Si vit ung songe en mon dormant, qui moult fut biax et moult me plot. (Rose, 13th cent.) Li noviaus empereres seroit couronnes. Il est noviax nes. (VILLEHARDOUIN, 13th cent.) (BEAUMANOIR, 13th cent.) Dont parleroit et li fol et li sage. (Ronc., 12th cent.) As fous et as feluns. (Rois, 12th cent.) (Thomas le Martyr, 12th cent.) . . qui tant me donerent de cous que tous les costez (j') en ai mous. (Renard, 12th cent.) Et ainsi il croient le vieil de la montagne Et li viaux hom li dist. (JOINVILLE, 13th cent.) (Merlin, 13th cent.) § 213. Infinitives, etc., used as Substantives. From long usage some infinitives have become common substantives: les diners, les soupers, les êtres, etc. La Fontaine has employed le dormir, le manger, and le boire. He has on his side the example of Old French, where we find dormir, jeûner, penser, plaindre, etc., etc., with the usual two cases: Ses ieux, son vis (visage), qui de joie sautele, son aler, son venir, son beau parler et son gent maintenir, (Coucy, 13th cent.) Icis venirs, icis alers, icis veilliers, icis parlers, font ces amans. (La Rose, 13th cent.) Car bel parler souvent refraint un cœur felon. (Guescl., 14th cent.) § 214. Irregularities in the formation of the Plural arising from the vocalisation of 1. The of many Latin words has been changed into 'u' in its passage into Modern French. This vocalisation began in the twelfth century. It has been only partial, and in most cases we have from a common root some forms in side by side with the forms in u. Au, à l'; du, de l'; ils, eux; cheveu, chevelure; vieux, vieil; cieux, ciels; cheval, chevaux; résoudre, résolvant, etc., etc. In addition to the variations in the particles, substantives, adjectives, verbs, which have been already given, the following irregularities have their origin in the vocalisation or non-vocalisation of l. A. Substantives and Adjectives with Plural in -als. The following substantives take -als; many of them are rare: several are not of Latin origin :— Aval, bal, cal, cantal, caracal, carnaval, cérémonial, chacal, festival, galgal, narval, nopal, pal, régal, serval, val. The greatest difficulty arising from the partial adoption of u for l occurs in the plural of adjectives in -al, of which there are between two or three hundred. Most of these change al into aux, but the plural of many of the remainder is very doubtful. The following certainly form their plural in als :— Amical, bancal, fatal, final, frugal, filial, glacial, initial, labial, matinal, médial, naval, pascal, pénal, théâtral.* * The list given above is Bescherelle's. It has one great merit, it is short. The Academy, and after it Poitevin, Chapsal, etc., give much longer lists. Jullien declares that many even of the above cannot have a plural. Littré recommends the form aux in almost every case. The persistence in Modern French of the form als may perhaps be thus explained: (a) Many adjectives, from their meaning, have not been employed except by writers who, aware of their Latin origin, have preferred the spelling which best recalled the etymology, the form in -als. They have preferred a 'learned' form to a 'popular' one (§ 37). (b) Again, there are certain adjectives which are mostly used (1) with nouns that, from their meaning, scarcely admit of plural; (2) with feminine nouns. If perchance an author wishes to use the masculine plural of such an adjective, he would prefer the form in als as having the sound to which his ear is most accustomed, viz., the sound now represented by al, als, ales. But these motives would not influence all. It is amusing to see the constant dispute about these unfortunate adjectives in al. It is a dispute of old standing, and has been even thought worthy of the ridicule of the stage. See Le Mercure Galant, BOURSAULT. Lemare gives a lively sketch of the quarrel :-" Grand tumulte parmi les grammairiens à cette occasion; l'Académie elle-même ne peut se faire entendre. Buffon a dit: des habitants brutaux, des mouvements machinaux; Jean-Jacques: des compliments triviaux; Regnard: des liens conjugaux; l'Académie des offices vénaux, tandis qu'elle rejette tous les mots précédents. M. Chapsal qui cite et adopte les examples ci-dessus se glisse dans la mêlée et augmentant le désordre il veut qu'on dise: les sons nasals, les soins filials, les ciseaux fatals. Le Tellier s'accourt, s'escrime à droite et à gauche, s'attaque aux habitants brutaux de Buffon, arrête ses mouvements machinaux, rit des compliments triviaux de JeanJacques, foule aux pieds les liens conjugaux de Regnard, étouffe les sons nasals de M. Chapsal, et sans respect pour l'autorité qui tient notre langue en tutelle, proscrit ses offices vénaux. Quel parti prendre dans une aussi grande affaire. Celui de l'analogie ou s'abstenir lorsqu'on craint de choquer l'oreille par un son tout à fait inusité."-Few authors have courage to act otherwise. B. Substantives with two forms for the plural: -ls, -ux. Most of these modern distinctions in meaning have little to justify them either in the history of the use of the words, or in their etymology. (1) Aïeul; aïeuls, and aïeux (L. L. aviolus). The plural aïeuls is confined to the strict meaning, grandfather or grandmother: as, Il est mort avant ses aïeuls. So bisaïeul and trisaïeul. The more common form aïeux is only used in the sense of ancestors. (2) Ciel, ciels, and cieux (colum). The plural ciels is only found in such figurative senses as— (3) Eil, oils, and yeux (oculus). The plural yeux is always employed even in a figurative sense, when there is no danger of a mistake (!) being made between that figurative sense and the literal one : Un fromage qui est rempli d'yeux. A cheese which is full of holes. Dans cette maison il y a beaucoup d'œils-de-boeuf. (4) Travail (work); travails and travaux (trabaculum). The plural travails is only used in the rare senses of (a) Wooden frames, used to prevent horses from kicking whilst they are being shod.* This is its literal meaning. (b) Official reports, as Ce ministre a eu plusieurs travails cette semaine avec le roi. (Acad.) (5) Ail (garlic); ails and aulx (allium). (6) Bétail; bestiaux. Bétail (cattle) has for plural bestiaux. The old form of the substantive was bestial, which is now only used as an adjective. § 215. Proper Names. "A proper name may be accidentally employed as a common substantive, and is then capable of flexion." (§ 150.) In this natural use of proper names we have the origin of a large number of common nouns. Some come from an historical source; others from the names of inventors, or of the place where the invention was made, etc. Many have been, as a matter of course, altered more or less in form. * Brake, trave. (GASc.) K § 216. The plural article is often put in an emphatic way before proper names, without any idea of plurality. Les Bossuet, les Racine ont été la gloire du siècle de Louis XIV. (LITTRÉ.) Les expressions heureuses qui font l'âme de la poésie et le mérite des Homère, des Virgile, des Tasse, des Milton, des Pope, des Corneille, des Racine, des Boileau. (VOLTAIRE.) Guidé par nos maîtres les Villemain, les Ampère, les D. Nisard, les Ph. Charles, nous avons tâché de joindre le résultat de nos recherches personnelles au souvenir de leurs savantes leçons. (DEMOGEOT.) Plural of Foreign Words. § 217. In order to understand what is here meant by a "foreign" word, it will be necessary to bear in mind what is given in greater detail in the Introduction. That French consists of two great vocabularies of words: 1. The popular vocabulary, developed gradually and unconsciously by the people during the first eleven or twelve centuries after Christ. 2. The non-popular vocabulary, formed consciously and artificially by the learned from the classical Latin, and (to a less extent) from the Greek, Words thus formed date from the twelfth century to the present time. 66 French possesses in addition a number of words directly borrowed from various languages (Introduction), including Latin and Greek. Such words are foreign." By far the larger number have accepted a French dress, and are subjected in all respects to French rules. Comparatively few have resisted naturalization, and present difficulties in their treatment. The following test may usually be applied with safety: When an accent has been added, or any change, however slight, has been made in the original spelling, the word, whether common or not, may be said to be naturalized.* Help may often be obtained from the pronunciation; but complete naturalization cannot with safety be inferred from the current speech, for Frenchmen pronounce almost all words at once according to their own rules. Still the pronunciation may in French be of service; in English it can be no guide : but the reason is different; the English maintain the foreign pronunciation a long time after a word is naturalized. The contrast between English and French habits is here very striking. Few words resist naturalization for any length of time; still some succeed in so doing. Most strikingly appear such ecclesiastial words as are given in § 151. The reason is plain-the Roman Catholic ritual is in Latin. It is mainly with Greek, Latin (non-ecclesiastic), or Italian words that the struggle goes Those who know the foreign form, and those who do not, are about equal in number and power. on. In words, on the contrary, which have their origin in German, English, etc., few know what is right; and the word, long before it can be said to be common, loses its distinctive nationality. The ignorance of all renders variance impossible. *It is almost needless to say that the converse is not true; many words establish themselves without alteration: album, piano, major, etc. |