Hi Will,
You have provided some interesting information here, and made a somewhat plausible case for your position. However, there are two significant problems as I see it.
(1) You rightly state, "the two situations are not entirely parallel." And I believe the differences in the two situations are more substantial than you seem to allow.
(2) You rightly state, "Lacking a time machine we
cannot be absolutely sure, but we can
reconstruct this with a fair degree of confidence." Actually, I don't have the same level of
confidence you do in your reconstruction.
What is your actual evidence that a reader of a Latin text imposed a
French pronunciation on it? I agree with
you that replacing a I sound with a J sound would have been a "normal
phonological development in the evolution of Latin into Old French." But I would need to see greater evidence that
an 11th century French speaker, when trying to read and pronounce a
Latin text, would have made that change.
Perhaps one of the Latin experts on the list, Barry Hofstetter could chime in and give us his take on this.
Blessings,
Jerry
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.