View Message

[Facts] Alaïs
Is Alaïs a medieval French form of Alice? It first appears, to my knowledge, as the name of Louis of France's daughter (in the 1100s). I assume the name originated in the langue d'oil, the dilect spoken by the Franks at that time. Does anyone have info about it?

Also, does anyone know its pronunciation? Since there's a tréma (accent), I'm guessing it's "AHL-la-ees," with the "la-ess" almost blending into one syllable.

This message was edited 11/8/2005, 1:31 PM

vote up1vote down

Replies

HelloI assume that Alaïs is a medieval french form of Alice, or rather directly a variant of Adalheidis.As for the pronunciation (i'm french), it's : Ah-lah-ees (like Anaïs with a "l"). The "lah-ees" doesn't make a diphtong (it's not pronounced like "eye" in english).
vote up1vote down
Thanks for the info. I know the trema mean that the vowels are pronounced separately but I completely wasn't sure...
vote up1vote down