The French have a similar sound in the word Pais, and in their e masculine.
"A Grammar of the English Tongue"
Samuel Johnson
Experience shows us that the generality of men will find more interest in learning that, when a taper burns, the wax is converted into carbonic acid and water, or in learning the explanation of the phenomenon of dew, or in learning how the circulation of the blood is carried on, than they find in learning that the genitive plural of Pais and pas does not take the circumflex on the termination.
"Selections from the Prose Works of Matthew Arnold"
Matthew Arnold
Commandant au Pais des Illinois pour S. M. T. C. au sujet de la guerre que Les Indiens font aux Anglois.
"The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada"
Francis Parkman