3 ms·
This hypothesis seems to ignore the vast number of English words that come from French, even despite the vowel shift Divorcee (we normally say divorsay not div
by atkailash 3y ago
This hypothesis seems to ignore the vast number of English words that come from French, even despite the vowel shift
Divorcee (we normally say divorsay not divorsee so it should be divorcée) and especially fiance (fiancé) are good examples (employee has changed pronunciation but technically should be employée).
- Tsiklon 3y agoYour examples are not consistent dialectically, in my dialect and many related dialects (Northeastern Irish, Scottish and Northern English) “divorsay” is anglicised and pronounced “divorsee”. That said, wealth, and proclivity to pretentiousness, not just dialect are also factors in the stylings of one’s speech, including which pronunciation to use.
- funnybeam 3y agoMany of those French words in English though come from Norman French which is very different to the modern language. French having also undergone a major vowel shift as well as dropping pronunciation of some final consonants so that some of the “English” pronunciation of certain “French” words is arguably more correct