French Graphemic Module (FGM v1.0)

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(aka: Literal–Graphemic Module — French Script)

0) Orientation

• Script: Latin (A–Z + diacritics + ligatures)
• Orthography type: Deep (non-phonemic), many historical spellings retained
• Direction: Left-to-right
• Diacritics: Acute, grave, circumflex, diaeresis, cedilla
• Ligatures: Æ, Œ (treated as single graphemes in legacy orthography, mostly in formal/loan words)

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1) Base Alphabet (26 letters)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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2) Diacritics & Modified Letters

Letter	Diacritic	Glyph	Usage / IPA effect
E	acute	É é	/e/ (close-mid front vowel)
E	grave	È è	/ɛ/ (open-mid front vowel)
E	circumflex	Ê ê	/ɛ/ or /e/ (historical length)
A	grave	À à	distinguishes homophones (à = preposition)
A	circumflex	 â	/ɑ/ in formal speech; /a/ in modern FR
I	circumflex	Î î	/i/ (historical length)
I	diaeresis	Ï ï	vowel separation (naïf)
O	circumflex	Ô ô	/o/
O	diaeresis	Ö ö	vowel separation (Noël)
U	grave	Ù ù	distinguishes homophones (où = where)
U	circumflex	Û û	/y/ (historical length)
U	diaeresis	Ü ü	/y/ (loanwords, separation)
C	cedilla	Ç ç	/s/ before a, o, u

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3) Vowel Inventory & Core Grapheme Mappings

Grapheme	IPA	Notes
A	/a/
Â	/ɑ/ or /a/	formal vs modern
E	/ə/ (unstressed), silent in final position unless in monosyllables
É	/e/
È, Ê	/ɛ/
I, Î, Ï	/i/
O	/o/ or /ɔ/ depending on context
Ô	/o/
U, Û, Ü	/y/
Y	/i/ or /j/	also part of diphthongs
AU, EAU	/o/
OU	/u/
EU, ŒU	/ø/ or /œ/ depending on openness
AN, AM, EN, EM	/ɑ̃/ (nasal)
IN, IM, EIN, AIN, AIM, EIM	/ɛ̃/ (nasal)
ON, OM	/ɔ̃/ (nasal)
UN, UM	/œ̃/ (nasal)

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4) Consonant Inventory & Core Grapheme Mappings

Grapheme	IPA	Notes
B	/b/
C	/k/ before a, o, u; /s/ before e, i, y
Ç	/s/	before a, o, u
CH	/ʃ/
D	/d/	often silent at word end unless liaison
F	/f/
G	/ɡ/ before a, o, u; /ʒ/ before e, i, y
GN	/ɲ/
H	—	silent, aspirated-h prevents liaison
J	/ʒ/
K	/k/	loanwords
L	/l/
M	/m/	nasalizes preceding vowel before b, p
N	/n/	nasalizes preceding vowel before consonant
P	/p/	often silent final unless liaison
PH	/f/
Q(U)	/k/	qu = /k/ or /kw/ in some loans
R	/ʁ/	uvular fricative
S	/s/ or /z/ between vowels
T	/t/	often silent final
TH	/t/	Greek loans
V	/v/
W	/v/ or /w/ in loans
X	/ks/, /ɡz/, /s/ (in names), or /z/ in liaison
Z	/z/	/s/ in some final positions

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5) Ligatures

• Æ æ → /e/ or /ɛ/ in loans (cæcum, Æschyle)
• Œ œ → /ø/ or /œ/ (œuf, cœur)

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6) Orthographic Rules

• Final consonants: many are silent unless liaison (grand ami → /ɡʁɑ̃.t‿ami/)
• Nasal vowels: indicated by vowel + m/n, where m/n is silent unless followed by vowel
• Diacritics: acute for /e/, grave for /ɛ/, circumflex for historical vowel length or lost consonant
• H aspiré: blocks liaison and elision (e.g., le héros /lə eʁo/ not /l‿eʁo/)
• Elision: drop e before vowel-initial word (l’homme)

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7) Latin Chain Mapping Example

glyph: "Ç"
name: "C-cedilla"
latin_chain: ["c"]
features: {cedilla: true}
phoneme: "s"
context: {following: ["a","o","u"]}

glyph: "GN"
name: "Gn"
latin_chain: ["g","n"]
phoneme: "ɲ"

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8) Lattice Integration Features

• {direction: LTR}
• {type: alphabetic}
• {nasal_vowel: true} for AN/EN/ON/UN sequences
• {liaison: required|blocked|optional}
• {h_type: aspirated|mute}

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✅ Mint Status: French Graphemic Module is now fully minted with diacritics, nasalization rules, liaison handling, and digraph logic integrated into the Latin GM.

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