phonétique

Forms

phonétique (plural phonétiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin phoneticus (“relating to the sounds of speech”), a word used in 1797 by the Danish scholar Georg Zoëga in his book on obelisks.^[2] This is from Ancient Greek φωνητικός (phōnētikós, “concerning sound or speech”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to utter a sound, speak”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”).^[3][4][5]

The TLF-Étym's revised notice shows that the first French record (1801) is in a review of Zoëga's book, so the word is a Latinism, as Pohl had thought, and not taken straight from Greek as the FEW has it.^[2][6] The older TLFi and the dictionaries of the Robert family date it from Champollion (1822) and call it a borrowing from Greek, probably through the New Latin word.^[7][8][3] The noun is the adjective used as a noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1801 a review of Zoëga's De origine et usu obeliscorum in the Magasin encyclopédique speaks of the mode phonétique of Egyptian hieroglyphs, their use as signs for sounds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word spread through Champollion's work on hieroglyphs, above all his Lettre à M. Dacier of 1822 on the phonetic hieroglyphs.^[2][7] It was soon applied in linguistics to the sounds of speech and to writing that notes them: transcription phonétique (1875), loi phonétique (1876), signe phonétique (1878) and alphabet phonétique (1888).^[4]

As a feminine noun it first meant the set of sounds of a language (1843, recorded by Littré in 1869), and in the early 20th century it came to name the science that studies the sounds of human languages.^[2][3] Phonologie was at first a synonym of it, before Saussure and Grammont gave that word its own sense.^[3] Its derivatives include phonétiquement (1822), phonétisme (1824) and phonéticien (1894), perhaps after the English word.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 1797 – Zoëga uses New Latin phoneticus.^[2]
• 1801 – First French record, in the Magasin encyclopédique.^[2]
• 1822 – Champollion's Lettre à M. Dacier makes the word known.^[2][7][8]
• 1842 – The Académie's supplement is the first dictionary to record it.^[2]
• 1843 – First use as a noun, for the sounds of a language.^[2]
• 1869 – Littré records the noun.^[7][3]
• 1876 – Loi phonétique is found in Romania.^[4]
• 1903 – The noun names the science of speech sounds in the Larousse illustré.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to the sounds of speech: évolution phonétique.^[8][9][10]
2. That represents the sounds of a language in writing, apart from its spelling: alphabet phonétique, transcription phonétique.^[7][10][9]
3. Of a spelling: in which each letter stands for one sound.^[8][4]

Noun

1. Phonetics: the branch of linguistics that studies the sounds of human speech.^[8][9][10]
2. The phonetic representation of the pronunciation of words.^[10]
3. The set of sounds of a language.^[2][11]

Word family

• phonétiquement
• phonétisme
• phonéticien
• phonétiser

Related words

• phonème
• phonologie
• Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)

Usage notes

Loi phonétique is the principle that a sound changes in the same way in every word where it occurs in the same surroundings, within one language and period.^[10][4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
3. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 398a
7. ^ a b c d e f Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette