Background

Darmesteter's name is familiar in Romance linguistics in connection with the famous "Darmesteter's law." This law establishes the principle that Latin words of four syllables having an accent on the penult, such as manducare and collocare, are transformed in French as follows: the vowel of the first syllable is treated like that of the third (stressed) syllable, and the vowel of the second syllable is usually treated as if it were in the final syllable. Accordingly, the second and fourth vowels weaken and tend to disappear while the first and the third remain, and manducare and collocare become, quite regularly, manger and coucher. This simple law gives the key to the development of the vowels in all French polysyllables.