Homeowner:
Today’s silent letters (in English as in French) were pronounced in the older versions of the language. Hence we find French place names in our old sefarim the way they’re spelled, not pronounced today, like ???????? (Montpelier, pronounced “monplay”)or ????? (Troyes, pronounced “troy”). Another interesting example: In Yiddish, a Frenchman is a ????????, exactly like the spelling of popular French name Francois (pronounced today Fransua), which means Frenchman. Chalant is an Old French word meaning “to warm up”. The ETYMOLOGY is Chauld-Lent, i.e. “heat up slowly”. This is also the ancestor of Nonchalant – “not warm”.