vocal

Forms

vocal (feminine vocale)^[1]

• voical^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vōcālis (“sounding, having a voice”),^[1][3][4] from vōx (“voice”) and the suffix -ālis.^[1] Used as a noun the Latin adjective meant “vowel”, short for “sounding letter”, a calque of Ancient Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen).^[1][4] The DEAF gives the same etymon.^[5] The FEW lists beside it the Old French voieul, adjective and feminine noun “vowel”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Brunetto Latini's Livres dou tresor, 1267 by the DEAF bibliography and about 1265 by the TLFi, in a passage on rhyme: the DEAF and Greimas read the word there as an adjective, a syllable containing a vowel, and Tobler–Lommatzsch and the TLFi as a feminine noun, “vowel”.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Greimas dates it 1260.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a syllable containing a vowel died out;^[4] as a noun the word was masculine from 1493 and feminine vocale with Rabelais in 1546, until the 17th century.^[4][9] Godefroy records the sense “having a voice” from a Latin–French glossary.^[2] The adjective “relating to the voice” is recorded from about 1424,^[9][4] and Oresme, about 1370, already used it of the articulation of a word.^[10] Bloch and Wartburg date the modern French word 1455,^[11] which goes on as French vocal.^[9]

Timeline

• 1267 – in Brunetto Latini's Livres dou tresor (about 1265 by the TLFi).^[6][5][9]
• c. 1370 – of the sound of words, in Oresme.^[10]
• c. 1424 – “relating to the voice”, in Jean Gerson.^[9]
• 1493 – the masculine noun “vowel”.^[9][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of a syllable) containing a vowel.^[5][7]
2. having a voice.^[2][5]
3. relating to the voice, vocal.^[1]

Noun

1. a vowel.^[8][9][5]

Descendants

• French vocal^[1]
• Middle English vocal (borrowed; → English vocal)^[1]

Related words

• voieul

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the word as a feminine noun, vocal “vowel”,^[8] Godefroy and the DMF as an adjective.^[2][10] Van Daele marks it as a learned word.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 8:275
3. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14:586
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vocal
5. ^ a b c d e f Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. vocal
6. ^ a b Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. BrunLatC
7. ^ a b c Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. vocal
8. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 11:606
9. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. vocal
11. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 716
12. ^ Van Daele, Hilaire, Petit dictionnaire de l'ancien français, Paris: Garnier, p. 531