"croissant" as a zero plural

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Sep 10, 2006, at 7:24 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On 9/10/06, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
>>
>> (Another possibility which might be considered: "croissant" is
>> perceived as
>> 'foreign', with the default pluralization of 'foreign' words being
>> taken as
>> zero, perhaps by analogy with East Asian things such as "gyoza".)
>
> I would guess that plural "croissant" is merely a quasi-Gallic
> pronunciation spelling for "croissants", since the final -s isn't
> pronounced in French. Are there other examples of unpronounced French
> -s being rendered as zero pluralization in written English?

this is what bill poser himself has now suggested (in e-mail), and i
asked that same question in response:  "so you're borrowing the
french phonology, but not the french spelling; instead, you're
adapting the english spelling to your english pronunciation.  any
other examples of this?"

david denison says he varies as to the pronunciation of the final s,
though he thinks he pronounces it more often than not.

meanwhile, an exchange between david and me on the pronunciation of
"croissant" (the singular):

-----

> [DD] It may be
> relevant too that in BrE the stress is on the first syllable and
> the second syllable is
> nasalised and with silent t in pseudo-French style, whereas I seem
> to remember that
> in the US the stress is on the second syllable - though I can't
> remember whether you
> pronounce the t.
>

[AZ] what i say, and mostly (i think) hear, is: stress on the second
syllable, t pronounced, no (frenchy) w in the first syllable, schwa
in the first syllable.  AHD4 and NOAD2 list both -nt and (frenchy)
nasalized vowel pronunciations, but both with second-syllable
stress.  they differ, though, in how the krwa- is handled: AHD4 has
krwa- for the more french version, kr at - for the more nativized
version, while NOAD2 has k(r)wa- for both versions.  AHD4 lists the
more french version first; NOAD2 has them in the other order.
obviously, there's a lot of variation; i have even heard the ash
vowel in the second syllable (in combination with -nt, of course).

OED lists only the nasalized-vowel + krwa- version, but with the
stress shifted to the first syllable, as british speakers are wont to
do with french borrowings.

john algeo's new British or American English? has just arrived (i
mean just -- minutes ago), but has no story about "croissant", either
its count/mass status or its pronunciation.

-----
arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

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