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I've looked up the etymology of tante, but it just says it comes from Old French ante without saying how it gained the initial "t".

Where did this "t" come from?

See

Tsundoku
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CJ Dennis
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    Good question. Pure speculation: This is one of the words that children will learn and use frequently. Such words are highly prone to reduplication. Perhaps the final /t/ migrated backwards so that tante would be more like maman, papa, bobo, dodo, etc. Another direction to take it would be something related to a common epenthesis or liaison, though what would be specific to tante doesn't come to mind. – Luke Sawczak Nov 12 '17 at 22:37
  • @Luke. The tata/tatie reduplications may be indeed be linked to this added t. Now, why would tonton be used for uncle? – Stéphane Gimenez Nov 12 '17 at 22:56
  • @Stéphane Possibly for a reason I considered touching on above: When French does pull a consonant out of nowhere, it tends to be /t/. (At least, so I seem to remember learning as an undergrad. Consider icitte.) And why pull one out of nowhere at all in this case? Perhaps to fill the onset; CV is an early-acquired and compelling syllable pattern. Alternatively I suppose the ta tante below also suggests ton oncle, but it feels somewhat arbitrary to me. (Why not "ma/mon"?) – Luke Sawczak Nov 13 '17 at 16:57

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The Littré has this hypothesis, ta ante has agglutinated in tante which would have turn into a noun.

It gives some examples in Walloon with which monfré is brother and mononk is uncle.

I found: kimin s' poitt voss monfrér ? = Comment se porte votre frère ?

A similar agglutination exists with monsieur where mon has lost its adjectival status: ton monsieur, mon bon monsieur are possible.

jlliagre
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  • There's also madame, and Quebec french has mononcle and matante. – Circeus Nov 13 '17 at 01:15
  • @Circeus Yes, and mademoiselle too but while ton monsieur is is grammatical while ta madame is only spoken French. Qui est ta matante préférée ? :-) https://www.dufrancaisaufrancais.com/matante-mononcle-dictionnaire-quebecois/ – jlliagre Nov 13 '17 at 01:26
  • In Brussels dialect too, you can find "tetante" and "menonk" – Greg Nov 13 '17 at 05:47
  • "menonk"? That sounds practically Dutch. :-:P

    The Petit Robert also says it comes from ta ante.

     – Frenzie Nov 14 '17 at 18:25