gregory said:
There is a
definitive answer to that ? Are you sure ??!
Definitive? No - only probable. I'm only sure it's French, and that the T is supposed to be silent.
There are many ways to understand the word, and I prefer the historical.
"Tarot" is singular; like Italian "tarocco". Both are, historically, much rarer than the plural forms "tarots" and "tarocchi".
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the forms "taraux", "tarocs", "tarots", "taraults", "tareaux" even "taros" can be found. I don't know if I can cite "tarot" in the singular before 1700. I'm really not sure when the earliest occurence of this form is. But it is not the earliest by far.
The earliest form of the word is "taraux", found in Avignon, 1505. How was it pronounced? Already in Italy, "tarochi" existed too. Which language invented the word?
I believe the word was originally pronounced either "tar-oaks" or "tar-os" (long "o"). As the language changed, many final consonants became silent, although the old orthography was preserved. So the pronunciation in French became "taro" almost everywhere. The representation of that final vowel sound can be "o" or "au" or "eau", and for some (probably very logical) reason, French writers often liked to put a consonant after a final vowel (except for "e", which is silent except in song and poetry).
I think the predominance of the plural forms shows that the plural word was the original and normal way to say it, and that the singular is kind of a learned derivation.
In any case, the final "t" we are so familiar with, is an accident of history when the deck came to be known in English speaking places in the 19th century. Other spellings are far more common historically.
[Thierry Depaulis, probably the greatest authority, believes the word was ALWAYS pronounced "taro", and that the variety of final consonants demonstrates it. I only partially agree - I don't know how the Savoyards say the word "tarocs" for instance -; I think the original word should explain both the Italian and the French forms, and that around 1500 final consonants were still pronounced in France (i.e. "x" = s, so "tarocs" and "taraux" could be "tar-oaks" or "tar-os"). But by the end of the 16th century, it was indeed probably pronounced "taro" everywhere.]