Part of a series on the
French language
Langues d'oïl Dialects Creoles Francophonie
History
Phonological history Oaths of Strasbourg Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts Anglo-Norman
Grammar
Adverbs Articles and determiners Pronouns (personal) Verbs (conjugation morphology passé composé passé simple)
Orthography
Alphabet Reforms Circumflex Braille
Phonology
Elision Liaison Aspirated h Help:IPA/French
v t e

French phonology is the sound system of French. This article discusses mainly the phonology of all the varieties of Standard French. Notable phonological features include its uvular r, nasal vowels, and three processes affecting word-final sounds:

• liaison, a specific instance of sandhi in which word-final consonants are not pronounced unless they are followed by a word beginning with a vowel;
• elision, in which certain instances of /ə/ (schwa) are elided (such as when final before an initial vowel);
• enchaînement (resyllabification) in which word-final and word-initial consonants may be moved across a syllable boundary, with syllables crossing word boundaries:

An example of the above is this:

• Written: On a laissé la fenêtre ouverte.
• Meaning: "We left the window open."
• In isolation: /ɔ̃ a lɛse la fənɛːtʁə uvɛʁtə/
• Together:

Consonants

Phonetic notes:

• /n, t, d/ are laminal denti-alveolar ,^[2][3] while /s, z/ are dentalised laminal alveolar (commonly called 'dental'), pronounced with the blade of the tongue very close to the back of the upper front teeth, with the tip resting behind lower front teeth.^[2][4]
• Word-final consonants are always released. Generally, /b, d, ɡ/ are voiced throughout and /p, t, k/ are unaspirated.^[5]
• /l/ is usually apical alveolar [l̺] but sometimes laminal denti-alveolar [l̪].^[3] Before /f, ʒ/, it can be realised as retroflex [ɭ].^[3]
• In current pronunciation, /ɲ/ is merging with /nj/.^[6]
• The velar nasal /ŋ/ is not a native phoneme of French, but it occurs in loan words such as camping, smoking or kung-fu.^[7] Some speakers who have difficulty with this consonant realise it as a sequence or replace it with /ɲ/.^[8] It could be considered a separate phoneme in Meridional French, e.g. pain /pɛŋ/ ('bread') vs. penne /pɛn/ ('quill').
• The approximants /j, ɥ, w/ correspond to the close vowels /i, y, u/. While there are a few minimal pairs (such as loua /lu.a/ 's/he rented' and loi /lwa/ 'law'), there are many cases where there is free variation.^[5]
• Belgian French may merge /ɥ/ with ?pojem= or /y/.^{[citation needed]}
• Some dialects of French have a palatal lateral /ʎ/ (French: l mouillé, 'wet l'), but in the modern standard variety, it has merged with /j/.^[9][10] See also Glides and diphthongs, below.
• The French rhotic has a wide range of realizations: the voiced uvular fricative , also realised as an approximant , with a voiceless positional allophone , the uvular trill , the alveolar trill , and the alveolar tap . These are all recognised as the phoneme /r/,^[5] but and are considered dialectal. The most common pronunciation is as a default realisation, complemented by a devoiced variant in the positions before or after a voiceless obstruent or at the end of a sentence. See French guttural r and map at right.
• Velars /k/ and /ɡ/ may become palatalised to and before /i, e, ɛ/, and more variably before /a/.^[11] Word-final /k/ may also be palatalised to .^[12] Velar palatalisation has traditionally been associated with the working class,^[13] though recent studies suggest it is spreading to more demographics of large French cities.^[12]

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.^[15]

The geminate pronunciation is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs courir ('to run') and mourir ('to die'). The conditional form il mourrait ('he would die'), for example, contrasts with the imperfect form il mourait il.mu.ʁɛ ('he was dying'). In some other words, most modern speakers have reduced ʁʁ to ʁ, such as "il pourrait" ('he could'). 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 is sometimes pronounced with a geminate nn and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-:

• inné i(n).ne ('innate')
• immortel i(m).mɔʁtɛl ('immortal')
• illisible i(l).li.zibl ('illegible')
• irresponsable i(ʁ).ʁɛs.pɔ̃.sabl ('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, a spelling pronunciation varies by speaker and gives rise to widely varying stylistic effects.^[16] In particular, the gemination of consonants other than the liquids and nasals /m n l ʁ/ is "generally considered affected or pedantic".^[17] Examples of stylistically marked pronunciations include addition ad.di.sjɔ̃ ('addition') and intelligence ɛ̃.tɛl.li.ʒɑ̃s ('intelligence').

Gemination of doubled ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ is typical of the Languedoc region, as opposed to other southern accents.

A few cases of gemination do not correspond to double consonant letters in the orthography.^[18] The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants: là-dedans lad.dɑ̃ ('inside'), l'honnêteté lɔ.nɛt.te ('honesty'). The elided form of the object pronoun l' ('him/her/it') is also realised as a geminate ll when it appears after another l to avoid misunderstanding:

• Il l'a mangé il.lamɑ̃.ʒe ('He ate it')
• Il a mangé il.amɑ̃.ʒe ('He ate')

Gemination is obligatory in such contexts.

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

• formidable fːɔʁ.mi.dabl ('terrific')
• épouvantable e.pːu.vɑ̃.tabl ('horrible')

Liaisonedit

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

Vowelsedit

Standard French contrasts up to 13 oral vowels and up to 4 nasal vowels. The schwa (in the center of the diagram next to this paragraph) is not necessarily a distinctive sound. Even though it often merges with one of the mid front rounded vowels, its patterning suggests that it is a separate phoneme (see the subsection Schwa below).

The table below primarily lists vowels in contemporary Parisian French, with vowels only present in other dialects in parentheses.

While some dialects feature a long /ɛː/ distinct from /ɛ/ and a distinction between an open front /a/ and an open back /ɑ/, Parisian French features only /ɛ/ and just one open vowel /a/ realised as central ä. Some dialects also feature a rounded /œ̃/, which has merged with /ɛ̃/ in Paris.

In Metropolitan French, while /ə/ is phonologically distinct, its phonetic quality tends to coincide with either /ø/ or /œ/.

Copyright.sk © 2024