An Introduction to French Pronunciation

19
19.1 Origins
Liaison
Liaison 129
19.1.1 The fact that so many French words end in a written
but, in most contexts, unpronounced consonant (e.g. trop
/tro/, champ /ʃe/, sujet /syʒε/, cent /se/, blanc /ble/, murs
/my:r/, (vous) avez /ave/, gentil /ʒeti/, chanter /ʃete/) has its
origins as far back as the end of the twelfth century. At that
time, final consonants began to disappear before another word
beginning with a consonant (e.g., to quote a few cases in their
modern form, the -p of trop in trop tôt, the -t of huit in huit
jours, the -s of gros in un gros livre). By the end of the Old
French period, i.e. by about the year 1300 or a little later,
they had probably completely disappeared in this position.
But before a vowel and before a pause they remained. Consequently,
very many words had two different pronunciations,
as is still the case with the numerals cinq and huit which
lose their final consonant before a consonant (cinq francs /sh
fre/, huit jours /di ʒu:r/), but keep it before a vowel (cinq
enfants /shk efe/, huit heures /dit œ:r/) or before a pause ( j’en
ai cinq /ʒen e sh:k/, jusqu’à huit /ʒyska dit/).
In the Middle French period, therefore, i.e. during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, and probably later, many words
ending in a consonant followed this pattern. Consequently,
words like drap, lit, sac, vif, os, and hundreds of others with
them had alternative forms, /dra/ ~ /drap/, /li/ ~ /lit/, /sa/ ~