Talk:Middle French

[Untitled]
Foutre chaud! Les gueux vont festoyer gaiement apres avoir entendu pareilles bilvesées!

Would a speaker of Modern French be able to understand a speaker of Middle French, say, spoken around the year 1430???

Does anyone know if there are any translators out there for English into Middle French, or even French into Middle French? Why, even a traditional dictionary in either would be nice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.234.124.151 (talk) 14:58, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Regarding the 18th century pronunciation of 'beau'
In this page, the pronunciation of the word 'beau' in the 18th century is written /bio/, and I am afraid this information is incorrect.

Dans quelques mots, l'usage rend e muet. ex) Beau, Trupeau. In some words, the usage [of the letter] makes e mute. ex) beau /boː/, trupeau /try.poː/

(D'Aisy, 1674)

Ainsi, en montrant aux disciples ces différentes combinaisons, ba, beau, ban, boient (Modern spelling: baient), il faut les accoutumer à prononcer tout d'un coup ba, bô, ban, bê, sans leur faire nommer les lettres, ...

Thus, in showing the disciples these different combinations: ba, beau, ban, boient (this would be spelt 'baient' in modern French orthography), they have to be accustomed to pronouncing ba, bô, ban, bê all at once, without naming the letters, ...

(D'Açarq, 1760)

Therefore, I think the more probable pronunciation of 'beau' at that time would have rather been /boː/ than /bio/. Kjh041226 (talk) 10:09, 17 October 2022 (UTC)

Phonological history: now with loan words
I like the phonological history section, but I wonder if it might be being hampered by the fact that only latinate words are discussed. Words loaned from other languages might add to the illustration. Most notably I'm thinking of course of the h aspiré, but no doubt there are other interesting developments in loans. Certainly I can go in and add some, but I want to make sure that I'm not violating some unspoken rule in doing so. Jeeibleh (talk) 01:10, 17 June 2024 (UTC)