_). those french words which appear to contradict the phonetic laws were mostly introduced into the language after the taking place (in words already existing in the language) of the changes formulated by the laws in question; compare the late imported _laique_ with the inherited _lai_, both from latin _laicum_. in this and many other cases the language possesses two forms of the same latin word, one descended from it, the other borrowed (_meuble_ and _mobile_ from _mobilem_). some oriental and other foreign words were brought in by the crusaders (_amiral_ from _amir_); in the 16th century, wars, royal marriages and literature caused a large number of italian words (_soldat_ = _soldato_; _brave_ = _bravo_; _caresser_ = _carezzare_) to be introduced, and many spanish ones (_alcove_ = _alcoba_; _habler_ = _hablar_). a few words have been furnished by provencal (_abeille_, _cadenas_), and several have been adopted from other dialects into the french of paris (_esquiver_ norman or picard for the paris-french _eschiver_). german has contributed a few (_blocus_ = _blochus_; _choucroute_ = _surkrut_); and recently a considerable number have been imported from england (_drain_, _confortable_, _flirter_). in old french, new words are freely formed by derivation, and to a less extent by composition; in modern french, borrowing from latin or other foreign languages is the more usual course. of the french words now obsolete some have disappeared because the things they express are obsolete; others have been replaced by words of native formation, and many have been superseded by foreign words generally of literary origin; of those which survive, many have undergone considerable alterations in meaning. a large number of old french words and meanings, now extinct in the language of paris, were introduced into english after the norman conquest; and though some have perished, many have survived--_strife_ from old french _estrif_ (teutonic _strit_); _quaint_ from _cointe_ (_cognitum_); _remember_ from _remembrer_ (_rememorare_); _chaplet_ (garland) from _chapelet_ (modern french "chaplet of beads"); _appointment_ (rendezvous) from _appointement_ (now "salary"). many also survive in other french dialects. (b) _dialects._--the history of the french language from the period of its earliest extant literary memorials is that of the dialects composing it. but as the popular notion of a dialect as the speech of a definite area, possessing certain peculiarities confined to and extending throughout that area, is far from correct, it will be advisable to drop the misleading divisions into "norman dialect," "picard dialect" and the like, and take instead each important feature in the chronological order (as far as can be ascertained) of its development, pointing out roughly the area in which it exists, and its present state. the local terms used are intentionally vague, and it does not, for instance, at all follow that because "eastern" and "western" are used to denote the localities of more than one dialectal feature, the boundary line between the two divisions is the same in each case. it is, indeed, because dialectal differences as they arise do not follow the same boundary lines (much less the political divisions of provinces), but cross one another to any extent, that to speak of the dialect of a large area as an individual whole, unless that area is cut off by physical or alien linguistic boundaries, creates only confusion. thus the central french of paris, the ancestor of classical modern french, agrees with a more southern form of romanic (limousin, auvergne, forez, lyonnais, dauphine) in having _ts_, not _tsh_, for latin _k_ (_c_) before _i_ and _e_; _tsh_, not _k_, for _k_ (_c_) before _a_; and with the whole south in having _gu_, not _w_, for teutonic _w_; while it belongs to the east in having _oi_ for earlier _ei_; and to the west in having _e_, not _ei_, for latin _a_; and _i_, not _ei_, from latin _e_ + _i_. it may be well to denote that southern _french_ does not correspond to southern _france_, whose native language is provencal. "modern french" means ordinary educated parisian french. (e) _phonology._--the history of the sounds of a language is, to a considerable extent, that of its inflections, which, no less than the body of a word, are composed of sounds. this fact, and the fact that unconscious changes are much more reducible to law than conscious ones, render the phonology of a language by far the surest and widest foundation for its dialectology, the importance of the sound-changes in this respect depending, not on their prominence, but on the earliness of their date. for several centuries after the divergence between spoken and written latin, the history of these changes has to be determined mainly by reasoning, aided by a little direct evidence in the misspellings of inscriptions the semi-popular forms in glossaries, and the warnings of latin grammarians against vulgarities. with the rise of romanic literature the materials for tracing the changes become abundant, though as they do not give us the sounds themselves, but only their written representations, much difficulty, and some uncertainty, often attach to deciphering the evidence. fortunately, early romanic orthography, that of old french included (for which see next section), was phonetic, as italian orthography still is; the alphabet was imperfect, as many new sounds had to be represented which were not provided for in the roman alphabet from which it arose, but writers aimed at representing the sounds they uttered, not at using a fixed combination of letters for each word, however they pronounced it. the characteristics of french as distinguished from the allied languages and from latin, and the relations of its sounds, inflections and syntax to those of the last-named language, belong to the general subject of the romanic languages. it will be well, however, to mention here some of the features in which it agrees with the closely related provencal, and some in which it differs. as to the latter, it has already been pointed out that the two languages glide insensibly into one another, there being a belt of dialects which possess some of the features of each. french and provencal of the 10th century--the earliest date at which documents exist in both--agree to a great extent in the treatment of latin final consonants and the vowels preceding them, a matter of great importance for inflections (numerous french examples occur in this section), (1) they reject all vowels, except _a_, of latin final (unaccented) syllables, unless preceded by certain consonant combinations or followed by _nt_ (here, as elsewhere, certain exceptions cannot be noticed); (2) they do not reject _a_ similarly situated; (3) they reject final (unaccented) _m_; (4) they retain final s. french and northern provencal also agree in changing latin _ue_ from a labio-guttural to a labio-palatal vowel; the modern sound (german _ue_) of the accented vowel of french _lune_, provencal _luna_, contrasting with that in italian and spanish _luna_, appears to have existed before the earliest extant documents. the final vowel laws generally apply to the unaccented vowel preceding the accented syllable, if it is preceded by another syllable, and followed by a single consonant--_matin_ (_matutinum_), _dortoir_ (_dormitorium_), with vowel dropped; _canevas_ (_cannabaceum_), _armedure_, later _armeure_, now _armure_ (_armaturam_), with _e_ = _[schwa]_, as explained below. on the other hand, french differs from provencal: (1) in uniformly preserving (in early old french) latin final _t_, which is generally rejected in provencal--french _aimet_ (latin _amat_), provencal _ama_; _aiment_ (_amant_), prov. _aman_; (2) in always rejecting, absorbing or consonantizing the vowel of the last syllable but one, if unaccented; in such words as _angele_ (often spelt _angle_), the _e_ after the _g_ only serves to show its soft sound--french _veintre_ (now _vaincre_, latin _vincere_), prov. _vencer_, with accent on first syllable; french _esclandre_ (_scandalum_), prov. _escandol_; french _olie_ (dissyllabic, _i_ = _y_ consonant, now _huile_), prov. _oli_ (_oleum_); (3) in changing accented _a_ not in position into _ai_ before nasals and gutturals and not after a palatal, and elsewhere into _e_ (west french) or _ei_ (east french), which develops an _i_ before it when preceded by a palatal--french _main_ (latin _manum_), prov. _man_; _aigre_ (_acrem_), _agre_; _ele_ (_alam_), east french _eile_, prov. _ala_; _meitie_ (_medietatem_), east french _moitieit_, prov. _meitat_; (4) in changing _a_ in unaccented final syllables into the vowel _[schwa]_, intermediate to _a_ and _e_; this vowel is written _a_ in one or two of the older documents, elsewhere _e_--french _aime_ (latin _ama_), prov. _ama_; _aimes_ (_amas_), prov. _amas_; _aimet_ (_amat_), prov. _ama_; (5) in changing original _au_ into _o_--french _or_ (_aurum_), prov. _aur_; _rober_ (teutonic _raubon_), prov. _raubar_; (6) in changing general romanic _e_, from accented _e_ and _i_ not in position, into _ei_--french _veine_ (_venam_), prov. _vena_; _peil_ (_pilum_), prov. _pel_. as some of the dialectal differences were in existence at the date of the earliest extant documents, and as the existing materials, till the latter half of the 11th century, are scanty and of uncertain locality, the chronological order (here adopted) of the earlier sound-changes is only tentative. (1) northern french has _tsh_ (written _c_ or _ch_) for latin _k_ (_c_) and _t_ before palatal vowels, where central and southern french have _ts_ (written _c_ or _z_)--north norman and picard _chire_ (_ceram_), _brach_ (_brachium_), _plache_ (_plateam_); parisian, south norman, &c., _cire_, _braz_, _place_. before the close of the early old french period (12th century) _ts_ loses its initial consonant, and the same happened to _tsh_ a century or two later; with this change the old distinction is maintained--modern guernsey and picard _chire_, modern picard _plache_ (in ordinary modern french spelling); usual french _cire_, _place_. english, having borrowed from north and south norman (and later parisian), has instances of both _tsh_ and _s_, the former in comparatively small number--_chisel_ (modern french _ciseau_ = (?) _caesellum_), _escutcheon_ (_ecusson_, _scutionem_); _city_ (_cite_, _civitatem_), _place_. (2) initial teutonic _w_ is retained in the north-east and along the north coast; elsewhere, as in the other romance languages, _g_ was prefixed--picard, &c., _warde_ (teutonic _warda_), _werre_ (_werra_); parisian, &c., _guarde_, _guerre_. in the 12th century the _u_ or _w_ of _gu_ dropped, giving the modern french _garde_, _guerre_ (with _gu_ = _g_); _w_ remains in picard and walloon, but in north normandy it becomes _v_--modern guernsey _vason_, walloon _wazon_, modern french _gazon_ (teutonic _wason_). english has both forms, sometimes in words originally the same--_wage_ and _gage_ (modern french _gage_, teutonic _wadi_); _warden_ and _guardian_ (_gardien_, _warding_). (3) latin _b_ after accented _a_ in the imperfect of the first conjugation, which becomes _v_ in eastern french, in western french further changes to _w_, and forms the diphthong _ou_ with the preceding vowel--norman _amowe_ (_amabam_), _portout_ (_portabat_); burgundian _ameve_, _portevet_. _-eve_ is still retained in some places, but generally the imperfect of the first conjugation is assimilated to that of the others--amoit, like _avoit_ (_habebat_). (4) the palatalization of every then existing _k_ and _g_ (hard) when followed by _a_, _i_ or _e_, after having caused the development of _i_ before the _e_ (east french _ei_) derived from _a_ not in position, is abandoned in the north, the consonants returning to ordinary _k_ or _g_, while in the centre and south they are assibilated to _tsh_ or _dzh_--north norman and picard _cachier_ (_captiare_), _kier_ (_carum_), _cose_ (_causam_), _eskiver_ (teutonic _skiuhan_), _wiket_ (teutonic _wik_+_ittum_), _gal_ (_gallum_), _gardin_ (from teutonic _gard_); south norman and parisian _chacier_, _chier_, _chose_, _eschiver_, _guichet_, _jal_, _jardin_. probably in the 14th century the initial consonant of _tsh_, _dzh_ disappeared, giving the modern french _chasser_, _jardin_ with _ch_ = _sh_ and _j_ = _zh_; but _tsh_ is retained in walloon, and _dzh_ in lorraine. the northern forms survive--modern guernsey _cachier_, _gardin_; picard _cacher_, _gardin_. english possesses numerous examples of both forms, sometimes in related words--_catch_ and _chase_; _wicket_, _eschew_; _garden_, _jaundice_ (_jaunisse_, from _galbanum_). (5) for latin accented _a_ not in position western french usually has _e_, eastern french _ei_, both of which take an _i_ before them when a palatal precedes--norman and parisian _per_ (_parem_), _oiez_ (_audiatis_); lorraine _peir_, _oieis_. in the 17th and 18th centuries close _e_ changed to open _e_, except when final or before a silent consonant--_amer_ (_amarum_) now having _e_, _aimer_ (_amare_) retaining _e_. english shows the western close _e_--_peer_ (modern french _pair_, old french _per_), _chief_ (_chef_, _caput_); middle high german the eastern _ei_--_lameir_ (modern french _l'amer_, _l'aimer_, _la mer_ = latin _mare_). (6) latin accented _e_ not in position, when it came to be followed in old french by _i_ unites with this to form _i_ in the western dialects, while the eastern have the diphthongs _ei_--picard, norman and parisian _pire_ (_pejor_), _piz_ (_pectus_); burgundian _peire_, _peiz_. the distinction is still preserved--modern french _pire_, _pis_; modern burgundian _peire_, _pei_. english words show always _i_--_price_ (_prix_, _pretium_) _spite_ (_depit_, _despectum_). (7) the nasalization of vowels followed by a nasal consonant did not take place simultaneously with all the vowels. _a_ and _e_ before _n_ (guttural _n_, as in _sing_), _n_ (palatal _n_), _n_ and _m_ were nasal in the 11th century, such words as _tant_ (_tantum_) and _gent_ (_gentem_) forming in the alexis assonances to themselves, distinct from the assonances with _a_ and _e_ before non-nasal consonants. in the roland _umbre_ (_ombre_, _umbram_) and _culchet_ (_couche_, _collocat_), _fier_ (_ferum_) and _chiens_ (_canes_), _dit_ (_dictum_) and _vint_ (_venit_), _ceinte_ (_cinctam_) and _veie_ (_voie_, _viam_), _brun_ (teutonic _brun_) and _fut_ (_fuit_) assonate freely, though _o_ (_u_) before nasals shows a tendency to separation. the nasalization of _i_ and _u_ (= modern french _u_) did not take place till the 16th century; and in all cases the loss of the following nasal consonant is quite modern, the older pronunciation of _tant_, _ombre_ being _tant_, _ombr[schwa]_, not as now _ta_, _obrh_. the nasalization took place whether the nasal consonant was or was not followed by a vowel, _femme_ (_feminam_), _honneur_ (_honorem_) being pronounced with nasal vowels m the first syllable till after the 16th century, as indicated by the doubling of the nasal consonant in the spelling and by the phonetic change (in _femme_ and other words) next to be mentioned. english generally has _au_ (now often reduced to _a_) for old french _a_--_vaunt_ (_vanter_, _vanitare_), _tawny_ (_tanne_ (?) celtic). (8) the assimilation of _[~e]_ (nasal _e_) to _a_ (nasal _a_) did not begin till the middle of the 11th century, and is not yet universal, in france, though generally a century later. in the alexis nasal _a_ (as in _tant_) is never confounded with nasal _e_ (as in _gent_) in the assonances, though the copyist (a century later) often writes _a_ for nasal _e_ in unaccented syllables, as in _amfant_ (_enfant_, _infantem_); in the roland there are several cases of mixture in the assonances, _gent_, for instance, occurring in _ant_ stanzas, _tant_ in _ent_ ones. english has several words with _a_ for _e_ before nasals--_rank_ (_rang_, old french _renc_, teutonic _hringa_), _pansy_ (_pensee_, _pensatam_); but the majority show _e_--_enter_ (_entrer_, _intrare_), _fleam_ (_flamme_, old french _fleme_, _phlebotomum_). the distinction is still preserved in the norman of guernsey, where _an_ and _en_, though both nasal, have different sounds--_lanchier_ (_lancer_, _lanceare_), but _mentrie_ (old french _menterie_, from _mentiri_). (9) the loss of _s_, or rather _z_, before voiced consonants began early, _s_ being often omitted or wrongly inserted in 12th century mss.--earliest old french _masle_ (_masculum_), _sisdre_ (_siceram_); modern french _male_, _cidre_. in english it has everywhere disappeared--_male_, _cider_; except in two words, where it appears, as occasionally in old french, as _d_--_meddle_ (_meler_, _misculare_), _medlar_ (_neflier_, old french also _meslier_, _mespilarium_). the loss of _s_ before voiceless consonants (except _f_) is about two centuries later, and it is not universal even in parisian--early old french _feste_ (_festam_), _escuier_ (_scutarium_); modern french _fete_, _ecuyer_, but _esperer_ (_sperare_). in the north-east _s_ before _t_ is still retained--walloon _chestai_ (_chateau_, _castellum_), _fiess_ (_fete_). english shows _s_ regularly--_feast_, _esquire_. (10) medial _dh_ (soft _th_, as in _then_), and final _th_ from latin _t_ or _d_ between vowels, do not begin to disappear till the latter half of the 11th century. in native french mss. _dh_ is generally written _d_, and _th_ written _t_; but the german scribe of the oaths writes _adjudha_ (_adjutam_), _cadhuna_ (greek _kata_ and _unam_); and the english one of the alexis _cuntretha_ (_contratam_), _lothet_ (_laudatum_), and that of the cambridge psalter _heriteth_ (_hereditatem_). medial _dh_ often drops even in the last-named mss., and soon disappears; the same is true for final _th_ in western french--modern french _contree_, _loue_. but in eastern french final _th_, to which latin _t_ between vowels had probably been reduced through _d_ and _dh_, appears in the 12th century and later as _t_, rhyming on ordinary french final _t_--picard and burgundian _pechiet_ (_peccatum_) _apeleit_ (_appellatum_). in western french some final _ths_ were saved by being changed to _f_--modern french _soif_ (_sitim_), _moeuf_ (obsolete, _modum_). english has one or two instances of final _th_, none of medial _dh_--_faith_ (_foi_, _fidem_); middle english _caritet_ (_charite_, _caritatem_), _druteth_ (old french _dru_, teutonic _drud_); generally the consonant is lost--_country_, _charity_. middle high german shows the eastern french final consonant--_moraliteit_ (_moralite_, _moralitatem_). (11) _t_ from latin final _t_, if in an old french unaccented syllable, begins to disappear in the roland, where sometimes _aimet_ (_amat_), sometimes _aime_, is required by the metre, and soon drops in all dialects. the modern french _t_ of _aime-t-il_ and similar forms is an analogical insertion from such forms as _dort-il_ (_dormit_), where the _t_ has always existed. (12) the change of the diphthong _ai_ to _ei_ and afterwards to _ee_ (the doubling indicates length) had not taken place in the earliest french documents, words with _ai_ assonating only on words with _a_; in the roland such assonances occur, but those of _ai_ on _e_ are more frequent--_faire_ (_facere_) assonating on _parastre_ (_patraster_) and on _estes_ (_estis_); and the ms. (half a century later than the poem) occasionally has _ei_ and _e_ for _ai_--_recleimet_ (_reclamat_), _desfere_ (_disfacere_), the latter agreeing with the modern french sound. before nasals (as in _laine_ = _lanam_) and _ie_ (as in _paye_ = _pacatum_), _ai_ remained a diphthong up to the 16th century, being apparently _ei_, whose fate in this situation it has followed. english shows _ai_ regularly before nasals and when final, and in a few other words--_vain_ (_vain_, _vanum_), _pay_ (_payer_, _pacare_), _wait_ (_guetter_, teutonic _wahten_); but before most consonants it has usually _ee_--_peace_ (_pais_, _pacum_), _feat_ (_fait_, _factum_). (13) the loss or transposition of _i_ (= y-consonant) following the consonant ending an accented syllable begins in the 12th century--early old french _glorie_ (_gloriam_), _estudie_ (_studium_), _olie_ (_oleum_); modern french _gloire_, _etude_, _huile_. english sometimes shows the earlier form--_glory_, _study_; sometimes the later--_dower_ (_douaire_, early old french _doarie_, _dotarium_), _oil_ (_huile_). (14) the vocalization of _l_ preceded by a vowel and followed by a consonant becomes frequent at the end of the 12th century; when preceded by open _e_, an _a_ developed before the _l_ while this was a consonant--11th century _salse_ (_salsa_), _beltet_ (_bellitatem_), _solder_ (_solidare_); modern french _sauce_, _beaute_, _souder_. in parisian, final _el_ followed the fate of _el_ before a consonant, becoming the triphthong _eau_, but in norman the vocalization did not take place, and the _l_ was afterwards rejected--modern french _ruisseau_, modern guernsey _russe_ (_rivicellum_). english words of french origin sometimes show _l_ before a consonant, but the general form is _u_--_scald_ (_echauder_, _excalidare_), _walter_ (_gautier_, teutonic _waldhari_); _sauce_, _beauty_, _soder_. final _el_ is kept--_veal_ (_veau_, _vitellum_), _seal_ (_sceau_, _sigillum_). (15) in the east and centre _ei_ changes to _oi_, while the older sound is retained in the north-west and west--norman _estreit_ (_etroit_, _strictum_), _preie_ (_proie_, _praedam_), 12th century picard, parisian, &c., _estroit_, _proie_. but the earliest (10th century) specimens of the latter group of dialects have _ei_--_pleier_ (_ployer_, _plicare_) eulalia, _mettreiet_ (_mettrait_, _mittere habebat_) jonah. parisian _oi_, whether from _ei_ or from old french _oi_, _oi_, became in the 15th century _ue_ (spellings with _oue_ or _oe_ are not uncommon--_mirouer_ for _miroir_, _miratorium_), and in the following, in certain words, _e_, now written _ai_--_francais_, _connaitre_, from _francois_ (_franceis_, _franciscum_), _conoistre_ (_conuistre_, _cognoscere_); where it did not undergo the latter change it is now _ua_ or _wa_--_roi_ (_rei_, _regem_), _croix_ (_cruis_, _crucem_). before nasals and palatal _l_, _ei_ (now = _e_) was kept--_veine_ (_vena_), _veille_ (_vigila_), and it everywhere survives unlabialized in modern norman--guernsey _etelle_ (_etoile_, _stella_) with _e_, _ser_ (_soir_, _serum_) with _e_. english shows generally _ei_ (or _ai_) for original _ei_--_strait_ (_estreit_), _prey_ (_preie_); but in several words the later parisian _oi_--_coy_ (_coi_, _qvietum_), _loyal_ (_loyal_, _legalem_). (16) the splitting of the vowel-sound from accented latin _o_ or _u_ not in position, represented in old french by _o_ and _u_ indifferently, into _u_, _o_ (before nasals), and _eu_ (the latter at first a diphthong, now = german _oe_), is unknown to western french till the 12th century, and is not general in the east. the sound in 11th century norman was much nearer to _u_ (modern french _ou_) than to _o_ (modern french _o_), as the words borrowed by english show _uu_ (at first written _u_, afterwards _ou_ or _ow_), never _oo_; but was probably not quite _u_, as modern norman shows the same splitting of the sound as parisian. examples are--early old french _espose_ or _espuse_ (_sponsam_), _nom_ or _num_ (_nomen_), _flor_ or _flur_ (_florem_); modern french _epouse_, _nom_, _fleur_; modern guernsey _goule_ (_gueule_, _gulam_), _nom_, _flleur_. modern picard also shows _u_, which is the regular sound before _r_--_flour_; but modern burgundian often keeps the original old french _o_--_vo_ (_vous_, _vos_). english shows almost always _uu_--_spouse_, _noun_, _flower_ (early middle english _spuse_, _nun_, _flur_); but _nephew_ with _eu_ (_neveu_, _nepotem_). (17) the loss of the _u_ (or _w_) of _qu_ dates from the end of the 12th century--old french _quart_ (_qvartum_), _quitier_ (_qvietare_) with _qu_ = _kw_, modern french _quart_, _quitter_ with _qu_ = _k_. in walloon the _w_ is preserved--_couar_ (_quart_), _cuitter_; as is the case in english--_quart_, _quit_. the _w_ of _gw_ seems to have been lost rather earlier, english having simple _g_--_gage_ (_gage_, older _guage_, teutonic _wadi_), _guise_ (_guise_, teutonic _wisa_). (18) the change of the diphthong _ou_ to _uu_ did not take place till after the 12th century, such words as _anjou_ (_andegavum_) assonating in the roland on _fort_ (_fortem_); and did not occur in picardy, where _ou_ became _au caus_ from older _cous_, _cols_ (_cous_, _collos_) coinciding with _caus_ from _calz_ (_chauds_, _calidos_). english keeps _ou_ distinct from _uu_--_vault_ for _vaut_ (modern french _voute_, _volvitam_), _soder_ (_souder_, _solidare_). (19) the change of the diphthong _ie_ to simple _e_ is specially anglo-norman, in old french of the continent these sounds never rhyme, in that of england they constantly do, and english words show, with rare exceptions, the simple vowel--_fierce_ (old french _fiers_, _ferus_), chief (_chief_, _caput_), with _ie_ = _ee_; but _pannier_ (_panier_, _panarium_). at the beginning of the modern period, parisian dropped the _i_ of _ie_ when preceded by _ch_ or _j_--_chef_, _abreger_ (old french _abregier_, _abbreviare_); elsewhere (except in verbs) _ie_ is retained--_fier_ (_ferum_), _pitie_ (_pietatem_). modern guernsey retains _ie_ after _ch_--_ap'rchier_ (_approcher_, _adpropeare_).(20) some of the modern french changes have found their places under older ones; those remaining to be noticed are so recent that english examples of the older forms are superfluous. in the 16th century the diphthong _au_ changed to _ao_ and then to _o_, its present sound, rendering, for instance, _maux_ (old french _mals_, _malos_) identical with _mots_ (_muttos_). the _au_ of _eau_ underwent the same change, but its _e_ was still sounded as _[schwa]_ (the _e_ of _que_); in the next century this was dropped, making _veaux_ (old french _veels_, _vitellos_) identical with _vaux_ (_vals_, _valles_). (21) a more general and very important change began much earlier than the last; this is the loss of many final consonants. in early old french every consonant was pronounced as written; by degrees many of them disappeared when followed by another consonant, whether in the same word (in which case they were generally omitted in writing) or in a following one. this was the state of things in the 16th century; those final consonants which are usually silent in modern french were still sounded, if before a vowel or at the end of a sentence or a line of poetry, but generally not elsewhere. thus a large number of french words had two forms; the old french _fort_ appeared as _for_ (though still written _fort_) before a consonant, fort elsewhere. at a later period final consonants were lost (with certain exceptions) when the word stood at the end of a sentence or of a line of poetry; but they are generally kept when followed by a word beginning with a vowel. (22) a still later change is the general loss of the vowel (written e) of unaccented final syllables; this vowel preserved in the 16th century the sound _[schwa]_, which it had in early old french. in later anglo-norman final _[schwa]_ (like every other sound) was treated exactly as the same sound in middle english; that is, it came to be omitted or retained at pleasure, and in the 15th century disappeared. in old french the loss of final _[schwa]_ is confined to a few words and forms; the 10th century _saveiet_ (_sapebat_ for _sapiebat_) became in the 11th _saveit_, and _ore_ (_ad horam_), _ele_ (_illam_) develop the abbreviated _or, el_. in the 15th century _[schwa]_ before a vowel generally disappears--_mur_, old french _meur_ (_maturum_); and in the 16th, though still written, _[schwa]_ after an unaccented vowel, and in the syllable _ent_ after a vowel, does the same--_vraiment_, old french _vraiement_ (_veraca mente_); _avoient_ two syllables, as now (_avaient_), in old french three syllables (as _habebant_). these phenomena occur much earlier in the anglicized french of england--13th century _aveynt_ (old french _aveient_). but the universal loss of final _e_, which has clipped a syllable from half the french vocabulary, did not take place till the 18th century, after the general loss of final consonants; _fort_ and _forte_, distinguished at the end of a sentence or line in the 16th century as _fort_ and _fort[schwa]_, remain distinguished, but as _for_ and _fort_. the metre of poetry is still constructed on the obsolete pronunciation, which is even revived in singing; "dites, la jeune belle," actually four syllables (_dit, la zhoen bel_), is considered as seven, fitted with music accordingly, and sung to fit the music (_dit[schwa], la zhoena bel[schwa]_). (23) in old french, as in the other romanic languages, the stress (force, accent) is on the syllable which was accented in latin; compare the treatment of the accented and unaccented vowels in _latro amas_, giving _lere, aime_, and in _latronem, amatis_, giving _laron, amez_, the accented vowels being those which rhyme or assonate. at present, stress in french is much less marked than in english, german or italian, and is to a certain extent variable; which is partly the reason why most native french scholars find no difficulty in maintaining that the stress in living modern french is on the same syllable as in old french. the fact that stress in the french of to-day is independent of length (quantity) and pitch (tone) largely aids the confusion; for though the final and originally accented syllable (not counting the silent e as a syllable) is now generally pronounced with less force, it very often has a long vowel with raised pitch. in actual pronunciation the chief stress is usually on the first syllable (counting according to the sounds, not the spelling), but in many polysyllables it is on the last but one; thus in _caution_ the accented (strong) syllable cau, in _occasion_ it is _ca_. poetry is still written according to the original place of the stress; the rhyme-syllables of _larron, aimez_ are still _ron_ and _mez_, which when set to music receive an accented (strong) note, and are sung accordingly, though in speech the la and ai generally have the principal stress. in reading poetry, as distinguished from singing, the modern pronunciation is used, both as to the loss of the final _[schwa]_ and the displacement of the stress, the result being that the theoretical metre in which the poetry is written disappears. (24) in certain cases accented vowels were lengthened in old french, as before a lost s; this was indicated in the 16th century by a circumflex--_bete_, old french _beste_ (_bestiam_), _ame_, old french _anme_ (_anima_). the same occurred in the plural of many nouns, where a consonant was lost before the _s_ of the flection; thus singular _coc_ with short vowel, plural _cos_ with long. the plural _cos_, though spelt _cogs_ instead of _co_ (= _koo_), is still sometimes to be heard, but, like other similar ones, is generally refashioned after the singular, becoming _kok_. in present french, except where a difference of quality has resulted, as in _cote_ (old french _coste, costam_) with _o_ and _cotte_ (old french _cote_), with _o_, short and long vowels generally run together, quantity being now variable and uncertain; but at the beginning of this century the early modern distinctions appear to have been generally preserved. (d) _orthography._--the history of french spelling is based on that of french sounds; as already stated, the former (apart from a few latinisms in the earliest documents) for several centuries faithfully followed the latter. when the popular latin of gaul was first written, its sounds were represented by the letters of the roman alphabet; but these were employed, not in the values they had in the time of caesar, but in those they had acquired in consequence of the phonetic changes that had meantime taken place. thus, as the latin sound _u_ had become _o_ (close _o_) and _u_ had become _y_ (french _u_, german _ue_), the letter _u_ was used sometimes to denote the sound _o_, sometimes the sound _y_; as latin _k_ (written _c_) had become _tsh_ or _ts_, according to dialect, before _e_ and _i_, _c_ was used to represent those sounds as well as that of _k_. the chief features of early french orthography (apart from the specialities of individual mss., especially the earliest) are therefore these:--_c_ stood for _k_ and _tsh_ or _ts_; _d_ for _d_ and _dh_ (soft _th_); _e_ for _e_, _e_, and _[schwa]_; _g_ for _g_ and _dzh_; _h_ was often written in words of latin origin where not sounded; _i_ (_j_) stood for _i_, _y_ consonant, and _dzh_; _o_ for _o_ (anglo-norman _u_) and _o_; _s_ for _s_ and _z_; _t_ for _t_ and _th_; _u_ (_v_) for _o_ (anglo-norman _u_), _y_ and _v_; _y_ (rare) for _i_; _z_ for _dz_ and _ts_. some new sounds had also to be provided for: where _tsh_ had to be distinguished from non-final _ts_, _ch_--at first, as in italian, denoting _k_ before _i_ and _e_ (_chi_ = _ki_ from _qvi_)--was used for it; palatal _l_ was represented by _ill_, which when final usually lost one _l_, and after _i_ dropped its _i_; palatal _n_ by _gn_, _ng_ or _ngn_, to which _i_ was often prefixed; and the new letter _w_, originally _uu_ (_vv_), and sometimes representing merely _uv_ or _vu_, was employed for the consonant-sound still denoted by it in english. all combinations of vowel-letters represented diphthongs; thus _ai_ denoted _a_ followed by _i_, _ou_ either _ou_ or _ou_, _ui_ either _oi_ (anglo-norman _ui_) or _yi_, and similarly with the others--_ei_, _eu_, _oi_, _iu_, _ie_, _ue_ (and _oe_), and the triphthong _ieu_. silent letters, except initial _h_ in latin words, are very rare; though mss. copied from older ones often retain letters whose sounds, though existing in the language of the author, had disappeared from that of the more modern scribe. the subsequent changes in orthography are due mainly to changes of sound, and find their explanation in the phonology. thus, as old french progresses, _s_, having become silent before voiced consonants, indicates only the length of the preceding vowel; _e_ before nasals, from the change of _[~e]_ (nasal _e_) to _a_ (nasal _a_), represents _a_; _c_, from the change of _ts_ to _s_, represents _s_; _qu_ and _gu_, from the loss of the _w_ of _kw_ and _gw_, represent _k_ and _g_ (hard); _ai_, from the change of _ai_ to _e_, represents _e_; _ou_, from the change of _ou_ and _ou_ to _u_, represents _u_; _ch_ and _g_, from the change of _tsh_ and _dzh_ to _sh_ and _zh_, represent _sh_ and _zh_; _eu_ and ue, originally representing diphthongs, represent oe (german _oe_); _z_, from the change of _ts_ and _dz_ to _s_ and _z_, represents _s_ and _z_. the new values of some of these letters were applied to words not originally spelt with them: old french _k_ before _i_ and _e_ was replaced by _qu_ (_evesque_, _eveske_, latin _episcopum_); old french _u_ and _o_ for _o_, after this sound had split into _eu_ and _u_, were replaced in the latter case by _ou_ (_rous_, for _ros_ or _rus_, latin _russum_); _s_ was accidentally inserted to mark a long vowel (_pasle_, _pale_, latin _pallidum_); _eu_ replaced _ue_ and _oe_ (_neuf_, _nuef_, latin _novum_ and _novem_); _z_ replaced _s_ after _e_ (_nez_, _nes_, _nasum_). the use of _x_ for final _s_ is due to an orthographical mistake; the ms. contraction of _us_ being something like _x_ was at last confused with it (_iex_ for _ieus_, _oculos_), and, its meaning being forgotten, _u_ was inserted before the _x_ (_yeux_) which thus meant no more than _s_, and was used for it after other vowels (_voix_ for _vois_, _vocem_). as literature came to be extensively cultivated, traditional as distinct from phonetic spelling began to be influential; and in the 14th century, the close of the old french period, this influence, though not overpowering, was strong--stronger than in england at that time. about the same period there arose etymological as distinct from traditional spelling. this practice, the alteration of traditional spelling by the insertion or substitution of letters which occurred (or were supposed to occur) in the latin (or supposed latin) originals of the french words, became very prevalent in the three following centuries, when such forms as _debvoir_ (_debere_) for _devoir_, _faulx_ (_falsum_) for _faus_, _autheur_ (_auctorem_, supposed to be _authorem_) for _auteur_, _poids_ (supposed to be from _pondus_, really from _pensum_) for _pois_, were the rule. but besides the etymological, there was a phonetic school of spelling (ramus, in 1562, for instance, writes _eime_, _eimates_--with _e_ = _e_, _e_ = _e_, and _e_ = _[schwa]_--for _aimai_, _aimastes_), which, though unsuccessful on the whole, had some effect in correcting the excesses of the other, so that in the 17th century most of these inserted letters began to drop; of those which remain, some (_flegme_ for _flemme_ or _fleume_, latin _phlegma_) have corrupted the pronunciation. some important reforms--as the dropping of silent _s_, and its replacement by a circumflex over the vowel when this was long; the frequent distinction of close and open _e_ by acute and grave accents; the restriction of _i_ and _u_ to the vowel sound, of _j_ and _v_ to the consonant; and the introduction from spain of the cedilla to distinguish _c_ = _s_ from _c_ = _k_ before _a_, _u_ and _o_--are due to the 16th century. the replacement of _oi_, where it had assumed the value _e_, by _ai_, did not begin till the last century, and was not the rule till the present one. indeed, since the 16th century the changes in french spelling have been small, compared with the changes of the sounds; final consonants and final _e_ (unaccented) are still written, though the sounds they represent have disappeared. still, a marked effort towards the simplification of french orthography was made in the third edition of the _dictionary_ of the french academy (1740), practically the work of the abbe d'olivet. while in the first (1694) and second (1718) editions of this dictionary words were overburdened with silent letters, supposed to represent better the etymology, in the third edition the spelling of about 5000 words (out of about 18,000) was altered and made more in conformity with the pronunciation. so, for instance, _c_ was dropped in _beinfaicteur_ and _object_, _c_ in _scavoir_, _d_ in _advocat_, _s_ in _accroistre_, _albastre_, _aspre_ and _bastard_, _e_ in the past part. _creu_, _deu_, _veu_, and in such words as _alleure_, _souilleure_; _y_ was replaced by _i_ in _cecy, celuy, gay, joye_, &c. but those changes were not made systematically, and many pedantic spellings were left untouched, while many inconsistencies still remain in the present orthography (_siffler_ and _persifler_, _souffler_ and _boursoufler_, &c). the consequence of those efforts in contrary directions is that french orthography is now quite as traditional and unphonetic as english, and gives an even falser notion than this of the actual state of the language it is supposed to represent. many of the features of old french orthography, early and late, are preserved in english orthography; to it we owe the use of _c_ for _s_ (old english _c_ = _k_ only), of _j_ (_i_) for _dzh_, of _v_ (_u_) for _v_ (in old english written _f_), and probably of _ch_ for _tsh_. the english _w_ is purely french, the old english letter being the runic _t_. when french was introduced into england, _kw_ had not lost its _w_, and the french _qu_, with that value, replaced the old english _ct_ (_queen_ for _ct_en). in norman, old french _o_ had become very like _u_, and in england went entirely into it; _o_, which was one of its french signs, thus came to be often used for _u_ in english (_come_ for _cume_). _u_, having often in old french its modern french value, was so used in england, and replaced the old english _y_ (_busy_ for _bysi_, middle english _brud_ for _bryd_), and _y_ was often used for _i_ (_day_ for _dai_). in the 13th century, when _ou_ had come to represent _u_ in france, it was borrowed by english, and used for the long sound of that vowel (_sour_ for _sur_); and _gu_, which had come to mean simply _g_ (hard), was occasionally used to represent the sound _g_ before _i_ and _e_ (_guess_ for _gesse_). some of the early modern etymological spellings were imitated in england; _fleam_ and _autour_ were replaced by _phlegm_ and _authour_, the latter spelling having corrupted the pronunciation. (e) _inflections._--in the earliest old french extant, the influence of analogy, especially in verbal forms, is very marked when these are compared with latin (thus the present participles of all conjugations take _ant_, the ending of the first, latin _antem_), and becomes stronger as the language progresses. such isolated inflectional changes as _saveit_ into _savoit_, which are cases of regular phonetic changes, are not noticed here. (i.) _verbs._--(1) in the oldest french texts the latin pluperfect (with the sense of the perfect) occasionally occurs--_avret_ (_habuerat_), _roveret_ (_rogaverat_); it disappears before the 12th century. (2) the _u_ of the ending of the 1st pers. plur. _mus_ drops in old french, except in the perfect, where its presence (as _[schwa]_) is not yet satisfactorily explained--_amoms_ (_amamus_, influenced by _sumus_), but _amames_ (_amavimus_). in picard the atonic ending _mes_ is extended to all tenses, giving _amomes_, &c. (3) in the present indicative, 2nd person plur., the ending _ez_ of the first conjugation (latin _atis_) extends, even in the earliest documents, to all verbs--_avez, recevez, oez_ (_habetis_, _recipitis, auditis_) like _amez_ (_amatis_); such forms as _dites_, _faites_ (_dicitis_, _facitis_) being exceptional archaisms. this levelling of the conjugation does not appear at such an early time in the future (formed from the infinitive and from _habetis_ reduced to _etis_); in the roland both forms occur, _portereiz_ (_portare habetis_) assonating on _rei_ (_roi, regem_), and the younger _porterez_ on _citet_ (_cite_, _civitatem_), but about the end of the 13th century the older form _-eiz_, _-oiz_, is dropped, and _-ez_ becomes gradually the uniform ending for this 2nd person of the plural in the future tense. (4) in eastern french the 1st plur., when preceded by _i_, has _e_, not _o_, before the nasal, while western french has _u_ (or _o_), as in the present; _posciomes_ (_posseamus_) in the jonah homily makes it probable that the latter is the older form--picard _aviemes_, burgundian _aviens_, norman _aviums_ (_habebamus_). (5) the subjunctive of the first conjugation has at first in the singular no final _e_, in accordance with the final vowel laws--_plur_, _plurs_, _plurt_ (_plorem_, _plores_, _ploret_). the forms are gradually assimilated to those of the other conjugations, which, deriving from latin _am_, _as_, _at_, have _e_, _es_, _e_(_t_); modern french _pleure_, _pleures_, _pleure_, like _perde_, _perdes_, _perde_ (_perdam_, _perdas_, _perdat_). (6) in old french the present subjunctive and the 1st sing. pres. ind. generally show the influence of the _i_ or _e_ of the latin _iam_, _eam_, _io_, _eo_--old french _muire_ or _moerge_ (_moriat_ for _moriatur_), _tiegne_ or _tienge_ (_teneat_), _muir_ or _moerc_ (_morio_ for _morior_), _tieng_ or _tienc_ (_teneo_). by degrees these forms are levelled under the other present forms--modern french _meure_ and _meurs_ following _meurt_ (_morit_ for _moritur_), _tienne_ and _tiens_ following _tient_ (_tenet_). a few of the older forms remain--the vowel of _aie_ (_habeam_) and _ai_ (_habeo_) contrasting with that of _a_ (_habet_). (7) a levelling of which instances occur in the 11th century, but which is not yet complete, is that of the accented and unaccented stem-syllables of verbs. in old french many verb-stems with shifting accent vary in accordance with phonetic laws--_parler_ (_parabolare_), _amer_ (_amare_) have in the present indicative _parol_ (_parabolo_), _paroles_ (_parabolas_), _parolet_ (_parabolat_), _parlums_ (_parabolamus_), _parlez_ (_parabolatis_), _parolent_ (_parabolant_); _aim_ (_amo_), _aimes_ (_amas_), _aimet_ (_amat_), _amums_ (_amamus_), _amez_ (_amatis_), _aiment_ (_amant_). in the first case the unaccented, in the second the accented form has prevailed--modern french _parle_, _parler_; _aime_, _aimer_. in several verbs, as _tenir_ (_tenere_), the distinction is retained--_tiens_, _tiens_, _tient_, _tenons_, _tenez_, _tiennent_. (8) in old french, as stated above, _ie_ instead of _e_ from _a_ occurs after a palatal (which, if a consonant, often split into _i_ with a dental); the diphthong thus appears in several forms of many verbs of the 1st conjugation--_preier_ (= _prei-ier_, _precare_), _vengier_ (_vindicare_), _laissier_ (_laxare_), _aidier_ (_adjutare_). at the close of the old french period, those verbs in which the stem ends in a dental replace _ie_ by the _e_ of other verbs--old french _laissier_, _aidier_, _laissiez_ (_laxatis_), _aidiez_ (adjutatis); modern french _laisser_, _aider_, _laissez_, _aidez_, by analogy of _aimer_, _aimez_. the older forms generally remain in picard--_laissier_, _aidier_. (9) the addition of _e_ to the 1st sing. pres. ind. of all verbs of the first conjugation is rare before the 13th century, but is usual in the 15th; it is probably due to the analogy of the third person--old french _chant_ (_canto_), _aim_ (_amo_); modern french _chante_, _aime_. (10) in the 13th century _s_ is occasionally added to the 1st pers. sing., except those ending in _e_ (= _[schwa]_) and _ai_, and to the 2nd sing. of imperatives; at the close of the 16th century this becomes the rule, and extends to imperfects and conditionals in _oie_ after the loss of their _e_. it appears to be due to the influence of the 2nd pers. sing.--old french _vend_ (_vendo_ and _vende_), _vendoie_ (_vendebam_), _parti_ (_partivi_), _ting_ (_tenui_); modern french _vends_, _vendais_, _partis_, _tins_; and _donne_ (_dona_) in certain cases becomes _donnes_. (11) the 1st and 2nd plur. of the pres. subj., which in old french were generally similar to those of the indicative, gradually take an _i_ before them, which is the rule after the 16th century--old french _perdons_ (_perdamus_), _perdez_ (_perdatis_); modern french _perdions_, _perdiez_, apparently by analogy of the imp. ind. (12) the loss in late old french of final _s_, _t_, &c., when preceding another consonant, caused many words to have in reality (though often concealed by orthography) double forms of inflection--one without termination, the other with. thus in the 16th century the 2nd sing. pres. ind. _dors_ (_dormis_) and the 3rd _dort_ (_dormit_) were distinguished as _dorz_ and _dort_ when before a vowel, as _dors_ and _dort_ at the end of a sentence or line of poetry, but ran together as _dor_ when followed by a consonant. still later, the loss of the final consonant when not followed by a vowel further reduced the cases in which the forms were distinguished, so that the actual french conjugation is considerably simpler than is shown by the customary spellings, except when, in consequence of an immediately following vowel, the old terminations occasionally appear. even here the antiquity is to a considerable extent artificial or delusive, some of the insertions being due to analogy, and the popular language often omitting the traditional consonant or inserting a different one. (13) the subsequent general loss of _e_ = _[schwa]_ in unaccented final syllables has still further reduced the inflections, but not the distinctive forms--_perd_ (_perdit_) and _perde_ (_perdat_) being generally distinguished as _per_ and _perd_, and before a vowel as _pert_ and _perd_. (ii.) _substantives._--(1) in early old french (as in provencal) there are two main declensions, the masculine and the feminine; with a few exceptions the former distinguishes nominative and accusative in both numbers, the latter in neither. the nom. and acc. sing, and acc. plur. mas. correspond to those of the latin 2nd or 3rd declension, the nom. plur. to that of the 2nd declension. the sing, fem. corresponds to the nom. and acc. of the latin 1st declension, or to the acc. of the 3rd; the plur. fem. to the acc. of the 1st declension, or to the nom. and acc. of the 3rd. thus masc. _tors_ (_taurus_), _lere_ (_latro_); _tor_ (_taurum_), _laron_ (_latronem_); _tor_ (_tauri_), _laron_ (_latroni_ for _-nes_); _tors_ (_tauros_), _larons_ (_latrones_); but fem. only _ele_ (_ala_ and _alam_), _flor_ (_florem_); _eles_ (_alas_), _flors_ (_flores_ nom. and acc.). about the end of the 11th century feminines not ending in _e_ = _[schwa]_ take, by analogy of the masculines, _s_ in the nom. sing., thus distinguishing nom. _flors_ from acc. _flor_. a century later, masculines without _s_ in the nom. sing. take this consonant by analogy of the other masculines, giving _leres_ as nom. similar to _tors_. in anglo-norman the accusative forms very early begin to replace the nominative, and soon supersede them, the language following the tendency of contemporaneous english. in continental french the declension-system was preserved much longer, and did not break up till the 14th century, though acc. forms are occasionally substituted for nom. (rarely nom. for acc.) before that date. it must be noticed, however, that in the current language the reduction of the declension to one case (generally the accusative) per number appears much earlier than in the language of literature proper and poetry; froissart, for instance, _c._ 1400, in his poetical works is much more careful of the declension than in his chronicles. in the 15th century the modern system of one case is fully established; the form kept is almost always the accusative (sing. without _s_, plural with _s_), but in a few words, such as _fils_ (_filius_), _soeur_ (_soror_), _pastre_ (_pastor_), and in proper names such as _georges_, _gilles_, &c., often used as vocative (therefore with the form of nom.); the nom. survives in the sing. occasionally both forms exist, in different senses--_sire_ (_senior_) and _seigneur_ (_seniorem_), _on_ (_homo_) and _homme_ (_hominem_). (2) latin neuters are generally masculine in old french, and inflected according to their analogy, as _ciels_ (_caelus_ for _caelum_ nom.), _ciel_ (_caelum_ acc.), _ciel_ (_caeli_ for _caela_ nom.), _ciels_ (_caelos_ for _caela_ acc.); but in some cases the form of the latin neuter is preserved, as in _cors_, now _corps_, lat. _corpus_; _tens_, now _temps_, lat. _tempus_. many neuters lose their singular form and treat the plural as a feminine singular, as in the related languages--_merveille_ (_mirabilia_), _feuille_ (_folia_). but in a few words the neuter plural termination is used, as in italian, in its primitive sense--_carre_ (_carra_, which exists as well as _carri_), _paire_ (_lat. paria_); modern french _chars_, _paires_. (3) in old french the inflectional _s_ often causes phonetic changes in the stem; thus palatal _l_ before _s_ takes _t_ after it, and becomes dental _l_, which afterwards changes to _u_ or drops--_fil_ (_filium_ and _filii_) with palatal _l_, _filz_ (_filius_ and _filios_), afterwards _fiz_, with _z_ = _ts_ (preserved in english _fitz_), and then _fis_, as now (spelt _fils_). many consonants before _s_, as the _t_ of _fiz_, disappear, and _l_ is vocalized--_vif_ (_vivum_), _mal_ (_malum_), nominative sing. and acc. plur. _vis_, _maus_ (earlier _mals_). these forms of the plural are retained in the 16th century, though often etymologically spelt with the consonant of the singular, as in _vifs_, pronounced _vis_; but in late modern french many of them disappear, _vifs_, with _f_ sounded as in the singular, being the plural of _vif_, _bals_ (formerly _baux_) that of _bal_. in many words, as _chant_ (_cantus_) and _champs_ (_campos_) with silent _t_ and _p_ (old french _chans_ in both cases), _maux_ (old french _mals_, sing. _mal_), _yeux_ (_oculos_, old french _oelz_, sing. _oeil_) the old change in the stem is kept. sometimes, as in _cieux_ (_caelos_) and _ciels_, the old traditional and the modern analogical forms coexist, with different meanings. (4) the modern loss of final _s_ (except when kept as _z_ before a vowel) has seriously modified the french declension, the singulars _fort_ (_for_) and _forte_ (_fort_) being generally undistinguishable from their plurals _forts_ and _fortes_. the subsequent loss of _[schwa]_ in finals has not affected the relation between sing. and plur. forms; but with the frequent recoining of the plural forms on the singular present modern french has very often no distinction between sing. and plur., except before a vowel. such plurals as _maux_ have always been distinct from their singular _mal_; in those whose singular ends in _s_ there never was any distinction, old french _laz_ (now spelt _lacs_) corresponding to _laqveus_, _laqveum_, _laqvei_ and _laqveos_. (iii.) _adjectives._--(1) the terminations of the cases and numbers of adjectives are the same as those of substantives, and are treated in the preceding paragraph. the feminine generally takes no _e_ if the masc. has none, and if there is no distinction in latin--fem. sing. _fort_ (_fortem_), _grant_ (_grandem_), fem. plur. _forz_ (_fortes_), _granz_ (_grandes_), like the acc. masc. certain adjectives of this class, and among them all the adjectives formed with the latin suffix _-ensis_, take regularly, even in the oldest french, the feminine ending _e_, in _provencal_ a (_courtois_, fem. _courtoise_; _commun_, fem. _commune_). to these must not be added _dous_ (mod. fr. _dolz_, _dous_), fem. _douce_, which probably comes from a low latin _dulcius_, _dulcia_. in the 11th century some other feminines, originally without _e_, begin in norman to take this termination--_grande_ (in a feminine assonance in the alexis), plur. _grandes_; but other dialects generally preserve the original form till the 14th century. in the 16th century the _e_ is general in the feminine, and is now universal, except in a few expressions--_grand'mere_ (with erroneous apostrophe, _grandem_, _matrem_), _lettres royaux_ (_literas regales_), and most adverbs from adjectives in _-ant_, _-ent_--_couramment_ (_currante_ for _-ente mente_), _sciemment_ (_sciente mente_). (2) several adjectives have in modern french replaced the masc. by the feminine--old french masc. _roit_ (_rigidum_), fem. _roide_ (_rigidam_); modern french _roide_ for both genders. (3) in old french several latin simple comparatives are preserved--_maiur_ (_majorem_), nom. _maire_ (_major_); _graignur_ (_grandiorem_), nom. _graindre_ (_grandior_); only a few of these now survive--_pire_ (_pejor_), _meilleur_ (_meliorem_), with their adverbial neuters _pis_ (_pejus_), _mieux_ (_melius_). the few simple superlatives found in old french, as _merme_ (_minimum_), _pesme_ (_pessimus_), _proisme_ (_proximum_), _haltisme_ (_altissimum_), this last one being clearly a literary word, are now extinct, and, when they existed, had hardly the meaning of a superlative. (4) the modern loss of many final consonants when not before vowels, and the subsequent loss of final _[schwa]_, have greatly affected the distinction between the masc. and fem. of adjectives--_fort_ and _forte_ are still distinguished as _for_ and _fort_, but _amer_ (_amarum_) and _amere_ (_amaram_), with their plurals _amers_ and _ameres_, have run together. (f) _derivation._--most of the old french prefixes and suffixes are descendants of latin ones, but a few are teutonic (_ard = hard_), and some are later borrowings from latin (_arie_, afterwards _aire_, from _arium_). in modern french many old affixes are hardly used for forming new words; the inherited _ier_ (_arium_) is yielding to the borrowed _aire_, the popular _contre_ (_contra_) to the learned anti (greek), and the native _ee_ (_atam_) to the italian _ade_. the suffixes of many words have been assimilated to more common ones; thus _sengler_ (_singularem_) is now _sanglier_. (g) _syntax._--old french syntax, gradually changing from the 10th to the 14th century, has a character of its own, distinct from that of modern french; though when compared with latin syntax it appears decidedly modern. (1) the general formal distinction between nominative and accusative is the chief feature which causes french syntax to resemble that of latin and differ from that of the modern language; and as the distinction had to be replaced by a comparatively fixed word-order, a serious loss of freedom ensued. if the forms are modernized while the word-order is kept, the old french _l'archevesque ne puet flechir li reis henris_ (latin _archiepiscopum non potest flectere rex henricus_) assumes a totally different meaning--_l'archeveque ne peut flechir le roi henri_. (2) the replacement of the nominative form of nouns by the accusative is itself a syntactical feature, though treated above under inflection. a more modern instance is exhibited by the personal pronouns, which, when not immediately the subject of a verb, occasionally take even in old french, and regularly in the 16th century, the accusative form; the old french _je qui sui_ (_ego qvi sum_) becomes _moi qui suis_, though the older usage survives in the legal phrase _je soussigne_.... (3) the definite article is now required in many cases where old french dispenses with it--_jo cunquis engleterre, suffrir mort_ (as modern french _avoir faim_); modern french _l'angleterre, la mort_. (4) old french had distinct pronouns for "this" and "that"--_cest_ (_ecce istum_) and _cel_ (_ecce illium_), with their cases. both exist in the 16th century, but the present language employs _cet_ as adjective, _cel_ as substantive, in both meanings, marking the old distinction by affixing the adverbs _ci_ and _la_--_cet homme-ci, cet homme-la_; _celui-ci, celui-la_. (5) in old french, the verbal terminations being clear, the subject pronoun is usually not expressed--_si ferai_ (_sic facere habeo_), _est durs_ (_durus est_), _que feras_ (_quid facere habes_)? in the 16th century the use of the pronoun is general, and is now universal, except in one or two impersonal phrases, as _n'importe, peu s'en faut_. (6) the present participle in old french in its uninflected form coincided with the gerund (_amant = amantem_ and _amando_), and in the modern language has been replaced by the latter, except where it has become adjectival; the old french _complaingnans leur dolours_ (latin _plangentes_) is now _plaignant leurs douleurs_ (latin _plangendo_). the now extinct use of _estre_ with the participle present for the simple verb is not uncommon in old french down to the 16th century--_sont disanz_ (_sunt dicentes_) = modern french _ils disent_ (as english _they are saying_). (7) in present modern french the preterite participle when used with _avoir_ to form verb-tenses is invariable, except when the object precedes (an exception now vanishing in the conversational language)--_j'ai ecrit les lettres, les lettres que j'ai ecrites_. in old french down to the 16th century, formal concord was more common (though by no means necessary), partly because the object preceded the participle much oftener than now--_ad la culur muee_ (_habet colorem mutatam_), _ad faite sa venjance, les turs ad rendues_. (8) the sentences just quoted will serve as specimens of the freedom of old french word-order--the object standing either before verb and participle, between them, or after both. the predicative adjective can stand before or after the verb--_halt sunt li pui_ (latin _podia_), _e tenebrus e grant_. (9) in old french _ne_ (early old french _nen_, latin _non_) suffices for the negation without _pas_ (_passum_), _point_ (_punctum_) or _mie_ (_micam_, now obsolete), though these are frequently used--_jo ne sui lis sire_ (_je ne suis pas ton seigneur_), _autre feme nen ara_ (_il n'aura pas autre femme_). in principal sentences modern french uses _ne_ by itself only in certain cases--_je ne puis marcher, je n'ai rien_. the slight weight as a negation usually attached to ne has caused several originally positive words to take a negative meaning--_rien_ (latin _rem_) now meaning "nothing" as well as "something." (10) in old french interrogation was expressed with substantives as with pronouns by putting them after the verb--_est saul entre les prophetes?_ in modern french the pronominal inversion (the substantive being prefixed) or a verbal periphrasis must be used--_saul est-il?_ or _est-ce que saul est?_ (h) _summary._--looking at the internal history of the french language as a whole, there is no such strongly marked division as exists between old and middle english, or even between middle and modern english. some of the most important changes are quite modern, and are concealed by the traditional orthography; but, even making allowance for this, the difference between french of the 11th century and that of the 20th is less than that between english of the same dates. the most important change in itself and for its effects is probably that which is usually made the division between old and modern french, the loss of the formal distinction between nominative and accusative; next to this are perhaps the gradual loss of many final consonants, the still recent loss of the vowel of unaccented final syllables, and the extension of analogy in conjugation and declension. in its construction old french is distinguished by a freedom strongly contrasting with the strictness of the modern language, and bears, as might be expected, a much stronger resemblance than the latter to the other romanic dialects. in many features, indeed, both positive and negative, modern french forms a class by itself, distinct in character from the other modern representatives of latin. iv. bibliography.--the few works which treat of french philology as a whole are now in many respects antiquated, and the important discoveries of recent years, which have revolutionized our ideas of old french phonology and dialectology, are scattered in various editions, periodicals, and separate treatises. for many things diez's _grammatik der romanischen sprachen_ (4th edition--a reprint of the 3rd--bonn, 1876-1877; french translation, paris, 1872-1875) is still very valuable; burguy's _grammaire de la langue d'oil_ (2nd edition--a reprint of the 1st--berlin, 1869-1870) is useful only as a collection of examples. schwan's _grammatik des altfranzoesischen_, as revised by behrens in the 3rd edition (leipzig, 1898; french translation, leipzig and paris, 1900), is by far the best old french grammar we possess. for the history of french language in general see f. brunot, _histoire de la langue francaise des origines a 1900_ (paris, 1905, 1906, &c.). for the history of spelling, a. f. didot, _observations sur l'orthographe ou ortografie francaise suivies d'une histoire de la reforme orthographique depuis le xv^e siecle jusqu'a nos jours_ (2nd ed., paris, 1868). for the history of french sounds: ch. thurot, _de la prononciation francaise depuis le commencement du xvi^e siecle, d'apres les temoignages des grammairiens_ (2 vols., paris, 1881-1883). for the history of syntax, apart from various grammatical works of a general character, much is to be gathered from ad. tobler's _vermischte beitraege zur franzoesischen grammatik_ (3 parts, 1886, 1894, 1899, parts i. and ii. in second editions, 1902, 1906). g. paris's edition of _la vie de s. alexis_ (paris, 1872) was the pioneer of, and retains an important place among, the recent original works on old french. darmesteter and hatzfeld's _le seizieme siecle_ (paris, 1878) contains the first good account of early modern french. littre's _dictionnaire de la langue francaise_ (4 vols., paris, 1863-1869, and a supplement, 1877); and hatzfeld, darmesteter and thomas, _dict. general de la langue francaise_, more condensed (2 vols., paris, 1888-1900), contain much useful and often original information about the etymology and history of french words. for the etymology of many french (and also provencal) words, reference must be made to ant. thomas's _essais de philologie francaise_ (paris, 1897) and _nouveaux essais de philologie francaise_ (paris, 1904). but there is no french dictionary properly historical. a _dictionnaire historique de la langue francaise_ was begun by the academie francaise (4 vols., 1859-1894), but it was, from the first, antiquated. it contains only one letter (a) and has not been continued. the leading periodicals now in existence are the _romania_ (paris), founded (in 1872) and edited by p. meyer and g. paris (with ant. thomas since the death of g. paris in 1903), and the _zeitschrift fuer romanische philologie_ (halle), founded (in 1877) and edited by g. groeber. to these reference should be made for information as to the very numerous articles, treatises and editions by the many and often distinguished scholars who, especially in france and germany, now prosecute the scientific study of the language. it may be well to mention that, old french phonology especially being complicated, and as yet incompletely investigated, these publications, the views in which are of various degrees of value, require not mere acquiescent reading, but critical study. the dialects of france in their present state (_patois_) are now being scientifically investigated. the special works on the subject (dictionaries, grammars, &c.) cannot be fully indicated here; we must limit ourselves to the mention of behren's _bibliographie des patois gallo-romans_ (2nd ed., revised berlin, 1893), and of gillieron and edmont's _atlas linguistique de la france_ (1902 et seq.), a huge publication planned to contain about 1800 maps. (h. n.; p. m.)