Lois phonétiques · Loi 4 · Voyelles

French fronts long U to [y]

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

Espagnol

u [u] (kept)

Français

u [y]

Italien

u [u] (kept)

Portugais

u [u] (kept)

Roumain

u [u] (kept)

Catalan

u [u] (kept)

Ce qui s’est passé

Latin long Ū stayed [u] in every sister but French, which moved it forward in the mouth, keeping the lips rounded: the tongue position of i with the lips of u, which is [y]. It happened in the early Middle Ages; a Gaulish-substrate origin is often proposed but remains disputed. The spelling never changed, so French u looks the same as its sisters' and sounds different.

Exemples

Latin	Italien	Espagnol	Français	Portugais	Roumain	Catalan	Parent anglais
LŪNAM‘moon’	luna	luna	lune	lua	lună	lluna	lunar
MŪRUM‘wall’	muro	muro	mur	muro	—	mur	mural
PŪRUM‘pure’	puro	puro	pur	puro	—	pur	pure
DŪRUM‘hard’	duro	duro	dur	duro	—	dur
MŪTUM‘mute (fr muet, a diminutive)’	muto	mudo	muet	mudo	mut	mut	mute
MŪLAM‘she-mule’	mula	mula	mule	mula	—	mula	mule
ACŪTUM‘sharp’	acuto	agudo	aigu	agudo	—	agut	acute

Clé de lecture

A u in any sister's word that French shares is French u [y], not ou: luna, lua, lună → lune; muro, mur → mur. Round your lips for u and say i.

Exceptions

Latin short Ŭ is a different story: it merged with long O and gives o in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Catalan and ou or eu in French (CŬRTUM → corto, court, corto; GŬLAM → Italian gola, French gueule); Romanian alone kept it as u (GŬLAM → gură). French ou [u] therefore rarely comes from Latin Ū.

Voir la transformation: MŪRUM

Ce qui s’est passé

Exemples

Clé de lecture

Exceptions

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