Little fact about French because I just learned that

hayley-studies:

culmaer:

limbile:

The accent circonflexe (^) exists in French words to replace the “s” that no longer exists but used to be there in older French.

For example: fenĂȘtre used to be fenestre

It is still possible to see the “s” at times in family words like “dĂ©fenestrer”.

knowing this, « ĂȘtre » becomes much more regular :

  • ĂȘtre  → estre (es, est, sommes, ĂȘ[s]tes, sont ; ser-)

some French derivations become clearer :

  • fenĂȘtre   → dĂ©fenestrer → L. fenestra
  • fĂȘte   → festival
  • hĂŽpital → hospitaliser (E. hospital, ise)
  • intĂ©rĂȘt  → intĂ©ressant (E. interest, -ing)
  • ancĂȘtre  → ancestral (E. ancestor, -ral)
  • arrĂȘt    → arrestation
  • Ă©pĂźtre  → Ă©pistolaire (E. epistle)

some English cognates become more obvious :

  • hĂŽtel  → hostel (E. ‘hotel’ borrowed from French)
  • forĂȘt  → forest (tipp to remember ^ goes on the â€čeâ€ș)
  • bĂȘte  → beast
  • cĂŽte  → coast
  • honnĂȘte → honest
  • pĂąte, pĂątĂ© → pasta, paste
  • quĂȘte   → quest
  • enquĂȘte  → inquest
  • tempĂȘte  → tempest
  • vĂȘtements → vestments (ie. clothes)
  • baptĂȘme → baptism

sometimes, the acute replaces the circumfex for phonetic reasons :

  • ᾗcole   → escole → L. schola (E. school)
  • ᾗtranger   → estrangier (E. stranger)
  • ᾗtudier   → estudier (E. study)
  • dᾗgoĂ»tant → desgoustant (E. disgusting)
  • dᾗbarquer → desembarquer (E. disembark)
  • rᾗpondre  → respondre (E. respond)
  • rᾗpublique → L. res publica

Also, where « c → ch » (eg. cantare→ chanter) :

  • chĂąteau → castel (E. castle)
  • pĂȘcher → L. piscare

and « w → gu » (eg. war→ guerre ; warden→ guardian) :

  • guĂȘpe → E. wasp ! (this is my n° 1 favourite cognate)

bonus etymologies :

  • tĂȘte   → L. testa
  • fantĂŽme  → L. phantasma (E. ‘phantom’ borrowed from French)
  • PĂąques  → Gk. pĂĄsxa → Am. pĂ©saឫ (E. Paschal)

Also just be aware that the circumflex has some other uses too, like distinguishing « sur — sĂ»r » or « dĂ» » and the vowel quality in « Ăąge »

Where was this post when I was doing A-Level French! This is actually a really interesting language change called “syncope” (the loss of a medial segment within a word) and what makes it even more interesting to me is that not only was the -s- dropped post vocalically and largely before voiceless stops, but that the circumflex was (unnecessarily but coolly) adopted as an orthographic marker of the lost -s-. Even more interesting is that syncope usually occurs in vowels. I love this.

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