syllabe

Forms

syllabe f (plural syllabes)^[1] Old French sillebe and sillabe; the spelling syllabe prevailed from the 16th century, though sillabe is still found in the 19th.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin syllaba (“syllable, (plural) verse, poem”),^[2][4][1][5] itself taken from Ancient Greek συλλαβή (sullabḗ),^[2][3] literally “that which is held together”, then “a set of letters forming one sound”.^[3] The Greek noun is derived from συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to gather, bring together”), from σύν (sún, “with, together”) and λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take, seize”).^[2][3][6] The first form ⟨sillebe⟩ was remade as ⟨syllabe⟩ after the Latin word.^[3][6]

Cognate with Old Occitan sillaba, Spanish sílaba and Italian sillaba.^[7][3] The Latin word also gave German Silbe and English syllable.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as sillebe about 1160 in the Roman d'Énéas, meaning a vowel or a group of sounds spoken in one emission of the voice.^[2] The GLLF gives the first record to Benoît de Sainte-Maure at about the same date.^[8] From the start it could also mean the written letters that stand for such a sound.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the meaning that the Greek grammarians had given it: for Aristotle a syllable was a basic unit of sound without meaning of its own.^[3] In Old French it was also used figuratively for skill in writing (about 1256), a sense lost in Middle French.^[3]

Metrics gave syllabe longue and syllabe brève (1671), later taken up by phonetics, and the 19th century added technical terms such as syllabe ouverte and syllabe fermée.^[3] From 1690, in phrases about not losing or changing a single syllable, it came to mean simply a word: Furetière wrote of a sermon on n'en perd pas une syllabe.^[2][3] In modern phonetics it is the basic unit between the phonème and the word.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – Sillebe appears in the Roman d'Énéas.^[2]
• 1174 – The form syllabe is first recorded.^[3][6]
• c. 1210 – The form sillabe is found in the Dolopathos.^[2]
• c. 1256 – It is used figuratively for the art of writing.^[3]
• 1464 – Polysyllabe is borrowed.^[4]
• 1529 – Syllabique, monosyllabe and dissyllabe are borrowed.^[4]
• 1550 – Ronsard writes syllabe.^[2]
• 1671 – Syllabe longue and syllabe brève appear in metrics.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records it in the sense “word”.^[2][3]
• 1752 – The derivative syllabaire is recorded.^[4]
• 1840 – Syllabation is first recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A syllable: a vowel, or a vowel with one or more consonants, spoken in a single emission of the voice.^[2][9][8]
2. (phonetics) The basic phonetic unit between the phoneme and the word.^[2][9]
3. The written letters that stand for such a sound.^[8][3]
4. (by extension, in negative phrases) A single word: il n'a pas changé une syllabe.^[2][3]

Word family

• syllabaire
• syllaber
• syllabisme
• syllabation

Related words

• syllabique
• monosyllabe
• dissyllabe
• polysyllabe
• Latin syllaba
• English syllable

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 484a
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert