The following permutations are anomalous.* French c(s) from Latin c (= s). * For explanations of these changes see Diez, Grammatik: Latin Consonants, and Brachet's Dictionary, English edition. gésir sache galbinus joie gaudium French j from Latin 'i consonans.' judicare juin jeune Junius juvenem French g (j) from Latin 'i consonans.' French ch from Latin 'i consonans.' French u from Latin 1. See § 214. § 40. Subtraction and Addition of Letters. 1. Letters have dropped off from the end of words : APOCOPE: argent, argentum. 2. Letters have dropped off from the middle of words: SYNCOPE image, imaginem. 3. Letters have dropped off from the beginning of words: APHÆRESIS: blé, ablatum; on, homo. 4. Letters have been added to the beginning of words: PROTHESIS: haut, altus. 5. Letters have been added to the middle of words: EPENTHESIS: concombre, cucumerem. 6. Letters have been added to the end of words: EPITHESIS: sans, sine. Roughly speaking, accented Latin syllables have remained in French unaccented syllables have dropped off. 1. In Latin words of two syllables the accent is always on the penult. In French resultants, therefore, this penult alone has remained, the last syllable has disappeared, or has left e mute as its representative. In Latin words of more than two syllables the accent is always (a) on the penult, if it is long; (b) on the antepenult, if the penult is short. In the former case the last syllable only suffers apocope; in the latter, both the last syllable and the last but one disappear. Words which break this rule are not of popular formation, and are more or less modern. In both (a) and (b), traces may remain in the shape of consonants or of e mute, but the syllables, as syllables, may be said to have vanished. 2. The vowel in that syllable which immediately precedes the tonic syllable may be long, or it may be short: if short, it suffers syncope; if long, it remains. Words which break this rule are not of popular formation, and are more or less modern. Consonants standing between two vowels in Latin, constantly Of every combination of two or more consonants, the first consonants have constantly suffered syncope; the last has remained. noces nuptiæ sujet subjectus 3. The most important case of prothesis is the addition of a vowel to help the pronunciation of such consonantal sounds as sc, sm, sp, st; esprit, spiritus; espérer, sperare; ester, stare. In many cases the s has dropped out: étable, stabulum; étroit, strictus.* 4. The most important cases of epenthesis are the addition of b between mr, ml, cum(ŭ)lus, comble, cucum(ĕ)rem, concombre; and of d between lr, nr, tenere, tiendrai. 5. The most important case of epithesis is the addition of s to the first person of the tenses of verbs: je vois, je dois, etc. * S, although unsounded, remained till the last century: it has now been for the most part rejected, and its former place marked by a circumflex accent (§ 49): maître, maistre. It still remains in some proper names: Duguesclin; Le Maistre. It is unsounded (§ 140). Composition. § 41. Compound words are of two kinds- (1) Those words in which the modifying and the modified word are merely placed side by side, and in which neither the one nor the other loses its independent existence. These are sufficiently discussed in §§ 152, 218. (2) Those words in which the modifying word has been so welded with the word modified, that the independence of either one or both words is gone, and the accentuation is that of a simple word;* such are: oripeau, flamberge, merluche, Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi, autruche, connétable, aubépine, midi, malheur, printemps, raifort, banqueroute, minuit, banlieu, fainéant, licou, etc., etc. By far the most important series of Compound words are those formed by particle prefixes. The following lists only include prefixes of popular origin, and not all of those. Learned prefixes are not given; for the most part they tell their own story. It does not necessarily follow that every French word which may possess any one of these prefixes has a similar origin; in some cases the entire word has been imported from Latin into French; in others the word has been formed, by analogy, from Latin or French materials. * As long as the compound parts of a compound word convey separate and distinct ideas, the accentuation follows the general sense of the combination (§ 53): when this loose connexion ceases, the ordinary rules of word accentuation are followed (§ 52). In Modern French the accentuation is a test of inferior value-the difference between accented and unaccented syllables is too small (§§ 52-6); in English it is often the only test between a real compound word and the mere agglutination of two or more words. (Latham's English Language, p. 223.) Compare also German separable and inseparable verbs. Some words have an intermediate position, and may be supposed to have a semi-accent. In some Latin words the prefix was accented, in others not; partly from this reason, and partly because of changes in the mode of formation, the derivation of compound words presents difficulties. These are well explained by G. Paris in L'Accent Latin, pp. 82, 83. |