§ 31. French Words of Spanish Origin.-Some of these words have been introduced through Spanish from the Arabic. (Compare § 33.)

§ 32. French Words from India, China, etc.

§ 33. French Words from Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic, etc

§ 37. French consists of two great vocabularies of words :

(a) The popular vocabulary, developed slowly and unconsciously by the people during the first eleven or twelve centuries from spoken Latin, etc.

(b) The non-popular vocabulary, formed deliberately from literary Latin. Such "learned" words, as they are called, date from the eleventh and twelfth centuries till the present day. They were made in large numbers during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but the manufacture has never really ceased.

It is only to the popular vocabulary that the following remarks apply.

* French word-formation is too wide a subject to be treated here in anything but the barest outline. The subject is best studied in Diez's Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen and in his Wörterbuch; in M. Gaston Paris's L'Accent Latin, etc. In the Introduction to his Etymological Dictionary, Brachet acknowledges his obligations to Mätzner's Französische Grammatik, but he gives nevertheless much that is not to be found in Mätzner's work. Unfortunately the various works of Brachet do not always agree together. The French edition of Brachet's Dictionary treats the subject of Derivation easily and well. The

§ 38. Influence of the Tonic Accent on the formation of Words.

1. In Latin, accent depends on quantity;* in French, quantity depends upon accent (§ 78).

The chief rules for the accent† in Latin are—

The accent is never laid upon the last syllable, but—

In dissyllables, the accent is always on the penult, Romae, arma, bona.

In trisyllables, etc., the accent is laid (a) upon the penult, if that penult is long: tegentes, puella, pudicae, civilis; (b) upon the antepenult, if the penult is short: postulas,

ho'mines.

2. Every French word is accented (a) on the last syllable, if it does not end in e mute; (b) upon the last but one, if it does end in e mute (§ 52):

briga'de, vapeur, inévitable, pastoral.

3. Every French word belonging to the old and popular vocabulary has the syllable accented which was accented in Latin:

frêle, fragilis, tiède, te pidus.

4. The converse is rarely untrue: every French word which does not accent the same syllable as the corresponding Latin word is of learned formation, and is more or less modern:

fragile, fragilis; tépi de, te pidus.

In

English edition is practically a different book, and is less easy. Professor Max Müller's Lectures on Language, Professor Whitney's Language and the Study of Language, Mr. Peile's Latin and Greek Etymology, etc., the general laws of phonetic change can be followed in detail. A more or less complete study of such books should precede the reading of special works on French word-formation. The following short sketch can be understood without any such preparation. * See Peile, Etymology, pp. 200, 201, etc.

† No distinction is here drawn between acute and circumflex accent. In some old words the accent in the Latin has been displaced before the French word was formed; thus, mordre is from mordere, and not from mordere; others are souris, foie, from sori cem, fi'cătum; and not from so'ricem, ficatum. But such words are rare.

§ 39 Permutation.*

VOWELS.

The changes to which the Latin vowels and diphthongs have been subjected in their passage into French are exceedingly various. These changes depend greatly upon quantity, and upon the fact of the vowel being accented or not. † It is not intended here (while pointing incidentally to this) to do more than to show the ease with which the vowels pass into one another. The Latin vowel often remains.

To be able to judge fairly of the changes to which vowels and consonants have been subjected in their passage into French, the difference in the English reading of Latin, and the probably correct reading, must not be neglected. See on this subject Syllabus of Latin Pronunciation, drawn up by Professors Munro and Palmer; Dr. Smith's Latin Grammar, §§ 819 to 918, etc., etc.

† Examples are given of accented and unaccented syllables. The length by nature of the Latin vowels is marked each time. The accented syllable is indicated by a dot: a sinus. This is done, even in monosyllables, so that the Latin and French may be easily compared.

For a short history of the Latin vowels and diphthongs, see Brachet's Etymological Dictionary, Introduction. For details, see Diez's Grammatik, vol. i.