Historical Phonetics, Phonology, and Orthography

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents the most important changes, processes, and debates in the field of French historical phonetics, phonology, and orthography. The primary focus is on sound change, which is divided into two periods, the first covering the development of Latin into ninth-century Early Old French and the second examining sound changes during the textual history of the language. The main developments of individual sounds are summarized as in historical grammars but with a focus on how sound change causes and is conditioned by changes in syllable structure. Additionally, different approaches to palatalization, nasalization, and the emergence of distinctive vowel length are considered. The final section briefly discusses the principal tendencies of orthographic change, contrasting changes primarily driven by phonology with those that served to make the writing system more semiographic.