Re: virtual consonants in French

A similar situation occurs in Oceanic languages. I remember reading that
that Maori has a verbal flexion (past participle?) in -Cia, where C is the
dropped final consonant. When Maori speakers can't remember the final
consonant, they tend to assume /k/, leading to a slight tendency to make the
suffix -kia. Does anything similar happen in French?

Richard.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean-Paul G. POTET" <potetjp@...>
To: <phoNet@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 11:54 PM
Subject: [phoNet] virtual consonants in French


> This resumes what some of you said in previous messages.
>
> Conventional grammars say that feminine adjectives are derived from the
> masculine forms. My opinion - and I share it with many scholars - is that
it
> is the feminine form of the French adjective that is the reference one.
The
> masculine is obtained by the apocope of the final consonant, that becomes
> virtual.

<Snip>