Lois phonétiques · Loi 21 · Groupes consonantiques

French loses S before a consonant (^)

S + consonant (inside a word)

Les explications sont pour l’instant en anglais ; les exemples sont dans toutes les langues.

Espagnol

s kept

Français

s lost; often marked ^ (ê â ô î û)

Italien

s kept

Portugais

s kept

Roumain

s kept

Catalan

s kept

Ce qui s’est passé

In medieval French, s before a consonant weakened and disappeared, often lengthening the vowel before it; the other five sisters kept the s. Scribes kept writing the s for centuries, and when spelling was modernized in the 18th century the circumflex accent replaced it in many words. English, which borrowed from French before the loss, still has the s.

Exemples

Latin	Italien	Espagnol	Français	Portugais	Roumain	Catalan	Parent anglais
FESTAM‘feast day’	festa	fiesta	fête	festa	—	festa	feast
COSTAM‘rib → side, coast’	costa	costa	côte	costa	coastă	costa	coast
HOSPITEM‘guest, host’	ospite	huésped	hôte	hóspede	oaspete	hoste	host
CASTELLUM‘fort → castle’	castello	castillo	château	castelo	—	castell	castle
CRUSTAM‘crust’	crosta	costra	croûte	crosta	—	crosta	crust
INSULAM‘island’	isola	isla	île	ilha	—	illa	isle

Clé de lecture

French ê, â, ô, î, û? Put an s after the vowel to get the word in the other sisters (and often English): fête → fiesta, festa, feast; côte → costa, coastă, coast.

Exceptions

The circumflex also marks other lost sounds (âge from Old French aage, sûr from seür) and tells homographs apart (du/dû, sur/sûr); since the 1990 reform it is optional on i and u in most words. Later learned words and loans keep the s: fête but festival (from English), hôpital but hospitalier. Catalan illa (and Portuguese ilha, probably taken from Catalan or Occitan) lost the s by another road: the cluster s'l became a palatal ll.

Voir la transformation: SPATHAM

Ce qui s’est passé

Exemples

Clé de lecture

Exceptions

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