French phonology

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French phonology displays variation due to regional dialects. This article aims at displaying a complete overview of French normal and possible phonemes and their most common allophones.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Vowels 1.1.1 Oral vowels 1.1.2 Nasal vowels 1.1.3 Vowel quantity 1.2 Consonants 1.2.1 Examples of French plosive consonants 1.2.2 Vowel-lengthening consonants 2 See also 3 External links 4 References

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

	Front		Central	Back
	NR	R		NR	R
Close	i	y			u
Close-mid	e	ø	ə		o
Open-mid	ɛ ɛ̃	œ (œ̃)			ɔ ɔ̃
Open	a			(ɑ) ɑ̃

[edit] Oral vowels

IPA	Example (IPA)	Example (Written)	Meaning	Notes
i	si	si	"if"	This vowel is normally short and tense unlike the Received Pronunciation vowel in meet (which is long) and if (which is the lax [ɪ]). Quebec French and some varieties of Belgian French have the lax vowel [ɪ] when it is short and in a closed syllable.1
y	sy	su	"known"	The same vowel as [i], but rounded. Quebec French and some varieties of Belgian French have the lax vowel [ʏ] when it is short and in a closed syllable.1
u	su	sous	"under"	Similar to the English vowel in the word shoot. Quebec French and some varieties of Belgian French have the lax vowel [ʊ] when it is short and in a closed syllable.1
e	pʁe	pré	"meadow"	In many regions of France, mostly in the South (Meridional French), this vowel and [ɛ] are allophones. In other dialects, it is a different phoneme: Parisian French, for example, clearly oppose the two phonemes at word endings /tɛ/ (taie, "pillowcase") and /te/ (thé, "tea"). However, the distinction tends to disappear in non-final syllables, where the vowels often follow the distribution, similar to Italian, of having [e] in open syllables and [ɛ] in closed ones.
ø	sø	ceux	"these"	This vowel and [œ] are almost allophones: usually [ø] is found in open syllables and [œ] in closed ones, although [ø] is also found before [z] in words like chanteuse [ʃɑ̃tøz]. The few minimal pairs include jeune [ʒœn] ("young") and jeûne [ʒøn] ("a fast").
o	so	sot	"silly"	This vowel merges with [ɔ] in some dialects, subject to an allophonic distribution that produces [o] in word-final open syllables and [ɔ] in all others. For example: photocopie /fɔ.tɔ.kɔ.pi/, photo /fɔ.to/. However, /oː/ appears even in closed syllables in some dialects, usually corresponding to the spelling "eau", "au" or "ô", although this often depends on the word: Paul, for example, is pronounced [pɔl].
ɛ	pʁɛ	près	"near"	In some positions and in some dialects, this has merged with [e]; see above. In Quebec French the vowel ɜ has developed as the phonemic evolution of the Old French /ɛː/ and as the allophone of /ɛ/ before /ʒ, ʁ, z/, (most noticeably in word-final position), e.g. mɜːtʁ, maître.
œ	sœːʁ	sœur	"sister"	In some positions and in some dialects, this has merged with [ø]; see above.
ɔ	sɔːʁ	sort	"fate"	In some positions and in some dialects, this has merged with [o]; see above.
a	pat	patte	"leg" (of an animal)	In many French dialects, this vowel has acquired a more central position owing to a merger with /ɑ/, but other dialects have kept these vowels separated.
ɑ	pɑːt	pâte	"dough"	This vowel, almost always long (unless in word-final position), has been lost in many dialects of French through a merger with /a/, but is preserved in other dialects, most notably in Quebec French and Swiss French
ə	sə	ce	"this"	This phoneme has several names, including "e caduc" ("decrepit e") and "e muet" ("mute e"). Being more or less labialized, it is closer to [œ] than to an English [ə]. Modern labialized "e caduc" comes from an unlabialized schwa once used in Old French. 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]).

1. This laxing of the high vowels /i/, /u/ and /y/, in the specified context is compulsory in stressed syllables, e.g. lutte [lʏt], but it is optional in unstressed syllables, e.g., vulgaire can be [vʏlgɛːʁ] or [vylgɛːʁ]. The lax allophone of a high vowel may also appear in open syllables by assimilation to a lax vowel in a following syllable, e.g., musique can be either [myzɪk] or [mʏzɪk]. The lax vowel may even be retained in derived words where the original stressed lax vowel has disappeared, e.g. musical can be [myzikal] or [mʏzikal]. Also, the lax allophone may arise optionally in open syllables through dissimilation as in toupie [tupi] or [tʊpi], especially in reduplicative forms such as pipi [pipi] or [pɪpi]. These phenomena are conditioned lexically and regionally. For example, for the word difficile, the expected pronunciation [dzifisɪl] is found throughout Quebec, but the alternative pronunciation [dzifɪsɪl] is characteristic of the Beauce region, while [dzɪfisɪl] is characteristic of Montreal French.^[1]

[edit] Nasal vowels

IPA	Example (IPA)	Example (Written)	Meaning	Notes
ɑ̃	sɑ̃	sans	"without"	The nasalized equivalent of the oral vowel [ɑ]. This vowel is frequently heard as [ã] in Quebec. Some dialects in Northern France have started to merge /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/.
ɔ̃	sɔ̃	son	"his, her, its" (m sg)	The nasalized equivalent of the oral vowel [ɔ]. One of the most stable vowels, it has few known allophones.
ɛ̃	sɛ̃	saint	"saint"	The nasalized equivalent of the oral vowel [ɛ]. Many French speakers have merged [œ̃] and [ɛ̃]. This vowel is still separate from /œ̃/ in Quebec French, Belgian French, and Meridional French, and in some of these dialects it has the allophones [ẽ] and [ĩ].
œ̃	bʁœ̃	brun	"brown"	Many French people have merged [œ̃] and [ɛ̃]. This vowel is still separate from /ɛ̃/ in Quebec French, Belgian French, and Meridional French however, and has the allophone [ũ].

[edit] Vowel quantity

Certain dialects, notably Quebec French and Belgian French, make a distinction between long and short vowels, in final syllables only. The occurrence of long vowels can vary widely among dialects. Generally, the following vowels are long:

• [ɑ], [o], and [ø], when followed by one or more consonants, e.g. base, [bɑːz]; flamme, [flɑːm]
• other vowels followed by one of the voiced fricatives ([v z ʒ ʁ]), e.g. sœur, [sœːʁ]; brave, [braːv]
• nasal vowels followed by one or more consonants, e.g. romance, [ʁɔmɑ̃ːs]; emprunte, [ɑ̃pʁœ̃ːt]

Other vowels are long due to compensatory lengthening: in syllables where a consonant in the syllable coda has been lost, the vowel becomes long. The overwhelming majority of these cases are due to the loss of [s]:

• Old French /mɛstrə/ > Modern French /mɛːtr/ "maître"
• Old French /bɛstə/ > Modern French /bɛːt/ "bête"

[edit] Consonants

IPA chart French consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental1	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Labio- palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Uvular
Plosive	p b		t d					k g
Nasal	m		n			ɲ4		ŋ3
Fricative		f   v		s   z	ʃ   ʒ					ʁ2
Approximant						j	ɥ5		w 5
Lateral				l

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

Notes:

1. The designation of /t/, /d/, and /n/ as dental has been disputed. See Dental consonant.
2. The grapheme r allows a wide range of realizations in French. [ʀ], [ʁ], [r], [ɾ], and [χ] will all be recognized as "r", but most of them will be considered dialectal. For example, [ʀ] 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.
3. The velar nasal is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words such as parking or camping. Many speakers (mostly old people and those who are not accustomed to this foreign sound) replace it with a prenasalized [ŋg] sequence. In Quebec French, /ɲ/ is pronounced [ŋ], so these loanwords rhyme with ligne and signe. The velar nasal is also heard in the accent of the city of Marseille after nasal vowels, e.g. malin, [malɛ̃ŋ].
4. /ɲ/ is slowly disappearing in favor of a /nj/ sequence in some dialects
5. [ɥ] and [w] in French are mostly allophones of [y] and [u] before a vowel. The only case where [w] contrasts with [u] is when there is a morphemic boundary, causing some forms of verbs ending in -oua ([ua] or [uɑ]) such as loua ("he rented") and noua ("he knotted, he tied") to contrast with words ending with the oi ([wa]) diphthong, such as loi ("law"), and noix ("nut").

[edit] Examples of French plosive consonants

IPA	Example (IPA)	Example (Written)	Meaning	Notes
p	po	peau	"skin"
b	bɑ̃	banc	"bench"
t	ty	tu	"you" (singular)
d	du	doux	"soft"
k	kø	queue	"tail"
g	gɛ̃	gain	"gain"

[edit] Vowel-lengthening consonants

The consonants /ʁ ʒ v z/ cause automatic lengthening of the previous vowels. The consonant cluster /vʁ/ also has this property, whereas other clusters (even including /ʁv/) do not. While this is not phonemic in itself, it might cause vowels to change quality in dialects where short and long vowels are of different qualities.

[edit] See also

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

[edit] External links

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

[edit] References

1. ^ Denis Dumas, Nos façons de parler, pp. 94-99