aviums (habēbāmus). (5) The subjunctive of the first conjugation
has at first in the singular no final e, in accordance with the final
vowel laws—plur, plurs, plurt (plōrem, plōrēs, plōret). The forms are
gradually assimilated to those of the other conjugations, which,
deriving from Latin am, as, at, have e, es, e(t); Modern French pleure,
pleures, pleure, like perde, perdes, perde (perdam, perdās, perdat).
(6) In Old French the present subjunctive and the 1st sing. pres.
ind. generally show the influence of the i or e of the Latin iam, eam,
iō, eō—Old French muire or moerge (moriat for moriātur), tiegne or
tienge (teneat), muir or moerc (moriō for morior), tieng or tienc (teneō).
By degrees these forms are levelled under the other present forms—Modern French meure and meurs following meurt (morit for morītur),
tienne and tiens following tient (tenet). A few of the older forms
remain—the vowel of aie (habeam) and ai (habeō) contrasting with
that of a (habet). (7) A levelling of which instances occur in the 11th
century, but which is not yet complete, is that of the accented and
unaccented stem-syllables of verbs. In Old French many verb-stems with shifting accent vary in accordance with phonetic laws—parler (parabolāre), amer (amāre) have in the present indicative
parol (parabolō), paroles (parabolās), parolet (parabolat), parlums
(parabolāmus), parlez (parabolātis), parolent (parabolant); aim
(amō), aimes (amās), aimet (amat), amums (amāmus), amez (amātis),
aiment (amant). In the first case the unaccented, in the second
the accented form has prevailed—Modern French parle, parler;
aime, aimer. In several verbs, as tenir (tenēre), the distinction is
retained—tiens, tiens, tient, tenons, tenez, tiennent. (8) In Old
French, as stated above, ié instead of é from a occurs after a palatal
(which, if a consonant, often split into i with a dental); the diphthong thus appears in several forms of many verbs of the 1st conjugation—preier (= prei-ier, precāre), vengier (vindicāre), laissier
(laxāre), aidier (adjūtāre). At the close of the Old French period,
those verbs in which the stem ends in a dental replace ie by the e
of other verbs—Old French laissier, aidier, laissiez (laxātis), aidiez
(adjūtātis); Modern French laisser, aider, laissez, aidez, by analogy
of aimer, aimez. The older forms generally remain in Picard—laissier, aidier. (9) The addition of e to the 1st sing. pres. ind.
of all verbs of the first conjugation is rare before the 13th century,
but is usual in the 15th; it is probably due to the analogy of the
third person—Old French chant (cantō), aim (amō); Modern French
chante, aime. (10) In the 13th century s is occasionally added to the
1st pers. sing., except those ending in e (= ǝ) and ai, and to the 2nd
sing. of imperatives; at the close of the 16th century this becomes
the rule, and extends to imperfects and conditionals in oie after the
loss of their e. It appears to be due to the influence of the 2nd pers.
sing.—Old French vend (vendō and vende), vendoie (vendēbam), parti
(partīvī), ting (tenuī); Modern French vends, vendais, partis, tins;
and donne (dōnā) in certain cases becomes donnes. (11) The 1st and
2nd plur. of the pres. subj., which in Old French were generally
similar to those of the indicative, gradually take an i before them,
which is the rule after the 16th century—Old French perdons (perdāmus), perdez (perdātis); Modern French perdions, perdiez, apparently by analogy of the imp. ind. (12) The loss in Late Old French
of final s, t, &c., when preceding another consonant, caused many
words to have in reality (though often concealed by orthography)
double forms of inflection—one without termination, the other with.
Thus in the 16th century the 2nd sing. pres. ind. dors (dormīs) and
the 3rd dort (dormit) were distinguished as dòrz and dòrt when before
a vowel, as dòrs and dòrt at the end of a sentence or line of poetry,
but ran together as dòr when followed by a consonant. Still later,
the loss of the final consonant when not followed by a vowel further
reduced the cases in which the forms were distinguished, so that
the actual French conjugation is considerably simpler than is shown
by the customary spellings, except when, in consequence of an immediately following vowel, the old terminations occasionally appear.
Even here the antiquity is to a considerable extent artificial or
delusive, some of the insertions being due to analogy, and the popular
language often omitting the traditional consonant or inserting a
different one. (13) The subsequent general loss of e = ǝ in unaccented
final syllables has still further reduced the inflections, but not the
distinctive forms—perd (perdit) and perde (perdat) being generally
distinguished as pèr and pèrd, and before a vowel as pèrt and
pèrd.
(ii.) Substantives.—(1) In Early Old French (as in Provençal) there are two main declensions, the masculine and the feminine; with a few exceptions the former distinguishes nominative and accusative in both numbers, the latter in neither. The nom. and acc. sing, and acc. plur. mas. correspond to those of the Latin 2nd or 3rd declension, the nom. plur. to that of the 2nd declension. The sing, fem. corresponds to the nom. and acc. of the Latin 1st declension, or to the acc. of the 3rd; the plur. fem. to the acc. of the 1st declension, or to the nom. and acc. of the 3rd. Thus masc. tors (taurus), lere (latrō); tor (taurum), laron (latrōnem); tor (taurī), laron (latrōnī for -nēs); tors (taurōs), larons (latrōnēs); but fem. only ele (āla and ālam), flor (flōrem); eles (ālās), flors (flōrēs nom. and acc.). About the end of the 11th century feminines not ending in e= ǝ take, by analogy of the masculines, s in the nom. sing., thus distinguishing nom. flors from acc. flor. A century later, masculines without s in the nom. sing. take this consonant by analogy of the other masculines, giving leres as nom. similar to tors. In Anglo-Norman the accusative forms very early begin to replace the nominative, and soon supersede them, the language following the tendency of contemporaneous English. In continental French the declension-system was preserved much longer, and did not break up till the 14th century, though acc. forms are occasionally substituted for nom. (rarely nom. for acc.) before that date. It must be noticed, however, that in the current language the reduction of the declension to one case (generally the accusative) per number appears much earlier than in the language of literature proper and poetry; Froissart, for instance, c. 1400, in his poetical works is much more careful of the declension than in his Chronicles. In the 15th century the modern system of one case is fully established; the form kept is almost always the accusative (sing. without s, plural with s), but in a few words, such as fils (fīlius), sœur (soror), pastre (pastor), and in proper names such as Georges, Gilles, &c., often used as vocative (therefore with the form of nom.); the nom. survives in the sing. Occasionally both forms exist, in different senses—sire (senior) and seigneur (seniōrem), on (homō) and homme (hominem). (2) Latin neuters are generally masculine in Old French, and inflected according to their analogy, as ciels (caelus for caelum nom.), ciel (caelum acc.), ciel (caelī for caela nom.), ciels (caelōs for caela acc.); but in some cases the form of the Latin neuter is preserved, as in cors, now corps, Lat. corpus; tens, now temps, Lat. tempus. Many neuters lose their singular form and treat the plural as a feminine singular, as in the related languages—merveille (mīrābilia), feuille (folia). But in a few words the neuter plural termination is used, as in Italian, in its primitive sense—carre (carra, which exists as well as carrī), paire (Lat. paria); Modern French chars, paires. (3) In Old French the inflectional s often causes phonetic changes in the stem; thus palatal l before s takes t after it, and becomes dental l, which afterwards changes to u or drops—fil (fīlium and fīlii) with palatal l, filz (fīlius and fīliōs), afterwards fiz, with z = ts (preserved in English Fitz), and then fis, as now (spelt fils). Many consonants before s, as the t of fiz, disappear, and l is vocalized—vif (vīvum), mal (malum), nominative sing. and acc. plur. vis, maus (earlier mals). These forms of the plural are retained in the 16th century, though often etymologically spelt with the consonant of the singular, as in vifs, pronounced vis; but in Late Modern French many of them disappear, vifs, with f sounded as in the singular, being the plural of vif, bals (formerly baux) that of bal. In many words, as chant (cantūs) and champs (campōs) with silent t and p (Old French chans in both cases), maux (Old French mals, sing. mal), yeux (oculōs, Old French œlz, sing. œil) the old change in the stem is kept. Sometimes, as in cieux (caelōs) and ciels, the old traditional and the modern analogical forms coexist, with different meanings. (4) The modern loss of final s (except when kept as z before a vowel) has seriously modified the French declension, the singulars fort (fòr) and forte (fòrt) being generally undistinguishable from their plurals forts and fortes. The subsequent loss of ǝ in finals has not affected the relation between sing. and plur. forms; but with the frequent recoining of the plural forms on the singular present Modern French has very often no distinction between sing. and plur., except before a vowel. Such plurals as maux have always been distinct from their singular mal; in those whose singular ends in s there never was any distinction, Old French laz (now spelt lacs) corresponding to laqveus, laqveum, laqveī and laqveōs.
(iii.) Adjectives.—(1) The terminations of the cases and numbers of adjectives are the same as those of substantives, and are treated in the preceding paragraph. The feminine generally takes no e if the masc. has none, and if there is no distinction in Latin—fem. sing. fort (fortem), grant (grandem), fem. plur. forz (fortēs), granz (grandēs), like the acc. masc. Certain adjectives of this class, and among them all the adjectives formed with the Latin suffix -ensis, take regularly, even in the oldest French, the feminine ending e, in Provençal a (courtois, fem. courtoise; commun, fem. commune). To these must not be added dous (Mod. Fr. dolz, dous), fem. douce, which probably comes from a Low Latin dulcius, dulcia. In the 11th century some other feminines, originally without e, begin in Norman to take this termination—grande (in a feminine assonance in the Alexis), plur. grandes; but other dialects generally preserve the original form till the 14th century. In the 16th century the e is general in the feminine, and is now universal, except in a few expressions—grand’mère (with erroneous apostrophe, grandem, mātrem), lettres royaux (literās rēgālēs), and most adverbs from adjectives in -ant, -ent—couramment (currante for -ente mente), sciemment (sciente mente). (2) Several adjectives have in Modern French replaced the masc. by the feminine—Old French masc. roit (rigidum), fem. roide (rigidam); Modern French roide for both genders. (3) In Old French several Latin simple comparatives are preserved—maiur (majōrem), nom. maire (major); graignur (grandiōrem), nom. graindre (grandior); only a few of these now survive—pire (pejor), meilleur (meliōrem), with their adverbial neuters pis (pejus), mieux (melius). The few simple superlatives found in Old French, as merme (minimum), pesme (pessimus), proisme (proximum), haltisme (altissimum), this last one being clearly a literary word, are now extinct, and, when they existed, had hardly the meaning of a superlative. (4) The modern loss of many final consonants when not before vowels, and the subsequent loss of final ǝ, have greatly affected the distinction between the masc. and fem. of adjectives—fort and forte are still distinguished as fòr and fòrt, but amer (amārum) and amère (amāram), with their plurals amers and amères, have run together.
