🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael Covington (mcovingt@aisun3.ai.uga.edu) writes:
>Erland Sommarskog (sommar@enea.se) writes:
>>Chaire -> chaise is a two-of-its-kind, the other being "be'sicles"
>>from "be'ryl". However, there was a general change in French in
>>the 16th century where intervocalic -r- became -z-, so there was
>>"mazi", "Pazi" etc. According to Erasme this was to blame high-
>>society Parisian ladies, but the pronounciation was noted outside
>>of Paris as well. Nevertheless the change was rejected, and the two
>>words above were the only to be affected.
>
>What was the phonetic value of /r/ in French just before the change?
>Was this odd change something that happened along the way from an
>apical to a uvular r ?

No. That happened later. Moliere in his "Le Bourgeois gentilhomme"
gives detailed description on the pronouciation of some French con-
sonants, including r:

    en portant le bout de la langue jusqu'au haut du palais , de sort
    qu'etant frolee par l'air qui sort avec force, elle lui cede et
    revient toujours au meme endroit, faisant une maniere de treblement.

Another interesting result of this transition is the pronouciation
of French in North Africa. The men speak with the old apical R,
whereas the women use the uvual R. Pourqoui, me direz-vous? The
men started to learn French as part of the military training in
the beginning of the colonization, whereas the women were con-
fronted with French later when the uvular R was established. The
sex roles then helped with preservation of this situation.
-- 
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se