Leggi fonetiche · Legge 21 · Nessi

French loses S before a consonant (^)

S + consonant (inside a word)

Per ora le spiegazioni sono in inglese; gli esempi sono in tutte le lingue.

Spagnolo

s kept

Francese

s lost; often marked ^ (ê â ô î û)

Italiano

s kept

Portoghese

s kept

Rumeno

s kept

Catalano

s kept

Cosa è successo

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.

Esempi

Latino	Italiano	Spagnolo	Francese	Portoghese	Rumeno	Catalano	Parente inglese
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

Chiave di decodifica

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.

Eccezioni

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.

Guardala in azione: SPATHAM

Cosa è successo

Esempi

Chiave di decodifica

Eccezioni

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