environment and often led to the creation of diphthongs. One such instance is that of
tonic free a preceded by /k/. In that position, a was raised and then diphthongized
(CANEM>chien). When /k/ and g in certain positions were effaced, they left /j/ (spelled
i), which then combined with a preceding vowel to form a diphthong, as
PACARE>paiier.
Consonant vocalization (the opening of consonants into vowel sounds) resulted in the
formation of new diphthongs, as happened when velarized in preconsonantal position
began to vocalize in the 9th century: (ALBA>aube); (ILL[U]S>els>eus
[eux]); (AUSCULTA[T]> escoute. A new triphthong,
eau (BELL[U]S>beau), emerged from preconsonantal.
Consonants in a weak position (those at the end of a word or standing alone between
vowels) tended to be eliminated. Final M had been lost in early colloquial Latin, and m
and n, which became final later, likewise fell. Final t and d after a vowel were effaced
early. The sounds p, b, v final either remained as [f] (*CAP[U]>chef) or were lost. When
intervocalic consonants were lost, the number of syllables in a word was reduced,
sometimes through an intermediate situation of vowel hiatus. Intervocalic p, t, k and b, d,
g had already weakened in Vulgar Latin. In Gallo-Roman, p and b intervocalic were
retained as v (FABA>feve, RIPA >rive), but before o and u they disappeared
(TABON[EM]> taon), as did /k/ and g. Intervocalic t and d were effaced
(MUTAR[E]>muer, VIDER[E]>vëoir).
Germanic speech habits, too, influenced the development of French. Whereas Latin h
had already ceased to be pronounced (HABERE>aveir, avoir), the h in Germanic words
was pronounced (haunitha>honte), and the Germanic bilabial w became gu or g:
WERRA>guerre, WARDA>garde.
Nasalization, a phenomenon peculiar to French and Portuguese among the Romance
languages, did not begin until the Early Old French period. In general, tonic vowels both
free and blocked nasalized before the consonants m, n and but countertonic vowels
nasalized only in some circumstances. The low vowel a nasalized first (as in tant),
probably in the 10th century, followed by the mid-vowels and eventually the high vowels
i and /y/ and the diphthongs ie, oi, ui, which nasalized toward the end of the 12th century.
Nasal consonants also caused diphthongization of tonic free a to ai (which did not raise
to e, therefore: MAN(UM)>main) and they prevented certain other developments.
French in the 12th Century. Evidence for Old French is contained in a large body of
written material of many types, including literary works. Nevertheless, it is not easy to
know with precision the exact pronunciation of Old French or the dates and geographical
extension of linguistic phenomena. As against the hesitancies of Old French orthographic
practice (the same phoneme in the same environment was often represented by different
graphies), the rhyme and counting of syllables required by verse are a precious, if not
infallible, aid in determining linguistic values.
The preponderance of dialects in the Old French period is a further complicating
factor, making it impossible to talk about one Old French pronunciation. The main
variants of the Langue d’oïl were Francien and, to its immediate east and much like it,
Champenois; to the south were the dialects of Orléans, Bourbonnais, Nivernais, and
Berry; others were Anglo-Norman, the dialect spoken in England after the Conquest, and
Norman (northwest); Picard, Lotharingian, and Walloon (northeast); Burgundian and
Franc-Comtois (southeast); the dialects of Anjou, Touraine, Maine, and Brittany (west);
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 710