tînmes

• IPA^(key): /tɛ̃m/

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tînmes

1. first-person plural past historic of tenir

Tînmes, vînmes, ennui and all of their derivatives (such as soutînmes) are the only known French words with nasal vowels before a nasal consonant (no examples with /ɛ̃n/ or /ɛ̃ɲ/). This is because Standard French historically has denasalized all vowels before intervocalic nasals (but not with syllable-final nasal), however, it is not done in some langues d'oïl. These sequences were later reintroduced through morphological analogy (Old French tenistes changes to tîntes based on tint and -îtes).

• mentis, minets, misent