Talk:goutte

I think the second t might be added to Old French gote (then goute) also to differentiate from goûte (now also goute) but with no evidence of that I'll put it here and not on the page. Renard Migrant (talk) 17:08, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Well, goût, goûter were at the time usually spelt go(u)st, go(u)ster. So the "s" distinguished them. Nevertheless your point may not be entirely wrong; because in Middle French goust was pronounced [ɡuːt], while gout(t)e was pronounced [ɡutə], thus with a length distinction (even if these length-based phonemes seem to have been somewhat unstable from the start). So the double "t" may have had the additional purpose of pointing out the short vowel, apart from reflecting the Latin spelling. (It is generally true that Latinate spellings are much more likely to survive into modern French when there is some additional merit to them, like analogy with related words or distinguishing homophones.) 84.63.31.91 21:55, 21 May 2024 (UTC)Reply

I imagine the English is originally from the Old French but respelled in English to match the French term. So in Chaucer's time it was probably gote or goute and then respelled goutte to match the Middle and modern French. Renard Migrant (talk) 17:10, 25 November 2015 (UTC)Reply