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Tue 27 Sep, 2011 08:29 am
Context:
Nothing had as yet occurred to shake Cocles' belief; the last month's payment had been made with the most scrupulous exactitude; Cocles had detected an overbalance of fourteen sous in his cash, and the same evening he had brought them to M. Morrel, who, with a melancholy smile, threw them into an almost empty drawer, saying:
@oristarA,
pronounced like an "s"
In this cause, I believe M. is an abbreviation for Monsieur (french for Mister)
sous is a dead giveaway--old French coin of such small value it was almost worthless. Monsieur. s in month's read as s, not z.
sou is a dead giveaway--old French coin of such small value it was almost worthless. Monsieur. s in month's read as s, not z.
Through the linguistic phenomenon of sound assimilation, in English, the pluralizing suffix -s is either unvoiced [s] or voiced [z] depending on whether the sound that preceeds it in a word is unvoiced or voiced.
For example:
"sock" [k] is unvoiced.
"socks" Plural [s] is unvoiced.
"rug" [g] is voiced.
"rugs" Plural [z] is voiced.
"mitt" [t] is unvoiced.
"mitts" Plural [s] is unvoiced.
"bed" [d] is voiced.
"beds" Plural [z] is voiced.
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