French phonology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

For assistance in making IPA transcriptions of French for Wikipedia articles, see WP:IPA for French

This article is part of the series on: French language

Dialects Langues d'Oïl Creoles Francophonie History Oaths of Strasbourg Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts Anglo-Norman Grammar Adverbs Articles and determiners Pronouns Personal Pronouns Verbs Conjugation Verb morphology Orthography Alphabet Reforms Use of the circumflex Phonology Elision Liaison Aspirated h

This box: view • talk • edit

This article mainly discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect. French is notable for its uvular r, nasal vowels, and two processes affecting word-final sounds: liaison, a certain type of sandhi, wherein word-final consonants are not pronounced unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel; and elision, wherein a final vowel is elided before vowel initial words.

Contents 1 Consonants 1.1 Geminates 1.2 Liaison 2 Vowels 2.1 Low vowels 2.2 Mid vowels 2.3 Nasal vowels 2.4 Schwa 2.5 Length 2.6 Elision 3 Glides and diphthongs 4 Stress 4.1 Emphatic stress 5 Notes 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Consonants

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

IPA chart French consonants

	Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palato- alveolar	Palatal		Velar	Uvular
				plain	lab.
Nasal	m	n		ɲ		ŋ1
Plosive	p   b	t   d				k   ɡ
Fricative	f   v	s   z	ʃ   ʒ				ʁ2
Approximant3				j4	ɥ	w
Lateral		l		(ʎ)4

Phonetic notes:

1. The velar nasal /ŋ/ is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words in final position such as parking or camping.^[1] People who have difficulty with this sound replace it with a prenasalized [ŋɡ] sequence instead of a single consonant [ŋ].^{[citation needed]} This sequence also appears almost systematically where there is a possible liaison with the initial vowel of a word pronounced just after it.^{[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",^[2] but most of them will be considered dialectal.
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.^[3]
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').^[4]

Example words^[5]

IPA	Example		Gloss	IPA	Example		Gloss
/m/	[mjɛl]	miel	'honey'	/n/	[nu]	nous	'we'
/ɲ/	[aɲo]	agneau	'lamb'	/ŋ/	[paʁkiŋ]	parking	'parking lot'
/p/	[po]	peau	'skin'	/b/	[bo]	beau	'beautiful'
/t/	[tu]	tout	'all'	/d/	[du]	doux	'sweet'
/k/	[kø]	queue	'tail'	/ɡ/	[ɡɛ̃]	gain	'gain'
/f/	[fu]	fou	'crazy'	/v/	[vu]	vous	'you'
/s/	[su]	sous	'under'	/z/	[zɛ̃]	zain	'whole-colored'
/ʃ/	[ʃu]	chou	'cabbage'	/ʒ/	[ʒu]	joue	'cheek'
/l/	[lu]	loup	'wolf'	/ʁ/	[ʁu]	roue	'wheel'

[edit] Geminates

Although double consonant letters appear in the orthographic form of many French words, geminate consonants are relatively rare in the pronunciation of such words. The following cases can be identified.^[6]

The pronunciation [ʁʁ] is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs courir ('to run') and mourir ('to die'). The conditional form il mourrait [ilmuʁʁɛ] ('he would die'), for example, contrasts with the imperfect form il mourait [ilmuʁɛ] ('he was dying'). Other verbs that have a double <rr> orthographically in the future and conditional are pronounced with a simple [ʁ]: il pourra ('he will be able to'), il verra ('he will see').

When the prefix in- combines with a base that begins with n, the resulting word can optionally be pronounced with a geminate [nn], and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-:

• inné [in(n)e] ('innate')
• immortel [im(m)ɔʁtɛl] ('immortal')
• illisible [il(l)izibl] ('illegible')
• irresponsable [iʁ(ʁ)ɛspɔ̃sabl] ('irresponsible')

Other cases of optional gemination can be found in words like syllabe ('syllable'), grammaire ('grammar'), and illusion ('illusion'). The pronunciation of such words, in many cases due to orthographic influence (see Spelling pronunciation), is subject to speaker variation, and gives rise to widely varying stylistic effects.^[7] In particular, the gemination of consonants other than the liquids and nasals /m n l r/ is "generally considered affected or pedantic".^[8] Examples of stylistically marked pronunciations include addition [addisjɔ̃] ('addition') and intelligence [ɛ̃tɛlliʒɑ̃s] ('intelligence').

A few cases of gemination do not correspond to double consonant letters in the orthography.^[9] The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants, e.g. là-dedans [laddɑ̃] ('inside'), l'honnêteté [lɔnɛtte] ('honesty'). Gemination is obligatory in such contexts. The elided form of the object pronoun l' ('him/her/it') can optionally be realized as a geminate [ll] when it appears after a vowel:

• Je l'ai vu [ʒœl(l)ɛvy] ('I saw it')
• Il faut l'attraper [ilfol(l)atrape] ('it must be caught')

Finally, a word pronounced with emphatic stress can exhibit gemination of its first syllable-initial consonant:

• formidable [ffɔrmidabl] ('terrible')
• épouvantable [eppuvɑ̃tabl] ('horrible')

[edit] Liaison

Many words in French can be analyzed as having a "latent" final consonant that is only pronounced in certain syntactic contexts when the next word begins with a vowel. For example, the word deux ('two') is pronounced [dø] in isolation or before a consonant-initial word (deux jours [døʒuʁ] 'two days'), but in deux ans ('two years'), the linking or liaison consonant /z/ must be pronounced: [døzɑ̃].

[edit] Vowels

Standard French contrasts up to thirteen oral vowels and up to four nasal vowels.

		Front		Central	Back
		unrounded	rounded
Close		i	y		u
Close-mid		e	ø	ə	o
Open-mid	oral	ɛ (ɛː)	œ		ɔ
	nasal	ɛ̃	(œ̃)		ɔ̃
Open					ɑ̃
	oral	a			(ɑ)

[edit] Low vowels

The contrast between front /a/ vs. back /ɑ/ is only partially maintained in standard French, leading some researchers to reject the idea of two distinct phonemes.^[10] While speakers do show significant variation in this area, a number of general tendencies can be observed. First of all, the distinction is best preserved in word-final stressed syllables, e.g. in the minimal pairs tache [taʃ] ('stain') vs. tâche [tɑːʃ] ('task') and rat [ʁa] ('rat') vs. ras [ʁɑ] ('short'). Certain phonological contexts favor back [ɑ], for example a preceding [ʁw] (trois [tʁwɑ] 'three') or a following [z] (gaz [gɑːz] 'gas').^[11] The difference in quality is often reinforced by a difference in length. The exact distribution of the two vowels varies greatly from speaker to speaker.^[12]

Back /ɑ/ is much rarer in unstressed syllables. It can still be encountered in some common words like château [ʃɑto] ('castle'). Morphologically complex words derived from words containing stressed /ɑ/ may or may not retain this vowel: compare âgé [ɑʒe] ('aged', from âge [ɑːʒ]) and rarissime [ʁaʁisim] ('very rare', from rare [ʁɑːʁ]). Even in a final syllable, back /ɑ/ may become [a] if the word in question loses its stress within the extended context:^[13]

J'ai été au bois [ʒeeteoˈbwɑ] ('I went to the woods')

J'ai été au bois de Vincennes [ʒeeteobwadvɛ̃ˈsɛn] ('I went to the Vincennes woods')

[edit] Mid vowels

While the mid vowels contrast in certain environments, there is limited distributional overlap so that they often appear in complementary distribution. 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 [pwa.ɲe] 'handful' vs poignet [pwaɲɛ] 'wrist'). Likewise, open-mid /ɔ/ and /œ/ contrast with close-mid /o/ and /ø/ mostly in closed monosyllables.^[14] 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].^[15]

In verb conjugations of the first singular person (in present and future tense), the final mid-closed /e/ is frequently pronounced [ɛ], e.g. j’ai /ˈʒe/ ('I have') may be [ˈʒe] or [ˈʒɛ], je ferai /ʒə fəˈʁe/ ('I'll do') may be [ʒəf(ə)ˈʁe] or [ʒəf(ə)ˈʁɛ].^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Nasal vowels

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/.^[16]

Example words

Vowel	Example
IPA		Orthography	Gloss
Oral vowels
/i/	[si]	si	'if'
/y/	[sy]	su	'known'
/u/	[su]	sous	'under'
/e/	[se]	ses	'his'/'her' (plural form)
/ø/	[sø]	ceux	'those'
/o/	[so]	sot	'silly'
/ɛ/	[fɛt]	faite	'done'
/ɛː/	[fɛːt]	fête	'feast'
/œ/	[sœːʁ]	sœur	'sister'
/ə/	[sə]	ce	'this'/'that'
/ɔ/	[sɔːʁ]	sort	'fate'
/a/	[sa]	sa	'his'/'her'
/ɑ/	[pɑːt]	pâte	'dough'
Nasal vowels
/ɑ̃/	[sɑ̃]	sans	'without'
/ɔ̃/	[sɔ̃]	son	'his'
/ɛ̃/	[sɛ̃]	saint	'saint'
/œ̃/	[bʁœ̃]	brun	'brown'

[edit] Schwa

When phonetically realized, schwa (/ə/), also called "e caduc" ('decrepit e') and "e muet" ('mute e'), is a mid central vowel with some rounding.^[17] Many authors consider it to be phonetically identical to [œ].^[18][19] Fagyal, Kibbee & Jenkins (2006) state more specifically that it merges with /ø/ before high vowels and glides (netteté /nɛtəte/ 'clarity', atelier /atəlje/ 'workshop') and in phrase-final stressed position (dis-le ! /dilə/ 'say it'), and [œ] elsewhere.^[20] But because of its special phonological behavior, it must correspond to a distinct phoneme.

The main characteristic of French schwa is its "instability" — i.e., the fact that under certain conditions it has no phonetic realization. This is usually the case, for example, when it follows a single consonant (rapp(e)ler [ʁaple] 'to recall') or word-finally (tabl(e) [tabl] 'table'). On the other hand, it is pronounced word-internally when it follows two or more pronounced consonants (gredin [gʁədɛ̃] 'bum', sept petits [sɛtpəti] 'seven little ones'). In the future and conditional forms of -er verbs, however, schwa can be optionally deleted even after two consonants:

tu garderais [tygaʁd(ə)ʁɛ] ('you would guard')

nous brusquerons [les choses] [nubʁysk(ə)ʁɔ̃] ('we will precipitate [things]').

Word-final schwas are optionally pronounced if preceded by two or more consonants and followed by a consonant-initial word (une porte fermée [yn pɔʁt(ə)fɛʁme] 'a closed door').^[21]

In French versification, word-final "e muet" is always elided before another vowel, and at the ends of verses. It is pronounced before a following consonant-initial word.^[22] For example une grande femme fut ici, would be pronounced [ynə gʁɑ̃də famə fyt isi], with the [ə] at the end of each word being pronounced.

Schwa cannot normally be realized as a central vowel ([œ]) in closed syllables. In such contexts in inflectional and derivational morphology, schwa usually alternates with the front vowel /ɛ/: compare, for example, harceler [aʁsəle] ('to harass') with harcèle [aʁsɛl] ('[he] harasses').^[23] A three-way alternation can be observed in cases like appeler [apəle] ('to call'), j'appelle [ʒapɛl] ('I call'), appellation [apelasjɔ̃] ('brand').^[24]

Instances of orthographic <e> that do not exhibit the behavior described above may be better analyzed as corresponding to the stable, full vowel /œ/. The enclitic pronoun -le, for example, obligatorily keeps its vowel in contexts like donnez-le-moi [dɔnelœmwa] ('give it to me') where schwa deletion would normally apply, and it counts as a full syllable for the determination of stress. Cases of word-internal stable <e> are more subject to variation among speakers, but for example un rebelle [ɛ̃ʁœbɛl] ('a rebel') must be pronounced with a full vowel, in contrast to un rebond [ɛ̃ʁ(œ)bɔ̃] ('a bounce').^[25]

[edit] Length

With the exception of the distinction made by some speakers between /ɛː/ and /ɛ/ in rare minimal pairs like maître [mɛːtʁ] ('teacher') vs. mettre [mɛtʁ] ('to put'), variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic. /o/, /ø/, /ɑ/, and the nasal vowels are lengthened in closed, stressed syllables.^[26]

Also, any vowel followed by a voiced fricative (/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'), livre [liːvʁ] ('life'), but not other consonants or clusters, e.g. porte [pɔʁt] ('door'), larve [laʁv] ('larva').^[27]

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!.^[28] 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/.^[29]

The following table examines only the case of phrase-final vowels.

vowel	closed syllable				open syllable
	non-lengthening consonant		lengthening consonant
/i/	habite	[aˈbit]	livre	[ˈliːvʁ]	habit	[aˈbi]
/y/	débute	[deˈbyt]	juge	[ˈʒyːʒ]	début	[deˈby]
/u/	dissoudre	[diˈsudʁ]	bouse	[ˈbuːz]	dissous	[diˈsu]
/ɛ/	défaite	[deˈfɛt]	lèvre	[ˈlɛːvʁ]	défait	[deˈfɛ]
/ɛː/	connaître	[kɔˈnɛːtʁ]	rêve	[ˈʁɛːv]	connaît	[kɔˈnɛ]
/œ/	déjeune	[deˈʒœn]	heure	[ˈœːʁ]
/ø/	meute	[ˈmøːt]	joyeuse	[ʒwaˈjøːz]	joyeux	[ʒwaˈjø]
/ɔ/	motte	[ˈmɔt]	mort	[ˈmɔːʁ]
/o/	sursaute	[syʁˈsoːt]	rose	[ˈʁoːz]	sursaut	[syʁˈso]
/a/	débattre	[deˈbatʁ]	topaze	[tɔˌˈpaːz]	débat	[deˈba]
/ɑ/	appâte	[aˈpɑːt]	rase	[ˈʁɑːz]	appât	[aˈpɑ]
/ɛ̃/	malingre	[maˈlɛ̃ːgʁ]	quinze	[ˈkɛ̃ːz]	malin	[maˈlɛ̃]
/œ̃/	emprunte	[ˈɑ̃.pʁœ̃ːt]			emprunt	[ɑ̃ˈpʁœ̃]
/ɔ̃/	démontre	[deˈmɔ̃ːtʁ]	éponge	[eˌˈpɔ̃ːʒ]	démon	[deˈmɔ̃]
/ɑ̃/	dépendre	[deˈpɑ̃ːdʁ]	genre	[ˈʒɑ̃ːʁ]	dépens	[deˈpɑ̃]
/ə/					Fais-le!	[fɛˈlə]

[edit] Elision

The final vowel (most often /ə/) of a number of monosyllabic function words is elided in syntactic combinations with a following word that begins with a vowel. For example, compare the pronunciation of the subject pronoun in je dors [ʒədɔʁ] ('I am sleeping') and in j'arrive [ʒaʁiv] ('I am arriving').

[edit] Glides and diphthongs

The glides [j], [w], and [ɥ] appear in syllable onsets, immediately followed by a full vowel. In many cases they alternate systematically with their vowel counterparts [i], [u], and [y], for example in the following pairs of verb forms:

nie [ni]; nier [nje] ('deny')

loue [lu]; louer [lwe] ('rent')

tue [ty]; tuer [tɥe] ('kill')

The glides in these examples can be analyzed as the result of a glide formation process that turns an underlying high vowel into a glide when followed by another vowel: e.g. /nie/ → [nje].

This process is usually blocked after a complex onset of the form obstruent + liquid (that is, a stop or a fricative followed by /l/ or /ʁ/). For example, while the pair loue/louer shows an alternation between [u] and [w], the same suffix added to cloue [klu], a word with a complex onset, does not trigger the glide formation: clouer [klue] ('nail') Some sequences of glide + vowel can be found after obstruent-liquid onsets, however. The main examples are [ɥi], as in pluie [plɥi] ('rain'), [wa], and [wɛ̃].^[30] Such data can be dealt with in different ways, for example by adding appropriate contextual conditions to the glide formation rule, or by assuming that the phonemic inventory of French includes underlying glides, or rising diphthongs like /ɥi/ and /wa/.^[31][32]

Glide formation normally does not occur across morpheme boundaries in compounds like semi-aride ('semi-arid').^[33] However, in colloquial registers, glide formation can be observed across morpheme or word boundaries: si elle [siɛl] ('if she') can be pronounced just like ciel [sjɛl] ('sky'), or tu as [tya] ('you have') like tua [tɥa] ('[he] killed').^[34]

The glide [j] can also occur in syllable coda position, after a vowel, as in soleil [sɔlɛj] ('sun'). Here again, one can formulate a derivation from an underlying full vowel /i/, but this analysis is not always adequate, given the existence of possible minimal pairs like pays [pɛi] ('country') / paye [pɛj] ('paycheck') and abbaye [abɛi] ('abbey') / abeille [abɛj] ('bee').^[35]

[edit] Stress

Word stress is not distinctive in French. This means that two words cannot be distinguished on the basis of stress placement alone. In fact, grammatical stress can only fall on the final full syllable of a French word (that is, the final syllable with a vowel other than schwa). Monosyllables with schwa as their only vowel (ce, de, que, etc.) are generally unstressed clitics, although they may receive stress in exceptional cases requiring separate treatment.^[36]

The difference between stressed and unstressed syllables in French is less marked than in English. Vowels in unstressed syllables keep their full quality, giving rise to a syllable-timed rhythm (see Isochrony). Moreover, words lose their stress to varying degrees when pronounced in phrases and sentences. In general, only the last word in a phonological phrase retains its full grammatical stress (on its last syllable).^[37]

[edit] Emphatic stress

Emphatic stress is used to call attention to a specific element in a given context, for example to express a contrast or to reinforce the emotive content of a word. In French, this stress falls on the first consonant-initial syllable of the word in question. The characteristics associated with emphatic stress include: increased amplitude and pitch of the vowel, and gemination of the onset consonant, as mentioned above.^[38]

• C'est parfaitement vrai. [sɛpaʁfɛtmɑ̃ˈvʁɛ] ('it's perfectly true.' No emphatic stress)
• C'est parfaitement vrai. [sɛ(p)ˈpaʁfɛtmɑ̃vʁɛ] (emphatic stress on parfaitement)

For words that begin with a vowel, emphatic stress falls either on the first non-initial syllable that begins with a consonant, or on the initial syllable with the insertion of a glottal stop or a liaison consonant.

• C'est épouvantable. [sɛte(p)ˈpuvɑ̃tabl] ('it's terrible.' Emphatic stress on second syllable of épouvantable)
• C'est épouvantable [sɛ(t)ˈtepuvɑ̃tabl] (initial syllable with liaison consonant [t])
• C'est épouvantable [sɛtˈʔepuvɑ̃tabl] (initial syllable with glottal stop insertion)

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• History of the French language
• Reforms of French orthography
• Dialects of the French language
• French orthography
• Phonologie du Français Contemporain

[edit] References

• Anderson, Stephen R. (1982), "The Analysis of French Shwa: Or, How to Get Something for Nothing", Language 58 (3): 534–573 
• Casagrande, Jean (1984). The Sound System of French. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 0-87840-085-0. 
• Chitoran, Ioana; Hualde, José Ignacio (2007), "From hiatus to diphthong: the evolution of vowel sequences in Romance", Phonology 24: 37–75, doi:10.1017/S095267570700111X 
• Chitoran, Ioana (2002), "A perception-production study of Romanian diphthongs and glide-vowel sequences", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32 (2): 203–222, doi:10.1017/S0025100302001044 
• Fagyal, Zsuzsanna; Douglas Kibbee, Fred Jenkins (2006). French: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52896-8. 
• Fougeron, Cecile; Smith, Caroline L (1993), "Illustrations of the IPA:French", Journal of the International Phonetic Association 23 (2): 73–76 
• Léon, P. (1992), Phonétisme et prononciations du français, Paris: Nathan 
• Schane, Sanford A (1968), French Phonology and Morphology, M.I.T. Press 
• Tranel, Bernard (1987). The Sounds of French: An Introduction. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-31510-7. 
• Walker, Douglas (1984), The Pronunciation of Canadian French, Ottawa: 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 
• Yaguello, Marina (1991). "Les géminées de M. Rocard". En écoutant parler la langue. Paris: Seuil. pp. 64-70. 

[edit] External links

• Large collection of recordings of French words
• French Pronunciation at Indian Auteur
• mp3 Audio Pronunciation of French vowels, consonants and alphabet
• French Vowels Demonstrated by a Native Speaker (youtube)
• French Consonants Demonstrated by a Native Speaker (youtube)

v • d • e Phonologies of the world's languages Abkhaz · Arabic · Belarusian · Bengali · Catalan · Czech · Danish · Dutch · English (Old · Australian) · Esperanto · Finnish · French (Quebec) · German (Bernese) · Greek (Ancient · Koine) · Gujarati · Hawaiian · Hebrew · Hindi-Urdu · Hungarian · Icelandic · Inuit · Irish · Italian · Japanese · Kiowa · Korean · Latin · Macedonian · Mahal · Mapudungun · Marathi · Navajo · Norwegian · Ojibwe · Ottawa · Persian · Polish · Portuguese · Proto-Indo-European · Romanian · Russian · Scottish Gaelic · Sesotho · Somali · Spanish · Swedish · Tagalog · Tamil · Taos · Turkish · Ubykh · Ukrainian · Vietnamese · Welsh · Yiddish · Zuni