Reading old regime French documents
Old
regime French spelling conventions
- Words that modern French spells "ai" were spelled "oi" until
about 1800.
- Examples:
- "françois" > "français"
- "je faisois" > "je faisais"
- "ils paroissoient" > "ils paraissaient"
- Nouns and adjectives ending in "ent" or "ant" dropped the "t" in
the plural.
- Examples:
- "intéressans" > "intéressants"
- "méchans" > "méchants"
- "contens" > "contents"
- Similarly:
- In printing, the lower-case "s" had two forms, one of which
looked much like an "f," but with only half a cross-bar (extending to
the left of the stem).
- The rule was that, in the lower case, the modern character was
used when the "s" was the last letter in the word. The old
fashioned "s" was used at any other position in the word.
- When transcribing old texts (for instance,
when quoting a passage from a primary source in a research paper), do
not transcribe an old-style "s" as an "f." Simply use a modern
"s."
- In modern French, the accent over a vowel (whether aigu or
circonflexe) often represents a lost "s" after the vowel. In old
texts, one often finds the "s" rather than the accent. (One
almost never finds both at once.)
- Examples:
- "j'estois" > "j'étais"
- "aoust" > "août"
- Occasionally the lost "s" has not left an accent.
- Example: "jurisdiction" > "juridiction"
- Certain pairs of letters were often interchangeable.
- "y" = "i"
- "i" = "j"
- "u" = "v"
- Example: "auoir" = "avoir"
- "l" = "u"
- Double consonants and single consanants were also often
interchangeable.
- Examples:
- "ditte" = "dite"
- "notament" = "notamment"
- Until the early seventeenth century, in order to save space, type
setters would sometimes drop a final "n" and add a tilde over the
preceding vowel.
- Example: "raisõ" = "raison"
- In manuscript only, the last four months of the year had special
abbreviations.
- "7bre" = "septembre"
- "8bre" = "octobre"
- "9bre" = "novembre"
- "Xbre" = "décembre"
Practice texts
- Reading 18th-century manuscripts.
- François-Antoine de Flandre de Brunville,
"Réquisitoire contre des
quidams auteurs de désordre et tumulte," 28 Sept. 1788, Archives
nationales: Y 9990. (A manuscript with very clear handwriting.)
- André-Nicolas-Marie Alix, "Violences exercées par
la populace envers le
noé De Ronsière," 31 Oct. 1787, Archives
nationales: Y
10808B. (A manuscript with more typical handwriting.)
- For further training, including practice texts, see:
Gabriel Audisio, Lire le
français d'hier: Manuel de paléographie moderne,
XVe-XVIIIe siècle (Paris: A. Colin, 1997). [Z115.F7
A9 1997]
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