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###Historical development of the form deux: from originally masculine to both genders

Historical development of the form deux: from originally masculine to both genders

Latin duōs apparently developed via Old French dous to modern French deux /dø/. The Latin feminine form duās would regularly correspond to Old French "doues", which would I think have turned into Modern French *"deues"—in most accents, that would be pronounced the same, as /dø/. But actually, the form "doues" may have been replaced with the originally masculine form "dous" before "deues" even had a chance to exist. I found the following information about the situation in Old French:

Price also mentions that Old French had a distinct masculine nominative form derived from Vulgar Latin dui (an analogical replacement of the Classical Latin masculine nominative form duo) (p. 449). Apparently, the Old French nominative masculine form was also spelled dui, with the i retained as an offglide². But this form was lost when the Old French distinction between a nominative and oblique case was lost.

Latin duōs apparently developed via Old French dous to modern French deux /dø/. I found the following information about the situation in Old French:

Price also mentions that Old French had a distinct masculine nominative form derived from Vulgar Latin dui (an analogical replacement of the Classical Latin masculine nominative form duo) (p. 449). Apparently, the Old French nominative masculine form was also spelled dui, with the i retained as an offglide². But this form was lost when the Old French distinction between a nominative and oblique case was lost.

I found a reference that lists "dues" and "deues" rather than "doues" as possible Old French feminine forms of the numeral 2, but I'm not sure how/why these would have developed a distinct vowel from masculine dous (An Introduction to Old French, by François Frédéric Roget, p. 90, 1887). Roget agrees with Price that "The feminine was not long preserved distinct from the masculine".

Price also mentions that Old French had a distinct masculine nominative form derived from Vulgar Latin dui (an analogical replacement of the Classical Latin masculine nominative form duo) (p. 449).

¹this is brought up on p. 703 of "On the Use of ils for elles: Gender Syncretism in the History of French", by Barbara E. Bullock, The French Review Vol. 74, No. 4 (Mar., 2001)

Price also mentions that Old French had a distinct masculine nominative form derived from Vulgar Latin dui (an analogical replacement of the Classical Latin masculine nominative form duo) (p. 449). Apparently, the Old French nominative masculine form was also spelled dui, with the i retained as an offglide². But this form was lost when the Old French distinction between a nominative and oblique case was lost.

¹this is brought up on p. 703 of "On the Use of ils for elles: Gender Syncretism in the History of French", by Barbara E. Bullock, The French Review Vol. 74, No. 4 (Mar., 2001)

²A Contribution to the History of the Unaccented Vowels in Old French, by William Pierce Shepard (1897), p. 19