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- raman_klogius@ani.socialEnglish3 days
French is when people speak sloppy Latin uncorrected for 1500 years
To be precise, it’s when Celts speak sloppy Latin. Even the silly way they say 80 as 4x20 comes from the Gauls.
- 3 days
Know what ? Yeah that’s the best description I’ve seen so far. So much for civilizing the Gaul
- 3 days
I wonder when French took the wrong path, because it seems unexplainable to me how we end up from Latin’s “aqua” to French’s “eau”
- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish3 days
One plausible etymology is:
aqua > agua > egua > ewa > ewe > eawe > eaw > eau > o
So first the k sound changed to a g, then the initial a became an e, which lengthened to a diphthong, the final sound disappeared, the new final sound turned from a consonant into a vowel (like an oo) and the resulting triphthong reduced to a monophthong.
The elision of medial g is pretty surprising to me though.
- 3 days
Are you sure that the Q is supposed to be read like a K? It does not seem to be the case in other neo-latin languages such as Italian and IIRC Spanish
Edit: i searched and it seems that the sound of Q could’ve been /kʷ/ which makes sense
i am not a latin expert– i barelly know it in fact, btw
- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish3 days
Yes, Latin qu was pronounced /kʷ/, which became straight /kw/ in English. I don’t know which it was in Old French. Italian does have qu which is pronounced /kw/.
- 2 days
Italian does have qu which is pronounced /kw/
Same in Germanactually no- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
Sorry bud, but in German it usually (though not always ill grant you) is pronounced /kv/ :) quark, quasseln, usw
- 2 days
Oh dang you’re right, read your comment too quickly and mixed up v and w, lol
What’s the difference between /kʷ/ and /kw/ though? Never seen that first notation
- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
The former is a labialised consonant, so the lips are brought close together, like to pronounce a /w/, but while saying a k. The general term is “secondary articulation”. I think the most famous of these, at least in European languages, is palatalisation.
theres also un oeil ( 1 eye) vs les yeux (2 eyes) like wtf. or my favorite: poisson for fish. Fish is poisoned !
- Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish3 days
Germans are a lot worse by these standards ! “Poison” is “gift”
- 3 days
Just don’t piscine the pool.
Edit: how can I forget good ol’ toilet water! Eau de toilette
- FishFace@piefed.socialEnglish3 days
It’s actually a kid coughing photoshopped onto the face of a cat.
