Home › Glossary › Letter C

Chant royal

Form
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A French fixed-form poem comprising five 11-line stanzas with a consistent rhyme scheme and a 5-line envoi, often courtly in tone.

Detailed Definition
A Chant royal is a complex French fixed form of the 14th–15th centuries, comprising five stanzas of eleven lines each (with a specific rhyme scheme) and a five-line envoi, often addressing nobility with courtly themes and intricate musicality.
Example
Example in poetry:
Chant royal is a French fixed form with five 11-line stanzas and envoi; Charles d’Orléans used chant royal for courtly love; the form employs intricate rhyme (ababccddede); modern revivals appear in formalist poetry journals; chant royal’s rarity makes it a technical exercise in constraint
Additional Notes
Complex French form: five stanzas of eleven lines plus five-line envoi, using only five rhymes throughout. Demanding constraint testing technical virtuosity. Related to ballade but more elaborate; rarely attempted in English.
Also Known As
royal chant chanson royale
Skip to main content