final s in foreign words in French

[Georges Adassovsky]

At 4:28 PM 21/04/97, Peter Houtzagers wrote:

>I'm almost certain that the s in these names is pronounced.

You are right.

>It is a
>misunderstanding, however, that in proper French nouns final s is not
>pronounced. The s is pronounced in sens 'direction, sense, etc.',
>tournevis 'screwdriver', Reims, mas 'kind of farm', the singular of
>os 'bone', sometimes in plus 'more', and many more. There must be a
>reason for this, but not being a romanist I don't know it.

Mas, kind of farm, is pronounced "ma".
The "s" of"os" is pronounced at singular and not at plural form (des os =3D
d=E8-z- o)

As a rule, the final "s" is not pronounced (gras, gros, mas, las, bas, ca=
s,
dos, mais, nous, travers, dehors, vers, etc). This orthographic "s" (as
other final not pronounced letters) is often a remainder from Latin
(cursum/ cours, dorsum/dos, mansio/mas-maison-masure, lassus/las,
nos-nostrum/nous, transversus/travers, versus/vers).

The exemples you quote are "exceptions" (sens, vis, tous, Reims).
I suppose the "s" of "sens" is pronounced to make a difference with "sans=
"
(pronounced "san")
In the same way:
The "s" of "vis" is pronounced, but not the "t" of "vit".
The "s" of "tous" is pronounced or not: yes in "je les ai tous vu", not i=
n
"tous les arbres". Here also, there must be a difference with "tout",
pronounced "tou" excepting before a voyel.

The "s" of proper nouns are not always realized, as in Georges (from Gree=
k
georgeos), the cities of Bourges, Orl=E9ans, Paris, Valenciennes, Rennes,
etc.

When "s" is a final grammatical marker (plural, verbs), it is not
pronounced excepting when followed by a voyel, in which case it is
pronouced "z" (liaison).
Article : les uns =3D l=E9-z-un, but les boites =3D l=E9 boit.
Pronoun : nous allons =3D nou-z-alon, but nous marchons =3D nou marchon
Verb : je vis un oiseau =3D je vi-z-un-n-oiso, but je vis des oiseaux =3D=
 je vi
d=E9-z-oiso.
Adverb : pas avant =3D pa-z-avan, but pas bien =3D pa bien.

Regards,





Georges Adassovsky
E-Mail : Gadassov at mail.pf
S-Mail : B.P. 380330 Tamanu, 98718 Punaauia, French Polynesia.
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