Talk:oût

RFV discussion: November 2014–March 2015

The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.

---

oût

I think it might be attestable, but I am not sure. I found something which looks like a mention:

• 1812, Antoine-Vincent Arnault, Fables, page 134

  (29) En oût ce fut tout autre chose. J'ai cru pouvoir écrire oût au lieu d'août, et en cela je suis autorisé par l'usage. On dit aussi communément oût qu'août. Ce mot oût est employé dans les campagnes pour le mot moisson. La fontaine s'en est ...

— Keφr 17:11, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

I think it's just about attestable as an archaic spelling of août. I've seen it attributed to Jean de La Fontaine in La Cigale et la Fourmi (i.e. The Ant and the Grasshopper). Renard Migrant (talk) 17:24, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Yes, the French Wiktionary has two cites from Jean de La Fontaine's Fables, and also mentions Émile Littré's, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872-1877. Dbfirs 17:07, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Side question: Kephir's citation suggests that in 1812 oût and août were pronounced differently. Is the modern pronunciation of août actually a relic of oût? --WikiTiki89 17:29, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

[1][2][3][4][5][6]. Wyang (talk) 20:19, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

No it's suggesting that oût is a phonetic rendering of août because people had already stopped dropping the initial 'a' sound. I think the Old French aoust would be pronounced /a.ust/, see w:Old French language#Phonology. Renard Migrant (talk) 20:37, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

Passes based on the citations above. Does it need to be tagged "archaic"? - -sche (discuss) 20:35, 27 March 2015 (UTC)