Hello. Does anyone know how vox/voces evolved to voix? Where did the i come from? Actually voice also has an i.
French: Voix
- Thread starter merquiades
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It's from vōcem /'woːkem/, which gives proto-Romance /'ßokʲɛ/. /o/ before a palatalised consonant evolves into /oj/ (It's often described as the palatal ejecting a yod to the preceding syllable, in the process closing it and stopping an /ew/ diphthong from forming, compare the unpalatalised vœu, from votum). This gives Old French /voɪ̯t͡s/ "voiz", which was borrowed in English as voice after the deaffrication of t͡s.
The same phenomenon produced paix from pacem (/paɪ̯t͡s/ in OF), (il) nuit from nocet (/nyɪ̯t/ in OF), (il) gît from jacet (/d͡ʒit/ from an earlier */d͡ʒjɛjt/), loi from legem (/leɪ̯/ in early OF) and so on.
EDIT: for similar -ōce-/-uce- outcomes: crucem -> croix, nucem -> noix, mūcēre > moisir (after shortening of the pretonic long u)
The same phenomenon produced paix from pacem (/paɪ̯t͡s/ in OF), (il) nuit from nocet (/nyɪ̯t/ in OF), (il) gît from jacet (/d͡ʒit/ from an earlier */d͡ʒjɛjt/), loi from legem (/leɪ̯/ in early OF) and so on.
EDIT: for similar -ōce-/-uce- outcomes: crucem -> croix, nucem -> noix, mūcēre > moisir (after shortening of the pretonic long u)
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When did oi become uᴗa?
The /we/ pronunciation is still heard frecuently in Quebec and French Canada. A common interjection is "Envoye", but it is pronounced /æ̃wej/.
You're right, but it is not systematic.
Toi may be /twa/ or /twe/, but loi is always /lwa/.
Indeed. I only mentioned it as "living proof", if you will, of the intermediate stage of the pronounciation of the diphthong <oi>.
