Today I learned that the French circumflex accent denotes an “s” that became silent and then invisible.
ancêtre "ancestor"
hôpital "hospital"
hôtel "hostel"
forêt "forest"
rôtir "to roast"
côte "coast"
pâté "paste"
août "August"
Thanks @lingthusiasm podcât!
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Thanks Olivia, it’s always nice to see languages other than English being capricious and tacky
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My favorite is "rôle", which is 100% just a fancy way of writing "role."
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Are you nûts?
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ah.. i always wondered why there was a circumflex on the word rôle...
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That even survives into English...
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There was a row when it was suggested getting rid of those odd circumflexes - you can see why with voûte: it guides you to the meaning (tho not with the others).
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But it has a reason, it s the time for which you pronounce the vowel (^cicumflexe is for middle duration) so for example é is short, ê is middle and è is long. For other vowels other than "e" , it means you extend the vowel a little.
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@o_guest@NeuroPolarbear@sbarolo@lingthusiasm WELL I'LL BE DÂMNDED!!Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
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French orthography. Love it. I dared one of my colleagues to ask me about it last week. (They, wisely, demurred)
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OF COURSE THEY DID
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