Eau (trigraph)
Template:Short description Eau is a trigraph which occurs in some languages that use the Latin script, such as French and English.
French
In Modern French, Template:Angle bracket is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA".[1] and often appears at the end of a word. Generally, Template:Angle bracket alternates with Template:Angle bracket in another form of a word, for example, the feminine of chameau (camel) is chamelle. There are three main ways of spelling Script error: No such module "IPA".: Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, and Template:Angle bracket, out of which Template:Angle bracket is by far the rarest.[2]
In Old French, Template:Angle bracket represented a triphthong, probably pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA". (or Script error: No such module "IPA".). This triphthong originated from the Proto-French diphthong Script error: No such module "IPA"., which had formed from the sequence of Template:Angle bracket and Template:Angle bracket, where L had vocalized. In the 12th and 13th centuries, both Template:Angle bracket and Template:Angle bracket were used (Script error: No such module "IPA". was probably a variant pronunciation), but Template:Angle bracket soon became the standard spelling.[3] Eau is also a word in French.
English
In English, Template:Angle bracket only exists in words borrowed from French, and so is pronounced similarly in almost all cases (like in plateau, bureau). Exceptions include beauty and words derived from it, where it is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"., bureaucrat where it is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA"., bureaucracy where it is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA".,[4] and (in some contexts) the proper names Beaulieu and Beauchamp (as Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA"., respectively).[5]
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".