re-latinised French

MOESAN

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Reformed French

Only 40 % of native Romance words in standard French (surely less, because the study telling that is becoming old) ! Let’s keep in mind that among this primary lexicon exist quantity of words borrowed of Celtic, Germanic, Greek, pre-Celto-Latin and pre-IE words.

Just for the fun, it isn’t a school lesson. Just some keyes for interessed people who could go further.

It’s relatively easy to debunk the words re-borrowed from Latin, other more conservative Romance tongues, without speaking here of artificial Greek words (technics, sciences…)

- Oïl French (not Petrol French) hated the consonants groups, and even the gemelled (doubled) consonants or sonants. The doubled consonants and sonants in modern French have no phonologic value and are just some spoken style among certain groups (classes). French is a over-weakening (lenition) language. Then we have a lot of doublets in French, with it’s true some meaning differences.

Ex:
chétif puny, frail > < captifcaptive
recette recipe + income > < reception reception, receipt
âme (*anme) soul < animé nimated, alive
serment oath, promise > < sacrement sacrament
hôtel hotel > < hôpital (cf hospitalier) hospital
roture roture > < rupture breaking up
aile wing > < aisselle armpit
épaule shoulder > < spatule spatula
oeuvre (art)work > < opéra opera -
clocher to go wrong, to malfunction > < claudiquer to limp
chenal fairway > < canal channel, canal
frêle frail > < fragile brittle, weak
grêle thin, spindly > < gracile puny, gracile
raison reason > < ration ration
poison poison > < potion potion
on we (the people in general) lat- homo > < homme man lat- homine –

Extreme cases:
évêché diocese, bishopric > < épiscopat -id-
évier sink (eau < ève water) > < aquarium aquarium
prêtre preast > < presbytère presbytery -

&: Dialects have retained more ancient forms than modern standard has. Ex:
soitié > < société society
vivre/vèvre > < vipère viper
orine > < origine origin

As a whole, I think the other romance (neo-latin) languages of West like Portuguese and Spanish has forged less reconstructed latin words, and show more forms closer to their genuine evolution. Not always, look at Portuguese cheio > < pleno full BI – in French, some of the irregular forms in respect of Oïl evolution are also borrowings to other romance more conservative languages, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, but also to Occitan and Catalan dialects -

roughly said, are not genuine Oïl French (North-Normand/Picard aside) words with:
ca- (except Lat- qua-), -pt, -ct, sp-, -sp, st-, -st, -sc, -sc, sk-, -mn, -sn, -sm, -lt, -lp, -lm, -ln …

Some words escape to this rule: because their spelling is just an artifice to distinguish two words of same origin or a spelling archaïsm, then without post-romance borrowing: compte/conte # comte (Lat- comput- # comit-) pronounced [ko~t] all three; same for dompte (domit-) → [do~t] or damne → [dân-] (back ‘ah’).
 
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other words:

chevalier
 
to be continued

article article > < orteil (< arteil) toe
astre aster > < âtre hearth
pasteur pastor > <pâtre shepherd
basilique basilica > < bazoge/bazoche basilica
blasphème blasphemy > < blâme disapproval
bulgare Bulgarian > < bougre chap, guy (before : kind of sodomite)
cancre dunce > < chancre canker, chancre
carne hard meat > < chair flesh, meat
campagne countryside > < champagne countryside (regional)
capter to capture > < chasser° (captiare) to hunt
canon 2 canon (law) > < chanoine canon (person)
castrer to castrate/geld > < châtrer to castrate, to geld
cause cause, reason > < chose thing
cubitus ulna > < coude elbow
cave cellar > < cage cage
corridor° passage/corridor > < couloir corridor, gangway
cohorte cohort, pack > < cour yard, court, courtyard
cumuler to accumulate > < combler to fill in, to fulfil
cutané cutaneous, of skin > < couenné rind … (with rind)
décadence decline, décadence > < déchéance fall, forfeiture, decline
direct direct, through > < droit straight, right
doter to endow > < douer endow
fabrique factory > < forge smithy, forge
faribole piece of nonsense > < fable fable, tale > Sp- hablar, Port- falar​
fermeté firmness > < ferté fortress (in place names)​
tibia tibia, shin > < tige stem, rod
parabole parable, parabola > < parole speech, word
caillou pebble, little stone > < chaillou pebble, little stone (correct Oïlform)​
aveugle blind > < aveuille blind (old French)​
palace luxury hotel > < palais palace + palate
cavalier rider, bal partner > < chevalier knight
cavalcade cavalcade > < chevauchée ride
embuscade ambush > < embûche < embûchée (?) pitfall, trap Germ- *busk


some words are of uncertain origine like ‘faribole’ from Provençal dialects - ‘caillou’ is from Gaulish, ‘bûche’ from Germanic, passed into Latin as it ; what is interesting is to look at the temrinal Oîl forms, very shortened-​

 
All the words here under have not been fixed at the same period if at least between Roman and Old French stages; and standard French, spite based on the dialects of Île-de-FRance, Orléanais and Touraine, contains also words of other Oïl dialects (we ought to say burre in place of beurre (butter), and leu in place of lou(p) (wolf)).

capital capital > < cheptel cattle
capitaine captain > < cheftaine(+) -id- cf chieftain : clan chief (the word is faded in French)
capituler to capitulate > < chapitrer to reprimend, to lecture
grésil fine hail> < grêle 2 hail (# gracile) cape cape, cloak > < chape screed
natif (de) born (in) > < naïf naive
quiet (quiet) > < coi -id-
claustrer to shut up, to lock up > < cloîtrer -id- + to send into a cluister/convent (cf cluster?)
vérace true > < vrai(e) -id- (Lat- verus > French vrai)
frigide frigid, ice cold > < froid(e) cold
via through, via > < voie way, road


some loans made later to Occitan and other southern Romance languages:
cadène (Ital. loan) > < chaîne chain
cadenette hair plait > < chaînette little chain
 
mirador watchtower, highseeing place (from Catalan) > < miroir mirror -
coq cook on ships > < (maître) > < queux cook (out of fashion or at least rare term)
pasteur shepherd (in poesy), pastor > < pâtre shepherd
vagin vagina > < gaine girdle, sheath (under Germanic influence with Lat- v- pronounced w-)
 
I read that French partially re-Latinized itself in the Middle Ages and Renaissance with more technical and scholarly terms borrowed straight from Latin. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between those and the inherited French words, which changed a lot more from Vulgar Latin. There are a lot of etymological doublets for that reason.
 
I read that French partially re-Latinized itself in the Middle Ages and Renaissance with more technical and scholarly terms borrowed straight from Latin. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between those and the inherited French words, which changed a lot more from Vulgar Latin. There are a lot of etymological doublets for that reason.

True. The same everytime that languages with a common root but diverging evolutions borrow LATER words one from another;
In today Romanian, there are a lot of lonwords from French, and they are easily distinguishable from the Latin initial layer of words.
 
Exactly, that is very true. Pretty much all Romance languages went through the same process within the last 1000 years or so, with Romanian undergoing it more recently in the last two centuries, thus the changes and differences are more striking and noticeable. Greek also underwent some of that too, with the inherited "vulgar" Demotic of the people (deriving from Byzantine and Koine) being contrasted with the learned Katharevousa classical influences, and modern Greek is a sort of blend of the two. There was a big academic debate in the 19th and 20th centuries about whether these changes were good too. I believe a similar process also happened in Turkey if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway generally in day-to-day conversation, you have the simpler, inherited base vocabulary of the language used, the "core" so to speak, and in more complicated subject matters you get a lot more of the learned, scholarly borrowings, although a lot of those have become adapted into the language over time and no longer seem that way, becoming "semi-learned".
 
to continue

rupture break, disruption < > roture commoners
médian median < > moyen mean, middle, medium
portique gantry, portico < > porche porch
confidence confidence 1 < > confiance trust, faith, confidence 2
salvateur (life) saving < > sauveur saviour, life saver
strict strict > < étroit narrow, tight, restricted
caguer to défécate (birds, occitan origin) < > chier to crap, to shit
légal légal, lawful, forensic < > loyal loyal, fair
muter to mutate, to move < > muer to moult, to turn (into), to change (voice)
minute minute, short while < > menu(e) minor, dainty, slender, petite
scintillerto sparkle, to twinkle, to glitter, to shimmer< > étinceler to sparkle, to flash, to glint
mastiquer to chew, to putty < > mâcher to chew, to gnaw
escalestop (airport, harbour), port of call < > échelle ladder
hirondelleswallow (bird)< > aronde swallow (bird)
maturemature< > mûr(e) ripe, mature, mellow
ausculterto check, to test by listening to the respiration< > écoûter to listen
caleçonunderpants, drawers, shorts< > chausson slipper, inner-boot
vitre window, glass < > verre glass
majeuradult, major< > maire mayor
liguerto ally< > lier to link, to bind, to bond
augusteaugust, sublime, lofty< > août August (month)*


* : surprises of the semantic derivations :
August month is Awst and Eost respectively in Welsh and Breton (all from Latin); in Breton, eost is also a term for ‘harvest’, and ‘harvest’ is cognate with other Germanic words like Herbst (Germanic), herfst (Dutch) whose meanings are ‘autumn’ !

the most of the more Latin-like forms have been borrowed by Middle-Ages learned "Roman" people of France and put into the common French. But some of these words are also borrowings to other Romance languages or southern French dialects.
 
BTW, the list could very very longer if we would put the genuine French words replaced by more recent borrowings and went away in the garbage cans of History.
 

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