Appendix:Old French spellings

was a spoken from approximately 842 to 1339, when it became. Old French is best described as a with the spelling and pronunciation differing from region to region. Old French was primarily a spoken language and relatively little literature survives. Along with anonymous works, there were some well known authors, notably, , , and.

Regional variations
While spelling could vary a lot from one author to another, certain spelling "rules" do exist.


 * The Anglo-Norman dialect is characterized by two main features in comparison with "Francien" Old French. Early Old French -ei- remains in Anglo-Norman but becomes -oi- in standard Old French in the latter half of the 12th century, in words like, and  (Early Old French and Anglo-Norman ,  and ). This includes conjugated/declined forms:

"Franceis veient que paiens i ad tant."

"(La Chanson de Roland, circa 1150)"


 * Veient (from the verb ) would be in other dialects.


 * -o-, and -ou- become -u- in words like, , , , and.


 * The Picard dialect retains the sound from Latin in words like,  and . -iau- replaces -eau- in words like  . It also uses the -g- where other dialects would use a -j- in words like  and.


 * In some dialects, especially Anglo-Norman, -e- is interchangeable with -ie- in many words, especially words ending -er.
 * → Anglo-Norman variant
 * → Anglo-Norman variant
 * → Anglo-Norman variant


 * Such variation is found much less in Francien (the dialect of Paris and its surrounding area).

Latin derivations

 * The Latin endings, (accusative),  (nominative) either become -e or are dropped all together. The Latin feminine endings  (accusative) and  (nominative) fe almost always become -e and are almost never dropped entirely, apart from a few isolated attestations.
 * Latin: (accusative singular) → Old French.
 * Latin: → Old French  (not paum).
 * Latin: → Old French.


 * The Latin nominative masculine singular ending becomes -s which is why many Old French nominative singulars of masculine nouns end in -s.
 * Latin: → Old French  (compare with mur above).


 * Many words lose more than one syllable
 * Latin: → Old French  (Anglo-Norman variant ).
 * Latin: → Old French


 * Doubled consonants are usually eliminated.
 * Latin: → Old French.
 * Latin: → Old French.


 * An initial Latin s- often becomes es-.
 * Latin: → Old French.
 * Latin: → Old French.


 * An initial Latin ex- often becomes es- or ess- before a vowel. Old French forms beginning with ex- are usually later borrowings.
 * Latin: → Old French.
 * Latin: → Old French.

Inflected forms
Old French inflected forms are sometimes irregular.


 * Words ending in c, f, p usually drop the final letter when an is added:
 * / le, les
 * / le, les
 * / le, les


 * Words ending in a vowel plus l or il replace this with u when an s is added (which appears as z after il), unless the preceding vowel is also a u in which case the l or il is simply dropped:
 * / le, les
 * / le, les
 * / le, les
 * / home,  homes


 * Words ending in a consonant plus il drop the l before adding s or z (z appears when il indicates a palatal -l-, but s appears when il indicates a normal -l-
 * / le home, les homes
 * / le  "wire", les
 * Wording ending in t, the ts is almost always replaced by z, but pronounced :
 * / le, les
 * / le home, les homes


 * Wording ending in have multiple plurals. Cheval ("horse") has the plurals,  and . X can replace us at the end of a word.


 * Conjugated forms of verbs ending in -der/-dier like replace the d with a t or z for some of the singular present tense forms as following:
 * / Indicative:
 * je comant
 * tu
 * il/ele
 * / Subjunctive:
 * je comant
 * tu comanz
 * il/ele comant
 * Similar changes happen to verbs ending in many consonants. In all cases the second and third singular present indicative are regular.


 * Verbs in -ter/-tier like behave much like those in -der.


 * Verbs in -ber, -fer, -per, -ver lose the final consonant in the second and third singular present subjunctive, and devoice the final consonant in the first singular present, e.g. :
 * / Indicative:
 * je sauf
 * tu
 * il/ele
 * / Subjunctive:
 * je sauf
 * tu saus
 * il/ele saut


 * Verbs in -mer change -m- to before s and t:
 * / Indicative:
 * je
 * tu
 * il/ele
 * / Subjunctive:
 * je
 * tu rins
 * il/ele rint


 * Verbs in -rmer lose the -m- before s and t:
 * / Indicative:
 * je
 * tu
 * il/ele
 * / Subjunctive:
 * je
 * tu ars
 * il/ele art


 * Verbs in -rner similarly lose the -n- before s and t:
 * / Indicative:
 * je
 * tu
 * il/ele
 * / Subjunctive:
 * je
 * tu tors
 * il/ele tort


 * In general, the changes before inflectional s and t are similar to what happens to nouns and adjectives.

Other spellings

 * Spellings vary not only from text to text, but also within the same text. For example the word can be attested as, , ,  and.


 * An initial h is silent, except in Germanic borrowings. Hence and  are entirely interchangeable, but  cannot be spelt onte, because the h is aspirated.

Typography


Modern published texts use modern norms to make the texts easier to read. Spelling is often left unchanged, but diacritics and capital letters are added.


 * Capital letters are not used. For example in this excerpt from  we can see that 'France' is written 'france'
 * Diacritics are not used apart from the tilde to indicate a nasal vowel. Modern authors write these out in full, for example from the image above, 'cointemẽt' is rendered 'cointement'
 * In terms of diacritics added by scholars, an acute accent on a final 'e' pronounced [e] is universal among scholars, as is an acute accent on the ending 'es' pronounced [es]. An acute is rarely used on the endings -ee and -ees because it's clear to a French speaker that this must represent the modern -ée, -ées endings (no ambiguity). The ending -ée can however be seen in this 1909 transcription of La Chanson des quatre fils Aymon (lines 531, 532, 533, etc.)
 * Diaereses/tremas are commonly used as they are in modern French to indicate that two consecutive vowels do not constitute a diphthong. This can be seen in the Chanson des quatre fils Aymon example above (line 538, fuï). Tremas are not included in the Godefroy or the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub, so fuï would be rendered fui.
 * Grave accents are very rare because excluding them does not lead to ambiguity. A grave can be seen again in La Chanson des quatre fils Aymon on lines 536, 538, etc.
 * I and J are both written I. For example iardin
 * U and V are both written U. For example ueue