French_phonology

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This article discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect (unless otherwise noted). French is notable for its uvular r, nasal vowels, and a certain type of Sandhi called liaison wherein word-final consonants are not pronounced unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel.

Vowels

Standard French contrasts up to thirteen oral vowels and four nasal ones. Some speakers contrast a front /a/ vs a back /ɑ/ but there are wide differences amongst such speakers as to which words have which vowel.Schane (1968:19) Some speakers distinguish between long and short /ɛː/ and /ɛ/; maître [mɛːtʁ] (\'teacher\') vs mettre [mɛtʁ] (\'to put\'). Such minimal pairs are rare.Walker (1984:26-27) The phonetic qualities of the back nasal vowels are not very similar to those of the corresponding oral vowels, and the contrasting factor that distinguishes /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ is the extra lip rounding of the latter. Many speakers have merged /œ̃/ with /ɛ̃/.Fougeron & Smith (1993:74)

Vowels of French. from Fougeron & Smith (1993:73)

While the mid vowels contrast in certain environments, there is some distributional overlap. Generally speaking, close-mid vowels are found in open syllables while open-mid vowels are found in closed ones. [ɛ] and [e] contrast in final-position open syllables (e.g. poignée [pwaɲe] \'handful\' vs poignet [pwaɲɛ] \'wrist\'). Likewise, open-mid [ɔ] and [œ] contrast with close-mid [o] and [ø] mostly in closed monosyllables.Fougeron & Smith (1993:73) Beyond this general rule, there are some complications. For instance, [o] and [ø] are found in closed syllables ending in [z] while only[ɔ] is found in closed monosyllables before [ʁ], [ɲ], and [g]Léon (1992:?)

Schwa (also called "e caduc" ("decrepit e") and "e muet" ("mute e") is a mid central vowel with some rounding.Fougeron & Smith (1993:73) It is always dropped ("muet") before another vowel (un(e) âme [ynɑːm]), and usually when following a single consonant (rapp(e)ler [ʁaple]). On the other hand, it is usually pronounced when its omission would create a cluster of three consonants or more (gredin [gʁədɛ̃], une porte [ynpɔʁt], une porte fermée [ynpɔʁtəfɛʁme]).Le e muet. Etat de la question et vérification sur un corpus de français parlé

Stress falls on the final syllable of a phrase unless that syllable has schwa as its vowel, in which case the penultimate vowel is stressed.Schane (1968:131)

With the exception of the distinction made by some speakers between /ɛː/ and /ɛ/, variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic. /o/, /ø/, /ɑ/, and the nasal vowels are lengthened in closed, stressed syllables:Walker (1984:25)

Also, any vowel followed by (/v/, /z/, /ʒ/), /ʁ/, or the consonant cluster /vʁ/ is lengthened; e.g. sœur, [sœːʁ] (\'sister\'); brave, [bʁaːv] (\'nice\'), juge [ʒyːʒ] (\'judge\'), topaze [tɔpaːz] (\'topaz\'), lèvre [lɛːvʁ] (\'lip\'), but not other consonants or clusters, e.g. porte [pɔʁt] (\'door\'), larve [laʁv] (\'larva\').Walker (1984:26)

When syllables otherwise satisfying these conditions are not stressed, they may not be long. The vowel [o] of saute is long in Regarde comme elle saute!, but may not be in Qu\'est-ce qu\'elle saute bien!.Walker (2001:46) In this case, the vowel is unstressed because it is not phrase-final. An exception occurs however with the phoneme /ɛː/ because of its distinctive nature, provided it is word-final, as in C\'est une fête importante, where fête is pronounced with long /ɛː/.Walker (2001:46)

Consonants

Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents the voiceless consonant and the right represents the voiced consonant.

Phonetic notes:

1. The velar nasal is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words such as parking or camping.Wells (1989:44) Many speakers (mostly old people and those who are not accustomed to this foreign sound) replace it with a prenasalized [ŋg] sequence. . The velar nasal is also heard in the accent of the city of Marseille after nasal vowels, e.g. malin, [malɛ̃ŋ].^{[citation needed]}
2. The French rhotic has a wide range of realizations. [ʀ], [ʁ] (both the fricative and the approximant), [r], [ɾ], and [χ] will all be recognized as "r",Fougeron & Smith (1993:75) but most of them will be considered dialectal. For example, [ʁ] is considered typical of a Parisian accent, while [r] is sometimes found in southern France, less and less in the Montréal area and in Cajun French.^{[citation needed]}
3. The approximants [j], [ɥ] and [w] correspond to [i], [y] and [u] respectively. While there are a few minimal pairs (such as loua [lu.a] \'he rented\' and loi [lwa] \'law\'), there are many cases where there is free variation.Fougeron & Smith (1993:75)
4. /ʎ/ has merged with /j/ in a number of dialects (including the standard). This accounts for the appearance of [j] in the syllable coda and minimal pairs like ail [aj] (\'garlic\') vs haï [ai] (\'hated\').Schane (1968:?)

See also

• History of the French language
• Reforms of French orthography
• Dialects of the French language
• French orthography

External links

• Large collection of recordings of French words
• Audio pronunciation of French vowels and alphabet

Notes

References

• Fougeron, Cecile & Caroline L Smith (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73-76
• Léon, P. (1992), written at Paris, Phonétisme et prononciations du français, Nathan
• Schane, Sanford A (1968), French Phonology and Morphology, M.I.T. Press
• Walker, Douglas (1984), written at Ottawa, The Pronunciation of Canadian French, University of Ottawa Press, ISBN 0-7766-4500-5
• Walker, Douglas (2001), French Sound Structure, University of Calgary Press, ISBN 1552380335
• Wells, J.C. (1989), "Computer-Coded Phonemic Notation of Individual Languages of the European Community", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 19 (1): 31-54

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