Post History
French nasalized vowels were lowered from their original quality (i.e. in, im are pronounced [ɛ̃~æ̃~ɑ̃] instead of [ĩ]). In older borrowings (e.g. simple) the original close vowel is retained in p...
Answer
#1: Initial revision
by
user8078
·
2020-09-17T15:17:56Z (over 4 years ago)
French nasalized vowels were lowered from their original quality (i.e. *in, im* [are pronounced](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_phonology#Nasal_vowels) [ɛ̃~æ̃~ɑ̃] instead of [ĩ]). In older borrowings (e.g. *simple*) the original close vowel is retained in pronunciation, but more recent words of French origin are borrowed from the contemporary pronunciation after the sound change. The same is true of the pronunciation of [*ingenue*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ingenue#English) and sometimes [*absinthe*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/absinthe#English).