Old French

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OLD FRENCH (_franceis_, _françois_, _romanz_; Modern French _ancien français_) was the language spoken in Northern France from the 8th century to the 14th century. In the 14th century, these dialects came to be collectively known as the _langue d\'oïl _, contrasting with the _langue d\'oc _ or Occitan language in the south of France. The mid-14th century is taken as the transitional period to Middle French , the language of the French Renaissance , specifically based on the dialect of the Île-de-France region.

The place and area where Old French was spoken natively roughly extended to the historical Kingdom of France and its vassals (including parts of the Angevin Empire , which during the 12th century remained under Anglo-Norman rule), and Burgundy , Lorraine and Savoy to the east (corresponding to modern north-central France , Belgian Wallonia , western Switzerland and northwestern Italy ), but the influence of Old French was much wider, as it was carried to England , Sicily and the Crusader states as the language of a feudal elite and of commerce.

CONTENTS

* 1 Areal and dialectal divisions

* 2 History

* 2.1 Evolution from Vulgar Latin

* 2.2 Non-Latin influences

* 2.2.1 Gaulish * 2.2.2 Frankish

* 2.3 Earliest written Old French * 2.4 Transition to Middle French

* 3 Literature

* 4 Phonology

* 4.1 Consonants

* 4.2 Vowels

* 4.2.1 Monophthongs * 4.2.2 Diphthongs and triphthongs * 4.2.3 Hiatus

* 5 Grammar

* 5.1 Nouns * 5.2 Adjectives

* 5.3 Verbs

* 5.3.1 Verb alternations * 5.3.2 Example of regular _-er_ verb: _durer_ (to last) * 5.3.3 Example of regular _-ir_ verb: _fenir_ (to end) * 5.3.4 Example of regular _-re_ verb: _corre_ (to run)

* 5.3.5 Examples of auxiliary verbs

* 5.3.5.1 _avoir_ (to have) * 5.3.5.2 _estre_ (to be)

* 5.4 Other parts of speech

* 6 See also * 7 Notes * 8 References * 9 External links

AREAL AND DIALECTAL DIVISIONS

Further information: Langue d\'oïl and Gallo-Romance Map of France in 1180, at the height of the feudal system . The possessions of the French king are in light blue, vassals to the French king in green, Angevin possessions in red. Shown in white is the Holy Roman Empire to the east, the western fringes of which, including Upper Burgundy and Lorraine , were also part of the Old French areal.

The areal of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the northern parts of the Kingdom of France (including Anjou and Normandy , which in the 12th century were ruled by the Plantagenet kings of England ), Upper Burgundy and the duchy of Lorraine . The Norman dialect was also spread to England and Ireland , and during the crusades , Old French was also spoken in the Kingdom of Sicily , and in the Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Levant .

As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the _langues d'oïl_ were contrasted with the _langue d\'oc _ (the emerging Occitano-Romance group, at the time also called Provençal , adjacent to the Old French area in the south-west, and with the Gallo-Italic group to the south-east. The Franco-Provençal group developed in Upper Burgundy, sharing features with both French and Provençal; it may have begun to diverge from the _langue d'oïl_ as early as the 9th century, and is attested as a distinct Gallo-Romance variety by the 12th century.

Dialects or variants of Old French included:

* Burgundian in Burgundy , then an independent duchy whose capital was at Dijon ; * Picard of Picardy , whose principal cities were Calais and Lille . It was said that the Picard language began at the east door of Notre-Dame de Paris , so far-reaching was its influence; * Old Norman , in Normandy , whose principal cities were Caen and Rouen . The Norman conquest of England brought many Norman-speaking aristocrats into the British Isles. Most of the older Norman (sometimes called "French") words in English reflect its influence, which became a conduit for the introduction into the Anglo-Norman realm, as did Anglo-Norman control of Anjou and Gascony and other continental possessions. Anglo-Norman was a language that reflected a shared culture on both sides of the English Channel . Ultimately, the language declined and fell, becoming Law French , a jargon spoken by lawyers that was used in English law until the reign of Charles II of England . Norman , however, still survives in Normandy and the Channel Islands , as a regional language; * Wallon , around Namur , now in Wallonia , Belgium ; * Gallo of the Duchy of Brittany ; * Lorrain of the Duchy of Lorraine .

_ Distribution of the modern langue d\'oïl _ (shades of green) and of Franco-Provençal dialects (shades of blue)

Some modern languages are derived from Old French dialects other than Classical French, which is based on the Île-de-France dialect. They include Angevin , Berrichon , Bourguignon-Morvandiau , Champenois , Franc-Comtois , Gallo , Lorrain , Norman , Picard , Poitevin , Saintongeais and Walloon .

HISTORY

EVOLUTION FROM VULGAR LATIN

Beginning with Plautus ’s time (254–184 b.c.), Classical Latin ’s phonological structure changed, eventually yielding Vulgar Latin , the common spoken language of the Western Roman Empire . This latter form differed strongly from its classical counterpart in phonology and morphology, as well as exhibiting differences in lexicon; it was the ancestor of the Romance languages , including Old French.

NON-LATIN INFLUENCES

Gaulish

Further information: List of French words of Gaulish origin

Some Gaulish words influenced Vulgar Latin and, through this, other Romance languages. For example, classical Latin _equus_ was uniformly replaced in Vulgar Latin by _caballus_ ‘nag, work horse’, derived from Gaulish _caballos_ (cf. Welsh _ceffyl_, Breton _kefel_), giving Modern French _cheval_, Occitan _caval_ (_chaval_), Catalan _cavall_, Spanish _caballo_, Portuguese _cavalo_, Italian _cavallo_, Romanian _cal_, and, by extension, English _cavalry_. An estimated 200 words of Gaulish etymology survive in modern French, for example _chêne_ ‘oak tree’ and _charrue_ ‘plough’.

Despite attempts to explain some phonetic changes being caused by a Gaulish substrate, only one of them is certain, because this fact is clearly attested in the Gaulish-language epigraphy on the pottery found at la Graufesenque (A.D. 1st century). There, the Greek word _paropsid-es_ (written in Latin) appears as _paraxsid-i_. The consonant clusters /ps/ and /pt/ shifted to /xs/ and /xt/, e.g. Latin _capsa_ > _*kaxsa_ > _caisse_ (≠ Italian _cassa_) or _captīvus_ > _*kaxtivus_ > OF _chaitif_ (mod. _chétif_; cf. Irish _cacht_ ‘servant’; ≠ Italian _cattiv-ità_, Portuguese "cativo", Spanish _cautivo_). This phonetic evolution is parallel to the shift of the Latin cluster /kt/ in Old French (Latin _factum_ > _fait_, ≠ Italian _fatto_, Portuguese _feito_, Spanish _hecho_; or _lactem_* > _lait_, ≠ Italian _latte_, Portuguese _leite_, Spanish _leche_).

Frankish

Further information: List of French words of Germanic origin

The pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax of the Vulgar Latin spoken in Roman Gaul in Late Antiquity was modified by the Old Frankish language , spoken by the Franks who settled in Gaul from the 5th century and conquered the entire Old French-speaking area by the 530s. The name _français_ itself is derived from the name the Franks.

The Old Frankish language had a definitive influence on the development of Old French, which partly explains why the earliest attested Old French documents are older than the earliest attestations in other Romance languages (e.g. Strasbourg Oaths , Sequence of Saint Eulalia ). It is the result of an earlier gap created between Classical Latin and its evolved forms, which slowly reduced and eventually severed the intercomprehensibility between the two. The Old Low Franconian influence is also believed to be responsible for the differences between the _langue d′oïl_ and the _langue d′oc_ (Occitan), being that various parts of Northern France remained bilingual between Latin and Germanic for some time, and these areas correspond precisely to where the first documents in Old French were written.

This Germanic language shaped the popular Latin spoken here and gave it a very distinctive identity compared to the other future Romance languages. The very first noticeable influence is the substitution of the Latin melodic accent by a Germanic stress and its result was diphthongization , differentiation between long and short vowels, the fall of the unaccented syllable and of the final vowels:

* Latin _decimus_, _-a_ ‘tenth’ > OF _disme_ > F _dîme_ ‘tenth’ (> E _dime_; Italian _decimo_, Portuguese _décimo_, Spanish _diezmo_) * VL _dignitate_ > OF _deintié_ (> E _dainty_; Italian _dignità_, Romanian _demnitate_) * VL _catena_ > OF _chaeine_ (> E _chain_; Occitan, Portuguese _cadeia_, Spanish _cadena_, Italian _catena_)

Additionally, two phonemes that had long since died out in Vulgar Latin were reintroduced: and (> OF _g(u)-_, ONF _w-_ cf. Picard _w-_):

* VL _altu_ > OF _halt_ ‘high’ (influenced by OLF _*hōh_ ; ≠ Italian, Portuguese and Spanish _alto_, Occitan _naut_) * L _vespa_ > F _guêpe_, Picard _wèpe_, Wallon _wèsse_, all ‘wasp’ (influenced by OLF _*wapsa_ ; ≠ Occitan _vèspa_, Italian and Portuguese _vespa_, Spanish _avispa_) * L _viscus_ > F _gui_ ‘mistletoe’ (influenced by OLF _*wīhsila_ ‘morello’ with analogous fruits, when they are not ripe; ≠ Occitan _vesc_, Italian _vischio_) * LL _vulpiculu_ ‘fox kit’ (from L _vulpes_ ‘fox’) > OF _golpilz_, Picard _woupil_ ‘fox’ (influenced by OLF _*wulf_ ‘wolf’; ≠ Occitan _volpìlh_, Old Italian _volpiglio_, Spanish _vulpeja_ ‘vixen’)

On the opposite, the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish words of Germanic origin borrowed from French or directly from Germanic retain /gw/ ~ /g/, e.g. It, Sp. _guerra_ ‘war’, alongside /g/ in French _guerre_). In these examples, we notice a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. One example of a Latin word influencing an Old Low Franconian loan is _framboise_ ‘raspberry’, from OF _frambeise_, from OLF _*brāmbesi_ ‘blackberry’ (cf. Dutch _braambes_, _braambezie_; akin to German _Brombeere_, English dial. _bramberry_) blended with LL _fraga_ or OF _fraie_ ‘strawberry’, which explains the replacement > and in turn the final _-se_ of _framboise_ added to OF _fraie_ to make _freise_, modern _fraise_ (≠ Wallon _frève_, Romanian _fragă_, Romansh _fraja_, Italian _fragola_, _fravola_ ‘strawberry’).

Pope (1934) estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources (while the proportion was larger in Old French, because the French language borrowed heavily from Latin and Italian).

EARLIEST WRITTEN OLD FRENCH

At the third Council of Tours in 813, priests were ordered to preach in the vernacular language (either Romance or Germanic), since the common people could no longer understand formal Latin.

The earliest documents said to be written in the Gallo-Romance that presages French – after the Reichenau and Kassel glosses (8th and 9th centuries) – are the Oaths of Strasbourg (treaties and charters into which King Charles the Bald entered in 842):

Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d’ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa...

(For the love of God and for the Christian people, and our common salvation, from this day forward, as God will give me the knowledge and the power, I will defend my brother Charles with my help in everything...)

The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence , which is important for linguistic reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling.

The royal House of Capet , founded by Hugh Capet in 987, inaugurated the development of northern French culture in and around Île-de-France , which slowly but firmly asserted its ascendency over the more southerly areas of Aquitaine and Tolosa ( Toulouse ). The Capetians ' _langue d\'oïl _, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France, however, until after the French Revolution .

TRANSITION TO MIDDLE FRENCH

Further information: Middle French

In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct _langues d'oïl_, among which Middle French proper was the dialect of the Île-de-France region. During the Early Modern period , French now becomes established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, also including the _langue d'oc_-speaking territories in the south. It was only in the 17th to 18th centuries – with the development especially of popular literature of the _ Bibliothèque bleue _ – that a standardized Classical French spread throughout France alongside the regional dialects.

LITERATURE

Main article: Medieval French literature

The material and cultural conditions in France and associated territories around the year 1100 triggered what Charles Homer Haskins termed the " Renaissance of the 12th century ", resulting in a profusion of creative works in a variety of genres. Old French gives way to Middle French in the mid-14th century, paving the way for early French Renaissance literature of the 15th century.

The earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints\' lives . The _Canticle of Saint Eulalie _, written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Jean Bodel , in his _Chanson de Saisnes _, divided medieval French narrative literature into three subject areas: the Matter of France or Matter of Charlemagne ; the Matter of Rome (romances in an ancient setting); and the Matter of Britain (Arthurian romances and Breton lais ). The first of these is the subject area of the _chansons de geste _ ("songs of exploits" or "songs of (heroic) deeds"), epic poems typically composed in ten-syllable assonanced (occasionally rhymed ) _laisses _. More than one hundred _chansons de geste_ have survived in around three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the _chansons de geste_ is _ The Song of Roland _ (earliest version composed in the late 11th century).

Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube in his _ Girart de Vienne _ set out a grouping of the _chansons de geste_ into three cycles : the _Geste du roi_ centering on Charlemagne, the _ Geste de Garin de Monglane _ (whose central character was William of Orange ), and the _Geste de Doon de Mayence _ or the "rebel vassal cycle", the most famous characters of which were Renaud de Montauban and Girart de Roussillon . A fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the _ Crusade cycle _, dealing with the First Crusade and its immediate aftermath.

Jean Bodel 's other two categories—the "Matter of Rome" and the "Matter of Britain"—concern the French romance or _roman_. Around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150–1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose (many of the earlier verse romances were adapted into prose versions), although new verse romances continued to be written to the end of the 14th century. The most important romance of the 13th century is the _ Romance of the Rose _ which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story.

Medieval French lyric poetry was indebted to the poetic and cultural traditions in Southern France and Provence —including Toulouse , Poitiers , and the Aquitaine region—where _langue d'oc_ was spoken ( Occitan language ); in their turn, the Provençal poets were greatly influenced by poetic traditions from the Hispano-Arab world . The Occitan or Provençal poets were called troubadours , from the word _trobar_ "to find, to invent". Lyric poets in Old French are called _trouvères _.

By the late 13th century, the poetic tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets, both in content and in the use of certain fixed forms. The new poetic (as well as musical: some of the earliest medieval music has lyrics composed in Old French by the earliest composers known by name) tendencies are apparent in the _ Roman de Fauvel _ in 1310 and 1314, a satire on abuses in the medieval church, filled with medieval motets , lais , rondeaux and other new secular forms of poetry and music (mostly anonymous, but with several pieces by Philippe de Vitry , who would coin the expression _ars nova _ to distinguish the new musical practice from the music of the immediately preceding age). The best-known poet and composer of _ars nova_ secular music and chansons of the incipient Middle French period was Guillaume de Machaut .

Discussions about the origins of non-religious theater (_théâtre profane_) – both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and tragedy to the 9th century seems unlikely. Most historians place the origin of medieval _drama_ in the church's liturgical dialogues and "tropes". Mystery plays were eventually transferred from the monastery church to the chapter house or refectory hall and finally to the open air, and the vernacular was substituted for Latin. In the 12th century one finds the earliest extant passages in French appearing as refrains inserted into liturgical dramas in Latin, such as a Saint Nicholas (patron saint of the student clercs) play and a Saint Stephen play. An early French dramatic play is _Le Jeu d\'Adam _ (c. 1150) written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets with Latin stage directions (implying that it was written by Latin-speaking clerics for a lay public).

A large body of fables survive in Old French; these include (mostly anonymous) literature dealing with the recurring trickster character of Reynard the Fox . Marie de France was also active in this genre, producing the _ Ysopet _ (Little Aesop ) series of fables in verse. Related to the fable was the more bawdy _fabliau _, which covered topics such as cuckolding and corrupt clergy. These _fabliaux_ would be an important source for Chaucer and for the Renaissance short story (_conte_ or _nouvelle_).

PHONOLOGY

Old French was constantly changing and evolving. However, the form in the late 12th century, as attested in a great deal of mostly poetic writings, can be considered standard. The writing system at this time was more phonetic than that used in most subsequent centuries. In particular, all written consonants (including final ones) were pronounced, except for _s_ preceding non-stop consonants and _t_ in _et_, and final _e_ was pronounced . The phonological system can be summarised as follows:

CONSONANTS

Old French consonants

LABIAL DENTAL PALATAL VELAR GLOTTAL

NASAL m n ɲ

PLOSIVE p b t d

k ɡ

AFFRICATE

ts dz tʃ dʒ

FRICATIVE f v s z

(h )

LATERAL

l ʎ

TRILL

Notes:

* All obstruents (plosives, fricatives and affricates) were subject to word-final devoicing , which was usually indicated in the orthography.

* The affricates /ts/, /dz/, /tʃ/, /dʒ/ became fricatives (, , , ) in Middle French .

* /ts/ had three spellings – _c_ before _e_ or _i_, _ç_ before other vowels, or _z_ at the end of a word – as seen in _Cent_, _chançon_, _priZ_ ("a hundred, song, price"). * /dz/ was written as _z_, as in _doZe_ "twelve", and did not occur word-initially.

* /ʎ/ (_l mouillé _), as in _conseIL_, _travaILLier_ ("advice, to work"), became /j/ in Modern French . * /ɲ/ appeared not only in the middle of a word, but also at the end, as in _poiNG_ "hand". At the end of a word, /ɲ/ was later lost, leaving a nasalized vowel . * /h/ was found only in Germanic loanwords and was later lost (although it is cheshirized as the so-called aspirated h that blocks liaison ). In native Latin words, /h/ was lost early on, as in _om_, _uem_, from Latin _homō_. * Intervocalic /d/ from both Latin /t/ and /d/ was lenited to in the early period (cf. contemporary Spanish: _amado_ ). At the end of words it was also devoiced to . In some texts it was sometimes written as _dh_ or _th_ (_aiudha, cadhuna, Ludher, vithe_). By 1100 it disappeared altogether.

VOWELS

In Old French, the nasal vowels were not separate phonemes but only allophones of the oral vowels before a nasal consonant. The nasal consonant was fully pronounced; _bon_ was pronounced (Modern French ). Nasal vowels were present even in open syllables before nasals where Modern French has oral vowels, as in _bone_ (Modern French _bonne_ ).

Monophthongs

Old French vowels

FRONT CENTRAL BACK

CLOSE ORAL i y

NASAL

CLOSE-MID ORAL e ə

NASAL

OPEN-MID ɛ

OPEN ORAL a

NASAL

Notes:

* /o/ had formerly existed but closed to /u/; the original Western Romance /u/ having previously been fronted to /y/ across most of what is now France and northern Italy.

* /o/ would later appear again when /aw/ monophthongized and also when /ɔ/ closed in certain positions (such as when it was followed by original /s/ or /z/ but not by /ts/, which later became /s/). * /õ/ may have similarly been closed to /ũ/, in at least in some dialects, since it was borrowed into Middle English as /uːn/ > /aʊn/ (Latin _computāre_ > OF _conter_ > English _count_; Latin _rotundum_ > OF _ront_ > English _round_; Latin _bonitātem_ > OF _bonté_ > English _bounty_). In any case, traces of such a change were erased in later stages of French, when the close nasal vowels /ĩ ỹ õ~ũ/ were opened to become /ɛ̃ œ̃ ɔ̃/.

* /ə̃/ may have existed in the unstressed third-person plural verb ending _-ent_, but it may have already passed to /ə/, which is known to have happened by the Middle French period at the latest.

Diphthongs And Triphthongs

Late Old French diphthongs and triphthongs

IPA EXAMPLE MEANING

FALLING

ORAL /aw/ chevaus horse

/oj/ toit roof

/ow/ coup blow, hit

/ew/ ~ /øw/ neveu nephew

/iw/ ~ /iɥ/ tiule tile

NASAL /ẽj/ plein full

/õj/ loing far

RISING

ORAL /je/ pié foot

/ɥi/ fruit fruit

/we/ ~ /wø/ cuer heart

NASAL /jẽ/ bien well

/ɥĩ/ juignet July

/wẽ/ cuens count (nom. sg.)

triphthongs stress always falls on middle vowel

ORAL /e̯aw/ beaus beautiful

/jew/ dieu god

/wew/ jueu Jew

Notes:

* In Early Old French (up to about the mid-12th century), the spelling ⟨ai⟩ represented a diphthong /aj/ instead of the later monophthong /ɛ/, and ⟨ei⟩ represented the diphthong /ej/, which merged with /oj/ in Late Old French (except when it was nasalized). * In Early Old French, the diphthongs described above as "rising" may have been falling diphthongs (/ie̯/, /yj/, /ue̯/). In earlier works with vowel assonance , the diphthong written ⟨ie⟩ did not assonate with any pure vowels, which suggests that it cannot have simply been /je/. * The pronunciation of the vowels written ⟨ue⟩ and ⟨eu⟩ is debated. In the first records of Early Old French, they represented and were written as /uo/, /ou/, and by Middle French , they had both merged as /ø ~ œ/, but the transitional pronunciations are unclear. * The diphthong ⟨iu⟩ was rare and had merged into ⟨ui⟩ by Middle French (OF _tiule_ > MF _tuile_ 'tile'; OF _siure_ > Late OF _suire_ > MF _suivre_ 'follow').

Hiatus

In addition to diphthongs, Old French had many instances of hiatus between adjacent vowels because of the loss of an intervening consonant. Manuscripts generally do not distinguish hiatus from true diphthongs, but modern scholarly transcription indicates it with a diaeresis , as in Modern French:

* Latin _audīre_ > OF _oïr_ /oˈir/ 'hear' * Vulgar Latin *_vidūtum_ > OF _veü_ /vəˈy/ 'seen' * Latin _rēgīnam_ > OF _reïne_ /rəˈinə/ 'queen' * Latin _pāgēnsem_ > OF _païs_ /paˈis/ 'country' * Latin _augustum_ > OF _aoust_ /aˈust/ 'August' * Latin _patellam_ > OF _paele_ /paˈɛlə/ 'pan' * Late Latin _quaternum_ > OF _quaïer_ /kwaˈjer/ 'booklet, quire' * Late Latin _aetāticum_ > OF _aage_, _eage_ /aˈad͡ʒə/ ~ /əˈad͡ʒə/ 'age'

GRAMMAR

NOUNS

Old French maintained a two-case system, with a nominative case and an oblique case , for longer than did some other Romance languages like Spanish and Italian . Case distinctions, at least in the masculine gender , were marked on both the definite article and the noun itself. Thus, the masculine noun _li veisins_ "the neighbour" (Latin _vicīnus_ /wɪˈkiːnʊs/ > Proto-Romance *_vecínos_ /veˈt͡sinos/ > OF _veisins_ /vejˈzĩns/; Modern French _le voisin_ /vwazɛ̃/) was declined as follows:

Evolution of the nominal masculine inflection from Classical Latin to Old French

LATIN VULGAR LATIN OLD FRENCH

SINGULAR NOMINATIVE _ille vicīnus_ _(il)le vicīnos_ _li veisins_

OBLIQUE (LATIN ACCUSATIVE) _illum vicīnum_ _(il)lo vicīno_ _le veisin_

PLURAL NOMINATIVE _illī vicīnī_ _(il)lī vicīni_ _li veisin_

OBLIQUE (LATIN ACCUSATIVE) _illōs vicīnōs_ _(il)los vicīnos_ _les veisins_

In later Old French, the distinctions had become moribund. As in most other Romance languages, it was the oblique case form that usually survived to become the Modern French form: _l'enfant_ "the child" represents the old oblique (Latin accusative _īnfāntem_); the Old French nominative was _li enfes_ (Latin _īnfāns_). There are some cases with significant differences between nominative and oblique forms (derived from Latin nouns with a stress shift between the nominative and other cases) in which either it is the nominative form that survives or both forms survive with different meanings:

* Both OFr _li sire_, _le sieur_ (Latin _sEiior_, _seiiōrem_) and _le seignor_ (nom. †_sendra_; Latin _sEnior_, _seniōrem_) survive in the vocabulary of later French (_messire_, _le sieur_, _seigneur_) as different ways to refer to a feudal lord . * Modern French _sœur_ "sister" is the nominative form (Old French _suer_ < Latin nominative _sOror_); the Old French oblique form _seror_ (< Latin accusative _sorōrem_) no longer survives. * Modern French _prêtre_ "priest" is the nominative form (Old French _prestre_ < _prEsbyter_); the Old French oblique form _prevoire_, later _provoire_ (< _presbYterem_) survives only in the Paris street name _Rue des Prouvaires_. * Modern French indefinite pronoun _on_ "one" continues Old French nominative _hom_ "man" (< _hOmō_); _homme_ "man" continues the oblique form (OF _home_ < _hOminem_).

In a few cases in which the only distinction between forms was the nominative _-s_ ending, the _-s_ was preserved in spelling to distinguish otherwise-homonymous words. An example is _fils_ "son" (< Latin nominative _fīlius_), spelled to distinguish it from _fil_ "wire". In this case, a later spelling pronunciation has resulted in the modern pronunciation /fis/ (earlier /fi/).

As in Spanish and Italian, the neuter gender was eliminated, and most old neuter nouns became masculine. Some Latin neuter plurals were reanalysed as feminine singulars: Latin _gaudium_ was more widely used in the plural form _gaudia_, which was taken for a singular in Vulgar Latin and ultimately led to modern French _la joie_, "joy" (feminine singular).

Nouns were declined in the following declensions :

CLASS I (FEMININE) CLASS II (MASCULINE)

CLASS I NORMAL CLASS IA CLASS II NORMAL CLASS IIA

MEANING "WOMAN" "THING" "CITY" "NEIGHBOR" "SERVANT" "FATHER"

SG. NOMINATIVE _la fame_ _la riens_ _la citez_ _li veisins_ _li sergenz_ _li pere_

OBLIQUE _la rien_ _la cité_ _le veisin_ _le sergent_ _le pere_

PL. NOMINATIVE _les fames_ _les riens_ _les citez_ _li veisin_ _li sergent_ _li pere_

OBLIQUE _les veisins_ _les sergenz_ _les peres_

CLASS III (BOTH)

CLASS IIIA CLASS IIIB CLASS IIIC CLASS IIID

MEANING "SINGER" "BARON" "NUN" "SISTER" "CHILD" "PRIEST" "LORD" "COUNT"

SG. NOMINATIVE _li chantere_ _li ber_ _la none_ _la suer_ _li enfes_ _li prestre_ _li sire_ _li cuens_

OBLIQUE _le chanteor_ _le baron_ _la nonain_ _la seror_ _l'enfant_ _le prevoire_ _le sieur_ _le conte_

PL. NOMINATIVE _li chanteor_ _li baron_ _les nones_ _les serors_ _li enfant_ _li prevoire_ _li sieur_ _li conte_

OBLIQUE _les chanteors_ _les barons_ _les nonains_ _les serors_ _les enfanz_ _les prevoires_ _les sieurs_ _les contes_

Class I is derived from the Latin first declension . Class Ia mostly comes from Latin feminine nouns in the third declension . Class II is derived from the Latin second declension . Class IIa generally stems from second-declension nouns ending in _-er_ and from third-declension masculine nouns; in both cases, the Latin nominative singular did not end in _-s_, which is preserved in Old French.

The classes show various analogical developments: _-es_ from the accusative instead of _-∅_ (_-e_ after a consonant cluster) in Class I nominative plural (Latin _-ae_), _li pere_ instead of _*li peres_ (Latin _illi patres_) in Class IIa nominative plural, modelled on Class II, etc.

Class III nouns show a separate form in the nominative singular that does not occur in any of the other forms. IIIa nouns ended in _-ātor_, _-ātōrem_ in Latin and preserve the stress shift; IIIb nouns also had a stress shift, from _-ō_ to _-ōnem_. IIIc nouns are an Old French creation and have no clear Latin antecedent. IIId nouns represent various other types of third-declension Latin nouns with stress shift or a change of consonant (_sOror_, _sorōrem; īnfāns, īnfāntem; prEsbyter, presbYterem; sEiior, seiiōrem; cOmes, cOmitem)._

Regular feminine forms of masculine nouns are formed by adding an _-e_ to the masculine stem unless the masculine stem already ends in _-e_. For example, _bergier_ (shepherd) becomes _bergiere_ (Modern French _berger_ and _bergère_).

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives agree in terms of number , gender and case with the noun that they are qualifying. Thus, a feminine plural noun in the nominative case requires any qualifying adjectives to be feminine, plural and nominative. For example, in _femes riches_, _riche_ has to be in the feminine plural form.

Adjectives can be divided into three declensional classes:

* Class I corresponding roughly to Latin 1st- and 2nd-declension adjectives * Class II corresponding roughly to Latin 3rd-declension adjectives * Class III containing primarily the descendants of Latin synthetic comparative forms in _-ior_, _-iōrem_.

Class I adjectives have a feminine singular form (nominative and oblique) ending in _-e_. They can be further subdivided into two subclasses, based on the masculine nominative singular form. Class Ia adjectives have a masculine nominative singular ending in _-s_: _bon_ "good" (< Latin _bonus_, > modern French _bon_)

MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR

NOMINATIVE _bons_ _bon_ _bone_ _bones_ _bon_

OBLIQUE _bon_ _bons_ —

For Class Ib adjectives, the masculine nominative singular ends in _-e_, like the feminine. There are descendants of Latin second- and third-declension adjectives ending in _-er_ in the nominative singular: _aspre_ "harsh" (< Latin _asper_, > modern French _âpre_)

MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR

NOMINATIVE _aspre_ _aspre_ _aspre_ _aspres_ _aspre_

OBLIQUE _aspres_ —

For Class II adjectives, the feminine singular is not marked by the ending _-e_: _granz_ "big, great" (< Latin _grandis_, > modern French _grand_)

MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR

NOMINATIVE _granz_ _grant_ _granz_/_grant_ _granz_ _grant_

OBLIQUE _grant_ _granz_ _grant_ —

An important subgroup of Class II adjectives is the present participial forms in _-ant_.

Class III adjectives have a stem alternation, resulting from stress shift in the Latin third declension and a distinct neuter form: _mieudre_ "better" (< Latin _melior_, > modern French _meilleur_)

MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER

SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR PLURAL SINGULAR

NOMINATIVE _mieudre(s)_ _meillor_ _mieudre_ _meillors_ _mieuz_

OBLIQUE _meillor_ _meillors_ _meillor_ —

In later Old French, Classes II and III tended to be moved across to Class I, which was complete by Middle French. Modern French thus has only a single adjective declension, unlike most other Romance languages, which have two or more.

VERBS

Verbs in Old French show the same extreme phonological deformations as other Old French words. Morphologically, however, Old French verbs are extremely conservative in preserving intact most of the Latin alternations and irregularities that had been inherited in Proto-Romance . Old French has much less analogical reformation than Modern French has and significantly less than the oldest stages of other languages (such as Old Spanish ) despite the fact that the various phonological developments in Gallo-Romance and Proto-French led to complex alternations in the majority of commonly-used verbs.

For example, the Old French verb _laver_ "to wash" (Latin _lavāre_) is conjugated _je lef_, _tu leves_, _il leve_ in the present indicative and _je lef_, _tu les_, _il let_ in the present subjunctive , in both cases regular phonological developments from Latin indicative _lAvō_, _lAvās_, _lAvat_ and subjunctive _lAvem_, _lAvēs_, _lAvet_. The following paradigm is typical in showing the phonologically regular but morphologically irregular alternations of most paradigms:

* The alternation _je lef_ ~ _tu leves_ is a regular result of the final devoicing triggered by loss of final /o/ but not /a/. * The alternation _laver_ ~ _tu leves_ is a regular result of the diphthongization of a stressed open syllable /a/ into /ae/ > /æ/ > /e/. * The alternation _je lef_ ~ _tu les_ ~ _il let_ in the subjunctive is a regular result of the simplification of the final clusters /fs/ and /ft/, resulting from loss of /e/ in final syllables.

Modern French, on the other hand, has _je lave_, _tu laves_, _il lave_ in both indicative and subjunctive, reflecting significant analogical developments: analogical borrowing of unstressed vowel /a/, analogical _-e_ in the first singular (from verbs like _j'entre_, with a regular _-e_ ) and wholesale replacement of the subjunctive with forms modelled on _-ir_/_-oir_/_-re_ verbs. All serve to eliminate the various alternations in the Old French verb paradigm. Even modern "irregular" verbs are not immune from analogy: For example, Old French _je vif_, _tu vis_, _il vit_ (_vivre_ "to live") has yielded to modern _je vis_, _tu vis_, _il vit_, eliminating the unpredictable _-f_ in the first-person singular.

The simple past also shows extensive analogical reformation and simplification in Modern French, as compared with Old French.

The Latin pluperfect was preserved in very early Old French as a past tense with a value similar to a preterite or imperfect . For example, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (878 AD) has past-tense forms such as _avret_ (< Latin _habuerat_), _voldret_ (< Latin _voluerat_), alternating with past-tense forms from the Latin perfect (continued as the modern "simple past"). Old Occitan also preserved this tense, with a conditional value; Spanish still preserves this tense (the _-ra_ imperfect subjunctive), as does Portuguese (in its original value as a pluperfect indicative).

Verb Alternations

In Latin, stress was determined automatically by the number of syllables in a word and the weight (length) of the syllables. That resulted in certain automatic stress shifts between related forms in a paradigm, depending on the nature of the suffixes added. For example, in _pEnsō_ "I think", the first syllable was stressed, but in _pensāmus_ "we think", the second syllable was stressed. In many Romance languages, vowels diphthongized in stressed syllables under certain circumstances but not in unstressed syllables, resulting in alternations in verb paradigms: Spanish _pienso_ "I think" vs. _pensamos_ "we think" (_pensar_ "to think"), or _cuento_ "I tell" vs. _contamos_ "we tell" (_contar_ "to tell").

In the development of French, at least five vowels diphthongized in stressed, open syllables . Combined with other stress-dependent developments, that yielded 15 or so types of alternations in so-called strong verbs in Old French. For example, /a/ diphthongized to /ai/ before nasal stops in stressed, open syllables but not in unstressed syllables, yielding _aim_ "I love" (Latin _Amō_) but _amons_ "we love" (Latin _amāmus_).

The different types are as follows:

Vowel alternations in Old French verbs VOWEL ALTERNATION ENVIRONMENT EXAMPLE (_-ER_ CONJUGATION) EXAMPLE (OTHER CONJUGATION)

STRESSED UNSTRESSED LATIN ETYMON 3rd singular pres. ind. INFINITIVE MEANING LATIN ETYMON 3rd singular pres. ind. Infinitive / Other form MEANING

/e/ /a/ free /a/ _lavāre_ _leve_ _laver_ "to wash" _parere_ > _*parīre_ _pert_ _parir_ "to give birth"

/ãj̃/ /ã/ free /a/ + nasal _amāre_ _aime_ _amer_ "to love" _manēre_ _maint_ _manoir_ "to remain"

/je/ /e/ palatal + free /a/ _*accapāre_ _achieve_ _achever_ "to achieve"

/i/ /e/ palatal + /a/ + palatal _*concacāre_ _conchie_ _concheer_ "to expel" _iacēre_ _gist_ _gesir_ "to lie (down)"

/a/ /e/ palatal + blocked /a/ _*accapitāre_ _achate_ _acheter_ "to buy" _cadere_ > _*cadēre_ _chiet_ _cheoir_ "to fall"

/a/ /e/ intertonic /a/ + palatal? _*tripaliāre_ _travaille_ _traveillier_ "to torment, make suffer"

/je/ /e/ free /ɛ/ _levāre_ _lieve_ _lever_ "to raise" _sedēre_ _siet_ _seoir_ "to sit"

/jẽ/ /ẽ/ free /ɛ/ + nasal

_tremere_ > _*cremere_ _crient_ _creindre_ (var. _cremir_, -_oir_) "to fear"

/i/ /oj/ /ɛ/ + palatal _pretiāre_ _prise_ _proisier_ "to value" _exīre_ _ist_ _oissir_ "to go out"

/ɛ/ /e/ intertonic /ɛ, e/ + double cons. _appellāre_ _apele_ _apeler_ "to call"

/oj/ /e/ free /e/ _adhaerāre_ > _*adēsāre_ _adoise_ _adeser_ "to touch"

/ẽj̃/ /ẽ/ free /e/ + nasal _mināre_ _meine_ _mener_ "to lead"

/i/ /e/ palatal + free /e/

/oj/ /i/ intertonic /e/ + palatal - _charroie_ _charrier_ "to cart around"

/we/ /u/ free /ɔ/ _*tropāre_ _trueve_ _truver_ "to invent, discover" _morī_ > _*morīre_ _muert_ _mourir_ "to die"

/uj/ /oj/ /ɔ/ + palatal _*appodiāre_ _apuie_ _apoiier_ "to lean"

/ew/ /u/ free /o/ _dēmōrārī_ _demeure_ _demo(u)rer_ "to stay" _cōnsuere_ > _*cōsere_ _queust_ _cousdre_ "to sew"

/u/ /e/ intertonic blocked /o/ _*corruptiāre_ _courouce_ _courecier_ "to get angry"

/ũ/ /ã/ intertonic blocked /o/ + nasal _calumniārī_ _chalonge_ _chalengier_ "to challenge"

In Modern French, the verbs in the _-er_ class have been systematically levelled. Generally, the "weak" (unstressed) form predominates, but there are some exceptions (such as modern _aimer_/_nous aimons_). The only remaining alternations are in verbs like _acheter_/_j'achète_ and _jeter_/_je jette_, with unstressed /ə/ alternating with stressed /ɛ/ and in (largely-learned) verbs like _adhérer/j'adhère_, with unstressed /e/ alternating with stressed /ɛ/. Many of the non-_er_ verbs have become obsolete, and many of the remaining verbs have been levelled. A few alternations remain, however, in what are now known as irregular verbs , such as _je tiens_, _nous tenons_; _je dois_, _nous devons_ and _je meurs_, _nous mourons_.

Some verbs had a more irregular alternation between different-length stems, with a longer, stressed stem alternating with a shorter, unstressed stem. That was a regular development stemming from the loss of unstressed intertonic vowels , which remained when they were stressed:

* _j'aiu_/_aidier_ "help" < _adiūtō_, _adiūtāre_ * _j'araison_/_araisnier_ "speak to" < _adratiōnō_, _adratiōnāre_ * _je deraison_/_deraisnier_ "argue" < _dēratiōnō_, _dēratiōnāre_ * _je desjun_/_disner_ "dine" < _disiēiūnō_, _disiēiūnāre_ * _je manju_/_mangier_ "eat" < _mandūcō_, _mandūcāre_ * _je parol_/_parler_ "speak" < _*parAUlō_, _*paraulāre_ < _parabolō_, _parabolāre_

The alternation of _je desjun_, _disner_ is particularly complicated; it appears that _disiēiūnāre_ > Western Romance /desjejuˈnare > /desjejˈnare/ (preliminary intertonic loss) > /desiˈnare/ (triphthong reduction) > /disiˈnare/ (metaphony ) > /disˈner/ (further intertonic loss and other proto-French developments). Both stems have become full verbs in Modern French: _déjeuner_ "to have lunch" and _dîner_ "to dine". Furthermore, _déjeuner_ does not derive directly from _je desjun_ (< _*disi(ēi)ūnō_, with total loss of unstressed _-ēi-_). Instead, it comes from Old French _desjeüner_, based on the alternative form _je desjeün_ (< _*disiē(i)ūnō_, with loss of only _-i-_, likely influenced by _jeûner_ "to fast" < Old French _jeüner_ < _je jeün_ /d͡ʒe.ˈyn/ "I fast" < _iē(i)ūnō_: _iē-_ is an initial rather than intertonic so the vowel _-ē-_ does not disappear).

Example Of Regular _-er_ Verb: _durer_ (to Last)

INDICATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST IMPERFECT FUTURE PRESENT IMPERFECT PRESENT PRESENT

_JE_ _dur_ _durai_ _duroie_ _durerai_ _dur_ _durasse_ _dureroie_ —

_TU_ _dures_ _duras_ _durois_ _dureras_ _durs_ _durasses_ _durerois_ _dure_

_IL_ _dure_ _dura_ _duroit_ _durera_ _durt_ _durast_ _dureroit_ —

_NOS_ _durons_ _durames_ _duriiens_/_-ïons_ _durerons_ _durons_ _durissons_/_-issiens_ _dureriions_/_-ïons_ _durons_

_VOS_ _durez_ _durastes_ _duriiez_ _dureroiz_/_-ez_ _durez_ _durissoiz_/_-issez_/_-issiez_ _dureriiez_/_-ïez_ _durez_

_ILS_ _durent_ _durerent_ _duroient_ _dureront_ _durent_ _durassent_ _dureroient_ —

Non-finite forms:

* Infinitive: _durer_ * Present participle: _durant_ * Past Participle: _duré_

Auxiliary verb: _avoir_

Example Of Regular _-ir_ Verb: _fenir_ (to End)

INDICATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST IMPERFECT FUTURE PRESENT IMPERFECT PRESENT PRESENT

_JE_ _fenis_ _feni_ _fenissoie_ _fenirai_ _fenisse_ _fenisse_ _feniroie_ —

_TU_ _fenis_ _fenis_ _fenissoies_ _feniras_ _fenisses_ _fenisses_ _fenirois_ _fenis_

_IL_ _fenist_ _feni(t)_ _fenissoit_ _fenira_ _fenisse(t)_ _fenist_ _feniroit_ —

_NOS_ _fenissons_ _fenimes_ _fenissiiens_ _fenirons_ _fenissons_ _fenissons_/_-iens_ _feniriiens_ _fenissons_

_VOS_ _fenissez_ _fenistes_ _fenissiiez_ _feniroiz_/_-ez_ _fenissez_ _fenissoiz_/_-ez_/_-iez_ _feniriiez_ _fenissez_

_ILS_ _fenissent_ _fenirent_ _fenissoient_ _feniront_ _fenissent_ _fenissent_ _feniroient_ —

Non-finite forms:

* Infinitive: _fenir_ * Present participle: _fenissant_ * Past participle: _feni(t)_

Auxiliary verb: _avoir_

Example Of Regular _-re_ Verb: _corre_ (to Run)

INDICATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST IMPERFECT FUTURE PRESENT IMPERFECT PRESENT PRESENT

_JE_ _cor_ _corui_ _coroie_ _corrai_ _core_ _corusse_ _corroie_ —

_TU_ _cors_ _corus_ _coroies_ _corras_ _cores_ _corusses_ _corroies_ _cor_

_IL_ _cort_ _coru(t)_ _coroit_ _corra_ _core(t)_ _corust_ _corroit_ —

_NOS_ _corons_ _corumes_ _coriiens_ _corrons_ _corons_ _corussons_/_-iens_ _corriiens_ _corons_

_VOS_ _corez_ _corustes_ _coriiez_ _corroiz_/_-ez_ _corez_ _corussoiz_/_-ez_/_-iez_ _corriiez_ _corez_

_ILS_ _corent_ _corurent_ _coroient_ _corront_ _corent_ _corussent_ _corroient_ —

Non-finite forms:

* Infinitive: _corre_ * Present participle: _corant_ * Past participle: _coru(t)_

Auxiliary verb: _estre_

Examples Of Auxiliary Verbs

_avoir_ (to Have)

INDICATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST IMPERFECT FUTURE PRESENT IMPERFECT PRESENT PRESENT

_JE_ _ai_ _eüi_, _oi_ _avoie_ _aurai_ _ai_ _eüsse_ _auroie_ —

_TU_ _ais_ (later _as_) _eüs_ _avois_ _auras_ _ais_ _eüsses_ _aurois_ _ave_

_IL_ _ai_ (later _a_) _eü(t)_, _ot_ _avoit_ _aura_ _ai_ _eüst_ _auroit_ —

_NOS_ _avons_ _eümes_ _aviiens_/_-ïons_ _aurons_ _aions_ _eüssons_/_-issiens_ _auravons_/_-ïons_ _avons_

_VOS_ _avez_ _eüstes_ _aviiez_ _auroiz_/_-ez_ _aiez_ _eüssoiz_/_-issez_/_-issiez_ _auravez_/_-ïez_ _avez_

_ILS_ _ont_ _eürent_ _avoient_ _auront_ _ont_ _eüssent_ _auroient_ —

Non-finite forms:

* Infinitive: _avoir_ (earlier _aveir_) * Present participle: _aiant_ * Past participle: _eü(t)_

Auxiliary verb: _avoir_

_estre_ (to Be)

INDICATIVE SUBJUNCTIVE CONDITIONAL IMPERATIVE

PRESENT SIMPLE PAST IMPERFECT FUTURE PRESENT IMPERFECT PRESENT PRESENT

_JE_ _suis_ _fui_ _(i)ere_ _esteie_ > _estoie_ _(i)er_ _serai_ _estrai_ _seie_ > _soie_ _fusse_ _sereie_ > _seroie_ _estreie_ > _estroie_ —

_TU_ _(i)es_ _fus_ _(i)eres_ _esteies_ > _estoies_ _(i)ers_ _seras_ _estras_ _seies_ > _soies_ _fusses_ _sereies_ > _seroies_ _estreies_ > _estroies_ _seies_ > _soies_

IL _est_ _fu(t)_ _(i)ere(t)_, _(i)ert_ _esteit_ > _estoit_ _(i)ert_ _sera(t)_ _estra(t)_ _seit_ > _soit_ _fust_ _sereit_ > _seroit_ _estreit_ > _estroit_ —

_NOS_ _somes_, _esmes_ _fumes_ _eriiens_, _erions_ _estiiens_, _estions_ _(i)ermes_ _serons_ _estrons_ _seiiens_, _seions_ > _soiiens_, _soions_ _fussons_/_-iens_ _seriiens_, _serions_ _estriiens_, _estrions_ _seiiens_ > _soiiens_, _seions_ > _soions_

_VOS_ _estes_ _fustes_ _eriiez_ _estiiez_ — _sere(i)z_ _estre(i)z_ _seiiez_ > _soiiez_ _fusseiz_/_-ez_/_-iez_ _seriiez_ _estriiez_ _seiiez_ > _soiiez_

_ILS_ _sont_ _furent_ _(i)erent_ _esteient_ > _estoient_ _(i)erent_ _seront_ _estront_ _seient_ > _soient_ _fussent_ _sereient_ > _seroient_ _estreient_ > _estroient_ —

Non-finite forms:

* Infinitive: _estre_ * Present participle: _estant_ * Past participle: _esté(t)_

Auxiliary verb: _avoir_

OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH

Adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections are generally invariable, one notable exception being the adverb _tot_, like Modern French _tout_: all, every.