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:
Distribution of guttural r (such as [ʁʀχ]) in Europe in the mid-20th century.
not usual
only in some educated speech
usual in educated speech
general
Phonetic notes:
/n,t,d/ are laminaldenti-alveolar[n̪, t̪, d̪],[2][3] while /s,z/ are dentalised laminal alveolar [s̪, z̪] (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 [ŋɡ] 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 /w/ 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[ʁ], also realised as an approximant[ʁ̞], with a voiceless positional allophone [χ], the uvular trill[ʀ], the alveolar trill[r], and the alveolar tap[ɾ]. These are all recognised as the phoneme/r/,[5] but [r] and [ɾ] are considered dialectal. The most common pronunciation is [ʁ] as a default realisation, complemented by a devoiced variant [χ] 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 [kʲ⁓c] and [ɡʲ⁓ɟ] before /i,e,ɛ/, and more variably before /a/.[11] Word-final /k/ may also be palatalised to [kʲ].[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]
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 [ʁʁ] is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs courir ('to run') and mourir ('to die'). The conditional form il mourrait[il.muʁ.ʁɛ] ('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-:
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 /mnlʁ/ 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:
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/døʒuʁ/ → [dø.ʒuʁ] 'two days'), but in deux ans/døz‿ɑ̃/ (→ [dø.zɑ̃] 'two years'), the linking or liaison consonant /z/ is pronounced.
Vowels
Vowels of Parisian French, from Collins & Mees (2013:225–226). Some speakers merge /œ̃/ with /ɛ̃/ (especially in the northern half of France) and /a/ with /ɑ/. In the latter case, the outcome is an open central [ä] between the two (not shown on the chart).
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/.
In contrast with the mid vowels, there is no tense–lax contrast in close vowels. However, non-phonemic lax (near-close) [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ] appear in Quebec as allophones of /i,y,u/ when the vowel is both phonetically short (so not before /v,z,ʒ,ʁ/) and in a closed syllable, so that e.g. petite[pə.t͡sɪt] 'small (f.)' differs from petit 'small (m.)' [pə.t͡si] not only in the presence of the final /t/ but also in the tenseness of the /i/. Laxing always occurs in stressed closed syllables, but it is also found in other environments to various degrees.[20][21]
In Metropolitan French, /i,u/ are consistently close [i, u],[22][23][24] but the exact height of /y/ is somewhat debatable as it has been variously described as close [y][22][23] and near-close [ʏ].[24]
Mid vowels
Although the mid vowels contrast in certain environments, there is a limited distributional overlap so they often appear in complementary distribution. Generally, close-mid vowels (/e,ø,o/) are found in open syllables, and open-mid vowels (/ɛ,œ,ɔ/) are found in closed syllables. However, there are minimal pairs:[22]
open-mid /ɛ/ and close-mid /e/ contrast in final-position open syllables:
allait[a.lɛ] ('was going'), vs. allé[a.le] ('gone');
likewise, open-mid /ɔ/ and /œ/ contrast with close-mid /o/ and /ø/ mostly in closed monosyllables, such as these:
jeune[ʒœn] ('young'), vs. jeûne[ʒøn] ('fast', verb),
Rhodes[ʁɔd] ('Rhodes'), vs. rôde[ʁod] ('[I] lurk'),
Paul[pɔl] ('Paul', masculine), vs. Paule[pol] ('Paule', feminine),
bonne[bɔn] ('good', feminine), vs. Beaune[bon] ('Beaune', the city).
Beyond the general rule, known as the loi de position among French phonologists,[25] there are some exceptions. For instance, /o/ and /ø/ are found in closed syllables ending in [z], and only [ɔ] is found in closed monosyllables before [ʁ], [ɲ], and [ɡ].[26]
The Parisian realization of /ɔ/ has been variously described as central [ɞ][24] and centralized to [ɞ] before /ʁ/,[2] in both cases becoming similar to /œ/.
The phonemic opposition of /ɛ/ and /e/ has been lost in the southern half of France, where these two sounds are found only in complementary distribution. The phonemic oppositions of /ɔ/ and /o/ and of /œ/ and /ø/ in terminal open syllables have been lost in almost all of France, but not in Belgium or in areas with an Arpitan substrate, where pot and peau are still opposed as /pɔ/ and /po/.[27]
Open vowels
The phonemic contrast between front /a/ and back /ɑ/ is sometimes no longer maintained in Parisian French, which leads some researchers to reject the idea of two distinct phonemes.[28] However, the back [ɑ] is always maintained in Northern French, but only in final open syllables,[29]avocat (lawyer) [avoˈkɑ]ⓘ, but in final closed syllables, the /ɑ/ phoneme is fronted to [aː], but it is always long, pâte (pasta) [paːt]. The distinction is still clearly maintained in many dialects such as Quebec French.[30]
While there is much variation among speakers in France, a number of general tendencies can be observed. First of all, the distinction is most often preserved in word-final stressed syllables such as in these minimal pairs:
tache/taʃ/ → [taʃ] ('stain'), vs. tâche/tɑʃ/ → [tɑʃ] ('task')
patte/pat/ → [pat] ('leg'), vs. pâte/pɑt/ → [pɑt] ('paste, pastry')
rat/ʁa/ → [ʁa] ('rat'), vs. ras/ʁɑ/ → [ʁɑ] ('short')
There are certain environments that prefer one open vowel over the other. For example, /ɑ/ is preferred after /ʁw/ and before /z/:
The difference in quality is often reinforced by a difference in length (but the difference is contrastive in final closed syllables). The exact distribution of the two vowels varies greatly from speaker to speaker.[32]
Back /ɑ/ is much rarer in unstressed syllables, but it can be encountered in some common words:
rarissime/ʁaʁisim/ → [ʁaʁisim] ('very rare', from rare/ʁɑʁ/ → [ʁɑʁ]).
Even in the final syllable of a word, back /ɑ/ may become [a] if the word in question loses its stress within the extended phonological context:[31]
J'ai été au bois/ʒeeteobwɑ/ → [ʒe.e.te.o.bwɑ] ('I went to the woods'),
J'ai été au bois de Vincennes/ʒeeteobwɑdəvɛ̃sɛn/ → [ʒe.e.te.o.bwad.vɛ̃.sɛn] ('I went to the Vincennes woods').
Nasal vowels
The phonetic qualities of the back nasal vowels differ from those of the corresponding oral vowels. The contrasting factor that distinguishes /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ is the extra lip rounding of the latter according to some linguists,[33] and tongue height according to others.[34] Speakers who produce both /œ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ distinguish them mainly through increased lip rounding of the former, but many speakers use only the latter phoneme, especially most speakers in northern France such as Paris (but not farther north, in Belgium).[33][34]
In some dialects, particularly that of Europe, there is an attested tendency for nasal vowels to shift in a counterclockwise direction: /ɛ̃/ tends to be more open and shifts toward the vowel space of /ɑ̃/ (realised also as [æ̃]), /ɑ̃/ rises and rounds to [ɔ̃] (realised also as [ɒ̃]) and /ɔ̃/ shifts to [õ] or [ũ]. Also, there also is an opposite movement for /ɔ̃/ for which it becomes more open and unrounds to [ɑ̃], resulting in a merger of Standard French /ɔ̃/ and /ɑ̃/ in this case.[34][35] According to one source, the typical phonetic realization of the nasal vowels in Paris is [æ̃] for /ɛ̃/, [ɑ̃] for /ɑ̃/ and [õ̞] for /ɔ̃/, suggesting that the first two are unrounded open vowels that contrast by backness (like the oral /a/ and /ɑ/ in some accents), whereas /ɔ̃/ is much closer than /ɛ̃/.[36]
In Quebec French, two of the vowels shift in a different direction: /ɔ̃/ → [õ], more or less as in Europe, but /ɛ̃/ → [ẽ] and /ɑ̃/ → [ã].[37]
In the Provence and Occitanie regions, nasal vowels are often realized as oral vowels before a stop consonant, thus reviving the ⟨n⟩ otherwise lost in other accents: quarante /kaʁɑ̃t/ → [kaˈʁantə].
Contrary to the oral /ɔ/, there is no attested tendency for the nasal /ɔ̃/ to become central in any accent.
Schwa
When phonetically realised, schwa (/ə/), also called e caduc ('dropped e') and e muet ('mute e'), is a mid-central vowel with some rounding.[22] Many authors consider its value to be [œ],[38][39] while Geoff Lindsey suggests [ɵ].[40][41]Fagyal, Kibbee & Jenkins (2006) state, more specifically, that it merges with /ø/ before high vowels and glides:
and that it merges with /œ/ elsewhere.[42] However, some speakers make a clear distinction, and it exhibits special phonological behavior that warrants considering it a distinct phoneme. Furthermore, the merger occurs mainly in the French of France; in Quebec, /ø/ and /ə/ are still distinguished.[43]
The main characteristic of French schwa is its "instability": the fact that under certain conditions it has no phonetic realization.
That is usually the case when it follows a single consonant in a medial syllable:
Word-final schwas are optionally pronounced if preceded by two or more consonants and followed by a consonant-initial word:
une porte fermée/yn(ə)pɔʁt(ə)fɛʁme/ → [yn.pɔʁ.t(ə).fɛʁ.me] ('a closed door').
In the future and conditional forms of -er verbs, however, the schwa is sometimes deleted even after two consonants [citation needed]:
tu garderais/tyɡaʁdəʁɛ/ → [ty.ɡaʁ.d(ə.)ʁɛ] ('you would guard'),
nous brusquerons [les choses]/nubʁyskəʁɔ̃/ → [nu.bʁys.k(ə.)ʁɔ̃] ('we will precipitate [things]').
On the other hand, it is pronounced word-internally when it follows more pronounced consonants that cannot be combined into a complex onset with the initial consonants of the next syllable:
sept petits/sɛtpəti/ → [sɛt.pə.ti] ('seven little ones').[44]
In French versification, word-final schwa is always elided before another vowel and at the ends of verses. It is pronounced before a following consonant-initial word.[45] For example, une grande femme fut ici, [ynɡʁɑ̃dfamfy.t‿i.si] in ordinary speech, would in verse be pronounced [y.nəɡʁɑ̃.dəfa.məfy.t‿i.si], with the /ə/ enunciated at the end of each word.
Schwa cannot normally be realised as a front vowel ([œ]) in closed syllables. In such contexts in inflectional and derivational morphology, schwa usually alternates with the front vowel /ɛ/:
appellation/apelasjɔ̃/ → [a.pe.la.sjɔ̃] ('brand'), which can also be pronounced [a.pɛ.la.sjɔ̃].[47]
Instances of orthographic ⟨e⟩ that do not exhibit the behaviour described above may be better analysed as corresponding to the stable, full vowel /œ/. The enclitic pronoun le, for example, always keeps its vowel in contexts like donnez-le-moi/dɔneləmwa/ → [dɔ.ne.lœ.mwa] ('give it to me') for which schwa deletion would normally apply (giving *[dɔ.nɛl.mwa]), 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/œ̃ʁəbɛl/ ('a rebel') must be pronounced with a full vowel in contrast to un rebond/œ̃ʁəbɔ̃/ → or [œ̃ʁ.bɔ̃] ('a bounce').[48]
Length
Except for the distinction still made by some speakers between /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ in rare minimal pairs like mettre[mɛtʁ] ('to put') vs. maître[mɛːtʁ] ('teacher'), variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic. Vowels can be lengthened in closed, stressed syllables, under the following two conditions:
/o/, /ø/, /ɑ/, and the nasal vowels are lengthened before any consonant: pâte[pɑːt] ('dough'), chante[ʃɑ̃ːt] ('sings').
All vowels are lengthened if followed by one of the voiced fricatives—/v/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʁ/ (not in combination)—or by the cluster /vʁ/: mer/mère[mɛːʁ] ('sea/mother'), crise[kʁiːz] ('crisis'), livre[liːvʁ] ('book'),[49]Tranel (1987:49–51) However, words such as (ils) servent[sɛʁv] ('(they) serve') or tarte[taʁt] ('pie') are pronounced with short vowels since the /ʁ/ appears in clusters other than /vʁ/.
When such syllables lose their stress, the lengthening effect may be absent. The vowel [o] of saute is long in Regarde comme elle saute!, in which the word is phrase-final and therefore stressed, but not in Qu'est-ce qu'elle saute bien![50] In accents wherein /ɛː/ is distinguished from /ɛ/, however, it is still pronounced with a long vowel even in an unstressed position, as in fête in C'est une fête importante.[50]
The following table presents the pronunciation of a representative sample of words in phrase-final (stressed) position:
In Parisian French, the close vowels /i,y,u/ and the mid front /e,ɛ/ at the end of utterances can be devoiced. A devoiced vowel may be followed by a sound similar to the voiceless palatal fricative[ç]:
The final vowel (usually /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 unstressed subject pronoun, in je dors/ʒədɔʁ/[ʒə.dɔʁ] ('I am sleeping'), and in j'arrive/ʒ‿aʁiv/[ʒa.ʁiv] ('I am arriving').
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] such as in the following pairs of verb forms:
The glides in the 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: /nie/ → [nje].
This process is usually blocked after a complex onset of the form obstruent + liquid (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[klu.e] ('to 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], as in proie[pʁwa] ('prey'), and [wɛ̃], as in groin[ɡʁwɛ̃] ('snout').[54] They can be dealt with in different ways, as 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/.[55][56]
Glide formation normally does not occur across morpheme boundaries in compounds like semi-aride ('semi-arid').[57] However, in colloquial registers, si elle[si.ɛl] ('if she') can be pronounced just like ciel[sjɛl] ('sky'), or tu as[ty.ɑ] ('you have') like tua[tɥa] ('[(s)he] killed').[58]
The glide [j] can also occur in syllable coda position, after a vowel, as in soleil[sɔlɛj] ('sun'). There again, one can formulate a derivation from an underlying full vowel /i/, but the analysis is not always adequate because of the existence of possible minimal pairs like pays[pɛ.i] ('country') / paye[pɛj] ('paycheck') and abbaye[a.bɛ.i] ('abbey') / abeille[a.bɛj] ('bee').[59] Schane (1968) proposes an abstract analysis deriving postvocalic [j] from an underlying lateral by palatalization and glide conversion (/lj/ → /ʎ/ → /j/).[60]
Vowel
Onset glide
Examples
/j/
/ɥ/
/w/
/a/
/ja/
/ɥa/
/wa/
paillasse, Éluard, poire
/ɑ/
/jɑ/
/ɥɑ/
/wɑ/
acariâtre, tuas, jouas
/ɑ̃/
/jɑ̃/
/ɥɑ̃/
/wɑ̃/
vaillant, exténuant, Assouan
/e/
/je/
/ɥe/
/we/
janvier, muer, jouer
/ɛ/
/jɛ/
/ɥɛ/
/wɛ/
lierre, duel, mouette
/ɛ̃/
/jɛ̃/
/ɥɛ̃/
/wɛ̃/
bien, juin, soin
/i/
/ji/
/ɥi/
/wi/
yin, huile, ouïr
/o/
/jo/
/ɥo/
/wo/
Millau, duo, statuquo
/ɔ/
/jɔ/
/ɥɔ/
/wɔ/
Niort, quatuor, wok
/ɔ̃/
/jɔ̃/
/ɥɔ̃/
/wɔ̃/
lion, tuons, jouons
/ø/
/jø/
/ɥø/
/wø/
mieux, fructueux, boueux
/œ/
/jœ/
/ɥœ/
/wœ/
antérieur, sueur, loueur
/œ̃/
—
—
—
/u/
/ju/
—
/wu/
caillou, Wuhan
/y/
/jy/
—
—
feuillu
Stress
Word stress is not distinctive in French, so two words cannot be distinguished based on stress placement alone. Grammatical stress is always on the final full syllable (syllable with a vowel other than schwa) of a word. Monosyllables with schwa as their only vowel (ce, de, que, etc.) are generally clitics but otherwise may receive stress.[38]
The difference between stressed and unstressed syllables in French is less marked than in English. Vowels in unstressed syllables keep their full quality, regardless of whether the rhythm of the speaker is syllable-timed or mora-timed (see isochrony).[61] 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 full syllable).[62]
Emphatic stress
Emphatic stress is used to call attention to a specific element in a given context such as 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.[63] Emphatic stress does not replace, but occurs in tandem with, grammatical stress.[64]
C'est parfaitement vrai. [sɛ.paʁ.fɛt.mɑ̃.ˈvʁɛ] ('It's perfectly true.'; no emphatic stress)
C'est parfaitement vrai.[sɛ.ˈp(ː)aʁ.fɛt.mɑ̃.ˈvʁɛ] (emphatic stress on parfaitement)
For words that begin with a vowel, emphatic stress falls on the first 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.[sɛ.te.ˈp(ː)u.vɑ̃ˈ.tabl] ('It's terrible.'; emphatic stress on second syllable of épouvantable)
C'est épouvantable![sɛ.ˈt(ː)e.pu.vɑ̃.ˈtabl] (initial syllable with liaison consonant [t])
C'est épouvantable![sɛ.ˈʔe.pu.vɑ̃.ˈtabl] (initial syllable with glottal stop insertion)
French intonation differs substantially from that of English.[65] There are four primary patterns:
The continuation pattern is a rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a rhythm group (typically a phrase).
The finality pattern is a sharp fall in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a declarative statement.
The yes/no intonation is a sharp rise in pitch occurring in the last syllable of a yes/no question.
The information question intonation is a rapid fall-off from a high pitch on the first word of a non-yes/no question, often followed by a small rise in pitch on the last syllable of the question.
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress.
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The phonology of Catalan, a Romance language, has a certain degree of dialectal variation. Although there are two standard varieties, one based on Central Eastern dialect and another one based on South-Western or Valencian dialect, this article deals with features of all or most dialects, as well as regional pronunciation differences.
English phonology is the system of speech sounds used in spoken English. Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
In phonology, epenthesis means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (prothesis) or in the ending syllable (paragoge) or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word epenthesis comes from epi-'in addition to' and en-'in' and thesis'putting'. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence for the addition of a consonant, and for the addition of a vowel, svarabhakti or alternatively anaptyxis. The opposite process, where one or more sounds are removed, is referred to as elision.
In French, liaison is the pronunciation of a linking consonant between two words in an appropriate phonetic and syntactic context. For example, the word les is pronounced, the word amis is pronounced, but the combination les amis is pronounced, with a linking.
An r-colored or rhotic vowel is a vowel that is modified in a way that results in a lowering in frequency of the third formant. R-colored vowels can be articulated in various ways: the tip or blade of the tongue may be turned up during at least part of the articulation of the vowel or the back of the tongue may be bunched. In addition, the vocal tract may often be constricted in the region of the epiglottis.
This article describes those aspects of the phonological history of the English language which concern consonants.
Meridional French, also referred to as Francitan, is a regional variant of the French language. It is widely spoken in Marseille, Avignon and Toulouse and is influenced by the Occitan language.
The phonology of Quebec French is more complex than that of Parisian or Continental French. Quebec French has maintained phonemic distinctions between and, and, and, and. The latter phoneme of each pair has disappeared in Parisian French, and only the last distinction has been maintained in Meridional French, yet all of these distinctions persist in Swiss and Belgian French.
Dutch phonology is similar to that of other West Germanic languages, especially Afrikaans and West Frisian.
Nepali is the national language of Nepal. Besides being spoken as a mother tongue by more than 48% of the population of Nepal, it is also spoken in Bhutan and India. The language is recognized in the Nepali constitution as an official language of Nepal.
Hiw is an Oceanic language spoken on the island of Hiw, in the Torres Islands of Vanuatu. With about 280 speakers, Hiw is considered endangered.
This article explains the phonology of Malay and Indonesian based on the pronunciation of Standard Malay, which is the official language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia, and Indonesian, which is the official language of Indonesia and a working language in Timor Leste. There are two main standards for Malay pronunciation, the Johor-Riau standard, used in Brunei and Malaysia, and the Baku, used in Indonesia and Singapore.
French exhibits perhaps the most extensive phonetic changes of any of the Romance languages. Similar changes are seen in some of the northern Italian regional languages, such as Lombard or Ligurian. Most other Romance languages are significantly more conservative phonetically, with Spanish, Italian, and especially Sardinian showing the most conservatism, and Portuguese, Occitan, Catalan, and Romanian showing moderate conservatism.
This article aims to describe the phonology and phonetics of central Luxembourgish, which is regarded as the emerging standard.
This article is about the phonology and phonetics of the West Frisian language.
↑ "Some phoneticians claim that there are two distinct as in French, but evidence from speaker to speaker and sometimes within the speech of a single speaker is too contradictory to give empirical support to this claim".Casagrande (1984:20)
↑ "For example, some have the front [a] in casse 'breaks', and the back [ɑ] in tasse 'cup', but for others the reverse is true. There are also, of course, those who use the same vowel, either [a] or [ɑ], in both words".Tranel (1987:48)
↑ Hansen, Anita Berit (1998). Les voyelles nasales du français parisien moderne. Aspects linguistiques, sociolinguistiques et perceptuels des changements en cours (in French). Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN978-87-7289-495-9.
Adams, Douglas Q. (1975), "The Distribution of Retracted Sibilants in Medieval Europe", Language, 51 (2): 282–292, doi:10.2307/412855, JSTOR412855
Anderson, Stephen R. (1982), "The Analysis of French Shwa: Or, How to Get Something for Nothing", Language, 58 (3): 534–573, doi:10.2307/413848, JSTOR413848
Berns, Janine (2013), "Velar variation in French", Linguistics in the Netherlands, 30 (1): 13–27, doi:10.1075/avt.30.02ber
Detey, Sylvain; Durand, Jacques; Laks, Bernard; Lyche, Chantal, eds. (2016), Varieties of Spoken French, Oxford University Press, ISBN978-0-19957371-4
Fagyal, Zsuzsanna; Kibbee, Douglas; Jenkins, Fred (2006), French: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN978-0-521-82144-5
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, doi:10.1017/S0025100300005892, S2CID145148170
Yaguello, Marina (1991), "Les géminées de M. Rocard", En écoutant parler la langue, Paris: Seuil, pp.64–70
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![Distribution of guttural r (such as [R R kh]
) in Europe in the mid-20th century.
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not usual
only in some educated speech
usual in educated speech
general Uvular rhotics in Europe.png](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Uvular_rhotics_in_Europe.png/310px-Uvular_rhotics_in_Europe.png)
![Vowels of Parisian French, from Collins & Mees (2013:225-226). Some speakers merge /oe/
with /e/
(especially in the northern half of France) and /a/
with /a/
. In the latter case, the outcome is an open central [a] between the two (not shown on the chart). French vowel chart.svg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/French_vowel_chart.svg/220px-French_vowel_chart.svg.png)
