French Sound Structure (2001)

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2001 Douglas C. Walker. All rights reserved.
University of Calgary Press
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FRENCH
Further information relevant to the use of this book and to the study of French phonology in
general may be found on the following www site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dcwalker/
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
Walker, Douglas C.
French sound structure
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-55238-033-5
1. French language Phonetics. 2. French language Pronunciation.
3. French language Phonology. I. Title.
PC2135.W34 2001
441.5
C2001-910584-3
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STRUCTURE
Douglas C. Walker
vi
Table of Contents
Sound Charts and Transcription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Abbreviations and Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .x
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1. The Object of Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
1.0 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
1.1 The French Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 A Brief Historical Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
2. Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.0 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Orthography and Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Morphological and Lexical Notions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
3. Basic Descriptive Units and Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
3.0 Introduction: The Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
3.1 The Syllable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
3.2 The SF Phonological Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
3.3 The Phonological Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
3.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
4. Vowels and Semi-vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
4.0 The Vowel System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
4.1 Vowel Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42
4.1.1 Lengthening Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.2 Intrinsically Long Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
4.1.3 The /' ':/ Opposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45
4.1.4 Supplementary Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
4.2 The Mid Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
4.2.1 Mid Vowels in Final Open Syllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
4.2.2 Mid Vowels in Final Closed Syllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
4.2.3 Mid Vowels in Nonnal Closed Syllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
4.2.4 Mid Vowels in Nonnal Open Syllables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52
4.2.4.1 Analogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
4.2.4.2 Vowel Harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
4.2.4.3 The loi de position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
4.2.5 Grammatical Consequences of the Constraints on Mid Vowels . . . . .57
4.2.6 Orthography and Pronunciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
4.2.7 The Potential Merger of /n/ and // . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
4.3 The Low Vowels /a/ and /#/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
4.4 Nasal Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
4.4.1 The Merger of /'/ and / . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
4.4.2 Distribution of Nasal Vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
4.4.3 Alternations between X and VN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
4.4.4 History and Orthography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

4.4.5 Dialects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
4.5 Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
4.5.1 Orthographic Representations of Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
4.5.2 Distributional Constraints on Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
4.5.3 The Phonetic Realization of Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
4.5.4 The Deletion of Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
4.5.4.1 Schwa in the Phonological Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
4.5.4.2 A Rhythmic Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
4.5.4.3 Epenthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
4.5.4.4 The Tendency Towards Irregularity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86
4.5.4.5 Stylistic Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
4.5.4.6 The Stabilization of Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
4.5.5 Alternations Involving Schwa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
4.5.6 Dialects and History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
4.6 Semi-vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
4.6.1 Orthographic Representations of the Semi-vowels . . . . . . . . . . . .102
4.6.2 The Phonology of the Semi-vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103
4.7 Further Effects of the Phonological Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106
4.8 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
5. Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.0 The Consonant System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.1 Geminate Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .130
5.2 Nasal Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
5.2.1 The // /nj/ Interchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
5.2.2 The Importation of /0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .134
5.2.3 Nasal Assimilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
5.3 Voicing Assimilation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
5.4 Aspirate-h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
5.4.1 Other Types of Aspiration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .146
5.4.2 Historical Comments Regarding < h > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .147
5.5 Final Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
5.5.1 Stable Final Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
5.5.2 Latent Final Consonants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .152
5.6 Linking Phenomena: Enchanement and Liaison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
5.7 Liaison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
6. Prosody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
6.0 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
6.1 Stress and Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
6.1.1 Phrasal Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178
6.1.2 Emphatic Stress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181
6.2 Intonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182
6.3 Colloquial Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
vii
7. Around the Phonological Periphery: Playing with Language . . . . .191

7.0 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
7.1 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
7.2 Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .195
7.3 Reduplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
7.4 Word Games: Verlan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .213
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
viii
ix
Standard French Vowels and Semi-vowels

front
back
spread round
round
semi-vowels
high
higher-mid
lower-mid
'
n
C
low
nasal
'
n
#
Standard French Consonants

labial
apical palatal velar uvular
obstruents
stops
voiceless
voiced
voiceless
voiced
<
fricatives
sonorants
nasals
liquids
0
*
*In International Phonetic Association (IPA) notation, [] represents a voiced

uvular fricative rather than a liquid. (A separate diacritic symbol is available
to indicate a liquid realization.) For convenience, however, we will use the
symbol [] throughout this work, while classifying [] with the liquids on
functional (largely phonotactic) grounds, and bearing in mind that the actual
phonetic realizations of r-sounds in French show bewildering complexity
(including uvular trills, velar fricatives, apical trills and aps, and, needless to
say, the uvular fricative used here).
xi
Abbreviations and Symbols

Indicates that items from this dataset are included on
the CD-ROM
SF
CF
MF
OF
CL
X
C
V
G
L
N
m
.
+
#
||
#__
__#
__.
__C.
|| __
__ ||
_
(|)
|
()
<>
<
>
*
m., f., sg., pl.
ind. subj.
Standard French
Canadian French
French of the Midi (the southern part of France)
Old French
Classical Latin
any segment
any consonant
any vowel
any nasal vowel
any glide (semi-vowel)
a liquid (/l/ or //)
any nasal consonant
schwa; a neutral, lax, unstressed vowel subject to deletion
placed before a vowel to indicate that it is stressed
the null symbol; no sound is pronounced
a syllable
syllable boundary
morpheme boundary
word boundary
phonological phrase boundary
word-initial position
word-nal position
in an open syllable
in a closed syllable
at the beginning of a phonological phrase
at the end of a phonological phrase
obligatory liaison
optional liaison
prohibited liaison
encloses optional material
encloses specically orthographic representations
derives from (historically)
becomes (historically)
indicates an incorrect or impossible form
masculine, feminine, singular, plural
indicative, subjunctive
Note on translations: Most of the French examples cited have been translated
into one of their English equivalents, except in certain cases where the meaning is transparent (e.g., incorrect incorrect) or where the meaning is irrelevant because the discussion bears on exclusively phonological issues.
Preface
The material that follows reects my efforts over the past several years to
understand the fascinating complexities and the theoretical implications of the
sound patterns of French, and to communicate them to my classes in a comprehensive and comprehensible fashion. As a consequence, I owe signicant
debts of gratitude to the many students who, through their questions and comments, have prodded me to clarify both my thinking and my presentation. I
hope the result is a detailed, well-illustrated, and useful description of the pronunciation of Modern Standard French, incorporating occasional comments
on regional and social variation, on abbreviatory processes and word play, on
certain historical phonological changes that continue to be reected in the contemporary language, and on the interdependence of phonology and morphology in an appropriate manner.
This work is intended primarily for university students studying French, not
as a practical guide to pronunciation improvement but as a discussion of the
sound system of the language. It is written in a way that presupposes little
or no formal training in linguistics proper (other than some familiarity with
basic terminology and with phonetic notation, to which students are normally
exposed independently). The work should also provide data of interest to students of linguistics, where discussions of French phonology (schwa, liaison,
nal consonants, and aspirate-h, in particular) have played a major role in
attempts to resolve certain theoretical matters. Finally, there should be some
material of relevance to those members of the general public with an interest
in the nature of the French language, since pronunciation is rarely considered
in any detailed way in the general introductory handbooks of French.
Now that the text is complete, I must also acknowledge the stimulation provided by the community of scholars working on French phonology, a domain
that provides seemingly endless fodder for the theoretical cannons of the day,
and that, in a more neutral and (at least potentially) less contentious manner,
fascinates and challenges those seeking to understand it in all its heterogeneity. I trust this work, complemented by a relatively detailed list of references,
furnishes an appropriate way to begin to confront the challenges involved.
Among French phonologists, two names require special acknowledgement:
Jurgen Klausenburger and Yves-Charles Morin. Their well-informed and
insightful studies of a vast range of French phonological issues provide models
that none can ignore and that all would do well to emulate. More importantly
in this context, however, they were kind enough to provide detailed and constructive criticism of virtually every element of this presentation, and it is
immensely improved as a result. ces deux collgues, un grand merci.
Preparation of this book has beneted from the advice of a group of students who suffered through its earlier versions and who have given me insightful feedback. Thanks are due to Shauna Haas, Sarah Johnson and Meghan
McIntyre, and also to Anne Marie Hallworth-Duez, laboratory instructor
extraordinaire, who subjected previous versions of this manuscript to a meticulous reading. The six speakers, Georges Blary, Jean-Bernard Gauthier, Etienne
xii
Preface
Grang, Sverine Lamontre, Fleur Larocque, and Eileen Lohka, who lent their
voices to the CD ROM, deserve special acknowledgment for adding a bit of
reality to alleviate the potentially abstract and arid theoretical discussions in
the text.
Both directly and indirectly, this work has been supported in a variety of
ways: by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada that have allowed me, over the years, to pursue the study of
French linguistics; by a fellowship from the Camargo Foundation in Cassis,
France, during which the work was brought into focus; and by a sabbatical
leave from the University of Calgary. More immediately, I must acknowledge
the generous nancial support received from Alberta Learning and Canadian
Heritage, through the Canada-Alberta Agreement on the Ofcial Languages
in Education 1999-2000, and a Fellowship from the University of Calgary
Learning Commons that provided for technical support in the preparation of
the CD-ROM. The Learning Commons team, led ably by Kathy Schwarz,
Instructional Designer, included Greg Phillips, Sound Engineer, Lane Turner,
Audio Technician, Michelle McGrath, Graphic Artist, and Programmers Julian
Wood, Robert Purdy, Ashley Rollke, and Rob Loh, Testers Mike Walker and
Eric Rogers, and Production Assistant Gord Southam. At the University of
Calgary Press, Joyce Hildebrand edited the text with great acumen; Kristina
Schuring spent many hours on the details of design; and Walter Hildebrandt,
John King and Tim Au Young provided very helpful general support from the
outset of the project. My sincere thanks to each of these organizations and to
all of the individuals involved. And nally, with much gratitude to Tracy, Cris,
and Dave, sine quibus non.
Chapter 1
The Object of Description
1.0
1.0 Preliminaries
While the title of this book, French Sound Structure, appears relatively
straightforward, it also provides a starting point for general discussion of a
number of concepts that will allow us to place the details to follow in a larger
context. It will be useful, for example, to understand in some detail what the
term French refers to. Sound, moreover, is at once too general and too specic. It is not just any sounds that are of interest, but that subset of possible
human sounds that play a variety of roles in the linguistic system we call
the French language. Nor is it just French sounds in isolation that we need
to examine, but sounds as constitutive of words, as conveyors of different
types of meaning, as participants in different phonological and grammatical
processes. Sound systems are, in other words, highly structured: classes of
sounds, general phonological processes, grammatical consequences are all
notions that will be important in the descriptions to follow.
1.1
1.1 The French Language
Originating in the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul and establishing itself as

a recognizably independent language in the early Middle Ages,1 the French
language is now spoken worldwide. It enjoys ofcial status in several dozen
countries (including France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Canada,
Cameroon, Ivory Coast, French Guiana, Madagascar, and French Polynesia)
and is a widely used medium of communication or education in many others
(such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, much of sub-Saharan Africa, and Vietnam).
It is one of the ofcial languages of the United Nations and of numerous other
international organizations. Internationally, French numbers approximately 75
million speakers who count it as their native language and upwards of an additional 150 million who use it readily for communicative purposes. The French
language has long been associated with the prestige attached to French scientic, literary, and cultural contributions and continues, despite increasing pressure from English, to play a major role on the world stage.
Chapter 1
The wide geographic distribution of the French language is understandably

correlated with linguistic differences. The French of Lige is not that of
Marseilles, Geneva, Montral, Port-au-Prince, Algiers, Dakar, or La Runion.
In fact, even within the borders of France itself,2 Alsace, Picardie, Normandie,
Touraine, Bourgogne, Auvergne, Provence, and other regions offer recognizable local varieties. The French language, then, is geographically diversied, perhaps even to the extent that widely separated versions pose difculties of mutual comprehension. To this geographic diversity may be added
social diversity. The speech of la haute bourgeoisie or even a residual aristocratie will differ from that of the middle class, recent immigrants, technocrats,
labourers, or the SDF (sans domicile xe, the homeless). The speech of the
young differs from that of older generations. (Reection on the use of slang,
nicknames, tutoiement, or profanity, for example, provides immediate conrmation of generational differences.) The speech of men differs from that of
women. Each profession enjoys its own jargon. Finally, we must recognize
differences correlated with various speech situations, where the nature of the
context requires (or favours) different degrees of formality, different styles or
registers. Usage differs in courtrooms, classrooms, family rooms, and locker
rooms, and expressions appropriate in one context may bring censure or derision in another.
Against this background of dramatic regional, social, and stylistic variation,
what is the analyst (or the student) to do? Fortunately, there exists a widely
accepted response to this challenge, adopted by linguists and speech communities alike. The solution involves identifying a geographically, socially, and
stylistically circumscribed variety and using it as a reference point. This reference point, usually called a standard language or, in the case of French, le bon
usage, is considered by its speakers to be the most appropriate variety for use
in formal and educational contexts. It is traditionally employed in the media
and codied in grammars.3 Often, it is the object of attention of a national
linguistic legislature such as the Acadmie franaise. Thus, the object of
discussion here will be Standard French (abbreviated SF), that variety of the
language identied most often with the speech of the Parisian middle class
(la bonne bourgeoisie parisienne; le Parisien cultiv) when its members are
engaged in polite conversation. Warnant (1987), in a discussion of the reasons
underlying his choice of recommended pronunciations, puts it as follows: 4
Gographiquement, nous avons choisi de consigner la prononciation
dun des franais de Paris et, dans un sens large, de la rgion parisienne. Paris est sans conteste le centre de la trs grande majorit des
activits intellectuelles et culturelles de la France. Nous pensons plus
particulirement celles qui se manifestent par et dans la parole.
Socialement, nous avons choisi de recueillir la prononciation des
intellectuels et des gens cultivs, qui, dans des domaines extrmement divers, sexpriment dordinaire non seulement avec clart, mais
encore avec lgance.
Nous avons aussi choisi de ne dcrire que le parler dune gnration, celle qui compte actuellement entre 20 et 45 ou 50 ans. Nous ne
risquons pas ainsi, dune part, de proposer pour demain lusage dune
prononciation dj vieille dans lun ou lautre de ses traits. Nous vitons, dautre part, de donner en exemple une prononciation non encore
dnitivement installe.
Despite Warnants efforts to circumscribe the object of his description, his
comments still do not rule out alternative pronunciations for one and the
same form (and, in fact, he often lists alternates particularly where schwa is
involved). Martinet and Walter, much more sensitive to the great heterogeneity of current SF pronunciation, approach the matter pragmatically rather than
normatively in this way (1973: 1617):
Est-ce dire que toutes les prononciations quon peut entendre soient
galement recommandables? Et dabord quest-ce quune prononciation recommandable? Il semble quen cette matire lidal soit de
ne rien faire qui attire lattention et la dtourne ainsi de la comprhension de ce qui est dit. Les bonnes prononciations sont celles qui passent inaperues, les mauvaises celles qui soudain vous rappellent, ne
serait-ce qu un niveau trs infrieur de la conscience, que votre
interlocuteur est de telle origine, nationale, gographique ou sociale.
Ce que recherche ltranger qui apprend une autre langue, cest
prcisment dviter que les formes quil emploie rvlent sa nonappartenance la socit dont il cherche utiliser lidiome.
While these quotations give us a very good general idea of our descriptive
target, they still leave room for a certain exibility. First, even within an
unmarked, standard pronunciation, there will exist variants, often related
to age differences, between innovative and conservative realizations. These
distinctions have certain descriptive consequences, some of which we will
address below. Secondly, despite our concentration on Standard French, we
may occasionally wish to venture into an exploration of nonstandard territory,
particularly the domain of popular or colloquial speech. It would be appropriate, then, to review briey the nature of other registers. It is important to recognize, however, that stylistic (and social) variation forms a continuum and
that levels of usage (and the distinctions made by analysts) may grade subtly
from one into another. That being said, we may think of at least the following
general distinctions:
(1) Levels of usage (registers) 5
(a) formal (niveau cultiv, soign, soutenu): implies a formal or
perhaps ofcial speech situation in which careful attention is paid
to the organization and delivery of the message; may include
archaisms of various types; normally conservative rather than
Chapter 1
innovative (although highly formal speech can also be innovative

under certain circumstances, as in the phenomenon of liaison sans
enchanement [Encrev 1988], which characterizes in particular the
public pronouncements of certain politicians).
(e) importuner
(b) standard (franais courant, usuel, commun, ordinaire): the

unmarked register recognized as the norme by native speakers; the
usage described by Martinet and Walter above.
(f) Je vous prie de ne pas fermer la porte.
(c) familiar: used in less formal situations, primarily in oral

communication between family members, friends, or those of similar
status.
(d) popular (trs familier, vulgaire): spontaneous, unmonitored speech
replete with phonetic reductions, errors (e.g., avoir for tre as
auxiliary, lack of agreement, absence of subjunctive), slang, and often
profanity.
ennuyer
to bother
enquiquiner, emmerder
to bug
May I ask you not to close the door?

Ne fermez pas la porte, sil vous plat.
Please dont close the door.
Fermez pas la porte.
Dont close the door.
(g) Qui fut le premier ministre?
Qui tait le premier ministre?
The following graded examples, moving from formal to familiar or popular,

may give an indication of the passage from one level to another:6
(2) (a) O demeurez-vous?
Where do you reside?
O est-ce que vous habitez?
Where do you live?
Vous habitez o?
You live where?
(b) Voil une voiture qui fait sensation.
This car is creating a

sensation.
Elle est sensationnelle cette voiture.
This is a sensational car.
Elle est sensas cette bagnole.
What a terric car!
(c) Que dites-vous?
May I ask what youre

saying?
Quest-ce que vous dites?
What are you saying?
Vous dites quoi?
Youre saying what?
Quoi?
What?
Hein?
Huh?
(d) Elle sest prise de lui au premier regard.

She became enamoured of him at rst sight.
Elle est tombe amoureuse de lui ds leur premire rencontre.
She fell in love with him on the rst date.
Elle est alle samouracher de ce petit voyou.
Shes head over heels in love with the guy.
to importune
Ctait qui le premier ministre?

(h) Je nai pas vu ce lm.
Moi, ce lm, je lai pas vu.
(i) Pourquoi dites-vous cela?
Pourquoi que vous dites a?
Who was the rst prime

minister?
Who was the rst prime
minister?
Who was he, the rst prime
minister?
I havent seen this lm.
This lm, I havent seen it.
Why do you say that?
How come you say that?
(j) lhomme avec qui ils sont venus the man with whom they came
lhomme quils sont venu avec
the man they came with
While our concern in this work will be primarily with the phonology of the
standard register, it is important to realize that the concept French encompasses both extensive phonological variation and the use of other mechanisms
(e.g., vocabulary choice, extensive syntactic modications) to permit subtle
adjustment of usage to t a rich diversity of speech situations.
Although in what follows we will concentrate on the Standard French of
Paris or the le-de-France, it is also evident, given the great geographic diversity in French, that one can recognize regional standard languages (and even
include Paris as one among many regions). That is to say, the notion of standard, in terms of an unmarked register recognized as the norme by native
speakers, is not limited to any specic region. In social or stylistic terms, standard can be applied to a variety recognized as prestigious within any community. One often sees reference, for example, to Standard Canadian French, just
as the standard in English-speaking Canada is dened with respect to a style
signicantly different from the Queens or BBC English in Great Britain.
Chapter 1
Minor lexical or phonetic differences aside, in fact, Standard Canadian French

and Standard Parisian French are highly similar the differences only become
dramatically signicant in the popular registers, and even here we would still
have no difculty in recognizing both vernaculars as inherently French, rather
than as separate languages.
Finally, although we have spoken of standard and norme, the speech we
refer to by these terms is in a direct way a historical accident. The prestige
attached to the standard associated with Parisian French reects the political
and economic importance of Paris, mirroring its role as capital of France,
focus of intellectual activity, seat of the government, industrial centre, and
so on. Had French history been different, the dialect of Dijon, Poitiers, or
Toulouse might just as easily have become the standard. Thus, in strictly linguistic terms (in tems of the linguistic structures involved), the forms of one
dialect are no more worthy or unworthy than those of another. This is not
to say that one cannot make value judgements about certain forms or styles,
nor that these judgements are unimportant or without consequence. Opinions
about speech forms, or particularly about their appropriateness to the context
in which they are used, are crucial in all societies. But they reect the social
values attached, at a limited set of times and places, to language and its use,
and constitute judgements about the users, rather than an evaluation of the
inherent merit of one pronunciation or one structure over another.
1.2
1.2 A Brief Historical Review
As the foregoing remarks have indicated, SF is a product of a combination

of historical circumstances. The French of Paris in the Middle Ages is markedly different from (and perhaps incomprehensible to) that of a speaker in the
court of Louis XIV or a Parisian lycen of our days. Here we will review, very
briey, some of the key events and stages leading to the current situation.
Restricting our discussion to historical times (roughly from the eighth century B.C. onwards), the territory we now call Gaul was at that period inhabited by a variety of Celtic tribes who occupied lands previously settled by
Ligurians, Iberians, and Aquitanians, among others. Eventually, the Celts took
(or were given) the name of Gaulois, lending as well their name to the land
they occupied: La Gaule.7 From about 125 B.C., Roman presence in southern
Gaul (la Gaule transalpine) increased, and subsequently Caesar led a conquest
of the remaining Gallic territory (5850 B.C.). Little by little, aided by the
importance of the Roman administrative and educational structures, the Latin
language replaced the earlier Celtic dialects, at least in the urban centres. Latin
became the language of Gaul, but Latin itself, through the centuries, evolved
into distinct spoken and written versions that increasingly diverged from each
other. Following the fall of the Roman Empire in A.D. 476, local varieties multiplied and a linguistic frontier solidied between the more heavily Romanized
south and the northern regions, now occupied and governed by the Francs, a
Germanic tribe from the region of the Rhine. The langue doc or occitan in the
south and the langue dol in the north became increasingly distinct.
In the north, the Francs assimilated linguistically to the local Latin-speaking
population, but not without a certain amount of inuence on the lexicon8 and
on pronunciation, the latter usually attributed to the heavy stress accent of their
Germanic speech. Gaul remained, in other words, a Romance-speaking territory, even following the Viking invasions of the early eighth century. These
normands (hommes du nord) adopted in turn the Romance vernacular, eventually exporting it to England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. In
England, Anglo-Norman literature ourished, and French played a dominant
role in British administrative and cultural life for several centuries.
By the mid-ninth century (Serments de Strasbourg) and certainly by the
beginning of the tenth (Cantilne de sainte Eulalie) the indigenous Romance
language of the north of France had diverged sufciently from the earlier
spoken Latin that one can speak of the birth of the French language (franais,
language of the Francs). At this time, however, social and political conditions
were inuenced not so much by a unique national capital but by strong
regional centres, so one must inevitably speak of regional dialects including,
among others, picard, champenois, anglo-normand, bourguignon, louest and,
needless to say, the francien of the le-de-France. At the Old French stage,9
many of the regional courts rivalled that of Paris, and literature in these dialects was easily the match of that written in francien.
With time, however, French kings extended their military and political
domain much further throughout the territory, and the language of the Ile-deFrance beneted from increased prestige: francien was on its way to becoming the national standard. In 1539, under Franois Ier, the Ordonnance de
Villers-Cotterts made French (i.e., francien) the ofcial language (replacing
Latin) for all court orders and judgements. In 1549, Du Bellay, on behalf of
La Pliade, published the manifesto Dfense et illustration de la langue franaise, a work, along with those of Rabelais, leading to much linguistic innovation, innovation aided by the explosion of literary works following the invention of printing. The increasing importance of Paris had further linguistic consequences. As Bonnemason (1993: 28) puts it, lEtat monarchique fait de la
langue franaise son affaire. Le pouvoir politique est Paris, la langue est celle
de Paris et elle sera codie et rgente. The Acadmie franaise, created in
1635 by Richelieu, codied the orthography and published its rst dictionary
in 1694. The Grammaire de Port-Royal of 1660 established a general standard to be met by even the greatest writers. Linguistic prescriptivism took rm
root.
Despite the inuence and prestige of Paris, however, regional dialects
(patois) and regional languages persisted. Still, the industrial revolution, the
development of science and technology, the importance of the writings of
the philosophes, extensive exploration, and colonization all contributed to
the expansion of French and to the suggestion of le franais comme langue
universelle. Regional languages and the patois suffered under the uniformizing pressures of the Revolution and the imposition of French as the general
Chapter 1
language of schooling, pressures that exist to this day. Nor is the role of the
mass media negligible as a standardizing force. Nonetheless, alongside the
national standard, linguistic variation in the form of both dialects and distinct
regional languages remains characteristic of contemporary France, a variation
that is sometimes discouraged ofcially and sometimes (as in some recent legislation inspired by the European Union) ofcially supported. And the standard language itself is a mixture containing a foundation of words from the
original Latin source, supplemented by early Celtic and Frankish contacts
(among others), a technical and learned vocabulary necessitated by corresponding intellectual or industrial developments, and loans from the many languages with which its long history has brought it into contact. Against this
complex background, it is consequently not difcult to grasp why the notion
of Standard French is at the same time both an arbitrary and ever-changing
construct and a useful reference point. In any event, SF, as described above
in all its complexity, is the object of this work. Before we undertake a study
of the specic sound structures of SF, however, it is necessary to provide
some further, theoretically oriented detail concerning the concepts to be used
in a description of this material. This brief orientation is the task of the next
chapter.
readers of the national news. In North America, the situation on national television news does not yet appear to be as diverse.
4.
Warnant, interestingly enough in this context, is Belgian. The quotation is taken

from the cover of his pronouncing dictionary but is compiled from material on pp.
xxxxi.
5.
Muller (1985: 225262) provides an excellent survey of these issues, with copious examples. Guiraud (1969: 24) contrasts the two poles of usage in the following indicative terms: Bref, il est lgitime de distinguer deux formes limites
de la langue conditionnes par un ensemble de variables complexes dont les unes
tiennent lhistoire, la culture, la socit, les autres aux conditions de la communication ou la nature du message. Ainsi sopposent populaire/bourgeois,
relch/soutenu, libre/prscriptif, spontan/stylis, oral/crit, hrditaire/savant,
dialectal/national, expressif/cognitif, locutif/prdicatif, naturel/cultiv.
6.
Examples are drawn from Batchelor and Offord (1993a, 1993b) and Muller
(1985).
7.
Celtic traces in French are few, but include some sixty surviving words: sapin
r, chne oak, lotte monksh, bouc goat, mouton sheep, chemin road,
dune dune, druide Druid, etc., as well as several place names, perhaps most
notably Paris, from the Celtic tribe Parisii.
8.
Frankish lexical remnants are much more numerous than Celtic, including France
itself, le pays des Francs. Additional Frankish words include banc seat, bl
wheat, bois wood, choisir to choose, cruche pitcher, danser to dance,
framboise raspberry, garder to keep, gurir to cure, guetter to watch, hache
axe, har to hate, honte shame (and numerous other aspirate-h words), jardin
garden, lcher to lick, marchal marshall, orgueil pride, regarder to look
at, soupe soup.
9.
Old French is commonly divided into two periods, Early Old French, from the
middle of the ninth to the end of the eleventh century, and Later Old French,
from the beginning of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth (Pope 1934: 9).
Middle French comprises the fourteenth, fteenth and sixteenth centuries. Later
Old French constitutes a period of spectacular literary and cultural development.
Notes
1.
2.
3.
The Serments de Strasbourg from 842, a document conrming a political alliance

between two of Charlemagnes grandsons concerning the partition of his empire,
is often given as indicating the birthdate of French since it contains the earliest
surviving text in the vernacular of Gaul.
Despite what may be thought, France itself is not linguistically homogeneous:
other languages spoken to a greater or lesser degree within continental French
territory include Catalan, Occitan or Provenal, Italian, Basque, Breton, Flemish,
and the Germanic dialects alsacien and lorrain. Recent immigration has also signicantly increased the number of speakers of Arabic.
See Morin (1999) for a detailed and up-to-date survey of this question, incorporating the signicant term le franais de rfrence, a designation perhaps preferable to Standard French or le franais standard. We retain the latter on the
basis of its wide familiarity. Morin also provides much detail concerning pronunciation variation within various normes, as well as the difculties inherent in
the notion of norme itself. Martinet (1990) addresses some of the same issues.
In this context, spoken media have become more tolerant of a range of
regional accents, provided that they are not too marked, as witnessed, for example, by the popularity on national television of the literary critic Bernard Pivot
with his Burgundian accent (in Apostrophes and Bouillon de culture). In a parallel fashion, national television in Great Britain is also more accepting of regional
pronunciations, as indicated by the presence of Welsh, Scottish, or Yorkshire
11
Chapter 2
Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts
2.0
2.0 Introduction
The preceding chapter discussed the general notion French, noting the ambiguities and complexities inherent in treating a domain with the long history,
extensive geographic range, and sociolinguistic complexity that characterize
la francophonie. Here, we will focus on the remaining words in the title of
this book, sound and structure, reviewing briey a number of concepts or
distinctions that will prove useful in the description to follow.1 First among
these is the need to explore the difculties arising from the nature of French
orthography.
2.1
2.1 Orthography and Pronunciation
Clearly, there exists some type of systematic relationship between French

orthography and the corresponding ways of pronouncing French words. It is
not the existence, but rather the nature of this relationship that is of concern:
how regular is it? what types of exceptions are found? where does it fail to
inform us of the appropriate pronunciation? Unlike languages such as Spanish,
where the link between writing and speaking is close and direct, French presents a number of difculties in interpreting phonologically the orthographic
representations of words. Consider the examples in (1).
(1) Orthographic puzzles
(a) one sound many spellings
/k/: coup, occuper, kilo, qui, cinq, grecque, acqurir, echo,
ecchymose, khalife
/s/: si, cible, soixante, assez, a, science, balbutie
/a/: art, l, grce, drap,2 femme, paonne, habituer, Jeanne
/o/: vlo, aube, eau, eaux, cte, hte, hauteur, heaume, faux
12
Chapter 2
(b) one spelling several sounds

< e >: rue , breton //, serpent /'/, effacer /e/, femme /a/, en /#/
(This problem can extend to sequences of letters: < ent > [couvent
as /kuv/ or /kuv#/], < ai > [faisan /fz#/; faisceau /f'so/; faillir
/faji/], for example.)
(c) silent nal consonants
plomb, caoutchouc, noeud, clef, poing, fusil, drap, donner, gros,
salut, six, nez, il est, exact, gars, corps
(d) etymological spellings
doigt /dwa/ < CL digitus, sept /s't/ < CL septem, vingt /v'/ < CL
viginti, compter /knte/ < CL computare, baptme /bat'm/ < Greek
baptisma, corps /kn/ < CL corpus, sculpter /skylte/ < CL sculpere,
sculptus
(e) contextually determined variation
deux petits chiens
/dpti5j'/
cinq petits chiens
/s'kpti5j'/
dix postes
/dipnst/
dix emplois
/diz#plwa/
plomb plombier
/pln/ /plnbje/
fusil fusiller
/fyzi/ /fuzije/
exact exactitude
/'gza/ /'gzaktityd/
(f) stylistic variation

je ne sais pas
/<ns'pa/
/<ns'pa/
/<s'pa/
/5s'pa/
/5'pa/
These examples demonstrate the ambiguity of certain aspects of French
orthography the lack of a one-to-one relationship between spelling and pronunciation. It is often claimed that ideally there should exist only a single possible pronunciation for each sequence of letters and a unique orthographic representation for each different pronunciation. As indicated by the symbols we
have already used, there are notational systems that implement this approach,
namely the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA), which we

will use (more or less) consistently in what follows.3 IPA notation, in other
words, is appropriate because it identies consistently and specically the pronunciations with which we are dealing.
We should specify, however, that the symbols may be used in different
ways. If we wish to indicate precise phonetic detail, such as the assimilation
of voicing in plan, pronounced [RN#], or the light and dark < l > of Early
OF las [las] versus els ['NU]), the symbols will be enclosed in square brackets
and will indicate the phonetically ne-grained units traditionally called allophones. More frequently, however, the symbols will refer to more abstract
phonological units, enclosed in slant lines and omitting much predictable (and
potentially distracting) phonetic detail: /pl#/ rather than [RN#], for example.
These more abstract representations can occasionally involve different degrees
of abstractness, depending on whether they indicate units (normally words)
in isolation as opposed to combinations of words in larger contexts to which
various processes have applied, or whether they indicate formal as opposed to
informal or rapid speech pronunciations. In the discussions to follow, we will
use slant lines for both degrees of abstractness but indicate, where necessary,
the degree of abstractness (or the type of unit) involved.4
2.2
2.2 Morphological and Lexical Notions5
As we have already remarked, sounds combine to form words, the fundamental

units in the composition of phrases and sentences and ultimately of communication in general. As a result, it will be useful, and often necessary, to understand some of the basic terminology associated with word structure, beginning
with the notoriously difcult notion of word itself.
Word refers, in fact, to four signicantly different types of unit, which we
will distinguish as follows: orthographic words, phonological words, lexical
items, and word forms. Orthographic words, no doubt the most supercially
familiar, are those written between spaces in texts. In that sense, je ne le sais
pas I dont know contains ve orthographic words, while quelques vnements incomprhensibles several incomprehensible events contains three.
Phonological words are words pronounced as a single unit, whatever the
number of orthographic words involved. Thus ces enfants these children,
nous arrivons we arrive, or even je ne le sais pas constitute single phonological words in French they are pronounced without interruption and with
a single accent on the nal syllable. Lexical items, as the name implies, are
those words that serve as dictionary entries, having an identiable meaning
and grammatical role and a relatively constant phonological shape. In this
sense, petit and savoir are lexical items. Word forms are the realizations of
lexical items in specic morphological or syntactic contexts. Thus, the lexical
item petit small represents the four orthographic words petit, petits, petite,
petites, and has the word forms /pti/, /pti/, /ptiz/, /ptiz/, /ptit/, /ptit/, /ptitz/,
/ptitz/, depending on the inectional categories of number and gender (as well
13
14
Chapter 2
as syntactic and phonological context). Savoir to know is even more complex: as a lexical item it encapsulates the full range of multiple inected forms
such as sais, savons, savaient, saches, sauriez, smes, and so on, as well as
the nonnite forms savoir, sachant, su. In what follows, we will often be concerned with the relationships between orthographic and phonological words
and between lexical items and word forms.
As the preceding examples make clear, words are more complex than might
at rst be thought. In fact, one can pursue the structural analysis of words
much further, using concepts such as root and afx, inection, derivation, and
compounding. A root is the minimal common part of a lexical item that occurs
in all the word forms realizing that item and that bears its central meaning. To
roots may be added afxes (prexes and sufxes) of two main types: inectional and derivational. Within larger structures, inectional afxes signal the
grammatical properties of the word form in question. In French, nouns and
adjectives are inected for number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/
feminine), as in grand, grands, grande, grandes, although the phonological
realizations of these categories are far from consistent. Verbs are inected for
a variety of categories: number (singular/plural), person (rst/second/third),
tense/aspect (present/past/future/imperfect/conditional), and mood (indicative/
subjunctive), as indicated for savoir above. Derivation, on the other hand, is
concerned with the creation of new lexical items based on the root in question.
From grand large one may derive by afxation grandet, grandelet, grandissime, grandiose, grandeur, grandement, grandir, grandissement, agrandir,
agrandissement, and so on. Inection in French is accomplished through sufxation, while derivation employs a rich system of both prexes and sufxes.
Additional word formation processes are also found in French, including
compounding, conversion, and various minor mechanisms (abbreviation,
acronyms, reduplication, to which we will devote separate treatment).
Compounding involves the creation of a new word by combining two existing roots or word forms: sang-froid, aigre-doux bitter-sweet, savoir-faire,
porte-parole spokesperson, and so on. Conversion (called drivation impropre in French) entails the transfer of a lexical item from one grammatical
category to another with the consequent attribution of new functions. Thus,
nouns can function as adjectives (un culot monstre a huge amount of nerve,
une rponse mi-gue mi-raisin an answer half g, half grape); adjectives
as nouns (mon petit my child, le priphrique the ring road, les jeunes
youth); verbs as nouns (un devoir a duty, le savoir knowledge) and so
on.6 Derivation, compounding, conversion, and other processes can all participate in the formation of new words (neologisms), processes that constantly
expand and renew the lexicon of a language. The degree of activity of any
individual process is in part a reection of its productivity, that is, the degree
of freedom and frequency with which it operates, a freedom that can vary over
time.7 Thus, sufxation with -ie or -ure (courtoisie courtesy, magistrature
magistracy) is no longer productive, while -age (dopage doping, stockage
storage), -erie (billeterie cash dispenser, sweaterie sweater shop) and
-ique (informatique computer science, robotique robotics), for example,

continue to be used in the frequent creation of new lexical items.
Neologism is one way in which lexicons are expanded. Borrowing is
another. Throughout its history, French has borrowed extensively recall the
Celtic and Frankish examples of the rst chapter. To those earliest loans,
one may add testimony of the close contact with Provenal (troubadour,
amour, ballade, salade, tapenade); extensive Italian borrowings, many from
the Italian inuence of the Renaissance (gazette, alarme, brigantin, baguette,
piano); various Arabic words, often entering through Spanish (algbre, chiffre
numeral, alcool, girafe, abricot apricot); highly diverse words from the languages of the French colonies or overseas contacts (cacahute peanut, patate
potato, tabac tobacco, cannibale, tomate, cobaye guineapig, banane,
iguane); and the massive and controversial importation of English items characteristic of the latter part of the twentieth century and beyond, an importation
so signicant it has led both to dictionnaires des anglicismes and to legislation
attempting to stem the ow.8
French is also characterized by a special type of borrowing where the language draws on its own history: the massive importation of learned loan
words. Learned words (mots savants) are those that French has imported from
Latin (and Greek) subsequent to the Early Old French stage and that have, as
a consequence, failed to be subject to the many sound changes that led to the
formation of the basic French vocabulary. This type of borrowing has led to
the formation of doublets, or pairs of words from the same source language,
a learned word alongside its popular counterpart (mots savants mots populaires). Doublets, illustrated in (2), raise a number of interesting problems, of
which the most important involves the issue of related word forms: are the
phonological and semantic similarities between such words sufcient to conclude that they represent the same lexical item?9
(2) Doublets
afiger afiction
afict afiction
angle angulaire
angle angular
bte bestial
beast bestial
bouillir bullition
to boil boiling
cendre incinrer
cinder to incinerate
contredire contradiction
to contradict contradiction
cte costal
coast coastal
coupable culpabilit
guilty guilt
croire crdibilit
to believe credibility
diable diabolique
devil diabolical
15
16
Chapter 2
double dupliquer
double to duplicate
cole scolaire
school scholarly
je pars nous partons
/pa/
/pat+n/
I leave we leave
entier intgre
entire complete
je dors nous dormons
/dn/
/dnm+n/
I sleep we sleep
t estival
summer summery
nous venons ils viennent /vn+n/
/vj'n/
fte festival
holiday festival
we come they
come
genou gnuection
knee genuection
nous crevons ils crvent /kv+n/
/k'v/
we wear out
they wear out
got dgustation
taste sampling
gros grosse
/go/
/gos/
big (m./f.)
mcher mastiquer
to chew to masticate
bon bonne
/bn/
/bnn/
good (m./f.)
peuple populaire
people popular
sot sotte
/so/
/snt/
silly (m./f.)
pied pdestre
foot pedestrian
drap draperie
/da/
/dap+i/ sheet drapery
poudre pulvriser
powder to pulverize
son sonner
/sn/
/snn+e/
sound to sound
poumon pulmonaire
lung pulmonary
honneur honorer
/nn/
/nnn+e/
honour to sound
recevoir rception
to receive reception
clair clart
/kl'/
/kla+te/
clear clarity
recouvrer rcuprer
to recover to recuperate
peuple populaire
/ppl/
/pnpyl+'/ people popular
restreindre restriction
to restrain restriction
je pars jarrive
/<pa/
/<aiv/
I leave I arrive
royal rgal
royal regal
il le voit il la vu
/illvwa/
/illavy/
sret scurit
safety security
he sees it - he
saw it
However we decide to approach these examples in a discussion of French phonology, it will often be the case that special categories of words (loan words,
learned words, proper nouns, highly frequent forms, and so on) will require
separate treatment, either because of their specic properties or their exceptional behaviour. These distinctions between different types of lexical items,
in other words, will be useful in the detailed descriptions of subsequent chapters.
Finally, we must return to a set of issues associated with the relationship
between lexical items and word forms. A lexical item is, in an important
sense, the basic representative of what we rst called a word. Word forms,
in contrast, are the specic realizations of those items in particular contexts.
Word forms, as well as their component parts roots and afxes often
differ in their phonological shape; when the differences are systematic and
not restricted to a single unit or a single morpheme, we will call them alternations.10 Alternations occur when stems and afxes (inectional or derivational) are combined, when words vary because of the context in which they
occur, or when stylistic or other variation takes effect. The examples in (3)
illustrate some of the alternation types to be discussed below.
(3) Phonological alternations
petit gamin petit enfant /ptigam'/ /ptit#f#/
small
une menace la menace /ynmnas/ /lamnas/
menace
These alternations may be regular, systematic, predictable, phonologically

plausible and productive (jarrive je pars), or the opposite irregular and
unproductive (lart /la/ art le hart /la/ hart). The contexts in which
they occur may be dened in phonological, morphological, or syntactic terms,
or the alternations may be totally idiosyncratic. (Needless to say, intermediate possibilities also exist.) Once again, the conditions in which we nd these
alternations will need to be identied as we undertake a description of the pronunciation of French, a description for which the discussions of the rst two
chapters have prepared us and to which we now proceed.
17
18
Chapter 2
Notes
1.
This work does not pretend to be an introduction to phonetics, to general phonology, or to contrastive French-English analysis, for which many excellent manuals exist. For the rst two areas, see Davenport and Hannahs (1998), Roca and
Johnson (1999) or Goldsmith (1995). For the third, LeBel (1990, 1991), Ostiguy
et al. (1996), and Picard (1987) all provide comparisons of English and French
pronunciation.
2.
This example represents many others ending in /aC(C)/ where the nal consonants are not pronounced: tabac, exact, ras, tat, gars, etc. The same situation
arises with virtually all vowels in word-nal syllables.
3.
There exist other notational systems but that of the IPA is the best known. For
details concerning notation, see Pullum and Ladusaw (1986) or the works cited
in footnote 1 above. The standard French dictionaries (Larousse, Le Robert, etc.)
as well as the major pronouncing dictionaries (Warnant, Martinet and Walter,
Lerond) all use IPA notation.
4.
In other words, the description presented here will ignore for the most part
the distinction between a phonetic and a phonemic or phonological description.
Normally, the symbols used will represent SF phonemes, and we will refer specically to the greater detail of phonetic variation as the need arises. In more theoretical terms, we will not normally distinguish phonemic from morphophonemic
representations, nor lexical from post-lexical forms. Those familiar with the literature will recognize that this discussion has a strongly concrete orientation.
5.
Material in this section borrows heavily from Trask (1999), an excellent handbook for anyone interested in a survey of basic linguistic concepts.
6.
See Bchade (1992: 136139) for a convenient summary of conversion processes.
7.
Inectional processes may also be distinguished as to their productivity. For

example, the formation of plurals in -aux from -al is nonproductive, while the
formation of feminines by sufxation of -e (professeure, auteure) is widely used.
8.
See Walter (1997) for a detailed and fascinating exploration of the diverse components of the French lexicon. Picone (1996) provides an excellent discussion of
the current dynamics of French borrowing and neologism.
9.
For discussion of the issues involved, see Dell and Selkirk (1978), Walker (1975)
or Zwanenburg (1983). In general, learned words are longer, contain characteristic consonant clusters, lack schwa, are formed with a distinct set of learned
afxes, and are more semantically specialized. We ignore here a large set of
items derived from Greek rather than Latin (e.g., aptre apostolique apostle
apostolic, hypnotique hypnotic, amnsie amnesia, etc.).
10. Technical terminology in this area abounds; we refer here to the traditional concepts of morpheme, allomorph and morphophonemic alternation.
19
21
Chapter 3
Basic Descriptive Units and Domains
3.0
3.0 Introduction: The Segment
The sound structure of a language is usually described in terms of discrete

sound units called phonemes or segments, as well as the contexts or
domains within which these units function. The next two chapters will present in some detail the French segmental inventory, divided into the two primary groups (a) vowels and semi-vowels (or glides) and (b) consonants. In this
chapter, we will present more general information concerning the descriptive
framework to be used.
The starting point for any description involves the establishment of the phonemic inventory. SF phonemes (or segments) are presented in tabular form
below, a form organized according to the articulatory properties of the segments in question. Needless to say, we will have much more to say concerning
these sounds and their functioning in the following pages.
(1) SF vowels and semi-vowels
front
back
spread round
round
semi-vowels
high
higher-mid
lower-mid
'
low
n
C
nasal
'
n
#
22
Chapter 3
(2) SF consonants
labial
apical palatal velar
uvular
obstruents
stops
voiceless
voiced
voiceless
voiced
<
fricatives
sonorants
nasals
liquids
Despite the monolithic impression left by these symbols, the division into
vowels and consonants and the description of the two sets in articulatory terms
already indicate that we may also need to deal with smaller, subsegmental
entities. These units are called phonological features, and features also play
a fundamental role in phonological descriptions.1 Vowels, for example, are
described as syllabic (in themselves, they may constitute syllables), acoustically sonorous, and produced with an unimpeded airstream, in functional,
acoustic, and articulatory terms, respectively. Consonants, in contradistinction, are nonsyllabic, acoustically less intense, and produced with some type
of blockage in the articulatory passage. In addition to giving content to the
segmental symbols of (1) and (2) (or to the more general classes of vowels and
consonants), features play another exceedingly important role in phonological descriptions: they allow sounds to be grouped into classes on the basis of
shared properties. In much of the phonology, it is classes or groups of sounds,
rather than individual sounds, that behave in a unied way, undergo certain
processes, or dene the context for certain phonological operations. In SF,
for example, all high vowels, not just /i/, become glides under certain circumstances; mid vowels (higher- and lower-mid alike) are subject to certain distributional restrictions; all nasal consonants may block the appearance of preceding nasal vowels; all liquids allow the denition of certain syllable types; and
so on. As a result, we will make use of the articulatory features of (1) and (2)
(high, nasal, velar, fricative, etc.), plus others as the need arises, in the descriptive chapters to follow.
3.1
3.1 The Syllable
Segments are grouped together into the next higher unit in a phonological
hierarchy: the syllable. Syllables, too, play a fundamental role in descriptions,
since the distribution of segments is normally dened with respect to their
position in the syllable (plus, on occasion, with respect to additional units) and
since the syllable is normally the unit referred to for the assignment of stress or
tone. Vowels, since they are by denition syllabic, may constitute syllables by
themselves (e.g., o /u/, on /n/, /a/, un //, etc.). In fact, the number of syllables in a (phonetic 2) sequence is equal to the number of vowels it contains.
Going beyond this minimum, things become more elaborate, since complex
syllables are formed by the conjunction of vowels and consonants. (Except
in rare and peripheral circumstances, no SF consonant may form a syllable
by itself.) Within syllables, consonants may precede the vowel (the syllable
nucleus), in which case the syllable is open (vie /vi/, vous /vu/, etc.), or follow
it, in which case the syllable is closed (le /il/, houle /ul/). Needless to say, the
nucleus may be both preceded and followed by one or more consonants (vite
/vit/, vote /vut/, tarte /tat/). The distinction between open and closed syllables is signicant in SF, which is often said to be an open syllable language
(i.e., one that favours open syllables). While this is no doubt true (as it is true
of the majority of languages, open syllables being the most frequent crosslinguistically), we will also see certain productive processes in French that
create closed syllables. Be that as it may, certain key phenomena in French,
particularly distributional constraints on vowels, depend on the open or closed
nature of the syllables involved.
Syllables are structured into a beginning, middle, and end, technically an
onset, (vocalic) nucleus, and coda. This structure may be diagrammed as in (3),
where x represents a segment occupying the syllable position in question.
(3) A simple syllable structure
onset nucleus coda
It is likely, however, that syllables have a more complicated, hierarchical

structure in which the nucleus and the coda group together to form a rhyme,
as in (4).
23
24
Chapter 3
(4) A hierarchical syllable
m
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
Rhymes are necessary because the nucleus and coda often function together as
a single unit, and many phonological processes make reference to the structure
of the rhyme as a signicant entity (e.g., in discussions of heavy versus light
rhymes or of phonotactic restrictions).
Finally, the onset, nucleus, and coda may themselves be complex, or branching, in terms of the type of diagrams in (3) and (4). The degree of complexity
of each unit is limited, as is the nature of the segments that may occur there
(consonants but not glides are excluded from the nucleus, for example). A
more elaborated syllable structure is given in (5), although the number of
branches emanating from each node remains to be determined.
(5) A more complex syllable
m
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
x x...
xx
x x...
A central task of any phonological description will be to identify possible

syllable types in the language in question, both in terms of general structure
as outlined in (5) and in terms of the specic combinations of vowels, semivowels, and consonants permitted. We will pursue the rst subject below; the
second will be surveyed in the discussion of vowels and consonants in chapters 4 and 5 respectively. We should rst note, however, that general structures
such as (5) offer additional possibilities for phonological representation, possibilities that lead us into the realm of the abstract.
In considering the onset or coda positions, many phonologists allow empty

nodes to occur in lexical representations, such nodes subsequently being lled
in the course of phonological derivations. One such case from French involves
latent or liaison consonants, those consonants which are normally silent but
pronounced when the following word begins with a vowel, and which may
move from the coda position of one word to an empty onset of the following
word, other conditions also being satised. 3 In such approaches, not only may
syllabic positions not be lled, it is also possible to have specic segments
(represented by x in the structures above) appear in representations without
being linked to syllabic nodes. If such segments are not subsequently linked
to some node in the course of phonological operations, a general convention
will delete them. Liaison consonants, in this view, would be unlinked when
liaison takes place, these consonants become attached to the onset of the following word. In the absence of liaison, they disappear. Schwa, as well, has
been treated as an unlinked vowel, deleted if no linking to a nucleus occurs,
pronounced if there is a node for it to attach to. Much discussion continues
about these enriched representational possibilities, but for our purposes here
it will sufce to proceed to a description of possible syllables in SF without
empty nodes or unlinked segments. Examples of French syllables are given in
(6), where C, V, and G represent consonants, vowels and glides, (semi-vowels)
respectively.
(6) French syllable types (nal schwa is not pronounced)
V
/u/
ou
or
CV
/vi/
vie
life
CCV
/t'/
trs
very
CCCV
/sky/
scru(pule)
scruples
VC
/nt/
honte
shame
VCC
/'t/
tre
to be
VCCC
/ast/
astre
star
CVC
/pa/
par
by
CCVC
/piz/
prise
taken
CCCVC
/st's/
stress
stress
CVCC
/pnt/
porte
door
CVCCC
/mikst/
mixte
mixed
CVCCCC /d'kst/ dextre
right side
CCVCC
presque
almost
strict
strict
/p'sk/
CCCVCC /stikt/
25
26
Chapter 3
GV
/wi/
oui
yes
GVC
/wat/
ouate
cotton
GVCC
/w'st/
ouest
west
VG
/aj/
ail
garlic
CGV
/pi/
puis
then
CCGV
/twa/
trois
three
CGVC
/dj't/
dite
diet
CCGVC
/tit/
truite
trout
CGVCC
/sj'</
cierge
candle
While not exhaustive, this list gives some indication that French allows a rich
variety of syllables. Such lists can be misleading, however, since they do not
distinguish between syllable types that are frequent, widespread crosslinguistically, and unmarked and those that are not. In the former case, we
would retain for French at most the following major syllable types: V on /n/,
CV bon /bn/, CCV trop /to/, VC me /am/, VCC Est /'st/, CVC par /pa/,
CCVC blonde /blnd/, CCVCC triste /tist/, GV oui /wi/, and CGV bien /bj'/,
with open syllables and, in particular, CV syllables being considered the most
simple. Nonetheless, the examples in (6) allow for the establishment of a general syllable template for SF, given in (7), where either of the terminal elements C or G in any position is optional.
(7) A maximal French syllable template
m
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
always be /s/; biconsonantal onsets are usually /s/ plus a voiceless obstruent
or a nasal, or an obstruent plus a liquid. Similar restrictions, exemplied in
some detail in chapter 5, apply to codas. Finally, we should note that languageindependent considerations also inuence syllable structure in general, the
most sonorous elements are found closest to the nucleus, the least sonorous at
the periphery of the onset or coda. Such evidence is important in dening socalled sonority or strength hierarchies among segments. These hierarchies, in
turn, help in the denition of syllabication processes, to which we now turn.
The establishment of syllable templates identifying possible syllable types
is only one approach to syllabication. A related issue involves the division
or parsing of sequences of segments into their respective syllables. Should a
VCV sequence, for example, be syllabied V.CV or VC.V? This topic is central to an analysis of French, since French is usually said to be an open syllable
language one that favours open syllables wherever possible. The proper division of VCV, then, is V.CV, where the rst syllable is open. But what of more
complex cases, such as VCCV, VCCCV, or even VCCCCV sequences? The
process of syllabication here depends on several principles, outlined in (8).
(8) Syllabication principles
(a) favour open syllables
(b) respect possible onsets, as dened by the template
(c) maximize onsets, minimize codas
Let us illustrate the application of these principles in the syllabication of
progressively more complex sequences. In the VCV case, the result is clear:
V.CV, since that is the only result yielding an open syllable (and minimizing
the coda). In the case of VCCV, two possibilities arise (once the obviously
incorrect VCC.V is eliminated): VC.CV and V.CCV. Both types are found
in French, and the distinction rests on principle (8b). If CC is a possible syllable onset (normally indicated by the appearance of these consonants in wordinitial position as well), then VCCV is syllabied V.CCV, maintaining open
syllabication. If CC is not a possible syllable onset, then the sequence must
be syllabied VC.CV. This distinction is illustrated in (9).
(9) Contrasting syllabications
CCC
GV
CCC
V.CCV
aprs
Even here, however, further comments are needed. The template in (7) allows
for a complex nucleus including a glide preceding the vowel, but any postnuclear glide will be considered as part of the coda. In other words, the rst
C of the coda should be taken as also encompassing the possible inclusion of
a glide. Moreover, the internal constraints within the onset and coda are also
very severe. In triconsonantal onsets, for example, the rst consonant must
VC.CV
a.p'
after
attribut
attribute
arpent
a.p#
*.pV
acre (approximately)
a.ti.by
artiste
artist
a.tist
*.tV
27
28
Chapter 3
acropole
a.kn.pnl
acropolis
abrutir
a.by.ti
e.blu.i
a.pla.ti
a.g#.di
a.d's
tributary
alphabet
al.fa.b'
*.lfV
alpin
al.p'
*.lpV
acteur
ak.t
*.ktV
accelrer
ak.se.le.e
*.ksV
l.me
*.lmV
ap.ti.tyd
*.ptV
to accelerate
'.gln
eaglet
afuent
*.bV
actor
address
aiglon
a.bn.e.al
alpine
to enlarge
adresse
arboral
alphabet
to atten
agrandir
*.kV
arboreal
to dazzle
aplatir
a.kad
arcade
to exhaust
blouir
arcade
lmer
to lm
a.y.#
aptitude
aptitude
We must add some supplementary restrictions to this discussion of VCCV syllabication, linked, at least indirectly, to the question of learned loan words.
First, obvious learned loans should be excluded from providing justication
for certain clusters. The existence of words like pneumatique, psychologie,
ptrodactyle, tmse disjunction, ctnaires comb jellies, knout knout,
phtisie consumption, and so on with initial /pn, ps, pt, tm, kt, kn, ft/ does
not justify syllabifying hypnotique, absent, capter to capture, rythmique,
affecter, strychnine or caftan as /i.pnn.tik/, /a.ps#/, /ka.pte/, /i.tmik/, /a.f'.kte/,
/sti.knin/, or /ka.ft#/. A VC.CV syllabication is clearly justied in these
cases, and some common-sense means of excluding rare and peripheral forms
from a central role in the phonology is warranted.
More signicantly, the widespread occurrence of initial /sC/ clusters (sport,
stop, scolaire, smoking dress suit, snob, sphre, slip underwear) raises problems for syllabication, since, despite the frequency of many of these forms
and the general prevalence and acceptability of /sC/ sequences word-internally
as well as initially, the preferred syllabication appears to be Vs.CV: espoir
hope /'s.pwa/, mystre mystery /mis.t'/, mosque mosque/mns.ke/,
and so on. (In word-internal positions, /s.C/ is consistently used by Warnant
[1987], for example.) One piece of evidence supporting this syllabication
might be claimed to be found in the behaviour of the vowels /o/ and /n/. Since
/n/ appears to be favoured over /o/ in unstressed closed syllables in SF, the
obligatory appearance of /n/ in such forms as bosquet grove /bnsk'/, costaud

strong /knsto/, costume /knstym/, hostile /nstil/, postal /pnstal/, etc. could
argue for a /s.C/ syllabication here. But even this argument is weakened by
the appearance of both /o/ and /n/ in a few forms like caustique, cosmos, and
so on, and the obligatory /o/ in words spelt with < au > such as saut-de-lit
negligee and sauvegarde safeguard, all with /o/ in closed syllables since
/.dl/ and /.vg/ are impossible syllable onsets. More importantly, since /n/ is also
possible in open syllables, nothing prohibits the syllabication /bn.sk'/, and
so on. However, what remains to be explained in this latter case is the impossibility of /o/ in many words like postal, since /o/ is normally permitted in such
structures.
Nor do the related mid vowels /e '/ help here, despite the frequent claim
that /e/ is excluded from closed syllables in French. 4 If such an exclusion
were valid, we would not expect to nd /e/ in words such as festin if these
words were syllabied /es.CV/ since they would violate the exclusion of
/e/ from closed syllables. Hence, the argument goes, the proper syllabication
is /V.sCV/. Unfortunately for this proposal, SF does contain many words
of the form /esCV/ rather than /'sCV/, whether syllabied /e.sCV/ or /es.CV/,
and the behaviour of the mid vowels is consequently irrelevant in discussions
of the syllabication of /sC/ clusters. 5 It is perhaps reassuring to know that
cross-linguistically /s/ (and on occasion other fricatives) raise similar problems with respect to the structure of consonantal clusters, phonotactic restrictions, and the apparent violation of expected patterns.
The preceding discussion has dealt with VCCV syllabication and illustrated the role of principles (8a-b). It is when we turn to VCCCV sequences
that the role of (8c) is most evident. Consider the words in (10).
(10) Word-internal triconsonantal clusters 6
portrait
portrait
ltrer
to lter
surplus
surplus
surplis
surplice
spectral
spectral
perdrix
partridge
cercler
to ring
directrice
director (f).
meurtrier
deadly
arbrisseau
shrub
marbrer
to marble, mottle
administrer
to administer
29
30
Chapter 3
orchestral
orchestral
escrime
fencing
esclave
slave
esprit
mind
muscl
muscular
embarquement
boarding
forcen
deranged
harcel
harassed
Here we are confronted with two possibilities: VC.CCV or VCC.CV. Often,

the CC. will form a perfectly acceptable nal cluster and .CC an acceptable
initial cluster. In orchestral, for example, nal /Vst./ occurs in ouest, test,
veste, etc., while initial /.tV/ is widespread (trs, trois, trop, and so on).
Principle (8c) dictates the syllabication /n.k's.tral/, however, since this
results in a minimal coda at the expense of a more complex onset. The other
forms behave in an analogous fashion: if both a complex coda and a complex
onset are possible, 7 minimize the coda and choose the complex onset.
We see, then, how templates and syllabication principles interact to dene
both possible syllables in French and the proper division of longer sequences
into appropriate syllabic units. Before moving to the next section, we should
consider briey one further potential unit in the phonological hierarchy, a
combination of syllables into a unit known as the foot. Feet are well known
in poetry, where they are used to represent relationships between strong and
weak (accented and unaccented) units in accounting for the rhythmic patterns
of sequences: iambic feet start with weak syllables; trochaic feet with strong,
for example. The foot has been extended into phonological analyses to indicate not just strong and weak rhythmic patterns but more general relationships
between strong and weak units so-called full vowels versus schwa in French,
to name one obvious possibility. However, because SF is usually seen as a
language where syllables are isochronous and of equal strength (except for the
last syllable in a phonological phrase), the foot is of less relevance to our current discussion, and we will not use it further here. 8 This allows us to pass to
a consideration of the word in French.
3.2
3.2 The SF Phonological Word
In his classic article Le mot est-il une entit phontique en franais, Pierre
Delattre questions the necessity of the word as a phonological unit in French.
The question arises because two of the fundamental phonological attributes of
SF, stress placement and the operation of liaison and enchanement (the linking of a word-nal consonant with the initial vowel of a following word), are
apparently dened in terms not of words but of phonological phrases. Stress

in French, for example, normally falls on the last syllable of the phonological
phrase, and words in nonnal position have no word stress independently of
that affecting the last syllable of the phrase. When liaison and enchanement
are considered, we also see that the word loses its independence, in that wordnal consonants are resyllabied to the beginning of the following unit. This,
too, is seen as demonstrating lack of independence for the word in French and
minimizing its importance in the description of SF.
Recent work, however, some of which we will discuss in following chapters, indicates that in spite of Delattres concerns, the word must be retained
as a unit in the description of French phonology.9 Many phonotactic constraints, for example, make reference to the word, such constraints being violated within larger units. Thus, if we consider words in isolation, nasal vowels
do not normally precede nasal consonants in French (an isolated word such
as /mnn/ is ill-formed),10 but /mnn/ occurs both in liaison (mon ami my
friend /mnnami/) and in phrases (mon nez my nose /mnne/ (compare Monet
/mnne/)). Various phonological processes glide formation and the behaviour
of nasal vowels in particular also refer to the notion of phonological word, as
Hannahs (1995b) has demonstrated.11 Thus, high vowels may become glides
when followed by another vowel within words (il joue hes playing /il<u/
vous jouez youre playing /vu<we/) but not when the second vowel is in a
separate word (il joue encore hes still playing /il<u#kn/, not */<w#kn/).
In addition to the word, phonological descriptions may also use a constituent known as the clitic group. Typically, clitics exhibit phonological behaviour intermediate between that of afxes and independent words. They are, for
example, more syntactically independent than afxes but are attached phonologically to their host words. Subject and object pronouns in French (je, tu, le,
les, lui, etc.) are characteristic examples of clitics. Clitic groups are larger than
phonological words but smaller than phrases. Because the potential effects of
clitic groups are still not rmly established in analyses of SF (pace Hannahs
1995a) and because such units operate in ways highly similar to phonological
phrases, we will not use the concept here, but work instead with the next and
perhaps most fundamental unit in French phonology, the phonological phrase.
3.3
3.3 The Phonological Phrase
In a prosodic hierarchy leading from the syllable through the foot, word, and
clitic group to the phonological phrase, the phrase plays a major role in any
description of French. As we will see, a number of the prototypical aspects
of French phonology stress and rhythm, vowel length, syllabication, the
behaviour of schwa, intonation patterns are described with reference to
phrasal boundaries. In general terms, as the name itself suggests, 12 phonological phrases are larger than words, and manifest both grammatical (syntactic
and/or semantic) and phonological relationships. Phonological phrases thus
make a link with grammatical structure, although they are not always perfectly
31
32
Chapter 3
aligned with it. That being said, we will use both phonological and grammatical attributes in discussing the phonological phrase, identifying rst the minimal phrases that is, those phrases that may not be broken down into smaller
(phrasal) units.
In phonological terms, phrases are pronounced between pauses (at least
potential pauses), are characterized by nal stress and specic intonational
patterns, and rarely exceed six syllables in length. Over longer stretches of
speech, moreover, there is a tendency to have phrases of roughly equal length
(cf. Wioland [1991: 3738]). In grammatical terms, phrases are correlated
with major lexical categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and their modiers or
dependents (articles, pronouns, adverbs, etc.). These are the units that constitute minimal phrases those that may not be subdivided, even in slow speech.
They are illustrated in (11).
(11) Phonological phrases
(a) verb-centred: single verbs (including auxiliaries, present
participles, or innitives) plus accompanying subject or object
pronouns and negations
je pars
Im leaving.
le voit-il
Does he see it?
on vous en parlera
Theyll speak to you about it.
je ne lavais pas
I didnt have it.
je te les envoie
Im sending them to you.
donne-lui-en
Give him some.
ne lui en donne pas
Dont give him any.
nous ne le voulons plus
We dont want it any more.
ne ten fais pas
Dont worry about it.
le sachant
knowing it
me le rpter
repeat it to me
ne plus me le rpter
not repeat it to me any more
nen sachant plus rien
not knowing any more about it
ne vous en donnera-t-il pas
Wont he give you any?
(b) noun-centred: nouns plus preceding (not following) determiners or

modiers
un lment
an element
trois chiens
three dogs
ses voisins
his neighbours
mes deux enfants
my two children
leurs anciens camarades
their former comrades
quelques instants
a few moments
plusieurs beaux tableaux
several pretty paintings
de bons amis
good friends
toutes ces petites maisons
all these little houses
(c) adjective-centred: adjectives plus preceding adverbs

trs lgant
very elegant
bien aimable
very nice
assez complexe
rather complex
toujours prsent
always there
souvent en retard
often late
vraiment mesquin
really stingy
rcemment mari
recently married
pas trs loin
not very far
si petit
so small
(d) prepositional phrases

sans lui parler
without speaking to him
en arrivant
upon arrival
pour les vrier
in order to check them
aprs tous les autres
after all the others
dune autre fois
of another time
pour ne pas le gner
in order not to bother them
pendant une heure
for an hour
en me les enlevant
taking them from me
(e) subordinators and complementizers plus the following word

que vous aimez
that you like
quil a pris
that he took
quand il viendra
when he comes
an quelle le prenne
so shell take it
33
34
Chapter 3
si on pouvait
if we could
depuis que Claude est l
since Claude has been there
on va se promener
Were going for a walk.
pendant que nous dormions
while we slept
jallais me baigner
I was going to go swimming.
parce quon lexige
because we have to
la semaine passe
last week
dont on parlait
about which we were speaking
gnralement
generally
ce quil voulait
what he wanted
je ne le vois pas
I dont see it.
pendant une heure
for an hour
merci beaucoup
Thanks a lot.
cest a nest-ce pas
Thats it, isnt it.
These minimal phrases are so named because (in normal speech) they must
be pronounced as single units without interruption. For je ne le vois pas, for
example, one cannot say *jene le vois pas, je ne levois pas, *je ne le vois
pas, and so on (where indicates a pause), or *trsimportant, *la prochainelection, *sansy aller, *quandil viendra, and so on. Phrases of
varying syllable length, minimal and non-minimal, are given in (12).13
(12) Phonological phrases of increasing syllable length
(1 syllable)
where
oui
yes
tiens
hold (this)
zut
drat
(2 syllables) bonjour
hello
jamais
never
part-il
Is he leaving?
au secours
Help!
tout de suite
right away
demain
See you tomorrow.
daccord
Okay.
(3 syllables) attention
(4 syllables) cest impossible
(5 syllables) veuillez mexcuser
Its impossible.
Please excuse me.
jai mal la tte
I have a headache.
cest au bout de la rue
Its at the end of the street.
ne pars pas tout de suite Dont leave right away.

en avez-vous trop
Do you have too much?
aux Etats-Unis
in the United States
cet avertissement
this warning
(6 syllables) rendez-vous midi
meeting at noon
il faudra en parler
We have to speak about it.
pourquoi pas tout

lheure
Why not in a little while?
vous ny arriverez pas You wont get there.

luniversit
at the university
il y fait toujours froid
Its always cold there.
considrablement
considerably
attention
dans une heure
in an hour
cest toi
Its yours.
quand vient-il
When is he coming?
chez le mdecin
at the doctors
rappelez-moi
Call me back.
samedi
until Saturday
oui daccord
yes, Okay.
As mentioned above, not all of these phrases are minimal phrases. Minimal
phrases may be combined into longer sequences depending on a variety of
factors, among which are the rate of speech (faster speech favours longer
phrases), stylistic considerations (formal speech favours shorter phrases), and
emphasis (phrase breaks may be used to mark items to be emphasized).
Needless to say, a further controlling ingredient involves length: as we have
seen, phrases rarely exceed six or seven syllables under normal circumstances.
Again, under normal circumstances, the divisions between phrases will correlate with major syntactic divisions, as in (13) where the symbol (||) is here
used to indicate an optional break.
35
36
Chapter 3
(13) Longer phrases composed of two (or more) minimal phrases 14

(a) verb nucleus plus verb
Je ne lavais pas (||) entendu.
I hadnt heard it.
Il prtend (||) ne pas le vouloir.
Hes pretending not to want to.
Tu devrais (||) lui en parler.
You should speak to him

about it.
Veuillez (||) ne pas me dranger.
Please dont bother me.
(b) noun phrase plus verb or vice-versa

Le match (||) sest bien termin.
The game ended well.
Le professeur (||) nen sait rien.
The professor knows

nothing about it.
Il nous raconte (||) des btises.
Hes telling us nonsense.
Elle promet (||) de nous suivre.
She promises to follow us.
Connais-tu (||) ce jeune homme?
Do you know this young man?
(c) noun plus following modier

un journal (||) hebdomadaire
a weekly newspaper
une maison (||) de campagne
a country house
lautobus (||) de la ville
the city bus
un appartement (||) louer
an apartment to rent
une histoire (||) pas trs amusante a not very funny story
(d) verb plus following modier
Elle me le dit (||) assez souvent.
She tells me quite often.
On vous rappellera (||)

ds aujourdhui.
Well call you today.
Nous lui en parlons (||)

constamment.
We talk to him about it

constantly.
Il faut y aller (||) tout seul.
You have to go there alone.
Ils se parlent (||) avec difcult.
They speak to each other

with difculty.
Moreover, since syllabication does not usually cross phrase boundaries,

removal of a boundary may require resyllabication (enchanement or liaison): Paul lavait vite || oubli Paul had quickly forgotten it. /pnllav'vit ||
ublie/ versus Paul lavait vite oubli /pnllav'vi.tublie/ or je ne lavais pas
|| entendu I hadnt heard it. /<nlav'pa || #t#dy/ versus je ne lavais pas
entendu /<nlav'pa.z#t#dy/.15 Finally, deletion of schwa is sensitive to phraseinitial versus phrase-internal position, so joining two phrases into one may
often result in schwa deletion: elle promet || de nous suivre She promises
to follow us. /'lpnm' || dnusiv/ versus elle promet de nous suivre
/'lpnm'dnusiv/. We will discuss each of these, plus additional phraserelated phenomena such as intonation patterns, in more detail in later
chapters.
3.4
3.4 Conclusion
This chapter has introduced the primary elements to be used in the description of SF that follows. These elements include the set of segments or phonemes of SF, dened in terms of articulatory features. Features, in turn, serve
to dene larger or smaller classes of sounds on the basis of shared properties
all vowels, nasal vowels, voiceless fricatives, liquids, and so on. Such classications are crucial in phonological descriptions because classes of segments,
rather than individual sounds, typically participate in the general phonological
processes of a language or nd themselves subject to phonotactic constraints.
Classes also serve to dene the segmental contexts in which these phonological processes occur.
Processes or constraints are not dened exclusively in segmental terms,
however. We will often need to refer to domains larger than those of individual
segments or classes of segments. Segments, in other words, are part of a phonological or prosodic hierarchy which includes (for our purposes) syllables,
words, and phrases. Many constraints on the distribution of segments in SF
refer to syllable or word structure, for example, and the prototypical phenomena of liaison and enchanement are dened crucially with respect to syllables as well. Finally, as the preceding section has indicated, the phonological
phrase is of utmost importance in any description of French. Let us begin this
description with a discussion of the vowel system.
Notes
1.
The decision to combine shorter phrases into one longer one may have additional phonological consequences. To begin with, there will be only one
stressed syllable rather than two: un appartement || louer an apartment to
rent /napatm# || alwe/ versus un appartement louer /napatm#alwe/.
In fact, from certain points of view features may properly be seen as the fundamental units of phonological analysis. Feature theory is a specialized domain in
its own right, one we cannot hope to examine in detail here. For some discussion,
see Clark and Yallop (1990), Clements and Hume (1995), Davenport and Hannahs
(1998) or Kenstowicz (1994).
37
38
Chapter 3
2.
The qualication phonetic is needed because certain more abstract representations may represent semi-vowels as vowels, the latter subsequently being modied. Note also that, unlike their English counterparts (e.g., bottle, butter), French
liquids may not be syllabic.
3.
For a detailed treatment of liaison, see Section 5.6.1.
4.
For such a claim, see Price (1991: 56). Tranel (1987: 52) also excludes /e/ from
nal closed syllables, a claim countered by such loan words as cake /kek/ or mail
/mel/. We will return to this matter in the discussion of mid vowels in chapter 4,
section 4.2.
5.
Martinet and Walter (1973) contains many examples showing both /e/ and /'/ in
such contexts, including exprs specially /eksp' 'ksp'/, exploit /eksplwa
'ksplwa/, exact /egza 'gza/, where the syllabication can hardly be /e.ksp'/,
/e.ksplwa/, or /e.gza/.
6.
We will ignore the less frequent VCCCCV possibilities (e.g., extra- rst-rate
/'ksta/, abstrait abstract /apst'/, expliquer to explain /'ksplike/), which
allow for either VC.CCCV or VCC.CCV (/'k.sta/ or /'ks.ta/, /ap.st'/ or
/aps.t'/, /'k.spli.ke/ or /'ks.pli.ke/), depending on where /s/ is assigned. Principle
(8c) favours the former option. We should also note that in popular speech, words
like expliquer and exprimer to express are reduced to espliquer and esprimer,
with simplication to a triconsonantal cluster.
7.
This condition leads to a discussion of embarquement (where, as in forcen and

harcel as well, the schwa has exceptionally deleted to create the triconsonantal
cluster). In embarquement /#bakm#/, a syllabication /#.ba.km#/ is impossible
because /km/ is not a possible onset. Here, then, we must complicate the coda:
/#.bak.m#/. This data is taken from Juilland (1965).
8.
See, however, Selkirk (1978) or Bullock (1995) for work that makes crucial use
of the foot in analysing aspects of French phonology the behaviour of schwa in
particular.
9.
Lyche and Girard (1995), in particular, revisit this question in detail.
10. Exceptions such as ennui boredom /#ni/ or vnmes we came /v'm/ are discussed below in Section 4.4.2.
11. See also Rochet (1977) or Lyche and Girard (1995). It is perhaps worth recalling
that the concept word is complex and notoriously difcult to dene in crosslinguistic terms (cf. Trask [1999: 34244] for a concise discussion). It is necessary
to distinguish, particularly in French, between orthographic words (those written
between white spaces) and phonological words (those pronounced as single
units), with the latter of primary importance. For our purposes here, Hannahs
denition of the French phonological word as consisting of either prexes or
stems plus all associated sufxes is most useful.
12. Also known in the literature on French as groupe rythmique, groupe accentuel,
groupe de soufe, groupe respiratoire, groupe intonationnel, albeit with occasional subtle distinctions among the various units. If the syntactic or semantic
underpinnings of the unit are involved, the term groupe syntaxique is also found
(e.g., in Bchade [1992: 60]).
13. Many of these examples are from Wioland (1991: 89), a work that provides
excellent material concerning phonological phrases. Note the discrepancy in these
examples between the orthography and the pronunciation arising from the deletion of schwa, a topic to be discussed in some detail in chapter 5.
14. Examples are based primarily on material from Mueller et al. (1968: 4445).
15. Such liaison examples can be contradicted by liaison sans enchanement (Encrev
1988), as in /<nlav'paz#t#dy/ or by parenthetical insertions (un robuste || mais
petit || enfant a sturdy, but small, child /nbyst | m'pti | t#f#/ [Pichon 1938:
123]). In the rst instance, no resyllabication has taken place, we simply see
the exceptional appearance of a liaison consonant in an abnormal position in a
marked style. In the second, the phrase boundary (and associated pause) remain,
but a liaison consonant still appears in the appropriate syllabic (phrase-initial)
position.
39
41
Chapter 4
Vowels and Semi-vowels
4.0
4.0 The Vowel System
Traditionally, SF is described as having a system of sixteen vowels, twelve

oral and four nasal, as tabulated in (1) below (see also 3.0 above). To this must
be added the semi-vowels or glides /j w/, corresponding to the three high
vowels /i y u/ respectively.
(1) SF vowels and semi-vowels (glides)
semi-vowels
high
higher-mid
lower-mid
'
low
nasal
'
n
#
(2) Examples (in word-level contexts)

#__
__#
__C.
/i/ ivre
drunk
vie
life
vite
quickly
/y/ une
vue
sight
jupe
skirt
/u/ outre
besides
vous
you
vote
vault
cake
/e/ t
summer fe
fairy
cake
// euro
Euro
jeu
game
jene
fast
/o/ autre
other
sot
silly
saute
sudden change
/'/ tre
to be
mais
but
dette
debt
// heure
hour
jeune
young
/n/ or
gold
fort
strong
42
Chapter 4
/a/ art
art
chat
cat
patte
paw
/#/ ge
age
mt
mast
pte
pastry
//
(sur) ce this
/'/ impair uneven
end
sainte
// humble humble
brun
brown
emprunte he borrows
/n / ongle
nail
bon
good
honte
shame
/# / entre
between dent
tooth
banque
bank
#__
C__
V__V
holy
__#
/j/ iode iodine bien
well
balayer sweep paille straw
// huit
then
couette bunches
eight
/w/ ouest west
puis
In comparative or typological terms, this vowel system is relatively rich. In

particular, it requires four degrees of tongue height and contains both front
rounded vowels and nasal vowels.3 All vowels, with the exception of //
(schwa, to which we return in detail below), are tense and nondiphthongized.
There exist a number of complex phonological problems associated with this
system, problems that we will treat in turn.
4.1
4.1 Vowel Length
Historically and dialectally, long vowels have played and continue to play a
signicant role in French. In SF, however, their role is signicantly reduced.
Long vowels are largely contextually determined, and the remnants of an earlier
long-short opposition are minimal. The contextually determined long vowels
occur in stressed closed syllables. Stress and syllable structure, in other words,
provide the two fundamental conditions that must be present for vowel length
to appear. Given the close relationship between stress and phonological phrases,
moreover, long vowels are further restricted to phrase-nal position in SF.4
4.1.1
4.1.1 Lengthening Consonants
The effects of the lengthening consonants are shown by the following contrasts:6
(4) Lengthening versus nonlengthening consonants
/v f/
/z s/
/<5/
/ l/
vive [vi:v]
lively (f.)
vif [vif]
grave [ga:v]
solemn
graphe [gaf] written form
vise [vi:z]
she aims
vice [vis]
vice
rase [a:z]
he shaves
race [as]
race
bouge [bu:<?
she moves bouche [bu5] mouth
cage [ka:<]
cage
cache [ka5]
he hides
juge [<y:<]
judge
ruche [y5]
hive
vire [vi:]
ledge
ville [vil]
city
pour [pu:]
for
poule [pul]
hen
mre [m':]
mother
mle [m'l]
he mixes
to live
chiffre [5if]
gure
she opens
souffre [suf] he suffers
/v f/ vivre [vi:v]
ouvre [u:v]
lively (m.)
If the syllable containing a coda that begins with one of these consonants
is not word-nal, no lengthening occurs: berceau [b'.so] cradle, partir
[pa.ti:] to leave, guirlande [gi.l#:d] garland, for example, all have short
rst vowels.
With the exception of the cluster /v/, there is one further constraint on the
lengthening process: any additional consonant following a lengthening consonant blocks the appearance of a long vowel. Thus, despite the presence of //
and even a second lengthening consonant, the vowel is short in words of the
rst column in (5) (compare the lengthened vowels of the second column):
(5) Blocking of vowel lengthening
moderne [mnd'n] modern
modre [mnd':]
Long vowels occur in:
verte [v't]
green (f.)
vert [v':]
green (m.)
(i) stressed syllables
herbe ['b]
grass
air [':]
air
(ii) closed syllables
auberge [ob'<]
inn
au pair [op':]
au pair
rserve [ez'v]
reserve
serre [s':]
greenhouse
cierge [sj'<]
candle
er [fj':]
proud
(3) Constraints on contextually determined long vowels
If the foregoing conditions are met, two types of long vowels occur in SF: (i)
those induced by the lengthening consonants /v z < /5 and the cluster /v/, and
(ii) the intrinsically long vowels / o #/ plus the nasal vowels /'n#/.
she
moderates
43
44
Chapter 4
parte [pat]
leaves (subj.) part [pa:]
leaves (ind.)
quatorze [katnz]
fourteen
tort [tn:]
wrong;
orge [n<]
barley
or [n:]
gold
courte [kut]
short (f.)
court [ku:]
short (m.)
lourde [lud]
heavy (f.)
lourd [lu:]
heavy (m.)
purge [py<]
purge
pur [py:]
pur (m.)
4.1.2
4.1.2 Intrinsically Long Vowels
words discussed in footnote 36 above), the conditions for /e/ to be realized as

an intrinsically long vowel would not arise word-internally.7
4.1.3
4.1.3. The /' '/ Opposition
Conservative SF preserves one length distinction in a limited number of forms

between a long /'/ (excluding those lengthened by a following lengthening
consonant) and short /'/ (or all other short vowels). The list of words with /'/
varies from author to author, but normally contains some 250 forms (Walter
1976: 126133), among which the most notable include the following:
(7) Long /'/
As noted above, the so-called intrinsically long vowels in SF include / o #/

and the nasal vowels /'n#/. These vowels are lengthened in stressed (i.e.,
word-nal) closed syllables, no matter what the nature of the consonant closing the syllable, as indicated in (6), with a set of contrasting open syllable
examples included as well.
(6) Intrinsically long vowels
//
jene [<:n]
fast
jeu [<]
game
/o/
saute [so:t]
sudden change saut [so]
jump
/#/
pte [p#:t]
pastry
dgt [deg#]
damage
/'/
feinte [f':t]
feint
n [f']
end
//
dfunte [def:t] deceased (f.)
dfunt [def]
deceased
(m.)
/n/
honte [n:t]
shame
on [n]
one
/#/
rampe [#:p]
ramp
rang [#]
row
Given this phonological behaviour, there have been various attempts to dene
a natural class of intrinsically long vowels in SF on the basis of a shared phonetic feature or property (e.g., vowel tension). It would appear, however, that
these efforts will remain unsuccessful, and that the heterogeneous nature of
this class of vowels is to be attributed to a number of independent historical
events such as nasalization and compensatory lengthening, to which we will
refer briey below. Finally we should note that although the two higher-mid
vowels // and /o/ are instrinsically long, the third member of this class, /e/,
is rare in nal syllables, occurring virtually exclusively in relatively recent
English loan words, where it may be pronounced either long or short. There
may be, in other words, a principled reason for this exclusion. In SF, unlike
other dialects such as CF, /e/ is highly marked in nal closed syllables. If there
are no native SF words in /XeC./ (note the pronunciation of the English loan-
/'/
/'/
ble
bleats
belle
beautiful
bte
animal
bette
chard
blme
pallid
brme
bream
caisse
box
chane
chain
chne
oak
conqute
conquest
crte
crest
enqute
inquiry
tre (n.)
being
tre (v.)
to be
vque
bishop
fate
summit
faites
you do
fte
holiday
fentre
window
gne
discomfort
grle
hail
matre
master
mtre/mettre
metre/to put
natre
to be born
patre
to graze
pche
peach
pche
shing
prtre
priest
45
46
Chapter 4
reine
queen
scne
scene
tte
head
tratre
traitor
Rennes
(city name)
tte
sucks
Unlike the two preceding types of long vowels, long /'/ is distinctive in SF,
and as a consequence, examples of the vowel can be found in unstressed syllables, normally provided the syllable is word-nal.8 Examples of this occurrence are found in (8).
(8) Unstressed (phrase-internal) long /'/
cest une fte importante
Its an important holiday.
un matre-chanteur
a black-mailer
il a reu une grle de balles
He suffered a hail of bullets.
This opposition is increasingly unstable in SF, the long vowel being exceptional, so many speakers now have only one vowel /'/, the short version, with
the words in (7) therefore showing assimilation to the regular pattern.
To conclude this description of vowel length in SF, we may note that length
is not cumulative. That is, intrinsically long vowels or long /'/ followed by
a lengthening consonant are not doubly long; length in rose [oz], chaise
chair [5'z] or genre kind [<#], in other words, is comparable to that in
hausse rise [os], chane [5'n] or branle swing [b#l]. The following sentences, where length appears only in the nal syllable of the phrases, illustrate
the role of stress in conditioning vowel length.
(9) Stress and vowel length
il faut y vivre [viv]
You have to live there.
il faut vivre l [vivla]
You have to live there.
regarde comme elle saute [sot]
Look how she jumps.
quest-ce quelle saute bien [sotbj'] Doesnt she jump well?

il est rouge [u<]
Its red.
il est rougetre [u<#t]
Its reddish.
quelle honte [nt]
What a disgrace.
quelle honte profonde [ntpnfnd]
What an awful disgrace!
4.1.4
4.1.4 Supplementary Comments
With the exception of the /' '/ distinction, vowel length is fully predictable
in SF, so length is not customarily indicated in phonological notation. Nor are
there consistent orthographic indications of long vowels none in the case of
those arising from lengthening consonants and only marginal traces in the case
of /' '/ and the intrinsically long vowels. It may, however, be worth commenting on the role of the symbol , the accent circonexe. Historically, this
diacritic was introduced to indicate loss of vocalic hiatus or of an earlier consonant, usually /s/. This loss normally resulted in a lengthened vowel, with the
resulting long short distinction often playing a morphological role (indicating
singular plural or masculine feminine distinctions, for example). With the
virtual elimination of these distinctions from SF in the twentieth century,9 the
link between the circonexe accent and length has also been lost, since there
are long vowels with no accent or a different accent (e.g., many intrinsically
long /o/s as in zone; the long vowels in caisse box, gne discomfort, etc.)
and accented vowels that are short (e.g., prte ready (f.)). There remain,
nonetheless, certain words where the circonexe serves as an indication of the
intrinsic length of a vowel, especially /#/, where it is an orthographic trace of
an earlier long-short distinction that has now become one of vowel backing,
or where it reminds us of etymologically related (learned) words that retain the
earlier consonants.10 Each of these cases is illustrated in (10).
(10) The role of the accent circonexe
(a) < > as an indication of /#/11
ge /#</
age
pre /#p/
bitter
bt /b#/
he beats
grce /g#s/
grace
mt /m#/
mast
ple /p#l/
pale
pte /p#t/
pastry
(b) orthographic distinctions

cne /kon/
cone
conne /knn/
stupid (f.)
cte /kot/
coast
cote /knt/
mark
hte /ot/
host
hotte /nt/
basket
jene /<n/
fasts
jeune /<n/
young
le ntre /lnot/ ours
notre /nnt/
our
tche /t#5/
tache /ta5/
mark
task
47
48
Chapter 4
(c) learned nonlearned pairs
(11) Distribution of the mid vowels
pre /#p/
bitter
asprit /aspeite/
bitterness
bte /b':t/
animal
bestial /b'stjal/
bestial
crote /kut/
crust
croustillant /kustij#/ crusty
fte /f':t/
holiday
festoyer /f'stwaje/
to feast
fort /fn'/
forest
forestier /fn'stje/
forest (adj.)
got /gu/
taste
dgustation /degystasj/
sampling
hpital /npital/
hospital
hospitalier /nspitalje/ hospital

(adj.)
le /il/
island
insulaire /'syl'/
matre /m':t/
master
magistral /ma<istal/ masterly
mle /m#l/
male
masculin /maskyl'/
insular
masculine
Finally, we should note that vowel length has different manifestations in dialects
other than SF. On the one hand, the longshort distinction is preserved in certain
regions (especially where there is a following schwa); on the other, the phonetic
realization of vowel length may be dramatically different. CF, for example, preserves the /' '/ distinction much more rmly than does SF, and long vowels
(which may also appear in nonnal syllables) are characteristically realized as
diphthongs.12 Historically and dialectally, in other words, vowel length in French
is signicantly more complex than this SF survey would lead us to believe.
4.2
4.2 The Mid Vowels
The set of mid vowels in French is composed of three related pairs: /e '/,
/ /, and /o n/. In SF, these vowels are subject to a variety of distributional constraints (or neutralizations) and exhibit, in certain contexts, a perplexing variability. (The situation in some other dialects, Midi French (MF) for
example, is much more straightforward.) We will rst consider a conservative
standard pronunciation before reviewing additional questions.
The two contextual factors that play a role in constraining the mid vowels
involve position in the word and syllable structure: nal versus nonnal (or
stressable versus unstressable) syllables and open versus closed syllables. In
combination, these factors give four syllable types to be considered: nal
open, nal closed, nonnal open and nonnal closed. These four possibilities
and the vowels that appear in each are summarized in tabular form in (11).
Open
Closed
Nonnal
Final
'
'
(e)
(e) ()
'
' n
4.2.1
4.2.1 Mid Vowels in Final Open Syllables
In nal open syllables, there is an opposition between the front unrounded

vowels /e '/, but among the rounded vowels, only higher-mid // and /o/ are
permitted; lower mid // and /n/ do not occur in word-nal open syllables in
SF.13 The exclusion of // from this context accounts for the alternation we
see in pairs of words like oeuf egg /f/ oeufs eggs //, boeuf ox /bf/
boeufs oxen /b/, oeil eye /j/ yeux eyes /j/, while the exclusion of /n/
yields alternations like sotte silly /snt/ sot /so/, chaotique /kantik/ chaos
/kao/, and so on. The /e '/ distinction is of great morphological importance,
since it serves to distinguish, among others, certain future forms from the
corresponding conditionals (donnerai donnerais will give would give),
the innitive and past participle of rst conjugation verbs from the imperfect
(donner / donn donnait / donnaient to give/given was/were giving), and
so on. There are also numerous words, illustrated in (12), that illustrate the difference between the two vowels in nal open syllables.
(12) /e/ versus /'/ in nal open syllables
/e/
/'/
clef
key
craie
chalk
donner
to give
cossais
Scottish
summer
effet
effect
poigne
handful
fort
forest
et
and
haie
hedge
fe
fairy
fait
fact
pr
meadow
prs
near
livrer
to deliver
livret
booklet
ouvrier
worker
quai
quay
valle
valley
vrai
true
49
50
Chapter 4
Although the match between orthography and pronunciation is far from consistent in French, there are several patterns that allow for prediction of /e/
versus /'/ in this context. Final orthographic < , e, ez, er > (where the < r > is
not pronounced, as in innitives) are normally realized as /e/. Final < ai, aiC,
aC, eC or C > are normally pronounced /'/, with the exception of the words
et /e/ and and les /le(z)/ the, and the verbal ending < -ai > /e/, as in jai I
have, je mangeai I ate, je mangerai I will eat.14
For the sake of completeness, (13) illustrates // and /o/ in nal open syllables in a variety of orthographic guises; recall that // and /n/ are excluded
from this context.
(13) Final // and /o/
/o/
//
beau
handsome
jeu
game
hros
hero
ceux
those
vos
your
peut
she can
animaux
animals
noeud
knot
zro
zero
queue
tail
eaux
waters
voeu
wish
4.2.2
4.2.2 Mid Vowels in Final Closed Syllables
In word-nal closed syllables, the situation is the converse of the preceding.

The rounded pairs of vowels, front / / and back /o n/, are distinct, while
only the lower-mid unrounded /'/ occurs, /e/ being excluded from nal closed
syllables in SF (with the exception of loanwords such as ale /el/ discussed
elsewhere).
(14) // versus //, /o/ versus /n/ in nal closed syllables
//15
//
/o/
/n/
saute
change
sotte
silly (f.)
Beaune
(region)
bonne
good
fausse
false (f.)
fosse
ditch
paule
shoulder
molle
soft (f.)
paume
palm
pomme
apple
cte16
coast
cote
mark
In fact, for the front rounded vowels, the number of words involved in this
opposition is very low, since the appearance of // in this context is infrequent. Standard references normally list no more than a dozen items, while //
occurs freely, and many speakers replace // with the lower-mid partner. There
are, moreover, more specic distributional constraints on these two vowels:
only // occurs before the lengthening consonant /z/, as in creuse or the feminine derivational sufx -euse (chanteuse singer [f.]), while only // appears
before // (peur fear or the sufxes -eur as in chanteur singer [m.], grandeur size).17 The distinction between /o/ and /n/, on the other hand, is stable,
although analogous distributional constraints are also in evidence. Specically,
only /n/ may occur before // and // (store blind, ivrogne drunk), while
only /o/ appears before /z/ (rose).
4.2.3
4.2.3 Mid Vowels in Nonnal Closed Syllables
Before treating nonnal open syllables, we may deal easily with the least complex situation: nonnal closed syllables, where the lower-mid vowels /'n/
normally appear. This neutralization of the higher-mid/lower-mid distinction
leading to the absence of /e o/ from nonnal closed syllables foreshadows
the discussion of the loi de position to occur below and is illustrated in (15).
(15) /'n/ in nonnal closed syllables
/'/
jene
fast
jeune
young
neutre
neuter
seul
alone
meute
pack
peur
fear
beugle
to moo
aveugle
blind
meugle
to moo
veuve
widow
creuse
hollow (f.)
deuil
bereavement
fertile
//
fertile
/n/
heurter
to strike dormir
personne person meurtrier

plerin
festival
pilgrim seulement
festival effeuillement
18
to sleep
deadly
colporteur pedlar
only
cordial
leaf fall nocturne
cordial
nocturnal
There is, however, one complication in this area: the possibility, for some
speakers, of /e/ in nonnal closed syllables. (This minor effect is indicated by
the parentheses surrounding the /e/ in the table in [11] above.) Such examples
51
52
Chapter 4
arise in three primary contexts: (i) closed syllables created by the deletion of
mute-e:19 cleri celery /sel.i/, dmesure excessiveness /dem.zy/, meri
emery /em.i/, ennemi enemy /en.mi/, vnement event /even.m#/, mdecin doctor /met.s'/, and so on; (ii) sequences of /esC/ (assuming
the syllabication /es.C/): espoir hope /es.pwa/, destin destiny /des.t'/,
digestion /di.<es.tjn/, festin feast /fes.t'/, gestuel gestural /<es.t'l/, modestie /mn.des.ti/, and so on; and (iii) occurrences of < ex >: exact /eg.za/,
examen examination /eg.za.m'/, excellent /ek.se.l#/, exotisme exoticism
/eg.zn.tism/, exploit /eks.plwa/, extra /eks.ta/, textuel /teks.t'l/, and many
others. That this pronunciation of /e/ in closed syllables is restricted to
unstressed position is indicated by the behaviour of related words: digeste
easily digested, geste gesture, modeste, texte, where /e/ is impossible.
Moreover, not all speakers of SF accept such pronunciations, allowing only
/'/ in nonnal closed syllables. As a result, we will continue to see /'/ as the
primary realization of the mid front unrounded vowels in this context.
(17) Preservation of root vowels

guable
fordable
/e/ /e/
th
tea
thire
teapot
/e/ /e/
laide
ugly
laideur
ugliness
/'/ /'/
beau
handsome
beaut
beauty
/o/ /o/
gros
large
grosseur
thickness
/o/ /o/
bosse
hump
bossu
hunchbacked /n/ /n/
/n/
cole
school
colier
student
/n/ /n/
roche
rock
rocher
rock
/n/ /n/
If one were to indicate a single standard pronunciation for the mid vowels in
nonnal open syllables, it would no doubt be /e n/, as in (16):
(16) Mid vowels in nonnal open syllables
cder
to give up
pleuvoir
to rain
poteau post
tmoin
witness
jeudi
Thursday
pome poem
fcond
fertile
heureux
happy
modle model
deuxime
second
folie
gnreux generous
French has a relatively rich system of inectional and derivational morphology in which sufxes are added to roots to indicate a change in inectional
category or to form new words, as in il embauche nous embauchons (root:
embauch- hire) or bleu bleuir, bleutre (root: bleu blue). If a vowel-initial
sufx is added to a stem ending in a vowel or a single consonant (as in the preceding examples), the sufx will bear the stress and the root vowel will then
be found in a nonnal open syllable.20 As indicated in (17), there is a strong
tendency in SF to preserve, through analogy, the root vowel in derived forms,
even if this contradicts the indications in (16) above.
ford
4.2.4
//
4.2.4.1 Analogy
gu
4.2.4 Mid Vowels in Nonnal Open Syllables
/e/
4.2.4.1
madness
However, by far the greatest amount of variability and hence complexity in the
pronunciation of the mid vowels occurs in this context, and consistent generalizations are difcult to establish. Paradoxically, the pronunciation of a vowel
as higher-mid or lower-mid in such syllables has very little effect on the identication of words (unlike the distinction between saute sudden change and
sotte silly (f.) or cre create and craie chalk, for example) or on communication in general. In addition to simple free variation, the realization of
the vowels in nonnal open syllables is inuenced by several further factors,
sometimes conicting, sometimes mutually supportive. These factors include
analogy (the persistent inuence of the root vowel in derived forms), vowel
harmony, and (perhaps) the loi de position. We will deal with each in turn.
This pressure is particularly strong when it involves the vowels / /; if the

base contains either of these vowels, that vowel is normally preserved in both
verb conjugations and derived words, as in (18).21
(18) // and // in roots
feuille
leaf
feuillu
leafy
//
//
elle cueille she gathers
cueillir
to gather
//
//
il pleure
hes crying
pleurer
to cry
//
//
jeune
young
rajeunir
to rejuvenate //
//
beurre
butter
beurrer
to butter
//
//
il creuse
hes digging creuser
to dig
//
//
deux
two
second
//
//
to fast
//
//
deuxime
elle jene shes fasting jener

heureux
happy
heureusement fortunately //
//
bleu
blue
bleutre
//
bluish
//
53
54
Chapter 4
In both (17) and (18), we see that this analogical pressure has produced
forms that contradict the initial generalization in (16) above: raideur stiffness /'.d/, not (or at least rarely) */e.d/; beaut beauty /bo.te/, not
*/bn.te/; feuillu broad-leafed tree /f.jy/, not */f.jy/; and so on.
jene
fasts
il pleut
its raining // > pleuvoir
// /wa/
meule
stack
// > meulette
// /'/
4.2.4.2
gros
fat
/o/ > grossesse
/n/ /'/
roder
to break in /o/ > rodait
/n/ /'/
dos
back
/o/ > dossard
/n/ /a/
rose
rose
/o/ > rosette
/n/ /'/
4.2.4.2 Vowel Harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of assimilation in French in which the vowel of the

stressed syllable inuences the pronunciation of a mid vowel in a preceding
open syllable. If the stressed vowel is lower-mid or low (/' na #/), it will
favour a lower-mid realization of the vowel in the open syllable preceding it.
If it is higher-mid or high (/i y u e o/, especially /i y e/), it will, conversely,
favour the appearance of a higher-mid vowel. Vowel harmony is never obligatory; it is characteristic of less rather than more formal speech; and it affects
primarily the front unrounded pair of vowels /e '/, although its inuence on the
other mid vowels is not unknown. Vowel harmony is illustrated in (19).
(19) Vowel harmony
(a) higher-mid vowels through harmony
aigre
bitter
/'/ > aigri
bte
animal
/'/ > btise
/e/ /i/
/e/ /i/
22
terre
earth
/'/ > territoire
/e/ /i/
clair
clear
/'/ > clairer
/e/ /e/
fte
holiday
/'/ > fter
/e/ /e/
tte
head
/'/ > ttu
/e/ /y/
peur
fear
// > peureux
// //
aveugle blind
// > aveugler
// /e/
coeur
heart
// > coeurer
// /e/
oeuvre
work
// > oeuvrer
// /e/
dot
dowry
/n/ > doter
/o/ /e/
code
code
/n/ > dcoder
/o/ /e/
froce
ferocious
/n/ > frocit
/o/ /i e/
(b) lower-mid vowels through harmony

aimer
to love
/e/ > aimable
tiez
were (2pl.) /e/ > tait
/'/ /'/
pcher
to sin
/'/ //
/e/ > pcheur
/'/ /a/
// > jeneur
// //
4.2.4.3
4.2.4.3 The loi de position
The concept of loi de position refers to a constraint on the pronunciation of

mid vowels that correlates their degree of opening (higher-mid or lower-mid)
with syllable structure: higher-mid vowels in open syllables; lower mid vowels
in closed syllables. Applied without exception, the loi would imply the existence of only a single series of mid vowels (e.g. /E / in the approach of
Taulelle [1989]) with two series of allophones: [e ] in open syllables, ['
n] in closed. In SF, unlike the situation in dialects of the Midi, the term
loi de position is somewhat of a misnomer, however, since it does not apply
with anything approaching law-like regularity, as the details given above make
clear. Nonetheless, there are cases where patterns reminiscent of the loi de
position emerge in SF, and we will outline them briey here. Perhaps the clearest case involves nonnal closed syllables where the loi is normally respected:
only lower-mid vowels are found, as in fertile, heurter, portrait (with the
exception of the effects of /z/, which requires a preceding //: curieusement
curiously /...z.m#/, and the few variable examples of /e/ discussed above).
In the other three contexts with which we have been dealing (nal open syllables, nal closed syllables, nonnal open syllables), certain mid vowel pairs
follow the expectations of the loi de position while others contradict them. We
see, for example, regular /e / in nal open syllables, contradicted by the
appearance of /'/ in this context as well, or regular /' n/ in nal closed syllables, contradicted by the appearance of // and /o/ as well. In nonnal open
syllables, our initial or unmarked expectations outlined in (16) above showed
regular /e/ and //, contradicted by the preferred appearance of /n/, but as the
survey of the effects of analogy and vowel harmony demonstrates, the loi is
more often honoured in the breach in this context. The regularity of the behaviour of the mid vowels in MF, compared to the much more complicated situation in SF, is exemplied in (20) for those contexts where SF permits a distinction between the higher- and lower-mid vowels: that is, in nal open syllables
for /e '/, nal closed syllables for / /, /o n/ and in open non-nal syllables for all mid vowels. MF, in other words, fully implements the loi de position, allowing only /e o/ in open syllables (nal or nonnal) and only /' n/
in the corresponding closed syllables.
55
56
Chapter 4
(20) Mid vowels in SF and MF
(22) Conicting pressures

SF
MF
donner
to give
/dnne/
/done/
donnait
was giving
/dnn'/
/done/
jene
fasts
/<n/
/<n/
jeune
young
/<n/
/<n/
saute
jumps
/sot/
/snt/
sotte
silly (f.)
/snt/
/snt/
rose
rose
/oz/
/nz/
errer
to wander
/'e/
/ee/
pleurer
to cry
/ple/
/ple/
beaut
beauty
/bote/
/bote/
bott
with boots
/bnte/
/bote/
sottise foolishness /sntiz/: A with sotte, O; contradicted by VH, LP

/sotiz/: A with sot, VH with /i/, LP; contradicted by O
mairie city hall /m'i/: A with maire; contradicted by VH, LP
/mei/: VH with /i/, LP; contradicted by A with maire
matresse mistress /m't's/: A with matre, VH with /'/; contradicted
by LP
matrise mastery /metiz/: VH with /i/, LP; contradicted by A with
matre
fter celebrate /f'te/: A with fte; contradicted by VH, LP
/fete/: VH with /e/, LP; contradicted by A with fte
jaunet yellowish /<nn'/: O, VH with /'/; contradicted by LP
/<on'/: A with jaune, LP; contradicted by O, VH
jeunesse youth /<n's/: A with jeune, VH; contradicted by LP
/<n's/: LP; contradicted by A with jeune, VH
oeillre blinkers /j'/: A with oeil, VH; contradicted by LP
To conclude this section, we may note that analogy, vowel harmony, and the
loi de position may interact, sometimes reinforcing each other, sometimes contradicting each other. Where two or more pressures work in concert, the pronunciation of the forms in question is likely to be stable. Where they conict,
variability is the norm, as the rich data in Martinet and Walter (1973) conrm.
In (21) we see examples where at least two factors work together to favour a
certain pronunciation; in (22), one of these factors is contradicted by another
(or by more than one other), and as a result, variable pronunciation is likely
to occur. It would appear, if ranking is needed, that analogical pressures to
preserve the root vowel and the tendency to pronounce /n/ in nonnal open
syllables are the two strongest tendencies, while vowel harmony and the loi de
position are weaker and often inoperative.
(21) Mutually supporting pressures (A, VH, LP, O = analogy, vowel
harmony, loi de position, and tendency for /n/ in nonnal open syllables,
respectively)
beaut beauty /bote/: A with beau, VH with /e/, and LP all favour
/o/; contradicted by O
ct side /kote/: A with cte, VH with /e/, and LP all favour /o/;
contradicted by O
bleuir to turn blue /bli/: A with bleu, VH with /i/, and LP all favour
//
essuyer to wipe /esie/: VH with /i e/ and LP favour /e/
As these examples illustrate, it is not surprising that the pronunciation of

mid vowels in nonnal open syllables continues to provide the motivation
for much discussion (not to say confusion) in the treatment of the SF vowel
system. Speakers of MF, on the other hand, instantiate a much less complicated structure.
4.2.5
4.2.5 Grammatical Consequences of the

Constraints on Mid Vowels
The preceding sections, particularly 4.2.1 and 4.2.2, have identied strong
constraints on the appearance of certain mid vowels in SF: the general absence
of /e/ from nal closed syllables and the corresponding absence of / / from
nal open syllables. In a number of cases in morphologically complex items
(those involving sufxation), these constraints require adjustments in the pronunciation of words. On some occasions, particularly involving the vowels /e
'/, these adjustments are indicated in the orthography using the letters < >
and < >, as in (23), where /e/ in an open syllable in the rst column changes
to /'/ in the closed syllable on the right.23 Needless to say, many rst conjugation verbs exhibit this phenomenon.
57
58
Chapter 4
(23) Alternations with /e - '/ (orthographically indicated)

/e/
/'/
cder
il cde
to give up he gives up
possder
elle possde
to possess she possesses
rvler
il rvle
to reveal he reveals
lpreux
lpre
leprous leprosy
rgler
rgle
to settle/adjust rule
svrit
svre
severity severe
systmatique
systme
systematic system
Other cases where /'/, /o/, and // replace /e/, /n/, and // are given in (24);
note, in particular, the consequences of an informal process of abbreviation of
words.
(24) Height adjustments in the mid vowels
4.2.6
4.2.6 Orthography and Pronunciation
Although it is not the purpose of this study to present in detail the orthographic-phonological correspondences characteristic of SF, we saw above that
the /e ' / opposition was usefully, though not perfectly, correlated with certain orthographic signals: nal < , e, ez, er > (where the < r > is not pronounced, as in innitives) are normally realized as /e/; nal < ai, aiC, aC, eC
or C > as /'/. To this may be added the observation that orthographic < e >
before two written consonants is also generally /'/. There are, however, wellknown instances where the pronunciation contradicts the orthography (vnement event /ev'nm#/ or mdecin doctor /m'ts'/, for example) or where over
time the orthography has been inuential in modifying speech patterns (socalled spelling pronunciations): cet this as /s't/ rather that the former alternation among /st/, /s't/, and /set/, ressui lair as /si/ or /'si/, gageure
difcult undertaking as /ga</ rather than /ga<y/, indemne unharmed as
/'d'mn/ rather than /'d'm/ and so on.25 To complete the picture, we may also
note that the letter sequence < eu > provides the virtually exclusive representative of the vowels // and //; that word-nal < eu > is only // (jeu game),
as is < e >(jene fast); and that the pronunciation of these mid vowels is
very largely determined by the loi de position. Exceptions to this distribution
are mainly those few cases of // in closed syllables, a set of forms best memorized (other than those required by a following /z/). As for /o/ and /n/, < o >
without an accent mark represents /n/ except in absolute nal position or preceding /z/, while /o/ appears most frequently as < >, < au >, or < eau >.
lger
/e/
lgre
/'/
light (m.-f.)
premier
/e/
premire
/'/
rst (m.-f.)
prisonnier
/e/
prisonnire /'/
prisoner (m.-f.)
pnible
/e/
peine
/'/
painful pain
/e/
agreg
/'/
aggregation (degree)
aprs-midi
/e/
aprm
/'/
afternoon
bnce
/e/
bnef
/'/
prot
idiote
/n/
idiot
/o/
idiotic (f.-m.)
sotte
/n/
sot
/o/
silly (f.-m.)
roter
/n/
rot
/o/
to belch belch
hebdomadaire /n/
hebdo
/o/
weekly
elles peuvent
//
elle peut
//
they can she can
boulotte
plump (f.)
ils veulent
//
il veut
//
they want he wants
conome
thrifty
dgueulasse
//
dgueu
//
lousy
sole
sole
boeuf
//
boeufs
//
ox oxen
sotte
silly (f.)
oeuf
//
oeufs
//
egg eggs
anonyme
anonymous
oeil
//
yeux
//
eye eyes
auto
car
agrgation
24
4.2.7
4.2.7 The Potential Merger of /n/ and //
In a classic article entitled Cest jeuli, le Mareuc! Martinet (1958) discusses

a tendency for many French speakers to pronounce the lower-mid back vowel
/n/ in a fronted manner, to the extent that it overlaps with //26 in both stressed
(Maroc) and unstressed (joli) syllables. Further examples of the phenomenon,
taken from some 450 items in Walter (1976: Chapter VIII), are given in (25).
(25) Fronted realizations of /n/ (overlap of /n/ and //)
59
60
Chapter 4
beaujolais
Beaujolais wine
blocage
freeze, block
/a/
mauvais
bad
art
art
pre
bitter
motion
motion
bague
ring
bche
tarpaulin
phontique
phonetic
balle
bullet
bas (n./adj.)
bottom/low
potage
soup
cas
case
bt
packsaddle
projet
project
amme
ame
glas
knell
tlphoner
to telephone
foire
fair
hte
haste
volage
ckle
lac
lake
las
weary
lave
lava
mle
male
mare
pond
mt
mast
masse
mass
ple
pale
page
page
Pques
Easter
rouage
cogwheel
pte
pastry
soit
so be it
phrase
sentence
stable
stable
ras
short
toile
cloth
sabre
sabre
The fronting of /n/ initially appeared to be a variable but generalized phenomenon, insofar as the limited amount of available data permitted such a conclusion. According to Walter (1976), however, fronting is not now expanding in
her data base, but it is stable, at least for older speakers, and may easily be
heard in the spoken media. Hence, it would be currently inappropriate to speak
of any threatened merger between /n/ and //, but legitimate to point out the
potential for overlap. Factors that were originally advanced to account for the
shift include a crowded back vowel space with pressures to distinguish the
four vowels /u o n #/, as well as the small number of words distinguished by
the /n / opposition. These pressures have no doubt been reduced by the
weakening of the /a #/ opposition in favour of /a/ (see below), leaving just
three vowels to induce any pressure. Whatever the cause (or the ultimate outcome) of the fronting of /n/, we mention it here not just because it reects a
further complication among the mid vowels, but also because it interacts with
another important vowel merger in SF. As we will see in a later section, the
merger of schwa with // (or //) has signicant consequences for any analysis
of SF. If /n/ is also to be considered in this context, the possibilities for confusion increase dramatically. In fact, Walter (1976) cites several examples of just
such confusion: for example, agneler to lamb [anle], bourrelier saddler
[bunlje], reblochon kind of cheese from Savoie [nbln5n], and others, where
the original schwa is pronounced [n] or []. Nonetheless, the extension and
impact of this phenomenon are minor and perhaps moribund at this stage,27and
it is mentioned in passing only because of its presence in the general literature
on the vowel system.
4.3
4.3 The Low Vowels /a/ and /#/
Conservative SF has two low vowels, a relatively more front /a/ and a back /#/,
distinguished in forms such as those given in (26).28
(26) /a/ versus /#/

/#/
In general, there is little unanimity among speakers as to which words in SF

contain /a/ and which contain /#/, and most analysts note a signicant tendency
towards the elimination of the back vowel /#/ in favour of /a/. In very conservative speech, however, certain words that, for the majority of speakers,
contain /a/ are pronounced with /#/: affres pangs/torrents, ge age, havre
haven, for example.29 For many other forms, the conservative speakers represented by several of the informants in Martinet and Walter (1973) give highly
heterogeneous responses, and the generalizations to be extracted are rare. One
of the most consistent is the appearance, with the exception or rare /#/, of
/a/ preceding //. A second tendency sees the vowel of root words preserved
in derived forms: pre bitter pret bitterness, cble cable cbler
to cable with /#/, amme ame enammer iname with /a/, and so on,
much as in the discussion of analogy affecting the mid vowels. Words contining < oi > (/wa/ or /w#/) are roughly evenly split between the two pronunciations, and many of them are highly variable between individuals (moi me and
mois month as both /mwa/ and /mw#/, for example). Certain sufxes show
favoured pronunciations in this general context: -tre has a preponderance of
/#/; -age, -al and -oir favour /a/; while -able, -ation, and -ois are variable.30
61
62
Chapter 4
Finally, there is a correlation, far from perfect, between orthographic < >
and /#/, as indicated already in the forms in (26).31 Historically, one of the reasons for this correlation is clear. As we saw earlier in (10), an accent circonexe may often be an indication of an earlier deleted segment (consonant or
vowel), deletion normally resulting in compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. In this respect, the /a #/ opposition was earlier one of length,
/a a/, and was only subsequently converted into one of vowel quality (with
traces of lengthening remaining in the status of /#/ as an intrinstically long
vowel in nal closed syllables). Again, we can nd nonlearnedlearned pairs
of words providing evidence of the earlier deleted consonant.
(27) < > < as > in related words
pre
bitter
asprit
bitterness
bton
stick
bastonnade
beating
crotre
to grow
croissance
growth
mcher
to chew
mastiquer
to masticate
mle
male
masculin
masculine
Pques
Easter
pascal
paschal
ptre
shepherd
pasteur
shepherd/pastor
As Walter (1976) and others have reported,32 the /a #/ distinction is variable
and unstable in SF. A merger in the direction of /a/ is well underway for
younger speakers, with the result no doubt eventually to be a vowel system
with only a single low vowel. In fact, certain recent pronouncing dictionaries
no longer note the difference, using the single symbol /A/ (representing a low
central vowel akin to [a]) for both earlier sounds.33 Given these circumstances,
it would appear appropriate for those learning the SF vowel system to conform
to the innovating pattern and to function with the single vowel /a/ in their linguistic performance.
4.4
4.4 Nasal Vowels
The conservative variety of SF that is the starting point for our discussion contains four nasal vowels,/n'#/, usefully captured in the mnemonic phrase
un bon vin blanc. While this phonological notation of the four vowels reects a
long tradition in French linguistics, it is not without problematic aspects, since
in detailed phonetic terms the actual pronunciation of nasal /'/ and /n/ in SF
is closer to [3] and [] respectively (not unlike the vowels in the English
words cant and dont).34 We see this problem in pairs such as bon bonne
or vain vaine, which we will transcribe phonologically as /bn bnn, v'
v'n/, even though the normal pronunciation is [b bnn, v3 v'n].35 Despite
this discrepancy between notation and pronunciation, we will retain the traditional symbols, not just because of tradition, but also because of alternations
(to be discussed below) between nasal vowels and sequences of oral vowels
followed by nasal consonants, where (some of) the oral vowels corresponding
to /'/ and /n/ are not // and /o/, but /'/ and /n/. Nonetheless, this difference in
the articulation of these nasal vowels bears remembering, if for no other reason
than the need for accurate pronunciation.
4.4.1
4.4.1 Merger of /'/ and //
Perhaps the most notable happening among the SF nasal vowels is the ongoing merger of // with /'/, leading to a three-vowel system /'n#/.36 For
many speakers, particularly the younger generations, this merger is complete,
although the data in Martinet and Walter (1973) show that conservative pronunciations are likely to persist for some time. Representative words illustrating the merger (from among the very small overall number of words with //
in French) include those in (28):
(28) The vowel // as /'/
jeun
/C<'/
fasting
aucun
/ok'/
no, not any
brun
/b'/
brown
chacun
/5ak'/
each
commun
/knm'/
common (m.)
dfunt
/def'/
defunct (m.)
emprunt
/#p'/
borrowing
humble
/'bl/
humble
lundi
/l'di/
Monday
opportun
/npnt'/
timely (m.)
parfum
/paf'/
perfume
quelquun /k'lk'/
someone
un
a/one
/'/
Various authors (e.g., Martinet [1955]) have seen in the paucity of forms with
// the reason for this merger: the low functional yield of // (the small
number of minimal pairs in which it participates) means that its disappearance
would have little effect on the functioning of the system. (It would lead to
little homophony.) Against this may be set the very high frequency of certain
63
64
Chapter 4
members of the list in (28) (e.g., un, aucun, quelquun, lundi), a frequency that
may well counterbalance the lexical rarity of //. Be that as it may, we see here
an additional example of a progressive reduction of the number of distinctions
in the vowel system of SF.
4.4.2
4.4.2 Distribution of Nasal Vowels
Nasal vowels in French are subject to a number of word-internal distributional

constraints that exclude these vowels from certain well-dened contexts and
that invite further discussion. In general tems, while nasal vowels appear
in most phonological contexts in SF, they may not occur preceding other
vowels, nor may they appear preceding nasal consonants. We may note this
as *XX and *X. Thus, while anne year /ane/ and bont goodness /bnte/
are well-formed, bonheur happiness and bonnement just, quite simply, if
pronounced */bn/ and */bnm#/, are not. There are, however, certain classes
of exceptions to these restrictions. Consider rst words such as Panhard (an
older model of car) /p#a/, enhardir to embolden /#adi/, enharnacher to
harness /#ana5e/, each with /#/ preceding a vowel. In such forms, we see the
effects of the h aspir, which, here and elsewhere in French, provides a phantom consonant that conditions a variety of exceptional behaviours. The second
and more general type of exception also involves the prex en-/em- /#/, as in
enregistrer to record, entasser to pile up, embellir to make attractivewith
the roots registre, tas, beau/belle. When this productive prex is added to a
word beginning with a nasal consonant, the pronunciation of the prex as /#/ is
retained, and we nd a nasal vowel preceding a nasal consonant, as in (29).37
/# + m/
to store up
emmailloter
to bandage
emmancher
to put a handle on
emmler
to tangle
emmnager
to move in
emmener
to take away
emmerder
to bother
emmieler
to sweeten (with honey)
emmurer
to wall up
enneig
/# + n/
4.4.3
4.4.3 Alternations between X and VN
Nasal vowels or, more specically, alternations between nasal vowels and a
corresponding oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant play an important
role in French morphology. These alternations occur in inectional morphology (e.g., in the distinction between masculine and feminine forms of nouns,
adjectives, and determiners, and between the singular and plural as well as the
indicative and subjunctive forms of verbs), in derivational morphology (e.g.,
when a root ending in a nasal vowel is followed by a vowel-initial sufx or
when a prex ending in a nasal vowel precedes a vowel-initial root), and in
certain close-knit syntactic contexts involving liaison. Each of these types is
illustrated in (30).
(30) Alternations involving nasal vowels
(a) inection
(29) /#/ preceding nasal consonants

emmagasiner
Finally, in a few forms, the addition of en- to vowel-initial words also contravenes the above constraints, since we nd enamourer to become enamoured
of /#namue/, enherber to plant with grass /#n'be/, enivrer to intoxicate
/#nive/ with the sequence /#nV/ (compare panafricain /panafik'/ with the
nasal-nal prex pan- /p#/). This situation is similar to that arising with nasal
vowels in liaison contexts (contexts that go beyond word boundaries), a discussion that will occur below. For the time being, we note simply that the *XX
and *X constraints on nasal vowels remain robust, with the exception of two
clearly circumscribed cases, each of which is subject to independent explanation.38
snow-covered
ennoblir
to ennoble
ennuager
to cloud over
(i) masculine feminine (determiners, adjectives, nouns)

/ yn/ 39
un
une
a/one
aucun
aucune
no/none
chacun
chacune
each
commun
commune
common
brun
brune
brown
opportun
opportune
timely
bon
bonne
good
breton
bretonne
Breton
baron
baronne
baron
lion
lionne
lion
/n nn/
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66
Chapter 4
/# an/
/w' wa/
artisan
artisane
craftsperson
catalan
catalane
Catalan
paysan
paysane
peasant
roman
romane
le mien
joint
joignent
join
comprend
comprennent
understand
Roman
prend
prennent
take
la mienne
mine
(iii) indicative subjunctive (verbs)
chien
chienne
dog
canadien
canadienne (many sufxed forms in -ien)
tient
tienne
hold
europen
europenne (sufxed forms in -en)
vient
vienne
come
certain
certaine (many sufxed forms in -ain)
plein
pleine
full
craint
craigne
fear
sain
saine
healthy
peint
peigne
paint
vain
vaine
vain
joigne
join
/# 'n/
/' 'n/; /j' j'n/
/' in/
/j' j'n/
/' '/
/w' wa/
joint
/# 'n/
copain
copine
pal
cousin
cousine
cousin
comprend
comprenne
understand
fminin
fminine
feminine
prend
prenne
take
ne
thin
latin
latine
Latin
/' i/
(b) word formation (derivation or conversion)

(i)
bnin
bnigne
benign
malin
maligne
shrewd
(ii) singular plural (verbs)

/j' j'n/
tient
tiennent
hold
vient
viennent
come
/' '/
root + sufx
/# an/
an
anne
year year
clan
clanique
clan clannish
plan
aplanir
at to level
volcan
volcanisme
volcano vulcanism
bon
bonier
good to improve
colon
colonie
colonist colony
/n nn/
craint
craignent
fear
information
informationnel information informational
peint
peignent
paint
jargon
jargonnesque
jargon full of jargon
rayon
rayonnage
shelf shelving
67
68
Chapter 4
/n nn/
/ yn/
commun
communal
common communal
opportun
opportuniste
timely opportunistic
tribun
tribunat
tribute tribunate
un
unime
one rst
faonner
way to shape
station
stationner
station to park
affamer
hunger to starve
essaimer
swarm to swarm
freiner
brake to brake
jener
fasting to fast
bain
baigner
bath to bathe
ddain
ddaigner
disdain to disdain
chemin
cheminer
road to walk along
jardin
jardiner
garden to garden
soin
soigner
care to care for
tmoin
tmoigner
witness to witness
/' am/
faim
/' em/
/ ym/
essaim
parfum parfumerie
perfume perfumery
/' en/
/' en/
frein
chien
chinage
dog tax requiring vassals to

raise a certain number of dogs
sain
assainir
healthy to clean up
serein
srnit
serene serenity
plein
plnitude
full fullness
/ n/
jeun
/' '/
/' an/
humain
humanitaire
human humanity
main
manier
hand to handle
/' - in/
/w' wa/
poing
poignard
st dagger
bouquin
bouquiniste
book bookseller
clin
cliner
cuddly to cuddle
chauvin
chauvinisme
chauvinistic chauvinism
divin
divinit
divine divinity
nesse
thin sharpness
mesquin
mesquinerie
stingy stinginess
pkin
pkinois
Beijing Pekinese
vin
vinier
wine convert into wine
(ii) conversion (noun to verb)

/# an/
ruban
faon
enrubanner
ribbon trim with ribbons
/w' - wa/
(iii) prex + root

/nnn/40
/nn/
non-belligrant
non-belligerant
non-agression
nonagression
non-combattant
non-combatant
non-assistance
failure to assist
non-conformisme non-conformism non-engag
nonaligned
non-croyant
non-believer
non-tre
non-being
non-paiement
non-payment
non-intervention nonintervention
non-violence
nonviolence
non-usage
non-use
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70
Chapter 4
/p#/
/pan/
uneven/odd
panamerican
impensable
unthinkable
immodeste
immodest
panchromatique
panchromatic
pangermanisme
pan-germanism paneuropen
pan-European
/'/
panthisme
pantheism
panhellnique
panhellenic
inchang
unchanged
inachev
unnished
panslavisme
panslavism
panislamisme
panislamism
incorrect
incorrect
inexactement
inexactly
indcis
indecisive
inhumain
inhuman
/bj'/
panamricain
impair
/bj'n/
/in/
bien-dire
eloquence
bien-aim
beloved
inexible
inexible
ininterrompu
uninterrupted
bienfaisant
benecial
bien-tre
comfort
insonoriser
to soundproof
inopportun
untimely
bien-pensant
right-thinking
bienheureux
blessed
intolrable
intolerable
inoubliable
unforgettable
invendable
unsellable
inutile
unuseful
/siknm/41
/sikn/
circonlocution
circumlocution
circumlunaire
circonscription
district
circumnavigation
circumlunar
(c) liaison43
circumnavigation
circonvenir
to circumvent
/#/
circumpolaire
/#n/
circumpolar
42
/#/
en partant
/#n/
leaving
en arrivant
arriving
jen prends deux Ill take two
jen ai deux
I have two
/nn/
emballer
to pack up
enivrer
to intoxicate
/n/
embellir
to beautify
enrober
to coat
on part
were leaving
on arrive
were arriving
embourgeoiser
to become
middle class
entraner
to carry along
mon cousin
my cousin
mon oncle
my uncle
bon professeur
good professor
bon lve
good student
emmener
to take away
envisager
to envisage
empaqueter
to wrap up
empitement
encroachment
emprisonner
to imprison
encadrer
to frame
encercler
to encircle
endolorir
to make painful
/'/
/im/
imbattable
unbeatable
immatriel
immaterial
imbrl
unburnt
immatriculation registration
imbuvable
undrinkable
immigrant
immigrant
immangeable
inedible
immobile
immobile
immanquable
impossible to miss
/'/
/'n/
bien parti
left
bien arriv
arrived
rien trouv
nothing found
rien apport
nothing brought
Each of these sets of examples presents its own complexities. We will deal
with them in turn, moving from less to more complex. As we have already
seen, these data sets illustrate alternations between a nasal vowel (left-hand
column) and an oral vowel followed by a nasal consonant (right-hand column).
In some cases, the alternation appears to be correlated directly with a change in
grammatical category; in others, it is phonologically conditioned (for the most
part) depending on whether a consonant or a vowel follows the nasal vowel.
Thus, in (30a, i-iii), the nasal vowel occurs in the masculine, the singular, or
the indicative, while the oral vowel-nasal consonant sequence is in the feminine, the plural, or the subjunctive. Such relationships between phonological
length or complexity and morphological markedness are widespread crosslinguistically and have given rise to extended discussion in the theoretical literature dealing with morphological structure and typology.44
71
72
Chapter 4
If the general pattern X X is clear in (30a), the specic correlates of the

nasal vowel are not. Only in the case of /n/ is there consistency. The three
remaining nasal vowels do not allow their alternating counterparts to be predicted, as the set of correspondences in (31) makes clear. That is, neither the
oral vowel nor the nasal consonant partnered with the nasal vowel is unique,
although we may identify preferred patterns.
(31) X X alternations
n
nn
yn
ym
n
#
an
'n
am
'
'n
'
'
'
en
'
em
'
in
'
'
an
'
am
j' j'n
w' wa
in faon faonner to shape /fasn fasnne/, inchang unchanged inachev unnished /'5#<e ina5ve/.45 This pattern is regular in all of the words
formed from derivational sufxes in (30b, i) (and with the rarer consonantinitial derivational sufxes such as -t: bon bont goodness /bn/ /bnte/).
It is also found with the regular prexes non- and pan-, with circon- (although
the absence of this prex preceding vowels makes the question moot), and in
most instances of in-. There is a signicant class of exceptions to this pattern,
however. First, bien does not denasalize when added to a vowel-initial root
(/bj'n/, not */bj'n/ for bienheureux blessed, etc.) in violation of the
*X constraint. The same is true for the prex en- in enivrer /#nive/, although
this is the single example in Warnant (1987) of such a structure, en- apparently being largely limited to consonant-initial roots.46 The liaison of words
ending in nasal vowels perhaps falls into this same category, as the cases of
en in, on one, bien well, rien nothing and mon my demonstrate in
(30c), along with aucun no/not a and commun common (aucun homme
/oknnm/), although constraints across word boundaries in French (as is the
case with liaison) are typically less strong than those within words. Of additional liaison forms, ancien ancient/former, bon good, certain certain,
plein full, and prochain next are regular, in that the nasal vowel consistently
denasalizes: bon ami good friend /bnnami/, en plein hiver middle of winter
/#pl'niv'/, and so on.47
Finally, we must comment on the behaviour of the productive prex in-.48 It
is, for the most part, regular: /'/ before consonants, /in/ before vowels. There
is, however, one set of exceptional cases. In a small number of words beginning with /m/ or /n/, we nd not the expected preconsonantal form /'/, as in
immanquable impossible to miss /'m#kabl/, but rather /i(m)/ or /i(n)/, where
the bracketed (m, n) indicate the possibility of a geminate consonant: immobile
/i(m)mnbil/, innommable unspeakable /in(n)nmabl/. Thus, despite a number
of generalizations that are applicable to the behaviour of nasal vowels, we
must conclude that their behaviour is governed by a complex interaction of
phonological, morphological, and idiosyncratic factors. A brief discussion of
the history of nasalization in French may shed further light on the matter.
4.4.4
4.4.4 History and Orthography
From the correspondences in (31), /n/ consistently pairs with /nn/ (bon

bonne), // generally pairs with /yn/ (aucun aucune), /#/ with /am/ in
adverbs (constant constamment constantly) and /an/ in adjectives or nouns
(paysan paysanne peasant), and /'/ with /'n/ (sain saine healthy). This
domain remains, however, one in which the morphological consequences of
nasalization, to say nothing of the alternations involving /'/, are rich in their
complexity.
When we consider the forms in (30b-c), on the other hand, the role of
the following segment is more evident. The nasal vowel appears in wordnal position in (30b, i-ii) or preceding a consonant in (30b, iii); the oral
vowel nasal consonant sequence normally appears when a vowel follows, as
Much of the heterogeneity of the preceding discussion may be attributed to

the complex interaction of several historical phonological processes that combined to produce the X X alternations. These processes include the nasalization of vowels preceding nasal consonants, the lowering of nasal vowels,
denasalization, and the loss of nasal consonants following nasal vowels. While
we cannot hope to do justice to this rich and complex matter here,49 some idea
of how nasal vowels developed is helpful in understanding the current situation in SF. Briey, the evolution followed this general path:
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Chapter 4
(a) all vowels (and diphthongs) preceding nasal consonants were

nasalized, with (according to a now somewhat contested traditional
view) the lower vowels nasalizing rst and most strongly
(b) the resulting nasal vowels became lower or more back in
articulation, again beginning with the lower vowels
(c) nasal consonants in coda (syllable-nal) position were deleted
(d) denasalization affected those nasal vowels where the following
nasal consonant had not been deleted
If we consider typical Gallo-Roman or early OF forms such as n ne
sharp or conte story, rst pronounced /n/ /n/ and /knnt/, the processes
described above would have the following effects:
(32) Historical phonological processes
initial form
/n/
/n/
/knnt/
nasalization
HKP
HKP
knnt
denasalization
lowering
f'n
loss of nasal consonant
f'
knt
current form
f3
n()
knt()
The interaction of these processes explains, in historical terms, the current distribution of nasal vowels in particular the constraints on their distribution
we saw in (4.4.2) and the nature of the orthographic representation of these
vowels. Note rst that nasal vowels are normally found at the end of words or
before oral consonants, but not before vowels or nasal consonants: XC, X#; VV,
V are perfectly regular and produced by these (or other) processes, while *XV,
*X are not. In order for XXto arise, the rst vowel would have to nasalize and
the nasal consonant delete, but we have seen that the nasal consonant does not
delete when a vowel follows. (XX requires denasalization of the rst vowel,
not nasal consonant deletion.) In order for Xto arise, the nasal consonant
would need to remain, but we have seen that such consonants delete following nasal vowels, provided the vowels remain nasal. Lowering and backing
also account for much of the variation in the basic vowel in many of the X
X pairs in (31). When nasal /'/, //, and /#/ correspond to oral /in/, /yn/, and
/an/ respectively (n ne, un une, an anne), the effects of these two processes on the nasal versus the oral vowels are evident. This situation illustrates
how synchronic alternations as well as restrictions on the distribution of segments arise through the interaction of historical phonological processes.50
It is interesting that SF orthography reects these constraints only indirectly,
the orthography being conservative in nature and more akin to the situation in
the rst line of (32). In order to interpret the orthography correctly, we must
apply the processes in (32): a vowel followed by a nasal consonant at the end
of words or before another consonant is nasal, and the nasal consonant is not
pronounced; a vowel followed by a nasal consonant (or double nasal consonant) followed by a vowel is oral, and the nasal consonant is pronounced, as
in bon /bn/, bonne /bnn/, bont goodness/kindness /bnte/, and bonasse easygoing /bnnas/. There are, needless to say, exceptions to these orthographic
tendencies, themselves produced by further historical phenomena such as the
deletion of schwa or the incorporation of loan or slang words, such as caneton duckling /kantn/, not */k#tn/ (compare canton district/township /k#tn/);
hameon sh-hook /amsn/, not */#sn/; stencil /st'nsil/, not */st#sil/; album
/albnm/; binse /bins/; clamser /klamse/; and so on.51 Nonetheless, there are
many regularities to be extracted from the structure of the French orthographic
system, and these regularities often signal antecedent historical events.
4.4.5
4.4.5 Dialects
To conclude the discussion of nasal vowels, we may outline briey the situation in two additional dialects, MF and CF, where the behaviour is strikingly
different from SF. MF is somewhat simpler, in that the realization of the nasal
vowels is closer to their oral counterparts and the loss of the nasal consonant
following nasal vowels has not fully taken place. The degree of nasalization
of the vowel may also be much less. The vowels /'/, /#/, and /n/ are often
pronounced closer to ['], [a], and [n], respectively, and in word-internal position, a nasal consonant, homorganic to the following consonant, persists following the nasal vowel. In word-nal position, on the other hand, the inserted
nasal consonant is [0]. MF and SF pronunciations of representative words are
contrasted in (33).52
(33) Nasal vowels in MF and SF
MF
SF
simple
[s'mpl]
[s3pl]
simple
dingue
[d'0g]
[d3g]
crazy
danser
[FCPUG]
[d#se]
to dance
attention
[CVCPULn0]
[at#sjn]
attention
enn
[Cnf'0]
[#f3]
nally
bien
[bj'0]
[bj3]
well
In CF, by way of contrast, the situation is more complex. CF makes a signicant distinction between its phonetically long and short vowels. Short nasal
vowels (those occurring in open syllables) have shifted frontward or rotated
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Chapter 4
clockwise in the phonological space, while long nasal vowels have diphthongized (along with long oral vowels).53 These two sets of vowels are contrasted
with those of SF in (34).
(34) Nasal vowels in CF and SF
CF
SF
on
[n]
[]
one
honte
[nwt]
[t]
shame
(le) vent
[v3]
[v#]
(the) wind
il vente
[ivCwt]
[ilv#t]
its windy
vin
[v']
[v3]
wine
quinze
[k'jz]
[k3z]
fteen
dfunt
[def]
[def']
late/dead
[il#p't]
he borrows
il emprunte [jCp]t]
Thus, from a historical, dialectal, and sociolinguistic point of view, nasal

vowels in French provide a rich, varied, and challenging domain of investigation in which continuous phonological innovation means that ongoing attention is always merited.
4.5
4.5 Schwa
Perhaps no topic in the study of French phonology (with the possible exception of liaison) has generated as much discussion as schwa, from both a
descriptive and a theoretical point of view. Even the terminology is changeable: schwa, e-muet, e-instable, e-caduc, e-fminin, and so on are used to
indicate the segment in question. These terms refer to a vowel whose precise
phonetic properties are variable, whose normal orthographic representation is
the unaccented letter < e >, and whose primary interest lies in the fact that its
pronunciation or suppression depends on a wide variety of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and stylistic factors. In discussions of this vowel, distributional constraints, phonetic detail, retention or deletion, stylistic effects,
orthographic correspondences, dialectal variation, inectional and derivational
alternations, and the interaction of phonological and nonphonological factors
are all relevant. The following sections will attempt to bring some order into
this descriptive miscellany.54
4.5.1
4.5.1 Orthographic Representations of Schwa
As many of the designations indicate (e-muet, etc.), we are dealing almost

exclusively with interpretations of the letter < e > in French, as in petit
small, premier rst, samedi Saturday, tudiera will study, vie life, vite
quickly, presque almost, grande big, and so on. There are two minor
exceptions to the schwa < e > link: the rst vowel of the word monsieur
Mister, where the < on > represents schwa, and the sequence < ai > in two
additional roots, faisan pheasant and faire to do. With faisan, in addition
to the root itself, a number of derived forms also show < ai > as schwa: faisander, faisand(e), faisandage, faisanderie, and faisandeau. With faire, the
situation is somewhat more complex. Derivational forms built on faire have
schwa: faisable, faisant, bienfaisant, bienfaisance, satisfaisant. In addition,
certain inectional forms have the same vowel: faisons and faisait (plus the
rest of the imperfect), in contrast to the future and the conditional, both with
schwa as < e >: ferai, ferait.55 These minor exceptions aside, the correlation
between < e > and schwa is very strong. The frequency of the letter < e > in
French, moreover, guarantees that we will be confronted with a range of issues
involving schwa at virtually every stage of our study of French phonology.
4.5.2
4.5.2 Distributional Constraints on Schwa
As was the case with previous vowels, we may identify a variety of constraints
on the appearance of schwa in SF words. (We leave aside for the moment the
behaviour of schwa in phonological phrases.) For example, no SF word begins
with schwa in absolute initial position. Nor may schwa occur immediately
next to another vowel, in either preceding or following position (with one class
of exceptions to be discussed shortly). In addition, at the level of the word in
SF, schwa does not occur in closed syllables unless as the result of a process
where one of the schwas in adjacent syllables has been deleted. Schwa may not
be accented.56 Finally, although this is not precisely a distributional restriction,
the presence of schwa in sequences such as VC# does not serve to provide
an open penultimate syllable for certain phonological processes in French that
are sensitive to syllable structure. Using the symbol // to represent schwa, we
may represent these constraints more formally as in (35).
(35) Distributional constraints involving schwa
(i) *#
(ii) *V
(iii) *V
(iv) *C.
(v) *p
(vi) VC.#
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78
Chapter 4
The rst of these constraints accounts for a set of orthographic conventions in

French. In orthographic terms, no word in French begins with an unaccented
< e > unless that letter is itself followed by the letter < x > or by two or more
orthographic consonants.57 Thus, we nd bahir to dumbfound, gorger to
slit the throat of, pinard spinach, and so on with initial /e/ and examen
examination, effet effect, essentiel essential, tre to be, and so on with
/'/, but never *epinard, *xamen or *xamen, and so on. The reasons for
this are now clear. If the initial < e > followed by a single consonant were
unaccented, it would be pronounced //, in violation of the constraint against
initial schwa. Conversely, no accent is needed in words like examen, essaim
swarm, and descendre descend since the < x > or double consonants make
the pronunciation clear.58
As for the second and third constraints, vocalic hiatus is frequent
in French, except when schwa is involved: schwa-vowel or vowel-schwa
sequences are blocked, with the exception of the recurrent inuence of aspirate-h: dehors outside /dn/, rehausser to heighten /ose/ (and derived
forms: e.g., rehaussement), Dehrain (proper noun ) /de'/, and so on.
Other than such cases (which are very rare), this pair of constraints is rmly
anchored in SF speech patterns.
The fourth constraint, often discussed in the context of a process called
closed syllable adjustment, requires that schwa be found initially only in
open syllables within words. Thus, while pesant heavy /p.z#/ is wellformed, personne person */p.snn/ is impossible; only /p'.snn/ is permitted. Exceptions to this constraint arise only in words with sequences of
schwas in consecutive syllables redevance tax, redemander to ask for
again, Genevois Genevan, etc. where deletion of the second schwa gives
/d.v#s/, /d.m#de/, /<n.vwa/, respectively, meaning that the rst schwa
is then in a closed syllable. This phenomenon becomes much more apparent
in a phrasal context, a topic that will occupy us below. Finally, despite the
status of schwa as a vowel, sequences like VC# often do not behave as if
they were normal bisyllables (V.C#), but rather as if the initial syllable were
closed (VC.#). This is shown by the fact that vowels that are excluded from
closed syllables (e.g., schwa itself, as well as /e/) cannot appear in the context
__C#. Thus, we nd mre /m'()/, never */me()/; mne /m'n()/, never
*/men()/ or */mn()/, despite menons /mnn/; and so on. We will return
briey to this question in a discussion of alternations involving schwa.
4.5.3
4.5.3 The Phonetic Realization of Schwa
Up to this point, we have used the symbol // to represent the vowel we are
calling schwa. For many speakers, this representation of the vowel as a central, more or less rounded, lax vowel is accurate. However, there is a strong
movement in current SF for many speakers to merge this vowel with one of
the two front rounded vowels // or //, usually //.59 Thus, for analysts such
as Dell (1973a) or Tranel (1987) (who are entirely representative concerning
this matter), schwa is pronounced [], and the following pairs are completely
homophonous:
(36) Homophonous pairs: // and //
je ne vaux rien jeune vaurien
/<nvoj'/
Im worthless young good-for-nothing

je ne vois jeune voix
/<nvwa/
I dont see young voice

elle se le demande elle seule demande
/'lsldm#d/
she asks herself she alone asks

ample rang en pleurant
/#pl#/
wide row crying

quel gent - quel jeunet
/k'l<n'/
which jennet (a small Spanish saddle horse) which youngster

Schwa in word-nal open syllables, as in dites-le say it /ditl/ or quelle
honte what shame /k'lnt/, for the great majority of speakers, is pronounced
// or //, not //.60
Despite this well-advanced merger, we will continue to use a separate
symbol for schwa for two reasons, one practical or pedagogical, one more
theoretical. In practical terms, it is convenient to be able to identify a separate
schwa for pedagogical purposes and to focus on the unstable or alternating
properties of that vowel without having to confuse the issue by any reference
to a competing //. Related to this, in a more theoretically oriented way, is the
following argument. Even if we recognize the merger and work with a single
symbol // for both // and original //, we must still distinguish two separate
types of //: those that delete freely and those that do not; as well as those
that alternate with other vowels, opposed to those that are stable. We would
need, in other words, to separate the // in cela dit that being said /sladi/
/sladit/ from the // in seul dire the only one to say it /sladi/, since
only the former can delete the second is stable. Likewise, we would need to
distinguish the // in crever to burst /kve/ from that in pleurer to cry
/ple/ since the former alternates with /'/ (crevons crve) while the latter
does not (pleurons pleure). Furthermore, if word-nal schwas are also //,
then we would need to exempt them from being stressed in words like double
/dbl/ or /dbl/ (and recognize a limited exception to the exclusion of //
from nal open syllables). We would need, in other words, two distinct //
vowels, a situation reected in the decision to retain the symbol // for the
rst schwa in each pair or for the nonstressable vowels in nal position.61 For
those speakers who have merged // with //, whether regularly or sporadi-
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80
Chapter 4
cally, we can deal with this independently since other elements of their speech
will continue to distinguish the two vowels. The symbol //, therefore, will be
retained here.
4.5.4
4.5.4 The Deletion of Schwa
Two principal, and not unrelated, issues arise in discussions of schwa: how
the vowel is to be represented in phonological terms, and what conditions
control its variable behaviour preservation, deletion or, (in certain cases)
insertion. Representational questions over and above the merger of schwa and
// involve a wide variety of theoretical issues beyond the boundaries of this
manual see Morin (1988) for further discussion. As for the behaviour of
schwa, any consideration of its deletion begins with the phonological phrase.
Phrasal conditions are highly relevant here, as they are in other key domains
of French phonology.62
4.5.4.1
4.5.4.1 Schwa in the Phonological Phrase
Logically, phrases may be divided into three domains: a beginning, middle,

and end, each with different effects on the behaviour of schwa. Perhaps the
simplest case is provided by phrase-nal position: here, schwa is uniformly
and consistently deleted in SF, irrespective of other phonological factors such
as the number of consonants preceding the vowel. This is illustrated in (37),
where the schwa in question is given in bold face:
(37) Schwa in phrase-nal position
une vie
/ ynvi || /
a life
ils se marient
/ ilsmai || /
Theyre geeting
married.
elle est petite
/ 'l'ptit || /
Shes small.
il est trop jeune
/ il'to<n || /
Hes too young.
jen ai quatre
/ <#nekat || /
Ive got four of them.
voil le comble
/ vwalalknbl || /
Thats the last straw.
monsieur le ministre / msjlminist || /
Mister Minister
cest un ltre
/ s'tlt || /
Its a lter.
il est bien dextre
/ il'bj'd'kst || /
Hes right-handed.
Phrase-initial position governs a more complicated behaviour of schwa.63 In

general terms in SF, it is always permissible to pronounce schwa in these
syllables without creating negative stylistic impressions: cependant however

/sp#d#/, je pars Im leaving /<pa/, and so on. Nonetheless, there are contexts where, again without stylistic implications, it is normal to delete schwa.
These contexts are dened in phonological terms: schwa deletes after the
single fricatives /f v s z 5 </ , as in (38a) and is normally retained after other
consonants (stops, nasals, liquids), as in (38b). It is also retained after any
group of consonants, as in (38c).
(38) Schwa in initial syllables
/ || fznsla#s#bl /
Lets do it together.
venez nous voir
/ || vnenuvwa/
Come to see us.
ce que vous dites...
/ || skvudit /
what you say
chemin faisant...
/ || 5m'fz# /
in so doing
je taime
/ || 5t'm /
I love you.
jetez-le-moi
/ || 5telmwa /
Throw it to me.
/ || tvwatil /
Does he see you?
que faites-vous
/ || kf'tvu /
What are you

doing?
demain on part
/ || dm'npa /
Were leaving
tomorrow.
me vois-tu
/ || mvwaty /
Do you see me?
ne mens pas
/ || nm#pa /
Dont lie.
le voyez-vous
/ || lvwajevu /
Do you see it?
revenez nous voir
/ || vnenuvwa / Come back to

see us.
(a) faisons cela ensemble
(b) te voit-il
64
(c) prenez-les
/ || pnele /
Take them.
fredonnez-vous
/ || fdnnevu /
Are you humming?
grenouillage
/ || gnuja< /
shady dealings
Although these restrictions are stated in general terms, there may be very few
items that instantiate them in specic cases. There are, for example, no words in
French that begin with /z/, so any deletion in this case is moot. The same applies
to many word-initial groups that are never followed by schwa. Nonetheless, the
general principle is clear: strong phonological constraints apply to the presence
or absence of schwa in phrase-initial position. This situation is further complicated by certain idiosyncratic examples that we will see in section 4.5.4.3 below.
First, however, we need to review the behaviour of schwa in medial position.
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Chapter 4
Phrase-internal schwas present, at rst glance, the most complicated type of

behaviour, but there is a strong general pattern that simplies matters greatly.
We should perhaps rst note that the phrase-internal context also includes, in
addition to words ending in schwa, all word-internal schwas (any schwas in
neither the rst nor the last syllable of a word), since such schwas are automatically in internal position in any phrase in which the word in question appears.
The key phrase-internal factor involves the number of consonants preceding
the schwa. If there is a single consonant, the schwa deletes; if there are two
or more, the schwa is pronounced. In simplied formal terms, we may schematize these conditions as follows: if the sequence is VCCX (where X
represents any sequence of sounds65), the schwa deletes. If the sequence is
XCCCX, the schwa is pronounced. These two constraints reect in a more
accurate manner what has traditionally been called the loi des trois consonnes
in French, a constraint against a sequence of three consonants that would be
produced by the deletion of schwa. In fact, however, schwa deletion often
produces such triconsonantal sequences if two of the consonants follow the
schwa; it is only if two consonants precede the schwa that deletion is blocked,
so the loi is somewhat of a misnomer. To this primary constraint, we must add
an interesting further condition blocking the deletion of schwa in a sequence
VCLGV. That is, if the group of segments following the schwa consists of a
liquid-glide (LG) cluster, deletion is also blocked. These three constraints are
illustrated in (39), where the VCCX and VCCCX contexts are given in bold
face.
(39) Phrase-internal schwas
(b) VCCCX (preservation of schwa)

pret
/apte/
bitterness
diablerie
/djabli/
mischief
dpartement
/depatm#/
department
contre coeur
/akntk/
reluctantly
presque termin
/p'skt'mine/ almost nished
forme principale
/fnmp'sipal/ principal form
nous prenons
/nupnn/
we take
tout crev
/tukve/
completely worn out
sept semaines
/s'tsm'n/
seven weeks
ils menaient
/ilmn'/
They were leading.
(c) VCLGX (preservation of schwa; LG cluster)

atelier
/atlje/
workshop
bachelier
/ba5lje/
bachelor
Richelieu
/i5lj/
Richelieu
vous trouveriez
/tuvje/
you would nd
vous seriez
/vusje/
you would be
(a) VCCX (deletion of schwa)

mdecine
/medsin/66
medicine
honntement
/nn'tm#/
honestly
samedi
/samdi/
Saturday
il arrive tt
/ilaivto/
He arrives early.
en deuxime position
/#dzj'mpnzisjn/ in second place
salade nioise
/saladniswaz/
salade nioise
demain
/adm'/
until tomorrow
nous venons
/nuvnn/
Were coming.
sans demander
/s#dm#de/
without asking
cette proccupation
/s'tpenkypasjn/ this preoccupation
une che
/yn'5/
la dernire station
/lad'nj'stasjn/ the last station
an arrow
Any of the examples in (39) indicates the phrasal nature of these constraints on
schwa deletion. Word boundaries play no role in constraining the suppression
or preservation of the vowel, since word-internal schwas (samedi), word-nal
schwas (salade nioise), or schwas in the rst syllable of a word itself preceded by another word (sans demander without asking) all delete. Moreover,
deletion can produce a sequence of three consonants, provided two of the three
follow the vowel (une che /n/). By the same token, the position of
the two blocking consonants is also independent of word structure. The consonants may be word-internal (diablerie), word-nal (with the exception of the
schwa itself) (presque termin), word-initial within the phrase (tout crev), or
members of adjacent words (sept semaines). What counts is their presence, not
the forms to which they belong.
Phrase-internal schwas (usually in combination with phrase-initial partners)
are involved in a further complicated set of interactions that arise when adjacent syllables contain schwa. The number of words where this pattern is found
word-internally is very small (Genevois Genevan, chevelure hair, ensevelir
to bury/shroud and derivatives, words with the prex re- [redemander, revenir], the highly variable papeterie stationary shop [pronounced as /pap'ti/,
/papti/ or /papti/], crevettier shrimp net/boat [with // or /'/ in either
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84
Chapter 4
of the rst two syllables] and so on), but phrasal structures are exceedingly
common given the nature of many pronouns and other clitic forms that combine in sequence (i.e., je, me, te, se, le, ne).
(40) Sequences of schwas
je le prends
Im taking it.
je me demande
I wonder.
il se levait
He was getting up.
on te le propose
Someone suggests it to you.
je ne le comprends pas
I dont understand it.
il te le recommande
He recommends it to you.
je ne te le redemanderai pas (!)
I wont ask you for it again.
In SF, the general tendency in these structures is for at least one schwa to
delete, but which one (or ones, as the case may be) is often variable in particular, either the rst or the second of the sequence drops: je le prends /<lp#/
or /<lp#/.67 What is more interesting in this general context is that adjacent
schwas (schwas in adjacent syllables) may never drop: */<lp#/ is impossible.
But this constraint is directly linked to that involving the VCCCX prohibition
illustrated in (39) above, provided we use the prohibition to govern deletion in
a directional fashion starting from the beginning of the phrase. Let us consider
the sentence je me le demande, with four schwas in sequence. If the schwa of
je is deleted (cf. [38] above), then the schwa of me is preceded by the two consonants /<m/ and its deletion is blocked. If the schwa of je is retained, then the
schwa of me meets the condition VCCX (/<m/) and deletes: /<mldm#d/.
In this case, the schwa of demande ask is also preceded by a single consonant
and may also delete: /<mldm#d/. Alternatively, the rst and third rather than
the second and fourth schwas could delete, giving /<mldm#d/. This alternating pattern of schwa deletion is not universally respected, in that potentially
deletable schwas often remain, but the phenomenon has generated a considerable amount of interest, both descriptively and theoretically.68 A further limited
but fascinating phenomenon involving schwa refers to rhythm and syllable
count, a discussion to which we now turn.
4.5.4.2
4.5.4.2 A Rhythmic Constraint
We owe to Pierre Lon (e.g., Lon 1966: 73) the discovery of this particular
behaviour of schwa. Consider the forms in (41).
(41) A rhythmic constraint

porte-monnaie
porte-plume
wallet pen-holder
porte-crayon
porte-cl
pencil-case key-case
garde-malade
garde-fou
nurse railing
garde-mobile
garde-cte
mobile guard coastguard ship
perce-oreille
perce-neige
earwig snowdrop
gagne-petit
gagne-pain
low wage earner job
vide-ordures
vide-poches
garbage chute glove box
ouv(re)-bouteille
ouvre-boite
bottle opener can opener
In the left-hand column, there is a tendency for the nal schwa of the rst element of the compound to delete, despite the fact that this produces a violation
of the VCCCX constraint (e.g., porte-monnaie /pntmnn'/). On the right,
in contrast, the schwa is retained. It was Lon who pointed out that if the
second element of the compound is monosyllabic, the schwa is retained,
while bisyllabic second elements favour schwa deletion. In each case, the
result is a trisyllabic compound. This pattern is often violated in that the
schwa of the rst column, even when followed by bisyllabic elements, may
be retained. Moreover, the phenomenon still respects additional conditions
governing schwa (deletion before a vowel: perce-oreille; retention after a CL
cluster: souffre-douleur whipping-boy; etc.), but, as we will see below, this
rhythmic pattern is not an isolated one in French phonology. It even extends,
at least optionally, to phrasal constructions such as il parle bas He speaks
softly. /ilpalba/ versus il parle beaucoup He speaks a lot. /ilpalboku/.
4.5.4.3
4.5.4.3 Epenthesis
Up to now, we have dealt with conditions favouring or blocking the deletion of

mute-e. Additional examples show the opposite effect: the insertion of a schwa
even when there is no orthographic justication for it. Consider the forms in (42).
(42) Epenthesis of schwa
lm russe
/lmys/
Russian lm
ours brun
/usb/
brown bear
t-shirt jaune
/ti5t<on/
yellow t-shirt
arc-boutant
/akbut#/
ying buttress
match nul
/mat5nyl/
tie game
Parc des Princes
/pakdep's/ (a stadium)
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86
Chapter 4
This epenthesis is clearly linked to the earlier VCCCX constraint, although in

this case, the presence of a word boundary is necessary for epenthesis to take
place: VCC#CX, since insertion only occurs following words ending in two
consonants, not before words beginning with two consonants (sept Franaises
seven French women */s'tf#s'z/). Furthermore, it is more frequent when
the second word is monosyllabic than when it is polysyllabic, in keeping
with the rhythmic constraint on deletion illustrated in (41): concept cl key
concept /kns'ptkle/ versus concept difcile difcult concept /kns'ptdisil/,
ours brun brown bear /usb/ versus ours polaire polar bear /uspnl'/,
for example.
A second type of schwa epenthesis also seems to be gaining ground in SF:
that following // in phrase-nal position, as in bonjour hello, bonsoir
good evening, jen avais peur I was afraid of it, tout lheur see you
soon, prends le bustake the bus, soixante-quinz seventy-ve, cest pas
croyabl thats unbelievable, despite the fact that schwa does not usually
appear phrase-nally. This epenthesis may, in fact, be more general, and
may play a role in emphatic speech: quil est snob what a snob, arrte
stop!, merde shit!, and so on, as Lon (1992: 145-46) points out. Nor is
it unknown in word-internal contexts: consider the colloquial forms lorsque
when /lnsk/, exprs on purpose /'ksp'/. Here, we see the presence
of schwa whether or not is it supported by an < e > in the orthography. Just
how widespread and stable this phenomenon will become remains to be determined at the moment, it is in the early stages of development and remains
highly sporadic.69
4.5.4.4
4.5.4.4 The Tendency towards Irregularity
The preceding discussion has perhaps left the impression that the behaviour
of schwa, while complicated, is generally regular or predictable. While there
are obvious generalizations to be extracted from the data we have seen up to
this point, it is nonetheless necessary to recognize that nothing is as orderly
as it might rst seem. There is a myriad of additional material to analyze,
some apparently irregular because of stylistic variation, some due to the inuence of phonotactic constraints, some simply attributable to lexical idiosyncracy. Without attempting full coverage, we will summarize some of the most
notable exceptions in this section.70
Although we will treat this topic more fully in an independent discussion in
a later chapter (see section 5.4), we should note that here, as elsewhere, aspirate-h words furnish a class of systematic exceptions to schwa deletion. We
have seen a strong constraint that blocks schwa preceding vowels: *V, both
word-internally and phrase-internally. Words beginning with aspirate-h, which
are in fact vowel-initial in phonetic terms, permit schwa to be pronounced: le
hros the hero /leo/, une housse a dust cover /ynus/, cette hache this
axe /s'ta5/, quelle honte what a shame /k'lnt/, and so on.71
Secondly, despite the general tendency for schwa to delete in phrase-initial

position following fricatives, there are words where this does not occur: celuici/-l/que this one/that one/the one which /sli/; ce ne sont pas they
arent /snsnpa/ but not */snsnpa/; ce quoi that at which /sakwa/, not
*/sakwa/; for example. Furthermore, there are examples, albeit much more
colloquial, where deletion may occur even after a nasal or stop consonant, as
in the forms monsieur /msj/, petit voyou! little scamp /ptivwaju/, and so
on. (See also the examples in [45] below.) Conversely, there are cases in SF
where, despite the presence of orthographic < e >, schwa is never pronounced
(e.g., samedi Saturday, hameon sh hook, caneton duckling), and the
phonological rather than the orthographic form of these words would reect
the absence of any vowel. In addition, there are cases where schwa deletes
in very specic contexts involving clitic pronouns: (re)garde-la look at her
/()gadla/, for example. In more rapid (i.e., informal) speech, schwa may
even delete following two consonants: il fera hell make /ilfa/, vous ne
serez you wont /vunse/, dpartement department /depatm#/. (Recall
that schwa deletion after CL clusters is very rare word-internally in SF, though
not uncommon regionally).
Thirdly, there are patterns that seem to override the alternating deletion pattern we saw in the discussion of sequences of schwas. Certain frequent determiners, such as quelle, cette, une, have feminine forms ending in schwa. If
these determiners precede a word with initial schwa (e.g., une semaine one
week), the alternating pattern would lead us to expect either /ynsm'n/ or
/ynsm'n/, quelle menace what a menace as /k'lmnas/ or /k'lmnas/, and
so on. In fact, only the second possibility is found: the schwa of the determiner
deletes obligatorily. This might lead us to question whether the phonological
representation of such forms even includes a schwa, a question that has been
highly debated in theoretical circles. Be that as it may, here, as elsewhere in
sequences of schwas, there are patterns that are xed, and the alternating possibilities outlined above are not fully realized in many cases.
Fourthly, there are what might be called distance constraints on schwa
deletion, perhaps not unrelated to the rhythmic pattern we saw above. In
general, the further removed schwa is from the stressed syllable, the more
easily it may be deleted. Thus, in a sentence like il ne reste pas Hes not staying, the schwa in reste is obligatorily pronounced in SF: /iln'stpa/. In il
ne reste pas longtemps Hes not staying long, however, it may be deleted:
/iln'stpalntC/.
Finally, the distinction between inectional and noninectional morphology
is also relevant in a discussion of the behaviour of schwa. In rst conjugation
verbs (the productive category with innitives in -er) in future and conditional
forms, a schwa may be optionally deleted before the tense marker //, even if
two consonants precede, in violation of XCCCX from (39ii) above.
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Chapter 4
(43) Inectional conditioning (future and conditional)
(b) / || dans quelle chambre || dorment-ils || / / || d#k'l5#b || dnmtil || /
parlera
/pal()a/
will speak
/ || dans quelle chambre dorment-ils || / / || d#k'l5#bdnmtil || /
xera
/ks()a/
will fasten
In which room are they sleeping?
formera
/fnm()a/
will form
forgera
/fn<()a/
will forge
ripostera
/ipnst()a/
will answer back
In forms such as forgeron blacksmith /fn<n/, palmeraie palm grove

/palm'/, fumisterie fraud /fymisti/, (or even porcelet piglet /pnsl'/)
with consonant groups analogous to those of the futures/conditionals in (43),
and where the schwa is obligatorily present, we see evidence that the inectional forms behave differently. Thus, although there are general patterns that
clearly emerge when schwa is considered, there remains a large residue of
forms that continue to show considerable variability. This variability is compounded when we consider stylistic variation, the topic of the next section.
4.5.4.5
4.5.4.5 Stylistic Considerations
The behaviour of schwa that we have considered up to this point is, despite
its complexity and heterogeneity, fully characteristic of SF. It demonstrates, in
fact, that SF itself is not the rigid and perfectly homogeneous linguistic system
it is sometimes taken to be. At the risk of complicating matters further, we will
consider two additional areas relevant to a discussion of this phenomenon. The
rst involves the division of utterances into phonological phrases; the second
involves the formality of the speech situation.
Looked at closely, there is somewhat of a contradiction involving the interaction between division into phrases, degree of formality, and schwa retention. Formal speech tends to be slower and more deliberate, and phrases tend
to be shorter. But because phrases are shorter, more schwas will potentially
fall in phrase-nal position and be deleted, reducing rather than increasing
the number of schwas pronounced. The contradiction arises because formal
speech normally implies more schwas. The following examples, with the more
formal pronunciation (and shorter phrases) occurring rst, illustrate this situation.
(44) Short versus long phonological phrases
(a) / || le thtre || fermera vingt heures || /
/ || lteat || f'maav't || /
/ || le thtre fermera vingt heures || /
/ || lteatf'maav't || /
The theatre will close at 8:00 p.m.
In (a) and (b), we see that the schwa at the end of the rst phrase has been
deleted in the slower and more formal versions. In the single longer phrase,
because the schwa in question is preceded by two consonants phrase-internally, it is now pronounced. However, in (c) we can see the opposite effect
combining shorter phrases into one longer one creates a context in which
schwa may now be deleted:
(c) / || je ne sais pas || le trouver facilement || / / || <ns'pa || ltuvefasilm# || /
/ || je ne sais pas le trouver facilement || / / || <ns'paltuvefasilm# || /
I dont know how to nd it easily.
If we ignore the implications of shorter versus longer phonological phrases,
there is a clear correlation between the number of times schwa is pronounced
and the formality of the speech situation: the more schwa is pronounced, the
more formal is the discourse. Consequently, we will look briey at two further
situations, a more formal one involving poetry, song, or formal oratory where
schwa is maximally preserved, and a popular or colloquial variety of speech
that suppresses schwa (and often other segments) as much as possible.
Poetry and related forms are perhaps the easiest to describe. In classical
verse, and in solemn public declarations and related performances, all schwas
followed by a consonant are pronounced. Rimbauds line Je ne parlerai pas,
je ne penserai rien has twelve syllables; de Gaulles declaration Cela, je ne le
ferai pas! has eight. Songs by Edith Piaf provide further testimony: Non, je ne
regrette rien, for example, has seven syllables. Needless to say, the situation
is much more complicated than this sketch implies,72 but the general tenor of
SF is appropriately summarized in the following passage by Lon (1992: 147):
Mme en labsence de toute donne scientique, on peut afrmer que dans
la conscience linguistique dun Franais, le E caduc prononc est associ avec
lide du beau langage.
If it is fair to say that the most formal varieties of French retain all possible
schwas, then colloquial French suppresses them maximally, normally in conjunction with additional phonological changes. For example, in SF il venait
it was coming is pronounced /ilvn'/, and deletion of the schwa is blocked
by the two preceding consonants. In colloquial speech, on the other hand, il is
normally reduced to /i/, so il venait is /ivn'/. Moreover, the negative particle ne
is also usually absent, so vous ne venez pas youre not coming /vunvnepa/
would be /vuvnepa/. Deletion of word- or phrase-nal schwa following CL
clusters also exposes the liquid to deletion, so one hears table dinners
served /atab/, jen ai quatre Ive got four /<#nekat/, quatre voitures four
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Chapter 4
cars /katvwaty/, and so on. In fact, the deletion of vowels goes far beyond
that of schwa in colloquial or popular French, as the examples in (45) illustrate.73
(45) Vowel deletion in colloquial French
tu as
/ta/
you have
tu sais
/ts'/
you know
vous tes
/z't/
you are
cet homme
/stnm/
this man
cet t
/stete/
this summer
peut-tre
/pt't/
perhaps
mais enn
/m#f'/
nally
pas tout fait
/pattaf'/
not completely
celui-l
/sila/
that one
(less frequently: /slila/)
voil
/vla/
there
cest dire
/stadi/
that is to say
quest-ce que cest que a
/k'ks'ksa/
Whats that?
pourquoi est-ce que
/pukwask/
why
o est-ce que
/usk/
where
The medial vowel in words like djeuner to eat lunch /de<ne/ also deletes on
occasion. This phenomenon, paradoxically, allows us to introduce a discussion
of stable schwas.
4.5.4.6
4.5.4.6 The Stabilization of Schwa
According to a number of recent analyses,74 SF has a large number of words

where schwas have apparently lost their status as e-caduc or e-instable and
instead fail to delete even when all conditions for their suppression are met.
Such schwas occur typically in the rst syllable of a word preceded by a single
consonant; these vowels normally delete in the phrasal context VCCX. Thus,
trois semaines three weeks /twasm'n/ but sept semaines seven weeks
/s'tsm'n/ shows the typical pattern of deletion, while trois vedettes three
stars, exclusively /twavd't/, shows a stable schwa. Examples of such stable
schwas are found in the initial syllables of the words in (46).
(46) Stable schwas

bedaine
paunch
belote
belote
degr
degree
depuis
since
gense
genesis
guenon
female monkey
menotte
handcuffs
neveu
nephew
pesant
heavy
querelle
quarrel
requin
shark
secret
secret
vedette
star
Walker (1996) examines some 400 such words, plus over 800 beginning with
the prex re-. The schwa of re- remains unstable, but fully half of the remaining words with initial schwa show either a stable vowel or one that is becoming stable (cf. Warnants mais le se maintient souvent comment). The phenomenon, then, is widespread.
Two complementary factors appear to be aiding this stabilization process.
First, as Walter and others have noted, there is a tendency in contemporary
French to expand the use of an accent dinsistance or emphatic stress, placed
on the rst syllable of words. Stress on the rst syllable would obviously hinder
any vowel deletion in that syllable, including deletion of schwa. Secondly, we
may return to the merger of schwa and // discussed above in 4.5.3. //, if we
exclude the recent invasion from schwa, is clearly a stable vowel in SF. To
the extent, then, that schwa becomes identied with //, it is not unreasonable
to expect that it also adopt the stable properties of the new vowel and begin
to resist deletion.75 The dynamism of the SF phonological system is, therefore,
made apparent in the interaction of these three innovations: the occurrence of
stress on initial syllables expands, schwa merges with the stable vowel //,
schwa stabilizes in initial position. Whether the merger and stabilization of
schwa will become permanent features of SF phonology is a question only the
future can answer. In the meantime, we must consider further complexities of
the SF phonological and morphological system linked to this enigmatic vowel.
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Chapter 4
4.5.5
4.5.5 Alternations Involving Schwa
Several elements of French inectional and derivational morphology involve

alternations between schwa and other vowels. While it is impossible to treat
these questions fully here, some indication of the extent and the complexity
of the issues is appropriate. In inectional terms, alternations involving schwa
are most evident in the verb system, in the classic cases illustrated by mne
menons lead or appelle appelons call. Derivationally, there are also many
sets related by the presence of a schwa in unstressed position paired with various stressed vowels: htel htelier hotel hotel keeper /ot'l/ /otlje/,
chapeau chapelier hat hatter /5apo/ /5aplje/ and a host of less frequent
and more irregular pairings.76
The most pervasive and regular of the schwa-vowel alternations occurs in
verb forms, where stressed /'/ alternates, in most forms, with unstressed //,
the latter also subject on many occasions to the normal deletion processes.
There are approximately 170 verbs in SF that fall into this category; they are
often subdivided according to their orthography, depending on whether the
stem-nal consonant is doubled or whether an accent is added to the stem
vowel.77 Examples are given in (47).
(47) /'/ // in verb stems
// or deletion
/'/
// or deletion
(Innitive)
(3 sg.)
(1 pl.)
acheter
achte
achetons
buy
crever
crve
crevons
burst
haleter
halte
haletons
pant
jeter
jette
jetons
throw
feuilleter
feuillette
feuilletons
leaf through
soufeter
soufette
soufetons
slap
appeler
appelle
appelons
call
dbosseler
dbosselle
dbosselons
atten out
morceler
morcelle
morcelons
divide up
In these verbs, the alternation between /'/ and // is found in all nite forms,
with the exception of the future and the conditional, which (in the normative
description of SF corresponding to the ofcial spelling) present /'/ uniformly
throughout, despite a following syllable containing schwa and despite the
absence of stress: achterai buy /a5't()e/;78 achterions /a5'tjn/; appellerais call /ap'l()'/; appellerions /ap'ljn/, etc. This and similar alternations have generated much theoretical debate under the name of closed
syllable adjustment, particularly since in forms like appellerions, the // alternating with /'/ does not appear to be in a closed syllable.79
The situation is equally, if not more complicated when we investigate derivational morphology. We will consider here only a single case: that concerning
the behaviour of stems whose nal vowel, when stressed, is /'/. When a sufx
is added to such stems, the /'/ should then reduce to schwa and be subject to
deletion if the appropriate conditions (essentially the familiar VCCX pattern
or a following vowel) are present. This is indeed the case for many types of
forms, as illustrated in (48).
(48) Schwa in derivational morphology
/'/
//
crochet
crochetage
hook hooking
promne
promenade
walk a walk
pucelle
pucelage
virgin virginity
chapelle
chapelain
chapel chaplain
duvet
duveteux
down downy
jumelle
jumelage
twin (f.) twinning
Genve
genevois
Geneva Genevan
vilaine
vilenie
nasty (f.) vileness
If the sufx begins with a consonant (a rare occurrence in SF) or with

schwa (much more frequent) this situation is again quasi-regular, since the
stem vowel will occur in a closed syllable and therefore not reduce: vilainement wickedly /vi.l'n.m#/, tincellement glitter /e.t'.s'l.m#/ (cf. tincelant
sparkling / e.t'.sl#/ /eV'UN#/), etc. The rst type of difculty arises when
we consider a set of learned sufxes, -atif, -ateur, -ation, -isme, -iste, and so
on. Despite the fact that these sufxes begin with a vowel and thus create a
preceding open syllable, reduction of /'/ to schwa does not occur, as in (49):
(49) Learned sufxes
/'-e/
//
appellatif
appeler
appellative to call
conglateur
congeler
freezer to freeze
dnivellation
niveler
unevenness to make uneven
rcipiendaire
recevoir
recipient to receive
nouvelliste
renouveler
short story writer to renew
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Chapter 4
perception
percevoir
perception to perceive
lvation
lever
elevation to raise
The learned status of a word, here and elsewhere, serves to block the operation
of a number of synchronic processes and provides us with a reminder of the
phonological history of French.80
Schwa /'/ alternations are not the only ones involved in such cases. There
exists a large set of less frequent, less productive derivational relationships as
well. One type is represented in (50), where a link between /o/ (orthographically < eau > in most cases) and /l/ (< el >) is evident:
To pursue such alternations would take us too far aeld. We will return, on
occasion, to the question of learned versus nonlearned forms in French. For the
time being, however, let us consider one last role played by mute-e, a role with
dramatic phonological and morphological implications.
Two of the key elements of French structure involve differences between
masculine and feminine forms on the morphological side and the pronunciation of nal consonants in the phonological domain. Schwa plays a key role
in relating these two areas. If we restrict ourselves simply to adjectives, many
feminine forms have nal < e > in the orthography, compared to a lack of this
vowel in the masculine:81
(52) < e > in the feminine
(50)
/o/
/l/
bateau
batelier
boat boatman
cerveau
cervelet
brain cerebellum
chapeau
chapelier
hat hatter
ciseau
ciseler
scissors to chisel
crneau
crnel
crenel crenellated
jumeau
jumelage
twin to twin
morceau
morceler
piece to divide
niveau
niveler
level to level
Such minor cases may be extended almost indenitely, as we see in (51).

(51) Minor alternations involving schwa
tenace
tnacit
/ e/
tenacious tenacity
cafetire
caf
/ e/
coffee pot coffee
dangereux
danger
/ e/
dangerous danger
mercerie
mercire
/ j'/
notions shop
haberdasher
chenil
chien
/ j'/
kennels dog
chasseresse
chasseur
/ /
huntress hunter
chevelure
cheveu
/ /
hair hair
peser
poids
/ wa/
to weigh weight
champenois
Champagne
/ a/
from Champagne
Champagne
menotte
main
/ '/
handcuff hand
petit
petite
/-t/
small
grand
grande
/-d/
big
long
longue
/-g/
long
gros
grosse
/-s/
fat
jaloux
jalouse
/-z/
jealous
gentil
gentille
/-j/
kind
sol
sole
/-l/
drunk
premier
premire /-/
rst
sain
saine
healthy
/-n/
In phonological terms, however, the distinction in these forms is between the

presence and absence of a nal consonant. Most discussion has focused on the
best way to represent this distinction in phonological terms: (i) a representation
that mirrors the orthography and includes both a nal schwa and a nal consonant (/pti+t+/); (ii) a representation without schwa but with a nal consonant,
necessitating schwa insertion on various occasions (/pti+t/); (iii) a representation lacking both nal consonants and schwa, and requiring a variety of rules
for both consonant and schwa insertion (/pti/). Whatever the solution chosen
(we will discuss some of the issues later), it is clear that any approach involves
signicant decisions regarding the functioning of schwa in French phonology.
4.5.6
4.5.6 Dialects and History
The behaviour of schwa across dialects of French is of a complexity equal to

that found in SF alone. CF, for example, appears to preserve the vowel as [],
distinct from [] and [], and popular forms of many dialects (including CF)
manifest an interesting type of metathesis: /gade/ (regarder to look at),
/lgasn/ (le garon the boy), /fevje/ (fvrier February), and so on.82 But
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96
Chapter 4
perhaps the best recognized example of the distinctive behaviour of schwa is

found in MF, where the general (but not fully correct) impression is that all
mute-e are pronounced.80 Examples are found in (53).
(53) Schwa in MF
murus
mur(s)
wall
largum
larc (> large)
wide
grandem
grant (> grand)
big
dura
dure
hard
luna
lune
moon
alba
aube
dawn
pluma
plume
pen
amas
aimes
loves
(b) /a/ > //
bte
/b't/
animal
btise
/betiz/
stupidity
tellement
/t'lmC0/
so
la carte de la ville
/lakatdlavil/
the map of the city
je ne vois ni Pierre
ni Jacques
/<nvwanipj'ni<ak/
I see neither Pierre

nor Jacques.
(c) // as a support vowel

Needless to say, the situation in MF is not nearly this homogeneous, particularly as the region falls under the inuence of northern dialects. Nonetheless,
the behaviour of schwa is highly distinctive and widely recognized as one of
the primary signals of southern speech.
Schwa in SF is the product of a variety of historical phonological processes,
and some discussion of these phenomena may help clarify the details of the
preceding sections. In the developments that led from spoken Latin through
Gallo-Roman to Old French, many unstressed vowels, particularly those in
nal syllables or in nonnal open syllables, were reduced to schwa and subsequently deleted. Such deletion normally affected all Late Latin vowels
except /a/, this vowel resisting deletion and remaining as schwa. Furthermore,
because of constraints on syllable structure, certain nal consonant clusters
were proscribed in Gallo-Roman and OF, and to block their appearance in
word-nal position, a second type of schwa vowel, a voyelle dappui, developed in that context. Examples of vowel loss, of /a/ becoming //, and of nal
support vowels are given in (54).
(54) Vowel loss and development of schwa
Latin
French
(a) loss of nal vowels

viginti
vingt
twenty
venit
vient
comes
habere
avoir
to have
scriptum
crit
writes
ferrum
fer
iron
amarum
amer
bitter
patrem
pre (OF pedre)
father
duplum
double
double
nostrum
ntre
our
inter
entre
between
juvenum
jeune (OF juevne)
young
numerum
nombre
number
hospitem
hte (OF hoste)
host
comitem
comte
count
Without going into detail, we may note that several of these forms show
the interaction of phonological changes. For example, the consonant cluster
requiring a support vowel in SF words like jeune or hte is no longer transparent, since changes subsequent to the development of that vowel have eliminated the cluster. In words like inter or comitem, a consonant cluster (and the
consequent need for a support vowel) is present only after the syncope of the
penultimate vowel.
Subsequent to the OF period, vowel loss continues, affecting the remaining
weak vowel, namely schwa. As we have seen, this process is still going on.
The examples in (54) allow us to understand some of the synchronic details we
have seen above. First, let us consider the constraint excluding schwa (wordinternally) from closed syllables. If the diachronic process of vowel reduction
did not fully apply in closed syllables, then it is evident that schwa would not
be produced in that context, and its absence synchronically is easily understood. In the same way, if schwa is the result of a weakening in unstressed
syllables or of the insertion of a nal support vowel following the stressed
syllable, the absence of stressed schwas is again not surprising. Finally, the
partial correlation between schwa (orthographic < e >) and feminine nouns
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Chapter 4
and adjectives may be claried. In Late Latin, the antecedent of Gallo-Roman

and OF, the great majority of feminine nouns and adjectives, those belonging
to the rst declensional class, had case sufxes with /-a/ as the characteristic
vowel. As the language evolved, this noun class retained the original gender
(and attracted, on phonological grounds, additional members, specically a
number of Latin neuter plurals with a collective meaning and also ending in
/-a/: folia [feuille leaf], festa [fte holiday], labra [lvre lip], vela [voile
sail], etc.). Because the nal /a/ was a feminine marker and because OF /-/
is the direct continuation of this marker, // became as well a general signal
of feminine gender in French. The correlation is less than perfect, however,
because nal // in OF has a second source as a support vowel following a
consonant cluster, independent of the gender of the noun or adjective involved.
Hence, we see many OF masculine nouns or adjectives also ending in //, leading to much of the ambiguity in the formal expression of gender in the modern
language. Examples are found in (55).
Nonetheless, a good rst approximation in attempts to determine the gender of

French substantives is provided by an examination of the nal segment of the
word: nal schwa often implies feminine gender.84
Needless to say, these historical developments are not without exception
(and are, in fact, much more complex than we have been able to outline here).
It is useful to discuss, however, one recurrent and more general type of exception that provides a contrast to vowel reduction and that is also reected in
alternations involving schwa: further evidence supplied by learned or borrowed words. A number of such words, from the OF period onwards, fail to
show reduced vowels, as in the word-internal /a/ in the following OF words:
amaritude bitterness (cf. amertume); citadelle citadel, from Italian cittadella; medicamental medicinal (cf. medecine); paradiset small paradise;
and so on. More important for our understanding of derivational morphology,
however, are pairs of learned and nonlearned words where schwa reduction
(among other changes) is absent in the learned forms in comparison with their
popular counterparts, as in (56).
(55) Ambiguity of nal //

(56) Nonreduced learned vowels versus reduced popular vowels
(a) feminine nouns and adjectives

robe
dress
salade
salad
ville
city
mine
expression
petite
(m. petit)
small
grosse
(m. gros)
fat
grande
(m. grand)
big
bonne
(m. bon)
good
(b) masculine nouns and epicene adjectives

clotre
cloister
type
type
maire
mayor
pre
bitter
jeune
young
double
double
vide
empty
tide
luke warm
Learned
Popular
appellation
appeler
designation to call
conglation
congeler
freezing to freeze
lvation
lever
elevation to raise
gnuexion
genou
genuection knee
npotisme
neveu
nepotism nephew
projectile
projeter
projectile to plan
rbellion
rebelle
rebellion rebel
rception
recevoir
reception to receive
tnacit
tenace
tenacity tenacious
divination
deviner
foretelling to guess
satisfaction
satisfaisant
satisfaction satisfying
Discussion of schwa in French, in other words, puts us immediately in contact with questions of phonetic detail, distributional constraints, orthography,
the lexicon, alternations between grammatically related forms, the phonological phrase, historical considerations, stylistic and regional variation, and, no
doubt, any other area of phonological investigation one might wish to name.
It is little wonder, therefore, that schwa continues to preoccupy students and
phonologists alike. Given the dynamics of the SF vowel system, this situation
is unlikely to change.
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Chapter 4
4.6
4.6 Semi-vowels
The SF phonological system contains the three semi-vowels (or glides, sometimes also called semi-consonants) /j w/. In articulatory terms, these semivowels correspond to the three high vowels /i y u/, being front unrounded,
front rounded, and back rounded, respectively, but they lack syllabic status.
These segments are illustrated in (57) and (58).
(57) French semi-vowels
/j/
//
/w/
iambe
iambic
huer
to boo
ouailles
ock
iode
iodine
huit
eight
ouate
cottonwool
ionique
Ionic
huile
iota
iota
yacht
oil
vieux
old
balayer
to sweep
effeuiller to thin out the leaves

gayer
to cheer up
essayer
to try
veiller
to awaken
lleul
goddaughter
loyal
loyal
payer
to pay
vieillir
to age
ouest
west
ail
garlic
huissier usher
oui
yes
bail
rent
yacht
cuiller
to gather
wallon
Walloon
mail
enamel
yaourt
yogurt
lui
him
week-end weekend
rail
rail
yeuse
oak
nuit
night
whisky
whisky
abeille
bee
yeux
eyes
puis
then
jouer
to play
brille
shines
yiddish
Yiddish
suer
to sweat
louer
to rent
lle
daughter
yoga
yoga
aiguille needle
avouer
to confess
maille
stitch
youpi
yippee
annuel
panoui
in full
bloom
annual
yucca
yucca
essuyer to wipe
secouer
to shake
hier
yesterday graduel gradual
anchois
anchovy
hirarque hierarchic habituel habitual
bourgeois middle
class
bien
well
insinuer to insinuate foin
hay
liaison
liaison
saluer
to greet
moi
me
lion
lion
usuel
usual
moins
less
pied
foot
moyen
medium
scier
to saw
noyer
to drown
tiers
third
roidir
to stiffen
viable
viable
soir
evening
(58) CL clusters and vowel semi-vowel alternations

/ijV/
bouclier
shield
// /[/
/w/ /u/
//
/w/
bruine
drizzle
adroit
adroit
brivement briey
bruit
noise
Blois
Blois
client
client
druide
Druid
croire
to believe
fabliau
fable
fruit
fruit
croix
cross
grief
grief
pluie
rain
gloire
glory
lvrier
greyhound truite
trout
octroyer to grant
pliable
pliable
/y/
prieur
prior
cruel
cruel
/u/
uette
slender
brouette wheelbarrow
quatrime fourth
trois
three
101
102
Chapter 4
sablier
hourglass uide
uid
clouer
triage
sorting out inuer
to inuence prouesse feat
triomphe
triumph
truand
gangster
vitriol
vitriol
truelle
trowel
trouer
to nail
to pierce
other derivatives), ville city (plus village and other derivatives), tranquille
tranquil, distiller to distil, and osciller to oscillate are the most common,
but the usual interpretation of < ill > involves /j/. Let us now move to a consideration of the phonology of the semi-vowels.
4.6.2
4.6.2 The Phonology of the Semi-vowels
While their articulatory properties may be straightforward, these sounds manifest a series of other characteristics involving their orthographic representation,
their distribution, and particularly their participation in a series of alternations
with the corresponding high vowels. We will deal with each in turn.
4.6.1
4.6.1 Orthographic Representations

of the Semi-vowels
Perhaps the most straightforward orthographic link is that between // and

< uV >. That is, // is uniformly represented by the letter , and the letter
 in that case must itself be prevocalic. (Not all prevocalic are //,
however, as we shall see.) Word-initially, the may be preceded by an
< h >, either aspirate (huit eight) or nonaspirate (huile oil), and // may
occur in word-initial or word-medial position. A consonant may precede // in
either of these contexts.
The back rounded semi-vowel /w/ is slightly more complicated. The normal
representation is < ouV >, initial or medial, preceded or not by a consonant
(or by < h > initially). However, certain instances of < w > are also realized as
/w/, while other instances of < w > are pronounced /v/ (whisky versus wagon).
The sequences < oi > and < oy >, moreover, require separate treatment: their
normal interpretation is /wa/ or, in nasalizing contexts, /w'/ (mois; moyen;
moins).
Finally, the status of /j/ is more complicated, both orthographically and phonologically. Orthographically, /j/ is represented primarily by < y > in wordinitial position, although there are also several instances of , some preceded by < h >: yaourt yogurt, iode iodine, hier yesterday.85 Immediately
following a consonant, word initially or word medially, /j/ is written with :
bien well, dernier last. Intervocalically, /j/ is divided between < y > and
< ill > (or < ll > following /i/): essayer to try, veiller to stay up, briller to
shine, with < ill > predominating numerically. In word-nal position, /j/ is
divided between < il > (ail garlic, deuil bereavement, ventail fan, rail
rail, sommeil sleep) and < ille > (abeille bee, canaille cheap, cdille
cedilla, feuille leaf, paille straw, rouille rust).86 Here again, there are subregularities: only < ille > occurs following /u/ (< ou >); < ll > is used instead of
< ill > after /i/ (), and only < lle > occurs in that context (with the exceptions of the loanwords drill and mandrill), and so on. Difculties arise with a
few forms where < ill(e) > is /il/, not /ij/: mille thousand (plus millsime and
Phonologically, the semi-vowels raise a number of interesting questions, the

rst involving their independent phonological status. Here, we must distinguish between /j/ and / - w/. The latter two segments are highly restricted
in their occurrence: they occur only in prevocalic position,87 and many analysts conclude that they are not independent phonemes. The basis for this conclusion, given the limitation of these segments to prevocalic position, is the
absence of a phonemic contrast between [y] and [] or [u] and [w] before
vowels; that is, the impossibility of a contrast between, for example, [yi] and
[i] or [ui] and [wi] in that position. From this, it is concluded that [] and
[w] are predictable positional variants (allophones) of /y/ and /u/, respectively.
The situation involving these segments is, however, slightly more complicated. First, we must take into account the constraints illustrated in (58) above.
There, we see examples of [y] and [w] preceding vowels, but these sounds
are themselves preceded by CL clusters (cruel /ky'l/, uide /yid/, brouette
/bu't/, clouer /klue/). If the larger context is taken into consideration, it
could be argued that the clusters block the appearance of the glides and that
the allophonic status of [] and [w] is preserved, since their predictability
is maintained. This argument is contradicted, unfortunately, by the existence
of words like monosyllabic (and monomorphemic) bruit /bi/, pluie /pli/,
Blois /blwa/, croix /kwa/. To this, we may add the well-known examples loi
law /lwa/ versus (il) loua (he) praised /lua/, trois three /twa/ versus (elle)
troua (she) pierced /tua/, which also seem to argue for a phonemic distinction (although perhaps somewhat articially, given the place of pass simple
forms in spoken French). This being said, the forms with the glides following
CL clusters are clearly in the minority, are of marked status, and often have
an explanation based on their etymology.88 Moreover, as we will see below,
there are additional arguments involving two types of semi-vowels that support phonemic status for // and /w/. As a result, we will, for the sake of convenience and where warranted, continue to use the symbols // and /w/, even
if in many cases the semi-vocalic status of these segments is predictable.
The case of /j/ is different in several ways. First, unlike its round counterparts, /j/ may occur postvocalically (as syllable coda) and preconsonantally as
well as prevocalically: paille straw /paj/, empaillement to stuff /#pajm#/,
feuille leaf /fj/, feuilleter to leaf through /fjte/, and so on. Secondly, there
are the well-known postvocalic /i/ /j/ contrasts in pays country /pei/ versus
paye pay /p'j/ or abbaye abbey /abei/ versus abeille bee /ab'j/. Further,
unlike the marked but possible appearance of // and /w/ following CL clusters
(pluie /pli/, gloire /glwa/), no instances of CLj occur in SF. We nd, instead
103
104
Chapter 4
of *CLjV sequences, the outcome CLijV: /plije/, not */plje/, for plier to fold;
/tablije/, not */tablje/, for tablier apron; and so on. Nor are we nished with
the idiosyncracies of /j/. This glide is also inserted automatically as a transitional segment whenever the diphthong < oi/oy > (/wa/) occurs prevocalically:
voit voyons see /vwa/ /vwajn/, croit croyez believe /kwa/ /kwaje/,
envoi envoyer shipment to send /#vwa/ /#vwaje/, joie joyeux joy
joyful /<wa/ /<waj/, loi loyal law loyal /lwa/ /lwajal/, and so on. In
fact, this transitional glide is even more widespread: balai balayer broom
to sweep /bal'/ /baleje/, ennui ennuyer boredom to bore /#ni/
/#nije/, appui appuyer support to lean on /api/ /apije/, and so on.
Finally, because of the presence of a number of sufxes in French that begin
with /j/, such as -ions, -iez, -ier, we nd frequent occurrences of geminate
/jj/, especially in imperfect or subjunctive forms of verbs when the verb stem
itself ends in /j/: cueuilliez were gathering /kjje/, fouillions were searching /fujjn/, as well as aiguilliez were directing /'gijje/, although less formal
speech allows pronunciation with a single /j/. In fact, those verbs that require
a /j/ to be inserted before a vowel-initial sufx (envoie envoyer /Cvwa/
/Cvwaje/, appuie appuyer /api/ /apije/, etc.) retain this /j/ before those
imperfect or subjunctive sufxes that begin with /j/, creating a large number
of additional /jj/ geminates, as in envoyions /Cvwajjn/, appuyiez /apijje/. All
these different processes demonstrate that the case of /j/ is unlike that of the
other semi-vowels // and /w/, in that it is impossible to derive /j/ from prevocalic /i/. As a consequence, the independent phonemic status of /j/ seems far
less controversial, in fact necessary.
We may now turn to another major alternation in SF: the alternation between
the high vowels /i y u/ and the corresponding semi-vowels in morphologically
complex forms. This alternation occurs across morpheme boundaries and is
most easily illustrated with vowel-nal verb stems, which (other things being
equal) have the full vowel in the singular indicative and the semi-vowel in the
innitive, as in (59).
(59) Vowel and semi-vowel alternations
/i/ /j+e/
(60) Gliding across word boundaries

o tes-vous all
/w'tvuale/
Where did you go?
si elle venait
/sj'lvn'/
if she came
ni avant, ni aprs
/njav#njap'/
neither before, nor after
tu arrives tard
/taivta/
Youre arriving late.
puis elle disait
/pj'ldiz'/
then she said
Finally in this section we should note a phenomenon involving glides that is

reminiscent of the behaviour of aspirate-h and in fact intersects with it in certain cases. Semi-vowels in French appear to behave in two separate ways, one
analogous to vowels, one to consonants, in the same way that h-initial words
are partitioned into two classes. Some glides, that is, permit liaison and elision
of schwa just like vowel-initial words (61b); others block it in consonantal
fashion, as in (61a).
tudie
tudier
modie
modier
to modify
manie
manier
to handle
(a) consonantal glides
distribue
distribuer
to distribute
il le jodle
/illjndl/
He yodels it. liode
/ljnd/
remue
remuer
to twitch
the
iodine
accentue
accentuer
to accentuate
le yaourt
/ljau/
the yogurt
les yeux
/lezj/
the eyes
secoue
secouer
le yoga
/ljnga/
the yoga
lyeuse
/ljz/
the oak
choue
chouer
to fail
/ljatys/
the
hiatus
avoue
avouer
to confess
/y/ /+e/
/u/ /w+e/
to study
Vowel-initial derivational sufxes also condition this alternation: mari mariage husband marriage /maja</, colonie colonial colony colonial
/knlnnjal/, relie relieur joins bookbinder /lj/, ignominie ignominieux ignominy ignominious /ignnminj/, and so on. As might be expected
given the constraint discussed above, the alternation is blocked by a preceding CL cluster (crie crier cry /kije/, conue conuer ow together
/knye/, cloue clouer nail /klue/), and conversion to a semi-vowel is even
optional for many speakers when only a single (or no) consonant precedes, as
a glance at Martinet and Walter (1973) or Juilland (1965) will conrm: hier
yesterday /j'/ or /ij'/, ruelle alley /'l/ or /y'l/, boue buoy /bwe/ or
/bue/, and many others.89 Lastly in this context, we may also note that the alternation may take place across word (or clitic) boundaries, as illustrated in (60).
This alternation, unlike the stylistically neutral gliding that occurs word-internally, is found in rapid speech, whether that speech is formal or not (although
greater rapidity often correlates with lesser formality).
to shake
(61) Two types of glides

(b) vocalic glides
la hirarchie /lajea5i/ the hierarchy lhiatus
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Chapter 4
la hue
/lae/
le huitime /litj'm/
the booing
les hutres /lezit/ the

oysters
the eighth
lhuile
/lil/
the oil
lhuissier /lisje/ the

hussar
le ouistiti
/lwistiti/
the marmoset louest
le western
/lw'st'n/ the western
loue
/lw'st/
the west
/lwi/
hearing
There is, not surprisingly, variation in additional items: lhyne or la hyne

hyena, dhier or de hier of yesterday, louate or la ouate cotton-wool, as
well as the frequent (but nonstandard) le iambe the iamb or le hiatus the
hiatus alongside liambe and lhiatus. Here, as elsewhere, one must simply
recognize the irregularity, as must be done as well with aspirate-h in general,
as we shall see below. This does not, of course, preclude theoretical discussion of how this irregularity should be described, again as we shall see. At
this stage, however, we may leave the discussion of specic aspects of the SF
vowel system, and return to a review of two more general matters.
4.7
4.7 Further Effects of the Phonological Phrase
In much of the preceding discussion, we have referred to distributional constraints that regulate the appearance of a number of SF sounds, normally by
excluding them from specic contexts. These constraints have been formulated
largely with respect to the notion of the word. As is well known, however, the
role of the word is often subordinated to that of the phonological phrase in
French phonology,90 and it is worthwhile to examine the status of several of
these distributional constraints in a phrasal context. The patterns with which
we are concerned are repeated in (62).
(62) Summary of distributional constraints
(a) mid vowels:
/e/ does not appear in closed syllables

/n/ and // do not appear in word-nal open
syllables
(b) nasal vowels:
nasal vowels may not precede vowels or nasal

consonants
(c) schwa:
schwa does not appear prevocalically or in

closed syllables
When words (including clitic pronouns and other dependent morphemes) are
put together to form phonological phrases, additional processes take place that
often override word-level constraints. This is the case, in fact, with the restrictions in (62), each of which is violated at the phrasal level. The mechanisms
directly responsible for these violations include, in addition to the simple concatenation of words, the processes of schwa deletion and the resyllabication
involved with enchanement and liaison.
The simplest examples are provided by aspirate-h words. When morphemes
ending in schwa or in a nasal vowel precede such forms, we nd both //
and nasal vowels in prevocalic position: le hros the hero /leo/, cette
housse this slipcover /s'tus/, un hros /eo/, mon hros /mneo/, and
so on. Likewise, sequences of words freely bring together nasal vowels and
nasal consonants, either because of liaison following a nasal vowel (en avril
in April /#navil/, un homme a man /nnm/) or because the second word
begins with a nasal consonant (en mai in May /#m'/, un matin one morning /mat'/). Schwa deletion also leads to contradiction of word-level restrictions. Whenever there are sequences of schwas in which deletion occurs, the
remaining schwas are inevitably in closed syllables: je ne te le dirai pas I
wont tell you. /<n.tl.diepa/, for example. Such deletion can also yield /e/
in a closed syllable: une heure et demie an hour and a half /yned.mi/,
ces remarques these remarks /se.mak/, and so on. Finally, resyllabication across word boundaries (enchanement) within the phonological phrase
moves a word-nal consonant to the beginning of the following word, potentially leaving // or /n/ in word-nal position: fort intressant very interesting /fn#'te's#/, une peur abominable a terrible fear /ynp#abnminabl/,
jeune homme young man /<#nnm/, and so on.
Despite the ease with which the above constraints are violated within
phrases, they remain generally valid at the level of the word, as is shown by the
adaptation of loan words, for example. SF speakers pronounce steak as /st'k/,
not */stek/; after-shave as /aft5'v/, not */5ev/;91 camping as /k#pi0/, not
*/k#mpi0/; tango as /t#go/, not */t#ngo/; and so on.92 The persistence of these
constraints argues, pace Delattre, for the continued relevance of the word as
a phonetic and phonological unit highly relevant to the functioning of French
phonology.93
4.8
4.8 Concluding Remarks
To conclude this discussion of the SF vowel system, we will return to the question of variation to consider what might be the state of the SF vowel system
if all of the mergers we have indicated as in progress are fully realized. The
changes in question involve // - /'/, /a/ - /#/, // - // and the complete neutralization of the mid vowels based on syllable structure (the loi de position).
Implementing all of these changes would produce the vowel system in (63).
107
108
Chapter 4
(63) The reduced vowel system

i
E
94
O
a
'
8.
There are rare instances of /'/ in nonnal syllables (e.g., bler [b':.le] to bleat,
ple-mle [p':l.m':l] any old way), but these are highly variable and need not
concern us further. For detailed discussion of this phenomenon, see Walter (1976),
chapter IV.
9.
Passy (1892), for example, notes much more extensive vowel length than is
allowed for by the description here.
Notes
2.
/e/ is found in nonnal closed syllables: meri emery /em.i/, mdecin doctor
/met.s'/ , cleri celery /sel.i/, etc. (all with lexicalized deletion of schwa). But
since nonnal syllables do not constitute a lengthening context, these examples
are not relevant to a discussion of vowel length. Within phrases, schwa deletion
can also produce closed syllables containing /e/, as in des melons some melons
/dem.ln/, a question to be discussed in the section dealing with schwa. We should
also note that verlan forms also systematically exclude /e/ from closed syllables:
bouger > gbou > geb /<'b/ sortir, not */<eb/, cond > dcon > dk /d'k/ cop,
not */dek/, and many others. (For a brief introduction to verlan, see chapter 7.)
In typological terms, this system is much less complicated than that of (1)
in section 4.0 above, and is even a system instantiated in certain dialects or
sociolects of French. Valdman (1993), for example, proposes a related simplied system as an appropriate starting point for learners of French as a second
language. We have retained the maximal system in this work, however, since
the functioning of the phonology itself, independent of second-language pedagogical considerations, appears best illustrated if we move from more to less
rather than from less to more, from reduction of the system rather than to
its expansion. The same approach will be applied in a consideration of the
SF consonant system, although, as we will see, the consonants raise far fewer
questions than do the vowels.
1.
7.
/e/ is rare in nal closed syllables, and largely if not exclusively restricted to
loan words from English: ale /el/, attach-case /ata5ekez/, date /det/, mail /mel/,
etc. Even here, there is variation, since Rey-Debove and Gagnon (1980) list ale
and cake as /'l/ and /k'k/ respectively, along with numerous additional words
adapted with /'/ from English /e/: airdale, brain, break, claim, cornakes, grapefruit, maid, milk-shake, raid, skate, teen-age, trade-union, and up-to-date are all
pronounced with /'/ according to their description. No doubt a greater familiarity
with English since that work was prepared has permitted the recent adaptation of
words with /e/ rather than /'/.
// and /w/ do not appear post-vocalically, nor may they appear in word-nal position (the two contexts are not mutually exclusive). Cacah(o)ute peanut appears
to provide the only common exception to the constraint blocking post-vocalic /w/.
3.
Compare this to Spanish, with the following inventory: /j w i e a o u/.
4.
Recall that normal stress in SF falls on the last syllable of a phonological phrase,
unless the nal syllable contains schwa, in which case stress is penultimate.
5.
Of these four consonants, only // consistently provokes lengthening. There is

variation for certain speakers with the other consonants, but the generalization
holds here for the standard variety we are describing. See Walter (1977: 4445).
6.
Length induced by such consonants is a more general phenomenon cross-linguistically; see Chen (1970).
10. Catach (1995: 1129 ff.) provides much useful information.

11. The lack of consistent use of < > for /#/ is indicated by words such as phrase,
proie prey, cadre frame, gars guy, gaz gas, sabre, tas pile, and many
others, which also contain the back vowel.
12. For the /'- '/ opposition in CF, see Santerre (1974); for a general survey of colloquial CF pronunciation, see Walker (1984).
13. It is important to note that this constraint applies at the level of the word. Once
words are concatenated into phrases and resyllabication occurs, the constraints
are relaxed, as we will see below in 4.7. The discussion of schwa also complicates
matters, since the merger of schwa with // produces an easily described set of
exceptions to this pattern, a matter described in 4.5.3..
14. For detailed discussion, see Warnant (1996). Warnant also notes that there is a
tendency for the rst singular future sufx to be pronounced /'/, thereby merging
it with a number of conditional forms. In fact, as Tranel (1987: 5153) shows, this
distinction is far from stable, even in SF. For further discussion focusing on the
role of the distinction in the verb system (where, despite some variation, it retains
considerable importance), see Richman (1976).
15. Jene jeune provides the only true minimal pair opposing // to // in this set
(with beugle aveugle providing an identical following context). Thus, while
both vowels occur in closed syllables, the distribution is not totally free, being
affected by both random and systematic factors (such as the inuence of /z/ and
// discussed below).
109
110
Chapter 4
16. Since // and /o/ are intrinsically long vowels, they will be realized as [] and [o]
respectively in these words.
17. As is often the case, there are a few exceptions to this constraint. For example,
Martinet and Walter (1973) list dinosaur, maure, saur, and taure (all spelled with
< au >) where a minority of their speakers have /o/ rather than /n/ before //.
18. The apparent presence of the schwa in words such as plerin, seulement, or
effeuillement does not sufce to create an open syllable, since the vowel is never
pronounced here in SF. We should note, however, that the distributional constraint
involving // before /z/ remains in effect, requiring // rather than // in words
such as heureusement fortunately (and others with -eusement). A few additional
exceptions (lieutenant, veulerie spinelessness) may be attributed to the inuence
of the stems in // (lieu place /lj/, veule spineless /vl/), a topic to which we
will return.
19. Mute-e, also known as schwa, is discussed in detail in section 4.5.
20. Recall that VCV sequences are syllabied V.CV within the phonological phrase. In fact, stems ending in CL clusters behave in the same way: trouble
troubler /tubl/ /tu.ble/.
21. The forms malheur misfortune /mal/ malheureuse /malz malz/,
peuple people /ppl/ peuplade /pplad pplad/, peur fear /p/ peureuse /pz pz/, where derivative pronunciations with // are frequent,
provide exceptions.
22. This word is exceptional in that the vowel causing the harmony is not the stressed
vowel, but the penultimate /i/.
23. In one of the very perplexing phenomena of French phonology, the presence of
orthographic < e > following the nal consonant, whether this < e > is realized
as schwa or not, does not result in an open syllable. Thus lpre, whether /l'p/ or
/l'p/, functions as a monosyllabic closed syllable for purposes of this alternation.
24. Despite the orthography in < >, Martinet and Walter (1973) note that this form
is often pronounced /apemidi/.
27. The question must remain open, however, since Landick (1990) presents results
that indicate that the phenomenon is still very much alive in her data (obtained in
the late 1980s from students at the Ecole normale suprieure and from employees
of the Parisian metro system).
28. (26) contains examples of /a #/ in monosyllables. The results are entirely comparable for these vowels in polysyllables, whether in the nal syllable or not.
Walter (1976: Chapter III) presents a comprehensive analysis of this pair of
vowels, clearly demonstrating the great variability in pronunciation. Further data
is available in Warnant (1997).
29. For additional such forms, characterized by Warnant as older Parisian speech, see
Warnant (1987).
30. Unlike CF, where -ation and -ois are frequently pronounced with /#/.
31. This correlation breaks down quickly, since there are numerous words that etymologically show deletion of consonants but no circumex: avocat lawyer < advocatus; coudre to sew < consuere; faire to make/do < facere; moudre to grind
< molere; noir black < niger; ouir to hear < audire; etc. On the other hand,
when we examine the forms in (10) or (27), or words such as ge < aetaticum
(OF eage); chsse reliquary < capsa; d must (past part.) < debutu (CL debitu,
OF deu); te ute < OF aute, ehute; jener to fast < jejunare; sr sure <
securu (OF seur); mr mature < maturu (OF meur); sol drunk < satullus; and
many others, we see the basis for a link between a circumex accent and historical
deletion. In other words, a circumex may often indicate deletion; no circumex
does not indicate no deletion.
32. See, for example, Fagan (1989), Mettas (1979).
33. E.g., Taulelle (1989), Lerond (1980). Lerond characterizes any pronunciation
with /#/ (which is subject to a separate notation) as vieilli Paris.
34. There are, in fact, additional shifts affecting the pronunciation of SF nasal vowels,
which Hansen (1998) discusses in detail. The most striking of these, discernable
in listening carefully to spontaneous speech, involves a movement of /'/ towards
/#/ and a shift of /#/ towards /n/, threatening distinctions such as blanc blond
white blond, vent vont wind they go. Neither of these innovations is as
far advanced as the /'/// merger, and they will not be discussed further here.
25. See Buben (1935) for a detailed treatment of this matter.

26. This sound is transcribed [nA] by Martinet and Walter (1973) and Walter (1973), a
notation that indicates that a full merger with // has not been achieved, but one
that also raises the possibility of overlap with realizations of //.
35. For an alternate and, to my mind, confusing approach to the transcription of nasal
vowels, see Valdman (1993: 111 ff.).
36. This merger is not taking place in other dialects, such as CF or MF.
111
112
Chapter 4
37. To this type of case we may also add two forms with non-: non-mtal /nnmetal/
and non-moi /nnmwa/. The word ennui boredom /#PK/ (and related forms: e.g.,
ennuyer) are also exceptional with respect to the *v constraint.
48. The variants il- (illgal) and ir- (irrel) are not productive and will not be discussed here. Tranel (1976) remains the denitive treatment of this form (or set of
forms).
38. The situation is somewhat more complicated if nonstandard forms are considered. Nasalization of stops can yield XN sequences (lendemain the next day >
/l#PO'/), as can verlan formations (maison house > zonmai /\nOG/), a variety
of disguised speech where violation of Xv is also found (argent money> gen-ar
/<#a/). For further discussion, see Walker (1999).
49. Standard references for this topic include Fouch (1969), Morin (1994), Nyrop
(1935), Pope (1934), Rheinfelder (1968), and Rochet (1976).
39. For speakers who have merged // and /'/, this alternation is between /'/ and
/yn/.
40. This pronunciation reects the normative approach of Warnant (1987). In fact, as
Martinet and Walter (1973) demonstrate, /nn/ and /nnn/ are also found prevocalically (non-tre as /nnn't/, /nn't/, or /nnn't/). The same variation may also be
found in the prex pan-: /pan/, /p#/, or /p#n/.
41. According to Warnant (1987), the two prexes circon- and circum- appear only
in preconsonantal position. In this context, one might expect the latter to end in a
nasal vowel (/sikn/), but SF contains many VNC or VN# sequences, rendering
attempts to predict the nasality of the prex vowel impossible.
50. We may point out here two additional distributional constraints on nasal vowels
that are also historically explicable: nasal vowels are absent in SF before //
and /j/. Historically, the palatal nasal arose in OF through various processes that
required that the source of // be followed by a vowel. But if that is the case,
the following vowel removes the context needed for nasalization to occur. Hence,
only oral vowels are found preceding //. As for the constraint blocking *Xj, once
again /j/ can only arise historically through various diphthongization or palatalization processes in contexts that never involve a nasal consonant preceding those
sources. The absence of such a consonant preceding /j/ excludes, as a result, any
subsequent nasal vowel from that position.
51. The last two words belong to a different register and should probably not be considered to belong to SF. Binse means mess or hassle; clamser (also spelt clamecer) means kick the bucket.
52. For details, see Walter (1982) or Carton et al. (1983).
42. There are very few examples where the prex en- appears before a vowel; along
with enivrer, we nd only enamourer and enamouracher to become enamoured
of.
43. We will not deal here with highly idiosyncratic cases such as divin enfant, liaison in compound words or xed expressions, etc. For further discussion of such
examples, see Fouch (1959) or Tranel (1981, 1987).
44. See, for example, Greenberg (1966), Dressler (1985a, b).
45. Recall the constraint from 4.4.2 above blocking nasal vowels from appearing
before other vowels or before nasal consonants. This data set presents additional
exceptions, to which we will return shortly.
46. Martinet and Walter (1973) and Warnant (1987), among others, list senamourer
(both with and without an accent aigu on the rst < e >), pronounced as /#namue/
or /enamue/. In the former case, it would be exceptional as well.
47. Most authors note the possibility of variation (presence or absence of denasalization) for mon, ton, son, with preservation of a nasal vowel predominating. See
Fouch (1959: 436). Tranel (1987: 81-85) presents an excellent survey of this
variation.
53. In fact, CF allows for long vowels to occur in nonnal syllables much more
frequently than does SF, and these vowels may also optionally diphthongize, as
in pantoute not at all (= pas du tout) [p#wt7t], je comprends I understand
[5knwp]3], etc. Walker (1984) discusses this phenomenon in more detail.
54. For further discussion, see (from among literally hundreds of possibilities) Dauses
(1973), Dell (1973a, b), Fouch (1959), Varney Pleasants (1956) or Verluyten
(1988).
55. The same applies to dervied verbs: refaire, dfaire, contrefaire, satisfaire. The
exceptional nature of the interpretation of < ai > as schwa is shown by the fact
that certain speakers in Martinet and Walter (1973) pronounce faisan and related
forms, as well as satisfaisant, with /'/ rather than schwa.
56. Analysts are generally in agreement that the vowel in structures such as dites-le
say it, sur ce on that, parce que because, Je, soussign I, the undersigned is // or //, not //.
57. Here, as elsewhere, loanwords may provide sporadic exceptions: edelweiss
/ed'lv's/ or /ed'lvajs/, et cetera /'ts'tea/. Note also the prex en-, as in enivrer,
enamourer, with no orthographic accent.
113
114
Chapter 4
58. The situation is somewhat more complicated, in reality. An accented < > is
needed in words like chelon or branler because the < ch > represents a single
segment (unlike < x >, which represents /ks/ or /gz/), and because CL clusters
syllabify with the following vowel, leaving the < e > in an open syllable and subject to pronunciation as schwa unless an acute accent on the letter is included.
Thimonnier (1970) discusses such cases in detail.
69. See Hansen (1997), Faygal (1998) for recent discussion of this phenomenon.
70. A glance at Fouch (1959: 91-139) will conrm the complexity of the behaviour
of schwa.
61. For additional discussion of this matter, see Morin (1988) or Walker (1993).
71. The situation with aspirate-h is, in fact, signicantly more complicated. While
schwa is always possible here, it may also be deleted, provided that the preceding
consonant is not subsequently linked to the initial vowel of words with aspirate-h.
Thus, schwa cannot delete in || le huitime the eighth (i.e., in phrase-initial syllables) but may drop in cest le huitime its the eighth /s'l.itj'm/. In the same
fashion, the schwa of une and cette can also drop in une housse, cette housse, provided no linking occurs: /yn.us/, /s't.us/; */y.nus/, */s'.tus/. In such cases, a slight
glottal constriction (glottal stop) may precede the initial vowel of the aspirate-h
word. Nonlinking also applies to nal consonants not followed by schwa: sept
haches /s't.a5/ (although even this constraint may be overridden in rapid speech:
/s'.ta5/). Cornulier (1981) provides a detailed discussion of these matters.
62. Recall the discussion of the denition and role of phonological phrases from 3.3
above. We will use || to indicate phrase boundaries.
72. See Morier (1975: 146-168, 378-88) for an insightful discussion of the complexities that arise in poetry.
63. Since schwa can never appear in absolute word- (hence phrase-) initial position,
we use this expression as a convenient shorthand for schwa in the initial syllable
of a phrase.
73. For further discussion, see Gadet (1989), Guiraud (1965), or the classic works of
Bauche (1920) and Frei (1929).
59. But see Malcot and Chollet (1977) for a study which identies schwa more
closely with //.
60. Note that the realization of schwa as // in this context furnishes an exception
to the constraint that excludes // from word-nal position. The constraint must,
accordingly, be modied to refer to original //, not to those that are an innovative pronunciation of //.
64. In less formal speech, schwa may delete in the contexts of (38b): r(e)garde-moi
a, d(e)main on part, etc.
74. Cf. Hansen (1994), Walker (1996), Walter (1982: 221-23). Even Warnant (1987)
contains numerous word-specic indications of stability: pelade as /plad()/ with
stable schwa in the rst syllable; menu as /m()ny/ with the comment mais le
se maintient souvent but the is frequently retained (passim).
65. Inclusion of the symbol C following the schwa is not, strictly speaking, necessary here we could simply refer to the number of preceding consonants. If
the segment following the schwa is a vowel (e.g., la vie humaine human life
/laviym'n/), the schwa is prohibited by the constraint in (35ii) above. If no segment follows the schwa, we are no longer dealing with a phrase-internal context,
since the schwa would be in nal position. Lastly, recall that the constraint against
schwa in closed syllables prohibits structures of the type CC#, if syllabied
CC..
75. Although schwa emulates // in most cases, there are indications in a small
number of forms that the merger is leading // to behave as unstable schwa by
deleting in word-internal syllables: djeuner to have lunch /de<ne/, rajeunir to
rejuvenate /a<ni/, pharmaceutique pharmaceutical /famastik/, malheureux
unfortunate /mal/ are the examples most frequently cited. This is an inverse
type of evidence in support of the merger of schwa and //.
66. An alternate pronunciation, /m'dsin/ (or with assimilation, /m'tsin/) reects the
constraint against /e/ in closed syllables, a constraint violated on numerous occasions when schwa deletion is involved (and, as we have seen, in various other
ways as well).
67. See Malcot (1976: 99-103) for a detailed study of preferences governing which
of two schwas deletes in sequences of this type.
68. Dell (1973a) established the standard for any discussion of this phenomenon. See
also Dell (1973b, 1978).
76. See Morin (1988), Tranel (1988), or Walker (1993) for further data and discussion.
77. Various spelling reforms have proposed standardizing the orthography of these
sets of verbs, since no phonological differences are involved in the different
orthographic representations.
78. Spontaneous speech frequently manifests pronunciations where the /'/ is absent:
/a5t'/ (or /a5te/).
115
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Chapter 4
79. Once again, Morin (1988) and Tranel (1988) provide the best analyses of this
complex set of problems. Morin, in particular, discusses nonstandard variation
in the stem vowels of these verbs ranging from the general substitution of /'/
(lever raise /l've/) to forms where schwa appears under stress (je jeute I throw
/<<"t/) or where an expected /'/ disappears, having been replaced by schwa (elle
cachte /'lka5t/ for elle cachte she seals). This latter usage seems to be expanding.
80. For some discussion of the phonological consequences of learned status, see Dell
and Selkirk (1978), Zwanenburg (1983), or Walker (1975).
89. There is also an infrequent tendency in less standard speech to insert a transitional
/j/ or /w/ (not //) glide when the conversion to a semi-vowel does not occur:
diode diode /dijnd/, boueux muddy /buw/, etc.
90. Consult in this regard Delattre (1940).
91. Recall, however, the complexities involving the appearance of /eC./ (/e/ in
closed syllables) in unassimilated loan words (e-mail /imel/) and in nonnal syllables discussed earlier.
92. Samba, however, can exceptionally be pronounced both /s#mba/ and /s#ba/.
81. We limit ourselves to the simplest cases here.

82. As a result, these popular varieties allow schwa in absolute initial position, as well
as in closed syllables, in contrast to SF.
83. As in SF, schwa does not appear adjacent to vowels: je pars Im leaving /<pa/
versus jarrive Im arriving /<aiv/; la vie the life /lavi/, not */vi/. For discussion of schwa in MF, see Durand (1990: 27-34) or Durand, Slater and Wise
(1987).
84. Assignment of gender to French nouns rests on a complex series of phonological, morphological, semantic, etymological, and purely arbitrary factors. Gender
assignment is less arbitrary than might rst be thought, however. For a detailed
analysis of the predictability of French gender, see Tucker, Lambert, and Rigault
(1977) or, in a more pedagogically oriented vein, McCarter (1987).
85. For some speakers, hier is pronounced /ij'/.
86. In orthographic terms, we consider the < y > in forms like paye intervocalic,
despite the pronunciation /p'j/.
87. To be completely accurate, we should note that a few (unassimilated) loanwords
have variants with postvocalic /w/: outlaw as (among others) /awtlo/ or /utlaw/,
crown-glass as /kawnglas/, etc.
88. Basically, the glides following CL clusters developed historically as elements of
diphthongs that arose in the course of phonological change. Their appearance following the clusters is accidental in the sense that they derive from simple vowels
in that context, and the simple vowels involved were unconstrained in their occurrence. Trois is from Latin tres, for example, gloire from gloria, fruit from fructus,
and several complicated series of changes led to the current diphthongs developing from simple vocalic nuclei.
93. For detailed arguments leading to the same conclusion, see Rochet (1977) or
Lyche and Girard (1995).
94. These three symbols, a traditional archiphonemic notation in French phonology,
represent the neutralization of an opposition between the higher-mid and lowermid vowels /e o/ and /' n/.
117
119
Chapter 5
Consonants
5.0
5.0 The Consonant System
Unlike the vowel system, the SF consonant system is typologically straightforward. With the possible exception of //, it contains no segments of great
phonetic complexity, nor is its structure unduly complicated. Whatever difculties arise are found not in the segmental inventory, but in the behaviour
of word-nal consonants, a topic of considerable descriptive and theoretical
interest. Before addressing that issue, however, there are several preliminary
matters to examine. The SF consonant inventory is given in (1); the consonants
are exemplied in (2).
(1) SF consonants
labial apical palatal velar uvular
obstruents
stops
voiceless
voiced
voiceless
voiced
<
fricatives
sonorants
nasals
liquids
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Consonants
Chapter 5
(2) Examples
#__
V__V
Moreover, not all .CL, LC., or CC. combinations are possible, and the fricative
/s/ also supplies some atypical cases. Representative examples are given in (3),
divided into normal and more marked categories.
__#
pas
step
appt
lure
cep
stock
tas
pile
athe
atheist
net
clean
cas
case
accord agreement sec
dry
bas
low
abb
abbot
snob
snob
dos
back
adieu
adieu
bled
village
gai
gay
aguets lookout
bague ring
fe
fairy
effet
effect
nef
nave
ses
her
assez
enough
bis
repeat
chez at
hacher to chop
hache axe
ville city
avant
rive
zone zone
misre misery
quinze fteen
<
geai jay
agir
to act
ge
age
before
bank
m mai
May
amont uphill
me
soul
nez
nose
anne year
ne
donkey
gnle hooch agneau lamb
bagne penal colony
swing jive
lai
raie
lay
alle
lane
thread
line
arrt
stopping
tir
shooting
A recurrent topic of discussion in consideration of the consonant system

involves distributional constraints affecting consonants. For our purposes,
these constraints are best outlined in terms of the structure of the syllable: consonants and consonant groups in syllable-initial and syllable-nal position. In
SF, all single consonants may be found syllable-initially, with the exception
of /0 /, whose marginal status we will discuss in more detail below. Likewise,
all consonants occur in syllable-nal position. The situation becomes more
interesting when we consider groups of consonants because here (as in all
languages), there are severe restrictions on both the size and composition of
consonant clusters. In SF, for example, the size of such clusters, with rare
exceptions, is limited to a maximum of two consonants in syllable-initial
position and three in syllable-nal. In syllable-initial position clusters are
normally composed of a stop or fricative followed by a liquid or by any
consonant followed by a glide.1 In syllable-nal position, conversely, we see
liquids followed by fricatives or stops, as well as CL. and some CC. groups.
(3) Consonant clusters in SF

(a) syllable-initial (unmarked)
/pl/
plan
plan
/p/
prend
takes
/t/
train
train
/kl/
clair
clear
/k/
crime
crime
/bl/
blond
blond
/b/
brun
brown
/d/
drame
drama
/gl/
gland
acorn
/g/
grand
big
//
an
custard tart
/f/
front
forehead
/v/
vrille
tendril
/sp/
sport
sport
/st/
store
blind
/sk/
score
score
/sm/
S.M.I.C
minimum wage
/sn/
snob
snob
(b) syllable-initial (marked)

/spl/
splendeur
splendor
/sp/
sprint
sprint
/st/
strict
strict
/skl/
sclrose
sclerosis
/sk/
scrupule
scruple
/vl/
vlan
wham
/zb/
sbire
henchman
121
122
Consonants
Chapter 5
/gz, ks/ xnophobe/xylophone
xenophobe/xylophone
/kl/
oncle
uncle
/ps/
psychique
psychological
/k/
vaincre
to conquer
/pn/
pneu
tire
/gl/
ongle
ngernail
/pt/
ptrodactyle
pterodactyl
/g/
aigre
sharp
//
bufe
buffalo
/f/
chiffre
gure
/v/
vivre
to live
(c) consonant-glide groups syllable-initially

/j/
//
/w/
/p/ pied
foot
puits
well
poids
weight
/t/ tient
holds
tuile
tile
toile
cloth
/k/ inquiet
worried acuit
acuteness quoi
what
/lp/
poulpe
octopus
/b/ biais
skew
buisson
bush
boue
buoy
/lb/
galbe
curve
/d/ Dior
Dior
duel
duel
doigt
nger
/lt/
halte
stop
/g/ guier
g tree arguer
to deduce gouache gouache
/ld/
solde
balance
/f/ able
reliable fuir
to ee
foin
hay
/lk/
calque
tracing
/s/ sieur
Mister sueur
sweat
soie
silk
/lg/
algue
seaweed
/5/ chiot
puppy chuintant hushing
chouette cute
/lf/
golfe
gulf
/v/ avion
airplane revuiste
/lv/
salve
salvo
outdated zouave Zouave
/ls/
valse
waltz
/lm/
calme
calm
/ln/
Elne
(place name)
/p/
charpe
scarf
/b/
verbe
verb
/t/
porte
door
/d/
absurde
absurd
/k/
arc
bow
/g/
orge
barley
/f/
cerf
stag
/v/
morve
mucus
/s/
farce
farce
/z/
quatorze
fourteen
/5/
torche
torch
/z/ asiatique Asian
dsuet
reviewer voit
sees
/</ plagier
to
juillet
plagiarize
July
joint
/m/ miette
crumb muet
mute
mouette seagull
/n/ panier
basket nuage
cloud
noix
nut
/l/ lion
lion
uvula
loin
far
// rien
nothing ruine
ruin
rouage cogwheel
luette
(d) syllable-nal2
/pl/
triple
triple
/p/
pre
bitter
/bl/
table
table
/b/
sobre
sober
/t/
quatre
four
/d/
cidre
cider
joint
123
124
Consonants
Chapter 5
/</
a urge
its urgent
/d/
ordre
order
/m/
charme
charm
/kl/
cercle
circle
/n/
borne
milestone
//
hargne
spite
/sk/
lorsque
when
/l/
perle
pearl
/st/
verste
verst
/sp/
aspre
rocky hillside (in Roussillon)
/sp/
aspe
reel
/st/
ministre
minister
/st/
ouest
west
/spl/
asple
spore
/sk/
risque
risk
/skl/
muscle
muscle
/sm/
ralisme
realism
/5t/
chtre
(interjection)
/ft/
naphte
naphtha
/lsk/
Volsques
Volsci
/lk/
spulcre
sepulchre
/lt/
ltre
lter
/pt/
sceptre
sceptre
/mn/
hymne
hymn
/0g/
pouding
pudding
/ps/
clipse
eclipse
/kt/
spectre
ghost
/pt/
crypte
crypt
/kst/
texte
text
/ts/
ersatz
substitute
/kst/ dextre
/tm/
rythme
rhythm
/tl/
axolotl
axolotl
/t5/
match
game
/dn/
hydne
hydnum
/d</
bridge
bridge
/kt/
acte
act
/ks/
syntaxe
syntax
/km/
drachme
drachma
/gm/
egme
composure
/p/
pourpre
purple
/b/
arbre
tree
/t/
meurtre
murder
dextral
What is interesting about these combinations is the fact that, as soon as we

leave the unmarked groups, the words take on a decidedly learned or foreign
avour such items are often the result of learned or foreign borrowings,
and, in many cases, are not yet fully integrated into the standard phonological
system. Examples of this type demonstrate that the phonology of French is far
from being a perfectly homogeneous and internally undifferentiated system,
either in terms of the status of the constraints that are operative or (as we have
seen in the case of the vowels) in terms of an invariant norm.
It is also striking that the number of syllable-nal clusters exceeds by a
signicant margin those found initially. There are, however, ways of explaining this discrepancy. First, as the examples make clear, most of the syllablenal clusters are dened with respect to word-nal position, and historically
a schwa was present in these forms. This schwa would have allowed for bior polysyllabic words with a different syllabication, as in pourpre purple
/pu.p/, ltre lter /l.t/, rythme rhythm /it.m/, egme composure
/'g.m/ instead of monosyllabic /pup/, /lt/, /itm/, and /'gm/ respectivley, with the clusters in the latter forms being reduced to more simple (wordinternal) sequences when nal schwa is present. We see this further in the syl-
125
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Consonants
Chapter 5
labication of derived forms such as absurdit absurdity /ap.sy.di.te/, quatorzime fourteenth /ka.tn.zj'm/, clipser to eclipse /e.klip.se/, rythmique
rhythmic /it.mik/, muscl muscled /mus.kle/, ltrer to lter /l.te/,
egmatique phlegmatic /'g.ma.tik/, etc., where the complex nal clusters of
the roots (/apsyd/, /katnz/, /eklips/, /itm/, /myskl/, /lt/, and /'gm/) are
simplied (decomposed) when a vowel-initial derivational sufx is added. In
other words, the set of nal clusters has been somewhat articially expanded
and complicated by the loss of word-nal schwa, but when word-medial
sequences are considered, the situation is much less intimidating.
Nor should it be thought that any permitted nal cluster can combine with a
permitted initial cluster in the interior of words, despite the fact that either type
may occur elsewhere. To take an extreme example, nal /skl/ (muscle) may not
combine with initial /spl/ (splendeur) to form a medial sequence */VsklsplV/.
To use a more realistic case, nal /k/ (arc) may not precede initial /5/ (chez)
in French, despite the fact that both are simple and well-formed independently.
That is, no SF word contains the internal sequence */Vk5V/. As Morin (1987)
has demonstrated, signicant further restrictions, beyond the scope of this
description, apply to the combination of syllable codas and onsets word-internally.
Finally, we should return to the issue of consonant-glide clusters in word-or
syllable-initial position (#CGV, .CGV), since such groups provide an opportunity to exploit the differing syllabic representations outlined in chapter 3
(section 3.1) above. Note rst that the preceding inventory allows for #CGV
clusters, but not for structures of the form #CCGV (i.e., with two consonants
preceding the glide). But how, then, can we account for the relatively frequent
items with just that shape (cf. bruine drizzle, fruit fruit, pluie rain, croire
to believe, gloire glory, trois three, from (58) in section 4.6 above)? The
answer resides in the assignment of the glide to a complex syllable nucleus
rather than to the initial cluster, as in (4) rather than (5)
(5) Complex onset; simple nucleus
m
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
C L G
This differential assignment of the glide in .CGV versus .CLGV onsets allows
us to preserve the unity and simplicity of the constraints on initial clusters. It
also means, in fact, that glides may be of two types in French. Some, those that
appear in initial clusters, are more consonant-like. Others, those appearing in
the nucleus, are more vowel-like.
Interestingly, this differential representation correlates directly with another
distinction we have already seen in the discussion of glides and aspiration. We
saw in the examples of (61) in section (4.6) that some instances of the glides /j
w/ permit elision and liaison while others block these processes: liode the
iodine, lhuile the oil, louest the west versus le yacht the yacht, le huitme
the eighth, le western the western, respectively. This behaviour may also be
described using distinct syllabic representations. Those glides that block elision
and liaison will be assigned to an initial consonantal position in the syllable, as
in (6), thereby identifying the words as consonant-initial:
(4) Simple onset; complex nuclus

(6)
m
rhyme
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
onset nucleus coda
C L
G V
(bruine, croire, etc.)

(yacht)
127
128
Consonants
Chapter 5
Since the initial consonant position is lled, this class of words behaves in
a fashion similar to other words beginning with consonants: liaison does
not occur, because there is no space available into which a liaison consonant could move. Exceptionally, schwa may also be maintained even
in these VCCV structures, as in jen prends le huitime Im taking the
eighth. /<#p#litj'm/ versus jen prends le neuvime Im taking the ninth.
/<#p#NPvj'm/, although deletion is normal in both cases phrase-internally.3
Here, the consonantal glides also condition behaviour in a way parallel to
aspirate-h (for a detailed discussion of the latter, see section 5.4). In words like
huitre oyster or ouest west, where both liaison and elision take place (les
huitres /lezit/; louest /lw'st/), the glide is considered as part of the syllable
nucleus, as in (7):
(7)
as an unacceptable syllable contact, and an epenthetic consonant was inserted

between the two segments, as indicated in (8).
(8) Epenthetic consonants in OF
l+
>
ld
m+ >
mb
n+
>
nd
>
nd
s+
>
st
z+
>
zd
m+l
>
mbl
m
Various explanations have been proposed for this transitional consonant,
linked to the articulatory transition between the segments in question or to
their relative phonological strength.4 In any event, we note that the inserted
consonant agrees in voicing and in place of articulation with the rst consonant: voiceless /t/ after /s/, voiced /d/ elsewhere; labial /b/ after /m/, apical
/t/ or /d/ elsewhere.5 In addition to its intrinsic interest, epenthesis has left a
number of traces in the morphology of SF, traces that may help to illuminate
the behaviour of irregular verbs in particular. Consider the forms in (9).
rhyme
onset nucleus coda
C
G V
C C
(9) Remnants of epenthesis

(huitre)
Since the onset is empty, liaison can occur. Since a nal schwa in any preceding word is immediately followed by the nucleus rather than by a word-initial
consonant, elision can occur. Thus, we see how a type of representation that
makes explicit formal distinctions between syllable structures can account in
a unied way for processes that initially appear dissimilar. Such theoretical
developments are particulary important in a language such as French, where
the nature of syllables plays such a large part in the functioning of the phonology.
This concludes our description of the general constraints on sequences of
consonants in SF. Before turning to more specic topics, however, we will
illustrate one case where a restriction of this type has left a signicant trace
in French morphology where an examination of the phonological history of
French illuminates certain irregularities in verb conjugations and elsewhere.
The case involves an excursus into the domain of consonantal epenthesis.
At the earliest stages of OF, nasals, liquids and fricatives appeared freely in
syllable-nal position (_.), and could be followed by a syllable-initial liquid
(_.L). However, when syllable-nal /l m n s z/ preceded /l/ or // (e.g.,
l., as in OF molre to grind), this cluster was subsequently interpreted
falloir
faudra
be necessary
valoir
vaudra
be worth
moulons
moudre
grind
rsolvons
rsoudre
resolve
cumulatif
comble, combler
cumulative packed, ll in
humilit
humble
humility humble
numro
nombre
number number
simuler
semble
simulate seem
tenir
tiendra
hold
venir
viendra
come
craignons
craindre
fear
(OF cremons - criembre)
incinrer
cendre
connaissons connatre
incinerate cinder
know
129
130
Consonants
Chapter 5
naissons
natre
be born
paraissons
paratre
appear
sera
tre
be
cousons
coudre
sew
These forms recapitulate, in a sense, several elements of the phonological history of French. The early precursors (Late Latin, effectively) of the words in
the right-hand column contained a vowel that initially separated the segments
conditioning epenthesis. When that vowel dropped, the sequences of (8) were
created, and epenthesis took place. Subsequent changes (some of which we
will explore below) involved vocalization and then loss of the /l/, nasalization
of a preceding vowel and loss of the nasal consonant, or loss of preconsonantal
/s/: compare OF faldra /falda/, nombre /nnmb/, conoistre /knnnjst/ with
modern faudra /foda/, nombre /nnb/, and connatre /knn't/, respectively.
From this perspective, the notoriously irregular verbs of (9) may be seen to be
historically regular (in that they reect the regular operation of a number of
sound changes). This data indicates, once again, that SF is the heterogeneous
result of interacting and overlapping historical processes, and that history can
often provide explanations for situations that otherwise seem inexplicable.
5.1
5.1 Geminate Consonants
All of the consonants exemplied in (2) of section 5.0 are single or simple
consonants, despite an orthographic representation that may include double
letters: abb abbot, accord agreement, effet effect, and so on. SF does
contain long or geminate consonants, however. Such geminates may arise
in a number of ways.6 Perhaps the simplest examples occur in the irregular
verbs courir to run, mourir to die, acqurir to acquire and related forms
(e.g., accourir to rush up, parcourir to travel, conqurir to conquer,
senqurir to inquire, etc.), where the future and conditional paradigms
(courrai /kue/, courrais /ku'/, mourrai /mue/, mourrait /mu'/,
acquerrai /akee/, etc.) show a geminate // in opposition to the remaining verb forms (courir /kui/, mourais /mu'/, acqurons /aken/, and
so on).7 Secondly, as we might expect, the deletion of schwa may, on occasion, bring identical consonants into contact, and these two consonants merge
into a single long consonant: la-dedans inside /ladd#/, honntet honesty
/nn'tte/, saintet saintliness /s'tte/ (also /s'te/), deuximement secondly
/dzj'mm#/, embaumement embalming /#bomm#/, bizarrerie strangeness
/bizai/, verrerie glassworks /v'i/, and so on. Thirdly, particularly in
more formal contexts, a number of learned words containing orthographic
geminates may also be pronouned with phonological geminates: additif additive /dd/, arrogant arrogant //, attique Attic /tt/, collgue colleague
/ll/, immdiat immediate /mm/, innombrable innumerable /nn/, and so on.
When we turn to a phrasal context, many additional geminates arise through

the juxtaposition of words where the rst ends in a consonant identical to the
initial consonant of the second (with or without schwa deletion). Examples are
given in (10).
(10) Geminate consonants in phrasal contexts
sept tables
/s'ttabl/
seven tables
cette table
/s'ttabl/
this table
chaque consonne /5akknsnn/
each consonant
robe bleue
blue dress
/nbbl/
bague grandiose /bagg#djoz/
imposing ring
chef formidable
/5'ffnmidabl/
great chef
grosse salade
/gossalad/
large salad
juge genevois
/<y<<'nvwa/
Genevan judge
drame mystrieux /dammistej/
mysterious drama
ville lorraine
city in Lorraine
/villn'n/
Finally, still in a phrasal context, there is a phenomenon in SF known as

the accent dinsistance or emphatic stress, a phenomenon that seems to be
expanding in contemporary usage. One of the manifestations of this accent
involves the reinforcement through gemination of the rst consonant of the
highlighted word, a word normally occurring near the beginning of the phonological phrase, as in (11).
(11) Accent dinsistance
quel crtin
/k'lkket'/
What an idiot!
cest formidable
/s'ffnmidabl/
Its great.
cest terrible
/s'tt'ibl/
Its awful.
cest super beau
/s'ssyp'bo/
Its really nice.
magnique, son geste /mmaiksn<'st/
Magnicent, his
gesture.
Gemination is not the only manifestation of this type of accentuation. We will

return to the problem in the chapter on prosody. In the meantime, we turn to
the next consonantal domain, that dealing with nasal consonants.
131
132
Consonants
Chapter 5
5.2
5.2 Nasal Consonants
Modern SF has the four nasal consonants /m n 0/. Only the rst two, however, are fully integrated into the system in the sense that they are free of major
distributional restrictions. /m/ and /n/ occur freely word-initially, medially, and
nally, and are found in various types of consonant clusters from which // and
/0/ are excluded:
(12) Constraints on nasal consonants
mon
/mn/
non
/nn/
my
no
8
blow
gnon
*/n/
*ngon
*/0n/
smash
/sma5/
smash
snob
/snnb/
snob
*sgnob
*/snb/
*sngob
*/s0nb/
asthme
/asm/
asthma
prisme
/prism/
prism
a confusion between, for example, la nielle corn-cockle and lagnelle lamb

(f.). Currently, according to Walter (1976: 392 400), the tendency appears
to be to favour /nj/ intervocalically and word-initially, with // preferred preconsonantally and word-nally. The distinction appears to be on the verge of
complete neutralization (with [nj] and [] in complementary distribution or
free variation). The phoneme //, in other words, appears to be facing elimination from the SF system, although conservative speakers maintain the / - nj/
opposition and Warnant (1987: LXXXIX) continues to see it as part of le bon
usage. Representative examples, taken from Walter (1976), are given in (13),
where again a majority of the informants represented in Martinet and Walter
(1973) (on which Walter [1976] is based) have /nj/ rather than // in initial and
prevocalic position, while // is favoured preconsonantally and nally.10
(13) // and /nj/
(a) /nj/ favoured
The constraints on // and /0/ arise from the diverse historical processes by
which they were introduced into French. The palatal nasal //, for example,
was produced through various palatalization processes, and the contexts where
these processes took place were limited. Hence, the contexts where // may
occur are similarly limited. For example, no // occurs without a following
vowel in the orthography (vigne vine, vigneron wine grower, never *vign)
since vigne < Latin vinea [winja] with assimilation of [n] to the [j] and retention of the nal [a] as [].9 A full discussion of the nasals will involve examination of the interchange between // and /nj/, of the mechanism of introduction
of /0/ through loanwords, and of a process of nasal assimilation.
5.2.1
5.2.1 The // /nj/ interchange
The relationship between palatal // and a /nj/ sequence is still evident in SF.
For many speakers, // may be realized as /nj/, while for others /nj/ may occur
as //. Some speakers, in other words, have // in both peigner to comb and
panier basket, magnique magnicent and manier to handle, others have
/nj/ in both, and still others maintain a // /nj/ distinction. The confusion may
even extend to word-initial position, since Martinet (1945: 170 73) reports
(b) // favoured
agneau
lamb
baignerais
would bathe
baigneur
bather
bnignement
benignly
daigner
to deign
clignement
blinking
gagnant
winner
cognement
banging
oignon
onion
gagne-pain
job
peigner
to comb
renseignement information
poignard
dagger
rogne-pied
hoof trimmer
saigner
to bleed
saignement
bleeding
signier
to mean
gnagnan
soppy
cagne
preparatory
class
gnocchi
gnocchi
charogne
carrion
gnognotte
useless
chtaigne
chestnut
gnle
hooch
empoigne
grab
gnon
bash
hors-ligne
road
allowance
133
134
Consonants
Chapter 5
5.2.2
5.2.2 The Importation of /0/
If SF appears to be losing a nasal consonant on the one hand, it appears to be

gaining one on the other. The velar nasal /0/ is establishing itself as part of the
system, albeit with certain restrictions on its distribution due to the mechanism
of its importation. The primary source of /0/ is through English loan words
containing the sufx -ing, as seen in (14).
(14) /0/ in SF
brieng
brieng
camping
camping
doping
doping
footing
jogging
forcing
pressure
jogging
jogging/sweat suit
karting
go-carting
lifting
face lift
living
living room
parking
parking lot
shopping
shopping
smoking
evening suit
training
training
yachting
yachting
zapping
channel surng
The majority of occurrences of /0/ are found in word-nal position for an obvious reason: their source is the English sufx -ing. We do nd /0/ in monomorphemic forms as well, although again virtually exclusively in loan words, as
well as a few instances of the segment in preconsonantal position (campingcar /k#pi0ka/, chewing-gum /5wi0gnm/). The fact that -ing may be used productively in SF (with the meaning of the French derived forms not being predictably related to the source, as in parking parking lot or garage, caravaning
camping in a trailer, lifting face lift, living living room) indicates an independence for the sufx and with it a growing independence of the phoneme
/0/. This independence is reinforced by a process we will examine in the next
section, the assimilation of stops to a following nasal (e.g., diagnostique diagnostic /dja0nnstik/), which introduces additional instances of the segment and
which expands the contexts in which /0/ may occur. This expansion may well
provide for, or at least contribute to, full integration of /0/ into the phonology
of SF, particularly since the parallelism of the bilabial and dental series /p b
m/, /t d n/ reinforces the position of /0/ among the velars: /k g 0/. Finally in
this context we should note that certain speakers pronounce word-nal < ing
> as /i/, not /i0/. The former pronunciation appears to be restricted to older,
more conservative speakers, and is being gradually replaced (Warnant [1987],
for example, uses only /0/), a replacement no doubt aided by the increasing
knowledge of English in France and perhaps linked as well to the instability of
// in general, as we saw in the preceding section.
5.2.3
5.2.3 Nasal Assimilation
We have already seen that /0/ may appear as a variant of /g/ in certain contexts.
This appearance is part of a more general process whereby oral stops become
nasal in nasal contexts, such contexts provided by either a preceding nasal
vowel or a following nasal consonant. Examples of the phenomenon are given
in (15).
(15) Nasal assimilation
dinghy
dinghy
dring
ding-a-ling
gong
gong
junker
type of falcon
lemming
lemming
ring
boxing ring
shilling
shilling
swing
jive
tanker
tanker
lendemain
next day
/l#nm'/
< /l#dm'/
vingt-deux
twenty-two
/v'nd/
< /v'td/
diagnostique
diagnostic
/dja0nnstik/
< /djagnnstik/
subjonctif
subjunctive
/syb<n0tif/
< /syb<nktif/
bombe atomique atomic bomb
/bnmatnmik/
< /bnbatnmik/
et demie
and a half
/enmi/
< /edmi/
grande ville
big city
/g#nvil/
< /g#dvil/
/l#0pnpyl'/
< /l#gpnpyl'/
langue populaire working-class

speech
135
136
Consonants
Chapter 5
/s#nm#de/
< /s#dm#de/
bande de voyous bunch of crooks
/b#ndvwajo/
< /b#ddvwajo/
longue marche
/ln0ma5/
< /lngma5/
pied
[RLG]
foot
chambre de bonne maids room
/5#mdbnn/
< /5#bdbnn/
tiens
[VL']
hold
on va prendre
le mtro
were taking
the metro
/nvap#nlmeto/
</nvap#drlmeto/
quiet
[ML']
calm
puis
[pi]
then
une pingle
de cravate
tie clip
/ynep'0dkavat/
</ynep'gldkavat/
tuile
[til]
tile
en novembre
in November
/#nnv#m/
cuir
[ki]
leather
poids
[RYC]
weight
toit
[VYC]
roof
coiffe
[MYnf]
headdress
plan
[RN#]
plan
clair
[MN']
clear
prince
[p's]
prince
trou
[tu]
hole
crpe
[k'p]
crepe
an
[HN#]
custard tart
pneu
[pP]
tire
aplatir
[CRNCVK]
to atten
attrait
[at']
appeal
ancrer
[#ke]
to anchor
je pars
[5pa]
Im leaving
je te vois
[5tvwa]
I see you
je fais
[5f']
Im doing
chemin faisant
[5O'fz#]
in so doing
la cheville
[la5Xij]
the ankle
un cheval
[5Xal]
sans demander
without asking
long march
< /#nnv#b/
These examples show that nasal assimilation may occur both word-internally
and between words. Such assimilation, perhaps surprisingly, is widespread in
both standard and less formal speech (especially in the pronunciation of the
numbers e.g., vingt twenty, trente thirty which allow it freely). The nal
set of four examples illustrates the interaction of schwa and liquid deletion
with nasal assimilation, since the simplication of word-nal CL# clusters is
also closely associated with the process.11 Be that as it may, when the velar
consonant /g/ participates in the process, we see that /0/ is again introduced
into the phonology of SF, this time in preconsonantal position. We may also
note that nasal assimilation (as in grande ville large city /g#nvil/) provides a
further set of circumscribed exceptions to the constraint blocking nasal vowels
from appearing before nasal consonants. As a result, it serves to illustrate the
complex interaction between synchronic phonotactic constraints, stylistic variation and historical phonological change.
5.3
5.3 Voicing Assimilation
Nasal assimilation is only one of the general assimilatory processes affecting

French consonants. Another affects voicing and calls into play notions of consonantal strength and syllable structure. Once again, this phenomenon occurs
both within and between words, and is exemplied in (16), where a superscript
or subscript indicates a normally voiced consonant that has devoiced, while
a subscript indicates the converse, a normally voiceless consonant which has

become voiced.
(16) Voicing assimilation

(a) syllable-initial
12
a horse
(b) word-nal
pre
[CR]
bitter
tratre
[t't]
traitor
137
138
Consonants
Chapter 5
encre
[#k]
ink
triple
[tipN]
triple
valser
[valse]
to waltz
socle
[snkl]
plinth
altitude
[altityd]
altitude
soufe
[su]
breath
partir
[pati]
to leave
soufre
[suf]
sulphur
fertile
[f'til]
fertile
sarcasme
[sakasO]
sarcasm
quel cretin
[k'lket']
What an idiot!
ralisme
[ealisO]13
realism
par qui
[paki]
by whom
rythme
[itO]
rhythm
caneton
[kantn]
duckling
mannequin
[mank']
model
(c) syllable-nal obstruents
(d) syllable-nal sonorants (no assimilation)
obtenir
[nDVni]
obtain
hameon
[amsn]
sh hook
absurde
[CDU[d]
absurd
drame typique
[damtipik]
typical drama
mdecin
[OGFU']
doctor
bonne chose
[bnn5oz]
good thing
ci-dessus
[UKFU[]
above
feuillet
[fjte]
foliated
robe chic
[nD5KM]
chic dress
paillet
[pajte]
sequined
lots of problems
paille tasse
[pajtase]
packed down straw
tas de problmes [VCFRnbl'm]

tout de suite
[VWFUKV]
right away
blague stupide
[blaIstypid]
stupid joke
brave type
[bCXVKR]
good guy
onze parties
[n\pati]
eleven parts
village corse
[vila<kns]
Corsican village
jeter
[a<te]
to throw away
jupe bleue
[<ypDN]
blue skirt
cette dame
[s'VFCO]
this woman
chaque bote
[5CMDYCV]
each box
chef de le
[5GHFl]
leader
nous faisons
[PWH\n]
were making
neuf bouteilles
[nfDWV'L]
nine bottles
tasse de caf
[VCUFMCHG]
cup of coffee
dix secondes
[diUgnd]
ten seconds
il se marie
[KUOCi]
hes getting married
tche difcile
[V#5FKHKUKN]
difcult job
To begin with, we may note that voicing assimilation is a realization of the

general cross-linguistic tendency of consonant clusters to agree in voicing.
Thus, SF words may begin with /sp, st, sk/, but not with /*sb, *sd, *sg/, and
end in /pt, kt, gd/ (concept, acte act, Agde [place name]) but not /*bt, *kd,
*gt/, and so on.14 Moreover, it is the weaker sounds, the liquids, nasals,
and semi-vowels that most frequently undergo voicing assimilation, becoming devoiced in the context of a voiceless consonant, particularly when they
follow that consonant (as in [16a-b]). We must, however, indicate two signicant exceptions to this ordering: (i) the pronoun je (following loss of the
schwa) assimilates fully to the voicelessness of any following obstruent, as
in je tiens I hold. /5tj'/, je pense que oui I think so. /5p#skwi/, quest-ce
que je fais What am I doing? /k'sk5f'/, etc.; and (ii) the classic example of
word-internal /5v/ (achever /a5fe/, not */a<ve/), where the second consonant
assimilates to the rst. In syllable-initial cases, moreover, devoicing is often
considered to be partial; that is, the consonant is voiceless during the rst part
of its articulation, but becomes voiced part way through.
Syllable-nal obstruents (as distinct from the syllable-nal sonorants illustrated in [16b] and [16d]) provide the most complexity, since assimilation can
occur to either a voiceless or a voiced following consonant. In either case, we
are dealing with a VC.CV syllabication, and the syllable-nal consonant, as
the one occupying an inherently weak position, is the one that assimilates, as
the examples of (16c) indicate. Thus, voiceless consonants become (partially)
139
140
Consonants
Chapter 5
voiced; voiced consonants become voiceless.15 Syllable-nal sonorants (the

liquids, nasals, and glides) resist this assimilation and retain full voicing, as in
(16d). Here, as elsewhere, there is much individual variation in the degree of
assimilation, which (as in the case of other assimilatory processes) is greater in
rapid speech, itself an indication of the lesser degree of formality of the speech
situation.16
5.4
5.4 Aspirate-h
Aspirate-h refers, somewhat contradictorily, not to a current phonetic problem in SF, but rather to a division of the lexicon that raises both phonological
and morphological issues. There is, in other words, no sound [h] in SF.17 The
term is used to indicate a distinction among words containing, usually beginning with, the letter < h >. Nonaspirate-h words, the productive and larger
class, behave transparently. There is no phonetic realization of the letter < h >
and the words function, with respect to several processes that we will discuss
below, exactly as if they were vowel-initial or as if there were an empty syllable onset preceding the vowel. Aspirate-h words, by contrast, also show no
phonetic traces indicating < h >, but they behave as if they were consonantinitial or as if the syllable onset were lled by a consonant of some type.18
Despite the potentially confusing nature of the term, we will continue the tradition of using aspirate to refer to this latter, irregular class. Before discussing
the processes involved, let us exemplify aspirate and nonaspirate-h words.19
(17) Aspirate-h words (partial list)
Nonaspirate-h words (small sample)
hache
axe
habile
skilful
haddock
haddock
habitude
habit
haie
hedge
haleine
breath
haine
hatred
harmonie
harmony
har
to hate
herbe
grass
haler
to haul in
hrsie
heresy
halte
stop
hertz
hertz
hameau
hamlet
hsiter
to hesitate
hanche
hip
heure
hour
handicap
handicap
heureux
happy
hanter
to haunt
hexagone
hexagon
harceler
to harass
hiver
winter
hardi
bold
homme
man
harem
harem
honnte
honest
hareng
herring
honneur
honour
haricot
bean
hpital
hospital
harmattan harmattan
horreur
horror
harnais
harness
hte
host
hasard
stroke of luck
htel
hotel
hte
haste
huis
door
haubert
coat of mail
huile
oil
hausser
to raise
hutre
oyster
haut
high
humain
human
heaume
helmet
humble
humble
hennir
to neigh
humeur
mood
hraut
herald
hros
hero
htre
beech tree
heurt
collision
hideux
hideous
Hitler
Hitler
hocher
to nod (ones head)
Hollande
Holland
homard
lobster
honnir
to hold in contempt
honte
shame
hors
apart from
houblon
hops
housse
cover
huit
eight
hurler
to scream
hussard
hussar
141
142
Consonants
Chapter 5
(18) Variable words (with or without aspirate-h) 20

hatien
Haitian
hameon
sh hook
harpaille
herd
21
lice, but metaphorically two individuals who are louses, etc.).

What, then, are the phonological consequences of aspiration? Fundamentally,
although aspirate-h words (or syllables) begin phonetically with a vowel, they
behave as if they begin with a consonant. There are several phonological process in French that are sensitive to the distinction between vowel-initial and
consonant-initial words: liaison and enchanement, elision and the general
behaviour of schwa, and the selection of certain special variants of adjectives
and determiners. These processes are illustrated in (19).
htelle
small piece of meat
htif
precocious
heimatlos
stateless
hellne
Hellenic
hernie, herni
hernia, herniated
hiatus
hiatus
le garon
Hittite
/lgasn/
public housing
la lle
hittite
H.L.M.
22
(19) Effects of the word-initial segment

#C
#V
(a) elision in le, la:

the boy
autumn
/lotnn/
the girl
/laj/
These lists, despite their apparently straightforward nature, hide a certain
number of complexities and require further comment. First, the aspirate-h
words, as do most others, participate in a number of derivational paradigms.
Complex forms derived from aspirate-h words also normally contain aspirate-h, in conformity with the behaviour of the base. Thus, derived hachoir
cleaver, hache-viande meat grinder, hardiesse boldness, htivement
hurriedly, hautain haughty, hauteur height, haut-parleur loudspeaker,
heurter to strike, hideusement hideously, hollandais Dutch, hors-jeu offside, hors-la-loi outlaw, housser to cover, huitime eighth, rehausser to
heighten, dehors outside, and so on, are also aspirate-h words. There are,
however, several items where the situation is less regular. First, among the
base forms that vary between aspirate and nonaspirate-h, we note two items
where the derivatives are uniformly nonaspirate: hameon and hellne vary,
but hameonner to hook, hellnique Hellenic, plus the additional sufxed
forms hellnisant, -isation, -iser, -isme, and -iste are exclusively nonaspirate.
Hte has several aspirate derivatives (e.g., htivement), but htif precocious
varies and may be nonaspirate. Aspirate hraut, hros, and Hitler have the
exclusively nonaspirate derivatives hraldique, hraldiste, hroine, hroique,
hroisme, and hitlrien respectively. On the reasonable assumption that the
aspirate forms are irregular (a proposal to be justied below when we consider
the phonological implications of aspiration), the behaviour of the variable and
derived forms may be seen as a step towards regularization: the tendency for
words to pass from the marked aspirate to the unmarked nonaspirate class.
This same tendency is more general cross-linguistically, affecting the relationship between basic and derived or neological forms, where the latter often lose
irregularities present in the base (e.g., leaf leaves but Toronto Maple Leafs;
life lives but Miller High Lifes; mouse mice but two computer mouses; two
lautomne
lglise
the church
/legliz/
(b) elision of schwa:

lorsque nous
when we
/lnsknu/
double jeu
lorsquil
when he
/lnskil/
double play
/dubl</
double chec
double failure
/duble5'k/
(c) enchanement:
vite parti
left quickly
vite arriv
arrived
quickly
/vit.pati/
/vi.taive/
chaque personne each person
chaque enfant each child
/5ak.p'snn/
/5a.k#f#/
(d) liaison:
les personnes
the people
the children
/le.z#f#/
/lep'snn/
petit livre
les enfants
small book
petit enfant
small child
/pti.t#f#/
/ptiliv/
(e) special forms:
beau livre
nice book
bel emblme
nice emblem
143
144
Consonants
Chapter 5
/boliv/
nouveau livre
new book
/nuvoliv/
ce livre
this book
/sliv/
du livre
/dieo/
nouvel objectif new objective
nous hassons
/nuv'lnb<'ktif/
/nuaisn/
cet emblme
this emblem
/s't#bl'm/
of the book
/dyliv/
vieux livre
/b'l#bl'm/
de lemblme
old book
vieil objet
old object
ce haut
mon admission my admission
/so/
mamezn/
/mnnadmisjn/
du haut
#aspirate
#nonaspirate
ma maison
my house
nice helmet
new hazard
vieux hros
le hros
this top
/leo/
la housse
lhomme
the man
/lnm/
the cover
/laus/
lheure
/ma.a5/
/l/
what a shame quelle honneur what an
honour
/k'lnt/
quatre hros
/k'lnn/
four heros
/kateo/
quatre honneurs four honours

/katnn/
(c) enchanement:
sept htres23
seven beeches sept htes
/s't.'t/
quel hraut
seven hosts
/s'.tot/
which herald quel homme
/k'l.eo/
which man
/k'.lnm/
(d) liaison:
dix hrauts
ten heralds
dix hommes
new outt
cet htel
this hotel
of the top
de lhtel
of the hotel
/dlot'l/
old hero
vieil homme
old man
/vj'jnm/
my ax
mon honneur
my honour
/mnnnn/
the hour
(b) elision of schwa:

quelle honte
ma hache
nouvel habit
/s'tot'l/
/vjeQ/
the hero
nice hotel
/nuv'labi/
/dyo/
(a) elision in le, la:
bel htel
/b'lot'l/
/nuvoaza/
/vj'jnb<'/
/vjliv/
nous honorons we honour

/nu.znnnn/
/bo.om/
nouveau hasard
/dl#bl'm/
we hate
(e) special forms:

beau heaume
of the emblem
/di.znm/
ten men
To this data we may add certain minimal pairs that also demonstrate the distinctive role played by aspiration: leau the water le haut the top, laine
the groin la haine the hatred, lauteur the author la hauteur the
height, lair the air le hre the wretch, ltre the being le htre the
beech tree, lheure the hour le heurt the blow, lle the island le hile
the hilum, dors sleeps dehors outside, and so on.
As the examples show, aspirate-h words parallel the behaviour of consonantinitial words, despite the fact that phonetically they begin with vowels.24 This,
then, is their phonologically irregular behaviour, and it is little wonder that we
see steps, albeit minor ones, leading towards their regularization. In fact, informal and popular speech goes further in this direction, since many commentators note errors that involve liaison with putatively aspirate-h words: les haricots the beans /lezaiko/, les handicaps the handicapped /lez#dikape/, les
homards the lobsters /leznma/, ils harclent they harrass /ilzas'l/, and so
on. Interestingly in such cases, the errors in liaison do not appear to extend
to elision in the articles. While one might well say /lezaiko/, lharicot for le
haricot has not yet appeared. There are also cases showing liaison in the plural,
but not the singular: un hors-doeuvre /ndv/ versus des hors-doeuvre
/dezndv/, or un(e) hernie /yn.'ni/ (with no enchanement) versus des
hernies /dez'ni/.25 General schwa elision also appears to be expanding, continuing a trend noted by Damourette and Pichon at the beginning of the
145
146
Consonants
Chapter 5
twentieth century, since in rapid speech schwa may sometimes fail to appear
before aspirate-h, although enchanement does not occur: donne-moi une
housse [yn.us], une bonne hache [ynbnn.a5], and so on.26 Any full regularization in the direction of nonaspirate status, therefore, is likely to spread
slowly and to be linked to specic contexts or types of behaviour, and is at best
in its very early stages. This process will no doubt be further complicated by
the appearance of recent loan words, largely from English, that are spelled with
< h > and that, for many speakers, contain an initial phonetic [h]: half-track,
halva, hard-top, herdbook, highlander, hobby, holding, home, and so on.27
5.4.1
5.4.1 Other Types of Aspiration
(20) Two types of glides

Vocalic
le iambe
/lj#b/
iamb
liode
/ljnd/
iodine
le yaourt
/ljau/
yogurt
les yeux
/lezj/
eyes
le yoga
/ljnga/
yoga
lyeuse
/ljz/
oak
/ljatys/
hiatus
la hirarchie /lajea5i/
heirarchy lhiatus
la hue
/lae/
booing
les huitres /lezit/ oysters
le huitime
/litj'm/
eighth
lhuile
/lil/
lhuissier
/lisje/ usher
le ouistiti
/lwistiti/
marmoset louest
le western
/lw'st'n/ western
louie
5.4.2
5.4.2 Historical Comments Regarding < h >
We have been using the term aspirate to indicate a type of phonological

behaviour where certain forms spelt with < h >, despite a pronunciation beginning with a vowel, behave as if they were consonant-initial. There are, in other
words, two types of vowel-initial words: aspirate and nonaspirate. In fact, it is
not only words spelt with < h > that exhibit this behaviour. We have already
seen one additional indication of such bipartite structures in the section on
semi-vowels; the data is repeated here for information.
Consonantal
envers non envoi He said envers, not envoi. /iladi#v'nn#vwa/, and so
on. This behaviour affects the use of numbers and letters in particular, a situation that serves to conrm the complexity of aspiration in general: le onze
eleven /lnz/, not */lnz/; son onzime eleventh /snnzj'm/, not */snnnzj'm/;
le h letter h /la5/; du y letter y /dyig'k/, not de ly */dlig'k/, for example. As might be expected, the situation here is still far from stable. We nd
page onze page eleven /pa<nz/ with elision, not */pa<nz/; il est onze heures
Its eleven oclock. /il'tnz/ with liaison; lh aspir aspirate-h /la5aspie/
with elision; le huit eight with no elision but dix-huit eighteen /di.zit/ with
liaison; and so on.
oil
/lw'st/
west
/lwi/
hearing
Here again, the two types of glides (which we might also call aspirate and
nonaspirate) act in a way that correlates exactly with that shown in (19), to
which we may add the expected variation: lhyne or la hyne hyena, dhier
or de hier yesterday, louate or la ouate cotton-wool, and so on. Finally,
to complete the picture, we should note certain additional structures, such as
acronyms or metalinguistic usages (where forms are cited as linguistic objects)
in which, despite the presence of an initial vowel, neither liaison nor elision
occurs: les SDF rclament the homeless ask for /le'sde'feklam/; il a dit
An examination of the lists in (17 18) indicates that many of the aspirate-h
words have a non-French or borrowed avour, while the nonaspirates (with
the obvious exceptions of hertz and heimatlos) appear more Latinate. This
impression is correct: nonaspirate words are largely derived from Latin and
in the general history of the language lost the [h] very early (i.e., during the
late Empire, prior to the diversication of the Romance languages, much less
the beginnings of French). Since the [h] had disappeared, these words were
consequently vowel-initial and free to participate in the historical processes
conditioned by the presence of a vowel that led to the phenomena of liaison
and elision so characteristic of French. On the other hand, the majority of the
aspirate forms arise from Germanic or other loan words and were introduced
into the language after the loss of the original Latin [h]. As a consequence, this
segment was not deleted by the initial historical process, and was present phonetically when liaison and elision were implemented. Aspirate-h words, that
is, were in fact consonant-initial at this early stage, and the [h], just like other
consonants, blocked liaison and elision. When this [h] was itself subsequently
lost, liaison and elision had hardened (i.e., were no longer fully productive)
so the newly appearing vowel-initial words resulting from the second loss of
[h] failed to be affected and preserved their idiosyncratic status. As we have
noted, this marked status leads to some uctuation in their current behaviour,
but not (yet) to full regularization.
In this and other respects, the current lexicon of SF is a mixture of forms
reecting different historical stages and processes. This mixture, particularly
the aberrant status of the aspirate-h forms, has led to various theoretical proposals, the most abstract of which seek to assimilate these forms to consonantinitial words through the introduction of a phantom consonant. While there
is no room to debate these issues here, one might argue that the best solution
is simply to recognize aspirate words as exceptional (a status conrmed by the
changes they are undergoing) and to mark them as lexically distinct, a solution
adopted by lexicographers but resisted by phonologists, who prefer, in many
cases, to seek generalizations while minimizing or ignoring sets of lexical (and
other) exceptions.
147
148
Consonants
Chapter 5
5.5
5.5 Final Consonants
With the possible exception of schwa, no topic has more preoccupied students
of French than the behaviour of nal consonants. Most attention has gone to
liaison, and we will devote ample time to that matter in due course. First, however, we must review a somewhat more prosaic issue word-nal consonants
in general: their stability, role in the morphology, and relation to the orthography. As (2) in section 5.0 above makes clear, all SF consonants may appear
in word-nal position and three of them (/ t l/) are very frequent, whether
considered lexically or textually. Statistics gleaned from Juilland (1965) also
allow the conclusion that SF has no major sanctions on closed syllables,
despite claims that it is primarily an open syllable language. (As might be
expected on typological grounds, open syllables are more frequent, but there
also exist productive processes, such as schwa deletion and the formation of
acronyms and abbreviations, that produce closed syllables.) The situation is
complicated by the role of orthographic < e >, which, in the great majority of
cases, does not result in an open syllable phonologically but is instead an indication that the nal (orthographic) consonant is to be pronounced. The issue
is not, therefore, one of phonotactics, but rather one of lexical representation:
which specic words end in which consonants?
After the basic division into vowel-nal28 and consonant-nal morphemes
(e.g., agenda /a<'da/, zro /zero/ versus arc bow /ak/, fat smug /fat/), we
must divide consonant-nal morphemes into two fundamental groups dened
on the basis of their phonological behaviour: those that end in a permanent
consonant (vite quickly, dame woman, ville city, pre father, net clean,
islam Islam, l thread, hiver winter, etc.) and those whose nal consonant is latent, unstable or, in modern parlance, oating (we will use the term
latent). The former type of consonant is present in all realizations of the morpheme in question;29 the latter varies present in certain phonological, morphosyntactic or lexical contexts, absent in others.
5.5.1
5.5.1 Stable Final Consonants
As the name implies, stable consonants are not subject to variation they are
permanent parts of the morphemes or words in question. Among these consonants, there is a further division to be made, linked to the orthography. The
most straightforward group of words with stable nal consonants ends not in
the consonant itself, but in orthographic < e >.30 A second set contains bare
consonants in the orthography, and the difculty here is to distinguish between
bare consonants that are stable and those that are latent. The examples in (21)
illustrate the two types of stable consonants.
(21) Stable consonants 31

(a) word-nal < e >
(b) bare consonants
/p/ crpe
crepe
cap
cape
/t/ gte
shelter
mat
dull
/k/ banque
bank
cognac
cognac
/b/ robe
dress
snob
snob
/d/ vide
empty
bled
village
/g/ bague
ring
zinc /z'g/, erg zinc, erg
/f/ gaffe
blunder
soif
thirst
/s/ bouillabaisse
sh soup
atlas
atlas
/5/ riche
rich
Foch
(surname)
/v/ rive
shore
Kiev
Kiev
/z/ trapze
trapezoid
gaz
gas
/</ juge
judge
hadj (/ad</)
haj
/m/ femme
woman
islam
Islam
/n/ baleine
whale
lichen
lichen
// cagne
preparatory
course
/l/ rafale
gust
bal
dance
// mre
mother
mer
sea
As indicated, one major difculty in dealing with the group in (21b) involves
the relationship between the orthography and the phonology. How does one
know when to pronounce bare nal consonants? While ultimately there will
be some arbitrariness in the phonological patterning, there are also generalizations to be extracted from this material. In what follows, we refer, in summary
form, to Tranel (1987: 154 67 and to Moody (1978).32 Those interested in
further details should consult the original sources. Much of this data will identify latent rather than stable consonants; we will deal with the former in the
next section. As for stable consonants, the lexical entries for these words pose
no problem: the consonant in question is directly included in the phonological
representation without need for further specication as to its status.
149
150
Chapter 5
(22) Realization of bare orthographic consonants

B: rare; normally pronounced (exception: plomb lead /pln/)
C: relatively rare; pronunciation varies (parc park /pak/ versus porc
pig /pn/); silent after nasal vowels (banc bank /b#/), with the
exception of donc therefore, usually /dnk/
D: relatively rare; normally silent (exceptions: sud south, week-end,
other loan words, and liaison [grand homme big man, prend-il is he
taking] where it is pronounced /t/)
F: relatively rare; normally pronounced (exceptions: clef key[also
cl], nerf nerve)
G: relatively frequent; pronounced after vowels; silent after < r > (with
the exception of erg /'g/) and < n >; (sufx -ing is /i0/)
K: rare; always pronounced (e.g., bifteck steak)
L: relatively frequent; normally pronounced (exceptions: cul ass,
sol drunk, and several words in < -il >: fusil rie, outil tool, gentil
kind, etc.)
M: rare; pronunciation varies (maximum /maksimnm/ versus parfum
perfume /paf/); use of nal < m > to indicate nasalization of
preceding vowel (faim hunger /f'/)
N: frequent; normally indicates nasalization of the preceding vowel
(bon good /bn/, n end /f'/, an year /#/), except polysyllabic words
in < Cen > are /C'n/ (abdomen /abdnm'n/, pollen /pnl'n/; exception:
examen examination /egzam'); normally pronounced in English loans
(gin /d<in/, blue-jean /blud<in/); frequent realization in liaison contexts
P: rare; normally silent (exceptions: cap cape, handicap, cep vine
stock, slip underwear, stop, etc.)
Q: rare; pronounced in cinq ve and coq rooster
R: very frequent; normally pronounced (exception: monsieur Mister
/msj/), except in words ending in < er >, which yield the possibilities
/e/, /'/, //: /e/ in innitives in < -er > (parler to speak /pale/);
the adjectives dernier last /d'nje/, entier whole /#tje/, leger light
/le<e/, premier rst /pmje/; and the sufxes -ier and -er (croupier
/kupje/, boucher butcher /bu5e/); /'/ elsewhere (cher expensive
/5'/, er proud /fj'/, enfer Hell /#f'/, hiver winter /iv'/,
gangster /g#gst'/, revolver /evnlv'/), except for some English
loans in < -er >, were it is // (leader /lid/, speaker /spik/)
Consonants
S: very frequent and variable; situation complicated by the use of

< s > as an inectional marker for plurals and second person singular
verb forms; extensive liaison; silent (except for liaison) in plural
endings, verb endings, adverbs, and prepositions (e.g., alors then,
toujours always, dans in, vers towards; exception: jadis formerly
/<adis/), nouns ending in < Vis > (e.g., Franais Frenchman, bois
wood), and adjectives (e.g., bas low, pais thick, gros fat,
confus confused); pronounced in words ending in < -ss, -ps > (e.g.,
express fast train, laps lapse); variable elsewhere (ours bear /us/
secours help /sku/, virus /viys/ abus abuse /aby/, vis screw
/vis/ avis opinion /avi/, pataqus mistaken liaison /patak's/
progrs progress /png'/, and many others), but more frequently
silent in these cases
T: like < s >, very frequent and variable; extensive use as third
person inectional marker (il peut, ils peuvent he/they can), where
it is always silent (except in liaison); normally silent in words ending
in < ait, aut, uit, oit, et, ot, at > (souhait wish, haut high, fruit,
droit right, guichet counter, sot silly, chat cat), after nasal
vowels (gant glove, vent wind), and after < r > (art, vert green);
normally pronounced following < c, l, p, s > (correct, contact, volt,
abrupt, concept, ouest west, test; exceptions: distinct /dist'/, succinct
/syks'/, exact /'gza(kt)/, suspect /sysp'(kt)/, il est he is /il'/); variable
elsewhere (dcit /desit/ esprit mind /'spi/, knock-out /knnkut/
debout standing /dbu/, brut /byt/ dbut /deby/, etc.)
X: relatively frequent; pronounced /s/ in six six /sis/, dix ten /dis/,
pronounced /ks/ in learned forms (thorax /tnaks/, sphinx /sf'ks/,
larynx /la'ks/, phnix phoenix /feniks/); normally silent elsewhere,
including as a plural or verb ending (choux cabbage, je veux I want,
prix price, paix peace, voix voice, faux false, doux soft, deux
two)
Z: rare; pronounced in fez /f'z/, gaz gas /gaz/, jazz /d<az/; silent
elsewhere, including the verbal suffx < -ez >, assez enough, chez
at (except in liaison), rez-de-chausse ground oor, raz de mare
tidal wave
(< h > is rare in isolation (e.g., Allah), and never pronounced; in combination
with < c > it varies between /k/ (varech seaweed), /5/ (Foch), and /t5/ (match);
in combination with < t > it is always /t/ (znith); < j > and < w > do not occur
word-nally; < v > is very rare, limited to loan words (e.g., Kiev, Tel-Aviv) and
always pronounced.)
A subsidiary issue that arises in this context involves consonants whose
pronunciation is optional in nal position. A list illustrating this phenomenon
appears in (23).
151
152
Consonants
Chapter 5
(23) Optional nal consonants33

almanach
/almana(k)/
almanac
ananas
/anana(s)/
pineapple
aot
/u(t)/
August
but
/by(t)/
goal
Cassis
/kasi(s)/
(city name)
cerf
/s'(f)/
stag
fait
/f'(t)/
event
fat
/fa(t)/
smug
joug
/<u(g)/
yoke
legs
/l'(g)/
legacy
nombril
/nnbi(l)/
navel
os (plural) /o/ or /ns/
bones
radoub
/adu(b)/
retting
serf
/s'(f)/
serf
sourcil
/susi(l)/
eyebrow
yaourt
/jau(t)/
yogurt
Tranel (1987: 15467) provides a brief and useful summary of the principal
generalizations involving bare nal consonants, useful in particular for learners of French as a second language. He notes, for example, that (with the
exception of liaison) grammatical markers are usually silent; that nal consonants are usually silent in adjectives and are usually pronounced in borrowed
or learned words; that < s > and < t > present the greatest difculty; and that,
in statistical terms, the consonants most likely to be pronounced are < b, c,
f, k, l, m, q, r >. These remarks apply to bare word-nal consonants. When
we examine morphologically more complex structures, however, we nd that
many of the silent consonants can, in fact, make an appearance.
5.5.2
5.5.2 Latent Final Consonants
Latent consonants in French raise a number of fascinating theoretical problems. Simply put, are they present in lexical representations and deleted in
those contexts where they are not pronounced? Are they absent from lexical
representations and inserted when needed? Is there a mixed solution paralleling both inserted and deleted schwas? Does the grammar list both forms (or all
forms, if more than two are involved) and establish some more abstract link
between them, including a specication of the contexts in which they appear?
What type of generalizations are we seeking to identify? Consider, for example, the pairs petit petite small or vert verte green. The nal consonants
in petit and vert clearly qualify as latent, but what about the /t/ in petite, followed by < e >? Since this form (the feminine) is exclusively /ptit/, is the
nal consonant stable or latent? As to vert verte, what does the form verdure
greenery imply? These questions, about which opinion still seems divided,
will nd no answer in the descriptively oriented material presented here, but
they may help to illuminate the patterns and complexities involved. In particular, the frequency, range of distribution, and importance of latent consonants
should become evident.
Latent consonants are realized in a variety of contexts in French, contexts
involving both inectional and derivational morphology as well as syntax.
For the latter case, which involves liaison, we will postpone the discussion to
the next section. Here, we will examine latent consonants in inectional and
derivational processes. Historically, latent consonants became latent because
consonants were deleted in preconsonantal position and at the end of phonological phrases, but retained before vowels. When these deletion processes
developed, nal < e > was still realized as a vowel (i.e., schwa), and schwa
served to block deletion. It is with the subsequent deletion of schwa that many
of the complexities arise, particularly when the relationship between orthography and pronunciation is considered: petit petite but /pti/ - /ptit/, where in
the rst pair a nal orthographic consonant is present in both cases. Be that
as it may, three major inectional processes in French involve the presence or
absence of a latent consonant, a C alternation (or, in orthographic terms, a
< C# > < Ce > or < C# > < CV > alternation). They include the formation
of (a) feminine adjectives (and nouns), and of (b) plural and subjunctive forms
of verbs.34 These inectional contexts are illustrated in (24).
(24) Latent consonants in inection
(a) adjectives
/t/
/z/
haut
high
creux
hollow
dissout
dissolved
acquis
acquired
plat
at
confus
confused
court
short
jaloux
jealous
fort
strong
clos
closed
vert
green
/s/
cuit
cooked
doux
soft
petit
small
gros
fat
153
154
Consonants
Chapter 5
abstrait
abstract
bas
low
/-kt/
absent
absent
pais
thick
abject
abject
saint
holy
pars
sparse
suspect
suspect
dfunt
deceased
divers
varied
exact
exact
gras
fatty
distinct
distinct
tiers
third
Sufxes:
/o/ /nV/
sot
foolish
idiot
idiotic
M
/d/
prisonier
/-je/ /-j'/
prisoner
-ain/-aine
hautain
/-'/ /-'n/
haughty
-en/-enne
europen
/-e'-/ /-e'n/
European
-ien/-ienne
canadien
/-j'/ /-j'n/
Canadian
chaud
hot
franc
froid
cold
5
picard
Picard
franc
frank
-eux/-euse
amoureux
/-/ /-z/
in love with
laid
ugly
blanc
white
-ais/-aise
libanais
/-'/ /-'z/
Lebanese
blond
blond
frais
fresh
-ant/-ante
agissant
/-#/ /-#t/
active
grand
big
/g/
-in/-ine
blondin
/-'/ /-in/
fair-haired35
' /'P
long
vain
vain
/j/
urbain
urban
gentil
/'/ /in/
Frankish
-ier/-ire
long
kind
/l/
thin
alpin
alpine
malin
shrewd
// /yn/
sol
drunk
/e/ '
(b) plural and subjunctive verb forms

rompt
rompent
rompe
/p/
break
met
mettent
mette
/t/
put
part
partent
parte
/t/
leave
vainc
vainquent
vainque
/k/
conquer
rpand
rpandent
rpande
/d/
spread
mord
mordent
morde
/d/
bite
lger
light
crit
crivent
crive
/v/
write
un
one
premier
rst
sert
servent
serve
/v/
serve
chacun
each
gaucher
left-handed
nit
nissent
nisse
/s/
nish
connat
connaissent
connaisse
/s/
know
/n/ /nn/
/o/ /'N/
bon
good
beau
handsome
lit
lisent
lise
/z/
read
breton
Breton
nouveau
new
dors
dorment
dorme
/m/
sleep
prend
prennent
prenne
/n/
take
/#/ /an/
/u/ /nl/
catalan
Catalan
fou
foolish
vient
viennent
vienne
/n/
come
paysan
rustic
mou
soft
feint
feignent
feigne
//
pretend
bout
bouillent
bouille
/j/
boil
sait
savent
sache
/v 5/ know36
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Latent consonants also surface in many derived forms, particularly given that
the great majority of French derivational sufxes, both learned and popular,
begin with a vowel. The number of latent consonants that appear in this way
is surprisingly large, so much so that many vowel-nal items as well as many
of those with supposedly silent orthographic consonants in (20) above actually
manifest a consonant in a variety of forms, not all of which contain the phonological equivalent of the letter involved (e.g., nu nudit nude nudity;
vie vital life vital; chaos chaotique chaos chaotic; tabac tabagie
tabatire tobacco smoke shop snuff box; etc.). In the same vein, the
consonant appearing in derivation will, in normal cases, be identical to that
appearing in inection (and liaison), but not always (vert verte verdure; jus
juse juteux juice liquid used in tanning leather juicy). Derivational
examples are given in (25).
(25) Latent consonants in derivation
abandon
abandonner
desertion to abandon
abricot
abricotier
apricot apricot tree
absolu
absolutisme
absolute absolutism
abus
abuser
abuse to abuse
an
annuel
year annual
bnin
bnignit
benign mildness
biseau
biseauter
bevel to bevel
blanc
blanchir
white to whiten
blond
blondin
blond fair-haired
bois
bois
wood wooded
bras
brassard
arm armband
caoutchouc
caoutchouter
rubber to rubberize
chocolat
chocolatier
chocolate chocolate maker
clef
clavier
key keyboard
clin
cligner
wink to blink
cul
culotte
ass shorts
dos
adosser
back to lean against
crit
crivain
writes writer
tain
tamer
pewter to tin-plate
fusil
fusiller
rie to shoot
gai
gayer
gay to cheer up
gentil
gentillesse
kind kindness
humain
humanit
human humanity
instinct
instinctif
instinct instinctive
jonc
jonchaie
rush reedbed
jour
journe
day day
jus
juteux
juice juicy
loup
louveteau
wolf wolf cub
nu
nudit
nude nudity
parfum
parfumerie
perfume perfume shop
plomb
plombage
lead lling
piano
pianoter
piano to tinkle at the piano
pied
pitiner
foot to stamp ones foot
sang
sanglant
blood bloody
sol
soler
drunk to intoxicate
tabac
tabagie
tobacco smoke shop
un
unime
one rst
vie
vitalit
life vitality
voisin
voisinage
neighbour neighbourhood
zro
zrotage
zero zero setting
In most cases, the relationship between the latent consonant and the orthography is clear, and the orthography provides a direct indication of the specic consonant to appear in derived forms. In several cases, however, either a consonant
different from the orthography of the base form appears (caoutchouc-caoutchouter, clin-cligner, tain-tamer,37 jonc-jonchaie, jour-journe, jus-juteux,
tabac-tabagie-tabatire, etc.), or no consonant is present in the base (absoluabsolutisme, biseau-biseauter, nu-nudit, zro-zroter, etc.). Here, again, learners are confronted with arbitrary lexical occurrences reecting the history of the
items in question. Before turning to the last topic, enchanement and liaison,
one further discussion related to nal consonants and their history is in order.
This discussion involves and alternation of /al 'l l/ with /o/ or //.
Strictly speaking, this phenomenon involves instances of /l/ that are (or
were historically) in syllable codas either at the end of words or in preconsonantal position, rather than /l/ in strictly word-nal position. SF presents a
number of words where such preconsonantal /l/s and the vowel that precedes
157
158
Consonants
Chapter 5
them often show the effects of a historical change leading to an alternation

with /o/ or //. Synchronically, we nd here the historical remnants of a process, no longer productive, where in OF the phoneme /l/ had two variants, a
light or apical [l] and a dark or heavily velarized [N] (comparable to English
pill [p+N] or milk [m+Nk]), the latter occurring before consonants (in OF, nal
< s > [subsequently < x > in many cases], was pronounced /s/; deletion of
this /s/ is a later occurrence). In the course of time, the velarized allophone
weakened to [w], a closely related sound acoustically and articulatorily, and
this new glide combined with a preceding vowel to form a diphthong. These
new diphthongs were often identied with existing diphthongs and followed
the same evolutionary path, notably in monophthongizing to /o/ or // as the
case may be. Thus, the OF plural of animal was animals, with the [N] vocalizing to [w]. The resultant diphthong [aw] monophthongized to [o] (as did additional diphthongs from other sources: e.g., Latin causa, aurum > French chose
thing, or gold). Likewise Gallo-Roman els (< illos) > OF [ews] els > eus >
SF [] eux. The orthographic < x > in each of these cases is a medieval rendering of the < s > (usually a case marker) following and was reinterpreted
as the letter < x >. Various types of examples are given in (26).
falsier
faux
to falsify false
fuseler
fuseaux
to taper spindles
hraldique
hraut
heraldry herald
jumeler
jumeaux
to twin twins
loyal
loyaut
loyal loyalty
morceler
morceaux
to divide up pieces
niveler
niveaux
to level levels
sceller
sceaux
to seal seals
chevelure
cheveu
head of hair hair
(c) additional inectionally related forms

celle
ceux
this one these
elles
eux
them (f.) them (m.)
falloir
il faut
to be necessary its
necessary
meilleur
mieux
better best
(26) Alternations involving /l/

(a) singular plural alternations (nouns and adjectives)
animal
animaux
animal
valoir
il vaut
to be worth its worth
capital
capitaux
capital
voulons
veut
we want want
cheval
chevaux
horse
ciel
cieux
sky heavens
journal
journaux
newspaper
national
nationaux
national
oral
oraux
oral
original
originaux
original
signal
signaux
signal
social
sociaux
social
(b) derivationally related forms

altitude
haut
altitude high
chtelain
chteaux
lord of the manor castles
ciseler
ciseaux
to chisel scissors
coutellerie
couteaux
cutlery knives
crnel
crneaux
crenelated crenels
Exceptions to the vocalization exemplied in (26) are seen in two areas:

learned forms such as altitude or falsier, which entered the language subsequent to the process in question, and analogical reformations like cheveu,
niveau, sceau, where the singular was remodeled on the basis of the plural.
In any event, we have here another example of apparent irregularities in SF
that, in a historical context, reect regular phonological change, analogical
restructuring, and learned loan words. The synchronic structure of SF contains
many such mixtures and provides many internal clues to the history of the language.38
Finally, after this brief excursus, we arrive at liaison, a complex domain
with links to virtually every problematic aspect of French phonological structure. Since liaison is closely allied with enchanement (in terms of issues of
syllabication, for example) we will treat the two topics together.
159
160
Consonants
Chapter 5
5.6
5.6 Linking Phenomena: Enchanement

and Liaison
Enchanement and liaison reect the difference between stable and latent nal
consonants. Enchanement involves stable consonants, while liaison involves
latent consonants, but the contexts that determine their behaviour are identical:
both types of word-nal consonant are linked or resyllabied to the following
vowel, within but not between phonological phrases.39 The difference between
enchanement and liaison is illustrated in (27).
(27) Enchanement versus liaison
(a) enchanement
jeune enfant
/<.n#f#/
young child
vite gar
/vi.tegae/
quickly led astray
seize enfants
/s'.z#f#/
sixteen children
petite orange
/pti.tn#</
small orange
bon enfant
/bn.n#f#/
good child
petit lphant
/pti.telef#/
small elephant
six enfants
/si.z#f#/
six children
petit orage
/pti.tna</
small storm
(b) liaison
Liaison involves the phonetic realization of a word-nal consonant

that is normally silent. When such a latent consonant precedes a
vowel-initial word within the same phonological phrase, it is pronounced. When the consonant is pronounced, it is syllabied with the
following vowel as the syllable onset, not with the preceding vowel
as part of the coda, despite the intervening morphological or syntactic
boundaries.40
Already in this descriptively oriented statement, we see the emergence of
a number of complex issues, not all of which we can address here. What precisely, for example, does latent mean in this context? Since many of the
major participants in liaison are cliticized articles and pronouns, how do they
relate to the notion word-nal? How are phonological phrases dened? How
do syllabication and resyllabication take place? The situation is further
complicated by the traditional tripartite classication of liaison into obligatory, optional, and prohibited. It might seem that the apparent categorical nature of the rst and last types renders them more straightforward, but
this is not the case, since an important lexical or item-specic component
(i.e., exceptions) enters into play in both domains, as do questions of the denition of the phonological phrase. In optional liaison, moreover, stylistic factors (level of usage, rapidity of speech, etc.), as well as the variable constitution of phrases (the decision to combine two or more minimal phrases into
one longer one) complicate matters still more. Such questions serve to indicate why phonological theorists have been so preoccupied with this topic. For
our purposes, however, it will sufce to provide a description of the main constraints involved in a description of liaison phenomena.
(28) Central properties of liaison 41
In the present context, enchanement raises few issues we have not already
seen in earlier sections, particularly those dealing with (re)syllabication and
the domains within which it operates. As a consequence, we now turn our
attention to a more detailed consideration of liaison.
5.7
5.7 Liaison
Liaison in French is clearly one of the most extensively studied of external

sandhi phenomena, in part because of its fascinating complexity, in part
because of its theoretical implications. Any attempt to deal with liaison must
immediately confront semantic, syntactic, morphological, phonological, lexical, orthographic, historical, and stylistic questions, even in a variety of
the language as highly circumscribed (and thoroughly analyzed) as Standard
French. Liaison is normally described as follows:
(a) Liaison is a prototypical phrasal phenomenon: it takes place across

word boundaries within phonological phrases but never occurs across
phrase boundaries:42
|| Sans ces_accords || | || aucune solution nest possible.||
/s#.se.za.kn. || | || o.kyn.sn.ly.sjn.n'.pn.sibl./
Without these agreements, no solution is possible.
|| les recherches realises || | || en_attendant le rsultat de lenqute ||
/le.5'5.e.a.li.ze. || | || #.na.t#.d#l.e.zyl.tad.l#.k't./
the tests done while waiting for the results of the inquiry
|| Je nai pas de temps || | || perdre. ||
/<ne.pad.t#. || | || a.p'd./
I have no time to lose.
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Consonants
Chapter 5
(b) Some potential instances of liaison (within phrases) are obligatorily

realized, some are prohibited, and some are optionally realized (with
varying degrees of frequency):
(i) obligatory:
determiner (+ adjective) + noun

aux_enfants
/o.z#f#/
to the children
ses_lves
/se.zel'v/
his students
un grand_ami
/g#.tami/
great friend
les petits_amis
/lepti.zami/
the small friends
/nu.zaivn/
we arrive
elles_insistent
/'l.z'sist/
they insist
on_appelle
/n.nap'l/
Someones calling.
je les_ai vus
/<le.zevy/
I saw them.
nous_en_avons
/nu.z#.navn/
We have some.
il nous_embte
/ilnu.z#b't/
Hes bothering us.
vivent_elles
/viv.t'l/
do they live
allez_y
/ale.zi/
go ahead
prenez_en
/pne.z#/
take some
/su.z.nab/ under a tree
en_Espagne
/#.n'spa/
in Spain
sans_hsitation
/s#.zezitasjn/
without hesitation
/bwaim#s/
an enormous wood
une voix | leve
/ynvwaelve/
a raised voice
ce banc | ombrag
/sb#nba<e/
this shady bench
un temps | idal
/t#ideal
ideal weather
le drap | efl
/ldaele/
the frayed cloth
/lepnkepik/
porcupines
les salles | manger
/lesalam#<e/
dining rooms
les moulins | vent
/lemul'av#/
windmills
with proper nouns, acronyms, citations, metalinguistic usage, etc.

/pai'tyng#dvil/
/le'sde'feklam/
ses | Ah, je le vois ne me convainquent plus

/sea<lvwa/
His oh, I see doesnt convince me any more.
il a dit | envers non | envoi
/iladi#v'nn#vwa/
He said envers, not envoi.
when the word ends in // + consonant

vers Angers
/v'.#<e/
towards Angers
bourg anim
/bu.anime/
lively city
rapport exact
/apn.'gza/
exact connection
(Note: when the nal consonant is the plural maker < s >, liaison
occurs: rapports exacts /apn.z'gza/; in the absence of liaison,
the // resyllabies.)
(iii) optional:
between a singular noun + adjective

un bois | immense
les porcs | pics
the homeless ask for
(ii) prohibited:
rainbows
les | SDF rclament...
in an instant
sous_un_arbre
/dezak#sj'l/
Paris is a large city.
monosyllabic preposition + following word

dans_un_instant /d#.z.n'st#/
des arcs | en-ciel
Paris | est une grande ville
(subject pronoun) (+ object pronoun) + verb (+ object pronoun)

nous_arrivons
in plurals of compound words
after verb forms

je suis (|) en colre
/<5K(z)#MnN'
Im angry.
ils vivent (|) Paris
/ilviv(.t)apai/
They live in
Paris.
elles_taient (|) alles
/'lzet'(.t)ale/
they had gone
after polysyllabic prepositions

pendant (|) un repas
/p#d#(.t)pa/
during a meal
durant (|) une heure
/dy#(.t)yn/
for an hour
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Consonants
Chapter 5
after specic words

long (|) hiver
/ln(.g)iv'/
long winter
il ma beaucoup (|) impressionn /ilmaboku.(p)'R'ULnPG

He impressed me greatly.
(e) the realization of a liaison consonant may occur without associated

resyllabication (liaison sans enchanement)43:
javais /z/ un rve
/<av'z.'v/
I had a dream.
nous voulons /z/ entendre /nuvulnz.Ct#dC/ We want to hear.
(c) certain structures, classes of words, or individual words provide

systematic or variable exceptions to liaison:
il est /t/ inscrit
/il't.'ski/
Hes registered.
ont /t/ abouti
/nt.abuti/
have succeeded
adjective + noun versus noun + adjective
il faut /t/ encourager
/ilfot.#kua<e/
one must encourage
un petit[Adj]_Irlandais[N] un petit[N] | irlandais[Adj]
qui sont /t/ en vrit
/kisnV#veite/
which are, in truth
a small Irishman a small person who is Irish
dans son /n/ interprtation /d#snn.'t'petasjn/ in his

interpretation
/pti.til#d'/ /ptiil#d'/
(f) widespread erroneous overapplication of liaison (so-called fausse

liaison, cuirs, velours, pataqus, plus extension to aspirate-h forms)
occurs. This behaviour frequently appears in the speech of those who
have not fully mastered the formal variety of the language when they
try to speak more correctly than they normally do:44
compound words
aspirate-h words
polysyllabic prepositions
et, trop, oui, vers, avant, selon, etc.:

groupes cologistes | et | associations
/gupeknln<isteasnsjasjn/
/<ns'pa.taki's/
I dont know whose it is.
ecological groups and associations

elle sort | et | il sen va
je ne sais pas /t/ qui est-ce
/'lsne'ls#va/
cest pas /t/ moi
/s'pa.tamwa/
Its not mine.
she goes out and he leaves

des | ouis catgoriques
/dewikategnik/
elle devra /t/ tre prsente
/'ldva.t'tpez#/
She should be present.
categorical yesses
ils taient /z/ amis
(compare louie /lwi/)

les | oui-dire
/lewidi/
They were friends.

lorsque jy ai /z/ t
hearsay
(d) liaison is associated with item-specic allomorphy:
ma/ta/sa + V, ce, beau, nouveau, vieux, etc.
mon_affaire (f.) /mn.naf'/
my business
cet_lment
/s'.telem#/
this element
bel_enfant
/b'.l#f#/
handsome child
nouvel_objectif
/nuv'.lnb<'ktif/ new objective
vieil_homme
/vj'.jnm/
old man
/ilzet'zami/
/lnsk<ie.zete/
when I was there

sous une forme ou /z/ une autre
/suzynfnmu.zynot/
in one form or another

un n [t] esprit
/f'.t'spi/
a keen mind
les /z/ Hollandais
the Dutch
/le.znl#d'/
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Consonants
Chapter 5
les allocations aux /z/ handicapps
/o.z#dikape/
bottom to found from top to bottom

gros grosse un gros inconvnient /goz'knvenj#/
the benets to the handicapped

ils ont /t/ harcel
/lizn.tasle/
big (m.) big (f.) a big inconvenience
they harassed
le palais tout /t/ hriss de drapeaux /lpal'tu.teiseddapo/
the palace all covered in ags
(g) a variety of restricted phonological adjustments is associated
with liaison, involving nasal vowels, nal consonant changes, vowel
adjustments, and so on:
mon_ami
/mn.nami/
my friend
un_instant
/.n'st#/
an instant
grand_homme
/g#.tnm/
big man
six_hommes
/si.znm/
six men
dernier_instant
/d'nje.'st#/ /d'nj'.'st#/ last instant
premier_tage
/pmje.eta</ /pmj'.eta</ rst oor
As we have seen, the relationship between the consonant appearing in liaison and that appearing in derived forms is usually one of identity, a link that
simplies descriptive (and learning) problems. On occasion, however, there
are discrepancies. Both types of behaviour are illustrated in (29).
Against this heterogeneous background, what are the most salient properties
of liaison? First, liaison is not the unied phenomenon that the denition at the
beginning of section 5.7.1 might lead us to believe. Although there are clearly
systematic aspects to the behaviour of liaison consonants aspects involving
the presence of a following vowel, sensitivity to phonological phrases, syllabication, and so on each of these properties is also subject to greater or lesser
degrees of exceptional behaviour. Recall, for example, the fact that aspirate-h
words, despite being phonetically vowel-initial, normally block liaison, or the
fact that liaison sans enchanement results in the realization of a latent consonant without that consonant being resyllabied. Nonetheless, the central properties in (28) above, those that occur consistently, appear to characterize liaison most simply. (Alternatively, learners of French would be well advised to
concentrate on the following simplied review of the basic features of liaison.)
(30) Basic features of liaison
(a) contexts (relatively few lexical items are involved: determiners,
prenominal adjectives, numerals, third person verb forms,
monosyllabic adverbs and prepositions, idioms):
(29) Correspondences between liaison and derivational consonants

(a) identical consonants
petit petitesse petit ami /ptitami/
small smallness small friend
bon bonier bon ami /bnnami/
good to improve good friend

deux deuxime deux amies /dzami/
two second two friends
(b) different consonants45
grand grande grand homme /g#tnm/
big (m.) big (f.) big man
fond fonder de fond en comble /dfnt#knbl/
determiners and following elements (nouns, adjectives)

les_arbitres
the referees
un_autre jardin
an other garden
tout_autre problme
every other problem
mes_ennemis
my enemies
adjectives and following nouns

petit_oiseau
small bird
gros_ennui
big problem
grand_homme
big man
de graves_incidents
serious incidents
six_lves
six students
pronouns plus verbs

vous_allez
Youre going.
elles_arrivent
Theyre arriving.
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Consonants
Chapter 5
on_est l
Were there.
elles_arrivent (cf. elle arrive)
They arrive.
vient_elle
Is she coming?
ils_indiquent (cf. il indique)
They indicate.
je les_ai vus
I saw them.
vient_il
Is he coming?
following monosyllabic prepositions
parle-t_elle
Is she speaking?
dans_un_instant
in an instant
aux jeunes_lves (cf. au jeune lve)
to the young students
en_hiver
in winter
petites_oranges (cf. petite orange)
small oranges
sans_y rchir
without thinking about it
sous_un_autre angle
from another angle
following monosyllabic adverbs

trs_intressant
very interesting
trop_important
too important
moins_habile
less skilful
plus_exigeant
more demanding
tant_aime
so loved
bien_aimable
very likeable
These morphological functions have the further consequence that /z/

and /t/ are by far the most frequent consonantal participants in liaison,
whether it be obligatory or optional.46
(c) inuence of the phonological phrase: although the correlation is
far from perfect, phonological phrases are closely related to syntactic
phrases. Syntactic phrases may, needless to say, be longer or shorter; in
rapid or informal speech, minimal phrases may be conjoined to form
longer phrases, with consequences for liaison: liaison never occurs
at the end of phrases, only between words within phrases. Hence,
if minimal phrases are joined into one longer phrase, conditions for
liaison may be created, as in the examples below.
|| songez || au lendemain ||
|| songez_au lendemain ||
think about tomorrow
the verb form est

elle est_arrive
she arrived
il est_en colre
Hes angry.
|| ils travaillent || ensemble ||
|| ils travaillent_ensemble ||
they work together
in numerous xed expressions (including most compound words)
|| jen suis || extrmement er ||
|| jen suis_extrmement er ||
Im very proud of it
rien_ faire
nothing to do
comment_allez-vous
How are you?
Etats-Unis
United States
pied--terre
temporary lodging
pot-au-feu
stew
vis--vis
opposite
(b) morphological role (SF structure dictates that the most frequent
occurrences of liaison will signal [or be correlated with] either plural
noun or pronominal forms, or third person verb forms):
les_lments
the elements
mes_enfants
my children
ces_indications
these indications
(d) tendencies: there exists a general tendency in SF, except in the

most formal style, to reduce the number of optional liaisons. This
tendency even extends, in less formal registers, to the elimination
of formerly obligatory liaisons (e.g., en | un jour). Against this
background, it is less likely to cause comment if one errs by failing
to make obligatory liaisons than if one over-extends the process. This
being said, the cases indicated in (30a) remain central to the phonology
of French, and their absence in the language of learners will inevitably
have sociolinguistic consequences.
This concludes the discussion of liaison and, in fact, of consonants in general.
The next topic to be considered involves prosody a discussion of intonation
in particular, as well as a return to elements of stress assignment.
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Consonants
Chapter 5
Notes
1.
The two nasal consonants / 0/ may not be followed by glides, for reasons linked
to the way these segments were introduced into the language. There are also gaps
in the set of vowels following these glides (the sequences /j', j', wa, w'/ predominate, again for historical reasons), but the absences appear accidental rather than
systematic.
2.
As might be expected, some further observations are relevant to this list. For
example, many clusters (e.g., hydne hydnum (type of mushroom) or axolotl
axolotl) are represented by a single anomalous example. /z/ is uniquely found
in quatorze fourteen, but the frequency of this word makes the cluster appear
much less strange than /dn/ or /tl/, to name but two. /0g/ varies with /0/ in
words like pouding pudding, with the latter pronunciation predominating, in
fact. Because of the syntactic constraints on its use, lorsque when rarely if ever
appears phrase-nally. As a consequence, it will either be followed by a vowel,
and pronounced /ln.skV/, or by a consonant, in which case a schwa is required
and the structure will be /ln.skC/. The cluster /sk/, in other words, is articial
in nal position.
3.
4.
5.
Phrase-initially, schwa is obligatorily retained in the huitime example: le huitime

est difcile The eighth is difcult. /litj'm'disil/.
These proposals are not mutually exclusive. For preliminary discussion of the rst
possibility, see Walker (1978); for a theory of the second, Vennemann (1988).
// represents a special case, since it assimilates to /n/ upon contact either with the
/4/ (the precursor of Modern French //) or epenthetic /d/.
6.
By geminate is meant a single articulation whose duration is prolonged, not a

repeated or rearticulated consonant. Functionally and phonetically, geminate consonants in French would normally be expected to provide both a syllable-nal and
a syllable-initial component, by straddling the syllable boundary. This appears to
be the case except for the geminates arising from the accent dinsistance (see [11]
below), which may occur word- and hence syllable-initially (super /ssyp'/) and
which, when intervocalic, may also be syllable-initial (affreux hideous /a.ff/).
7.
To such forms we might add the geminate /jj/ produced in the imperfect forms
of verbs whose stem ends in /j/ (fouillions search, travaillions work, etc.)
although this geminate may simplify, in informal speech, to a single consonant. In
fact, the geminate // in these verb forms is also often simplied in less formal
contexts.
8.
// (< gn >) does occur word-initially, but only in a relatively small number
of words of peripheral status (slang, onomatopoeia, child language, loans):
gnaf cobbler, gnangnan soppy, gnard brat, gnle hooch, gnouf the clink,
gnocchi gnocchi, gnognote useless, gnon bash, gnaf-gnaf bow-wow, etc.
9.
The situation is, as usual, somewhat more complicated. On occasion, // did

occur historically in nal position following apocope, but it subsequently merged
with /n/ in that position (cf. bain bath [OF baign] baigner, malin maligne
shrewd, soin soigner care, gain gagner wages, etc). This merger, along
with the other factors leading to the development of //, accounts for its absence
word-nally.
10. Note the presence of < e > (normally deleted) in the case of // in preconsonantal
and nal position. For completeness, we should also note the frequent pronunciation of < gn > as /gn/ in a set of learned words (although // and /nj/ occur here
too): cognitif /kngnitif/ cognitive, diagnostic /djagnnstik/ diagnosis, gnostique
/gnnstik/ gnostic, magnitude /magnityd/, rcognition /rekngnisjn/, etc.
11. Malecot (1972) and Malcot and Metz (1972) provide a detailed description of
schwa deletion and nasal assimilation in SF as they relate to this data, including
the social conditioning of both phenomena.
12. In CF, tradition has it that the assimilation works in the opposite direction /5/
assimilates to the /v/, which itself weakens to /w/, yielding the notorious /<wal/
joual, a term for both horse and for the often stigmatized CF vernacular.
13. There is much variation, both regional and individual, in the pronunciation of the
sufx -isme: [isO] or [izm].
14. The words sbire henchman, Sganarelle, sgrafte sgratto normally begin with
/zb/ or/zg/.
15. There is a certain debate in the phonetic and phonological literature concerning
the precise realization of these assimilated consonants and their phonological
interpretation. According to some (e.g., Valdman [1993: 213]), they remain distinct from their voiced or voiceless correlates respectively, while Carton (1974:
83 86, following Martinet) argues for the phonological identity of assimilated
and nonassimilated pairs (e.g. /p/ = /D/; /b/ = /R/). In the former view, devoiced
/b/ would remain distinct from /p/ because it remains lax, while /p/ is tense. The
other voiceless-voiced pairs behave in a similar fashion. This residual tense-lax
distinction explains why certain speakers may distinguish jeter from acheter:
the rst contains voiceless but lax /</, while the second has voiceless tense /5/.
There has been some study of this matter (Kohler et al. [1979, 1981], as well as
Gather [1998], the latter using notions of syllable structure) but further instrumental work would be of benet.
16. Walter (1976: 410-23), who provides a very detailed description of voicing assimilation, notes that assimilation is more frequent when the consonants in question
are not separated by a schwa: greater frequency of assimilation in disgrce disgrace than in tte-bche head to tail, for example.
171
172
Chapter 5
17. We exclude certain marginal forms (largely interjections or onomatopoetic items)

such as hop!, h!, hein!, houp-l! which may occur with [h].
18. On occasion, one may hear, in deliberate speech, a glottal stop preceding aspirate-h words. However, as Malecot (1975) demonstrates, this is part of a more
general phenomenon in French, and the presence of glottal stop is clearly not correlated with < h >.
19. Or at least those where orthographic < h > is involved; recall that certain glideinitial words (yacht, watt) also behave as if there were an aspirate consonant
present.
20. Examples are from Martinet and Walter (1973). Current observers note that many
additional words (hollandais, haricot, etc., as well as words with no < h >: iambe,
ouatte) also vary. A related type of variation is seen in verbs like houer /we/ or
/ue/, huer /e/ or /ye/ (both consistently aspirate) where the variation is between
an initial vowel or semi-vowel. We omit from this discussion the interesting cases
of proper nouns with aspirate-h, cases that bring their own complexities (e.g.,
variation between aspirate and nonaspirate in several forms such as Hugo, aspiration in hrisson but not in le comte dHrisson, and so on). For discussion of the
latter items (as well as the phenomenon of < h > in general), see Fouch (1959:
251 65, especially 258 ff).
21. From hte spit, leading to the meaning small piece of roast meat.
22. This acronym, pronounced [a5'l'm], stands for habitation loyer modr public
housing.
23. One frequent exception should be noted here: hasard stroke of luck is an aspirate-h word (le hasard), but it does show enchanement with par: /pa.aza/.
24. This parallelism is not perfect, as there is perhaps no need to say. For example,
deletion of the schwa in le is possible before consonant-initial words (cest le
garon /s'lgasn/), but may not occur before aspirate-h words (cest le hros
/s'leo/). Thus, aspirate-h words do not always behave as if they were consonant-initial.
25. See Catach (1995: 1148).
Consonants
29. To be fully accurate, this statement needs a slight modication: the consonant
itself may vary, but some consonant is present in all versions of the morpheme,
as in sec dry: sche, schement, schoir, scheresse; loup wolf: loupiot, louve,
louvet, louveteau, louveter, louveterie, etc.
30. Whether this < e > represents schwa i.e., a phonological segment present in the
representation of the forms in question remains a hotly debated topic. If it does,
we need to refer to the conditions under which it is maintained or deleted (as in
the preceding chapter). If it does not, we will need to specify the contexts in which
it is inserted where needed (e.g., preceding aspirate-h, in VCC#C sequences, and
so on). In all likelihood, the best solution is for there to be a mixture of underlying
and inserted schwas, not all of which are linked to the presence of < e >.
31. Innumerable comments could be made concerning these forms, some of which
will occur in (22) below. Perhaps the simplest observation involves the fact that,
with the exception of < r >, bare stable consonants are relatively rare in French
compared to those protected by < e >. Furthermore, because of a variety of historical processes, certain restrictions apply. For example, < se > does not occur
in this list representing /s/, since < VsV > is realized as /Vz(V)/ (hence, bouillabaisse with double < ss >); < c > and < g > do not occur followed by < e > if
they are to be interpreted as /k/ or /g/, since < ce > and < ge > represent /s/ and
/</, respectively (hence, banque, bague); < m > and < n > are rare in nal position since unprotected nasal consonants in this context usually indicate nasalization of the preceding vowel; < gn > does not occur as a representative of a bare
consonant, since the conditions producing // require a following (orthographic)
vowel at all times; and so on.
32. Moody is based on a circumscribed data set drawn largely from Savard and
Richards (1970), so is less intimidating than Tranel, whose more complete data
set inevitably contains more exceptions.
33. See Walter (1976: 45158) for many more examples. Malcot and Richman 1972
provide details of usage, correlated with sociolinguistic factors, for several of
these forms.
34. Historically, once again, many adjectives form the feminine by adding an orthographic < e >, and the plural subjunctive verbal sufxes are also vowel initial.
(Many additional verb forms [e.g., the imperfect] use vowel-initial sufxes and
also provoke the appearance of the latent consonant.)
26. See Tranel (1981: 286 88) for further examples and discussion.
27. Data from Martinet and Walter (1973).
28. For reasons that will become clear shortly, this group is smaller than one might
believe, since many putative vowel-nal morphemes have derivational variants
where the stem ends in a consonant: vie vital life vital, nu nudit naked
nudity, or even noeud nodosit knot node, for example.
35. Needless to say, this does not exhaust the problem of latent consonants in noun
or adjective formation, but it does give some idea of the nature and extent of the
issue. We have not, for example, mentioned the processes involved in the formation of names (Fernand-Fernande, Clment-Clmence, etc.) or the interchange of
nal consonants (sec-sche dry, actif-active active, among others). For much
more detail, see Durand (1936).
173
174
Consonants
Chapter 5
36. Once again, we are far from exhausting the implications of latent consonants in
the verb conjugation, and give these examples for illustration only. In particular,
the latent consonant appears much more widely in the conjugation in innitives,
in the imperfect, etc. Although the latent consonant is usually constant across all
verb forms, this is not always the case: dit-dites-disent say, sait-sachent-savent
know, peut-puisse-peuvent be able, etc. Encyclopedic catalogues of the details
of the SF conjugation abound; for more general discussion, consult Le Gofc
(1997), Martinet (1958b) or Fouch (1967). For initial discussion of the role of
latent consonants in the CF vernacular, see Walker (1995).
37. This and the preceding example illustrate the historical process merging wordnal nasal consonants to /n/, and reect the phonotactic constraint on // discussed above in section 5.2.
38. Here, as elsewhere, we have only scratched the surface of a complicated set of
problems. For example, the circumscribed domain of animal names, where the
forms for offspring or female animals are often derivationally related to the masculine, provides much additional data: chameau chamelle camel, corbeau
corbillat crow, crapaud crapelet frog, hirondeau hirondelle swallow,
maquereau maquerelle mackerel, moineau moinelle sparrow, oiseau
oiselle bird, etc. Certain forms ending in < ail > (= /aj/), such as bail baux
lease, corail coraux coral, travail travaux work, and vitrail vitraux
stained glass window, demonstrate that earlier palatalized /l/ also vocalized to
[w] under similar coda conditions, while becoming /j/ in others. Finally, the wide
existence of plurals ending in < als > rather than < aux > (carnavals carnivals,
chacals jackals, festivals festivals, nals nal, nasals nasal, etc.), as well
as many forms that vary (vals vaux valleys, idals idaux ideals), further
indicate that the process of vocalization is no longer productive.
39. As expected, aspiration (in the general sense, involving semi-vowels as well)
blocks both enchanement and liaison: sept homards seven lobsters /s't.nma/
and ces homards these lobsters /senma/.
40. For denitions of liaison, consult Encrev (1988), Fouch (1959), Tranel (1987),
or Valdman (1993), among innumerable others. The description to follow owes
much to Klausenburger (1984). Several terminological alternates to phonological phrase are also in widespread use, among which the most common are groupe
rythmique and groupe accentuel. As we will see, the realization of the liaison
consonant must be separated from its enchanement i.e., its (re)syllabication
with the following vowel since there exist instances where the former but not
the latter occurs.
41. In what follows, _ , (|), and | are used to indicate obligatory, optional, and prohibited liaisons respectively, and || to indicate phonological phrase boundaries. This
brief survey is illustrative only, intended to indicate certain properties relevant
to our general discussion, not to present a complete survey of the phenomenon.
For well-organized discussion of the phonological, morphological, syntactic, and

semantic constraints on liaison, see Esposito (1994), Tranel (1987, chapter 11) or
Valdman (1993, chapters 10 and 11).
42. While this formulation is generally true, we should note two types of case where
a liaison consonant may be pronounced at a phrase boundary: the celebrated
cases of liaison sans enchanement: je ne lavais pas entendu I hadnt heard it
/<nlav'paz || #t#dy/ [Encrev 1988], and the realization of a liaison consonant
in parenthetical insertions where, by denition, the liaison consonant is in phraseinitial position (un robust, mais petit, enfant a strong, but small, child /'nbyst ||
m'pti || t#f#/ [Pichon 1938]).
43. Examples from Encrev (1988, chapters I and II).
44. In other words, speakers who normally use popular language produce false liaisons (a type of hypercorrection) when they try to use a formal style that they do
not fully control. False liaisons, then, are not characteristic of spontaneous popular usage, but of efforts by speakers of the vernacular to use a formal register that
is not a full part of their repertoire. Interestingly, Encrev (1988) also notes false
liaisons in the formal speech of politicians who produce liaison sans enchanement as well.
45. The sometimes claimed lack of correspondence affecting long (long longue /g/
un long hiver a long winter /lnkiv'/), though still sometimes found in textbooks (e.g., Fouch [1959: 436]), has been obsolete for close to a century (cf.
Pichon and Damourette 1936). Other apparent mismatches (de pied /t/ en cap
from head to foot, sang /k/ impur tainted blood) are also archaic or part of
xed expressions. Finally, the realization of < d > as /t/ in a number of inverted
verb constructions (perd perdons perd-il /p'til/ does he lose, etc.) should
probably be seen as a separate morphological adjustment rather than as liaison,
since the /t/ appears following vowels (ira-t-on will we go) as well as with verbs
whose (sometimes abstract) stem ends in a consonant other than /t/, e.g. craquet-il /kaktil/ does it creak, rampe-t-il /#ptil/ does it crawl, mord-il /mntil/
does it bite, me convainc-t-il /mknv'til/ does it convince me, vainc-t-il /v'til/
does he defeat, and so on).
46. Both the frequency and the morphological role no doubt account for the appearance of these consonants in many instances of false liaison: quatres enfants four
children /katz#f#/, il va-t et vient he comes and goes /ilvatevj'/, etc., as well as
neologisms such as zyeuter /zjte/ to eye (< les yeux eyes) or Zanimo /zanimo/
(< les animaux), a trade name for animal crackers.
175
177
Chapter 6
Prosody
6.0
6.0 Introduction
Traditionally applied to the study of the structure of meter and verse, prosody
is now used more generally within phonology to refer to variations in pitch,
loudness, duration, rhythm, rate of speaking, and occasionally syllabication.1
Without identifying them explicitly as such, we have already discussed several
prosodic phenomena in SF: syllabication in section 3.1, vowel length in 4.1,
and long or geminate consonants in 5.1. In this chapter, we will be primarily
concerned with stress, rhythm, and intonation.
Prosodic phenomena, intonation in particular, have often been neglected in
phonological studies. This reduced attention no doubt arises in part because
of the complexity of the physical properties through which prosody is manifested (and the need for complex instrumentation and techniques to study these
properties), because of the variety of syntactic structures involved (and the
concomitant need for large bodies of data), because prosody involves virtually
every component of the grammar from phonetic detail to semantic and pragmatic considerations, and because of the complex intermingling of general linguistic structures with highly variable individual expressivity. In what follows,
we will concentrate more on the general, systematic structures of French than
on those elements reecting individual attitudes or emotions.2
6.1
6.1 Stress and Rhythm
Stress involves the assignment of greater prominence to one syllable in comparison with its neighbours. Cross-linguistically, the physical correlates of
stress may include one or more of greater loudness, longer duration, or higher
pitch. In SF, stress is usually indicated by the greater length assigned to stressed
syllables3 (rather than by reliance on tonal prominence, for example, although
variations in tone or increased loudness may also be present). Assuming a
difference between prominent and nonprominent syllables, rhythm refers in
general terms to a perceived pattern of prominent syllables. Rhythmically,
it is common to divide languages into those with stress-timed rhythmic patterns (where stressed syllables occur at approximately equal intervals of time,
178
Prosody
Chapter 6
interspersed with varying numbers of unstressed syllables) versus those with

syllable-timed patterns (where each syllable takes roughly the same amount of
time to produce and has roughly the same importance).4 French, in contrast to
English, is described as a syllable-timed language, with all syllables within a
phonological phrase given equal prominence as they lead up to the phrase-nal
stressed syllable. The contrast between stress and syllable timing may be seen
in (1), where stressed syllables are in bold face.
like Latin, where the position of stress may vary within the word, but where
(in longer words) its placement is determined by the weight of the penultimate
syllable. The SF phrasal stress pattern is illustrated in (2), where the stressed
syllables are again in bold face.
(2) Phrasal stress
oui
Yes.
voil
there is/are
le voil
There it is.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
il y en a
There are some.
Admit impediments. Love is not love
il y en a trop
There are too many.
Which alters when it alteration nds
il y en a trente-quatre
There are 34 of them.
elle revient
Shes coming back.
son lve || revient
Her students coming back.
son ancien lve || revient demain
Her former students coming

back tomorrow.
son ancien lve || revient ||

sans le lui dire
Her former students coming

back tomorrow without
telling her about it.
(1) Stress versus syllable timing

(a) stress timing
Or bends with the remover to remove.
(Shakespeare, Sonnets)
(b) syllable timing

Si je la hassais, je ne la fuirais pas.
(Racine, Phdre)
Jose dire pourtant que je nai mrit

Ni cet excs dhonneur, ni cette indignit (Racine, Britannicus)
Jai perdu ma force et ma vie
Et mes amis et ma gaiet
(Musset, Tristesse)
Against this general background, we are in a position to discuss stress assignment in French in more detail.
6.1.1
6.1.1 Phrasal Stress
Stress in French is considered to be a phrasal phenomenon: the nal syllable

of phonological phrases is stressed (with the exception of syllables consisting
of schwa): larbitre the referee, jamais never, je le vois I see it, je ne le
vois jamais I never see it. Nonnal syllables, even those that are word-nal
within the phrase, are unstressed. French stress is, then, predictable and xed,
once phrase boundaries have been determined. (Consult section 3.3 for discussion and exemplication of phonological phrases.) Because French stress is
predictable and consequently nondistinctive, it is unlike stress in Spanish or
English, where stress may fall on different syllables within words (often correlated with morphological or syntactic categories) and distinguish one word
from another: permit, compress (nouns) versus permit, compress (verbs); photograph versus photography; Spanish trmino end, termino I nish, termin he nished; and so on. French stress is also unlike stress in a language
Unstressed syllables are given equal weight within the phrase; they are pronounced, that is, with a regularity and equilibrium that block any vowel reduction and lead toward the prominence of the syllable at phrase end.5 In this case,
the contrast between English and French is instructive, since English shows a
widespread weakening of unstressed vowels which reduce to schwa. Consider
the contrasts in (3), particularly (in English) the variation in pronunciation
between stressed and unstressed versions of the same syllable.
(3) French versus English: vowel reduction
F Canada
/kanada/
E Canada
/knd/
F canadien
/kanadj'/
E Canadian
/knedjn/
F photographe
/fntngaf/
E photograph
/fodgrf/
F photographie
/fntnga/
E photography
/ftngr/
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180
Prosody
Chapter 6
F communiquer
/knmynike/
E communicate
/kmjunket/
F cest une question difcile
/s'tynk'stjndisil/
E thats a difcult question
/&tsdIfkltkw'st5n/
F son attitude || ne me surprend pas
/snnatityd nmsyp#pa/
E his attitude || doesnt surprise me
/h+zdtjud dzntsprajzmi/
Finally, recall that vowel length (chapter 4, section 4.1) is also conditioned by
stress: long vowels occur only in stressed closed syllables. As a consequence,
if a minimal phrase containing a long vowel is combined into a longer phrase,
the loss of stress on its nal syllable will result in the loss of vowel length as
well: il espre || nous y rencontrer He hopes to meet us there. (['sp'] )
versus il espre nous y rencontrer (['sp']), il compte || y aller Hes counting
on going there. [knt] versus il compte y aller [knt].
6.1.2
6.1.2 Emphatic Stress
Since stress is phrase-nal in French, decisions concerning the combination of

minimal phrases into one longer phrase (see chapter 3, section 3.3) will affect
the stress and rhythmic patterns of longer utterances. This contrast is seen in
(4).
In addition to its normal phrase-nal emphasis, SF also uses stress to signal a

variety of semantic or affective contrasts. Examples are given in (5).
(5) Emphatic stress
(4) Minimal versus longer phrases

je ne lavais pas || entendu
jai dit intention, pas attention
I said INtention, not Attention.
un effet fondamental
a fundamental effect
une erreur impardonnable
an unforgivable mistake
par contre, tu ne comprends pas
On the other hand, you dont

understand.
des visiteurs trs nombreux
very many visitors
rien de plus scandaleux
nothing more scandalous
il a parfaitement raison
Hes perfectly correct.
cest si amusant
Its so funny.
un journal hebdomadaire
cest tout fait impossible
Its completely impossible.
lautobus de la ville
Encore de la morue! Voil huit Cod again! Weve eaten nothing

jours que nous ne mangeons que
but cod all week! Its
de la morue; cest dgotant!
disgusting! (from Grammont
[1914: 144])
je ne lavais pas entendu
I hadnt heard it.

tu devrais || lui en parler
tu devrais lui en parler
You should speak to her about it.

le match || sest bien termin
le match sest bien termin
The game ended well.

elle a promis || de nous suivre
elle a promis de nous suivre
She promised to follow us.

un journal || hebdomadaire
a weekly newspaper
lautobus || de la ville
the city bus
un appartement || louer
un appartement louer
an appartment to rent
elle me le dit || assez souvent
elle me le dit assez souvent
She tells me often enough.

il faut y aller || tout seul
You have to go there alone.
il faut y aller tout seul
Phoneticians and phonologists begin to comment more extensively on the

appearance of the accent dinsistance or emphatic stress around the beginning of the twentieth century (e.g., Nyrop 1934, rst edition 1902; Grammont
1914), and indications are that the phenomenon is expanding. Most generally,
this emphasis falls on the rst syllable of the word or phrase, either by emphasizing the rst vowel (intention, pas attention) or, more frequently, by lengthening the rst consonant of the word (cest essentiel [s't'ss#sj'l]; for more
examples cf. section 5.1). Although emphatic stress normally affects full
words (nouns, verbs, adjectives), it is not unknown for clitic forms to be
accented as well, as the examples above make clear. Further, because emphatic
181
182
Prosody
Chapter 6
stress does not replace phrase-nal stress but is in addition to it, it is easy to
see how it may contribute to alternating rhythmic patterns within phonological
phrases.
As indicated, most analysts agree (cf. Lucci 1983: 69) that use of emphatic
stress is increasing in frequency, and that this stress pattern is characteristic of
a certain type of discourse or discourse situation, particularly more formal situations involved with speaking in public: interviews, conferences, oratory. It is
also widely heard in news broadcasts.6 The increasing currency of emphatic
stress is also showing effects on other components of the phonological system.
Walter (1977: 51), for example, explicitly attributes the increasing stability of
schwa in initial syllables (discussed in section 4.5.4.6) to the increased frequency of emphatic stress affecting those same syllables: Ce serait alors par
le biais de la prosodie, grce laccent dinsistance dans ce cas, plus directement sensible aux effets du sens, que serait favoris une modication du statut
dun lment phonique, par phonologisation de cet lment dans une position
donne. We see here, in other words, a classic example of the desire to produce
stylistic effects having an impact on the frequency of certain prosodic structures, with these prosodic changes in turn affecting the segmental phonology.
Intonation, as we will see in the next section, is also directly linked to stylistic
effects, as well as to more concrete syntactic patterns, in a variety of ways.
continuous lines representing relative pitch or pitch changes within phonological phrases. Finally, these pitch changes occur within a range, and may
begin or end at different heights within the range. Schematically, this is diagrammed in (6), using the basic reference point for the discussion to follow: a
neutral declarative sentence.
6.2
After an initial presentation of stress, rhythm, and prosodic units, Di Cristo

(1998: 200-16) surveys the principal intonation patterns of SF in terms of
the following categories: a basic nonemphatic pattern (simple declarative
sentences), modality and expressivity (questions, imperatives and vocatives,
expressivity), focalization and contextual effects (focus and topic/comment
organization), and intonational clichs. We list the principal contours in (7)
and then exemplify each of them in turn.
6.2 Intonation
Intonation involves variation in pitch over stretches of speech usually larger

than the word (except, evidently, in cases where the word and the phonological
phrase are co-extensive).7 Since no utterance can take place without the simultaneous realization of both a segmental component (consonants and vowels)
and an intonational contour, the central role (or roles) of intonation in communicative acts should be clear. These roles may include the delimitation of
grammatical structure (phrase or clause boundaries), the distinguishing of sentence types (assertions, questions, etc.), the highlighting of new information
(topic/comment distinctions), or the communication of expressive information
reecting the speakers attitude or state of mind (agreement, doubt, anger, sarcasm, surprise, and a host of other possibilities). Although there exist very
widespread cross-linguistic tendencies linking specic intonational patterns
with specic grammatical functions (e.g., rising intonation in yes-no questions, falling intonation for declarative sentences), the amount of dialectal or
individual variation in intonation contours makes the topic dauntingly complex. In what follows, we will outline only the rudiments of French intonational structures, focusing on grammatical and pragmatic rather than expressive features.
This outline will take place using several descriptive parameters. First,
the domain of intonational contours will be described in tems of the phonological phrases previously discussed (Chapter 3, Section 3.3).8 Secondly, as
the term contour itself implies, intonational patterns will be described using
(6) A simple intonation contour (one phrase)

high
range
mid
low
syllables
phrase
|| Michelle est arrive. ||

Michelle arrived.
(7) Principal SF intonational contours

(a) basic non-emphatic contour
(b) questions
(c) imperative and vocative
(d) expressivity
(e) focalization
(f) topic/comment
(g) intonation clichs
The basic nonemphatic contour is often described as a contour tone with a
rising falling pattern; in shorter phrases (as in elliptical answers to questions),
the rising component may be minimal.
183
184
Prosody
Chapter 6
cest un ami
Hes a friend.
je lui en ai parl
I spoke to him about it.
sans exception
without exception
voil
there
Contour patterns are particularly evident in long utterances consisting of more
than one phonological phrase, where the end of the rise corresponds to the end
of the rst phrase and indicates noncompletion of the utterance.
je lui ai parl || de ses devoirs
I spoke to him about his homework.
ils sont tous venus || sans exception
They all came, without exception.
Di Cristo notes a striking parallelism between interrogative and continuative

intonation, the former occurring in utterance-nal position, the latter in nonnal position. As a result, he nds reasonable the generalization that there is a
single overall intonation pattern for both continuative and interrogative utterances in French (202), both being indicated by a phrase-nal rise in intonation, the difference residing in the nal or prenal position of the phrase in
question.
The second major type of question, the so-called wh-question, involves
interrogative morphemes such as qui who, o where, quand when, comment how, pourquoi why.10 In these structures, the interrogative morpheme
normally represents the high point of the intonation countour, which then falls
to the end of the sentence. As a result, these questions manifest a pattern similar to the basic contour of simple declaratives.
qui est-l?
Whos there?
o tes-vous alls?
Where did you go?
comment peut-on y accder?
How can we get there?
pourquoi le dit-il ainsi?
Questions may be classied into several types, the most frequent being yes/no
questions and partial or wh-questions. Syntactically, yes/no questions can be
marked either by inversion (Jean vient-il? Is John coming?) or by the use
of the phrase est-ce que (Est-ce que Jeanne vient? Is Jean coming?). More
frequent in the current spoken language, however, are questions with no syntactic marking and solely a characteristic nal rising intonation pattern (Jean
vient?).9
ta soeur a-t-elle termin ses tudes?
Has your sister nished her studies?
veux-tu du vin?
Do you want some wine?
est-ce que le patron est libre?
Is the manager free?
vous partez demain?
Are you leaving tomorrow?
Why does he say it like that?

lequel prfrez-vous?
Which one do you prefer?
Finally, to be complete, let us mention that two further question types occur:
alternative questions (Partez-vous demain ou aprs demain? Are you leaving tomorrow or the day after?) and elliptical questions (Et ta lle? And your
daughter?; Quoi ma voiture? What, my car?). Each type uses the risingfalling or falling contours with which we are already familiar.
In the imperative and vocative domain, imperative sentences are said to be
characterized by a rapid drop in pitch from high to low (Delattre 1966b, Lon
1974). While this general pattern is widely accepted, analysts disagree about
certain details, such as whether this pattern is exclusive to imperatives. Given
the admixture of expressive possibilities with imperative structures, this variation is not surprising. Vocatives, in turn (the last two examples), show a risingfalling pattern, but with a rise and a fall on the last syllable, including a high
starting point and consequent large fall at phrase end. Examples follow:
185
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Prosody
Chapter 6
venez demain
Come tomorrow.
ne faites pas a
Dont do that.
donne-le moi
Give it to me.
Anne-Marie
Anne-Marie
excusez-moi, monsieur
Excuse me, sir.
Expressivity is no doubt one of the most complicated domains of phonetic

study. It combines intonation, nonverbal communication, and a range of additional linguistic factors (pitch range, register, complex pitch movement, loudness, tempo, and voice quality; cf. Di Cristo [209]) to communicate a variety
of attitudes. One very frequent pattern involves a large rise-fall movement on
the last syllable of the utterance coupled with deaccentuation of the preceding
stressed syllables. This pattern, however, may convey subtly different meanings depending on the associated syntactic structures: exasperation with partial
questions, a polite invitation with imperatives, and so on, so it is difcult to
isolate specic independent expressive features (Di Cristo 208). Lon (1971,
1993) and van den Berghe (1976) are basic references in this area.
Focalization, involving extra pitch prominence, is a process used to intensify or contrast certain words and is closely related to the accent dinsistance
discussed earlier. Examples, in addition to those from 6.1.2 above, include the
following (Di Cristo 209 10):
il ne dit jamais rien
He never says anything.
qui va te rencontrer
Whos meeting you?
le professeur a la clpas ltudiant
The professor has the key, not the student.
With respect to topic/comment, speakers often, in context, choose to indicate
a distinction between information presupposed to be known by the listener
(the topic) and that which is new (the comment). Normally, this difference is
signalled both by syntactic means (dislocation, resumptive pronouns, etc.) and
by intonational contours, as in the following, where voisin neighbour represents the topic and toujours malade always sick the comment, the latter
characterized by regular contours falling for statements, rising for yes-no
questions:
mon voisin, il est toujours malade
My neighbour, hes always sick.
mon voisin? il est toujours malade

My neighbour? Hes always sick.
mon voisin, le connais-tu?
My neighbour, do you know him.
Further discussion of these types of pattern occurs in Di Cristo (210 14).
Clichs in general are xed, frequent, and stereotypical expressions. In the
prosodic domain, intonation clichs11 are frequent in certain situations, highly
melodic, and consequently often compared to singing. A typical example is the
la-la-lre or na-na-nre nyah, nyah expression used by children to make fun
of someone. Other examples include hop l! off you go/oops with a highlow pitch pattern; Tu as perdu! You lost! or Elle est partie! shes gone
with a rise on the penultimate and a sustained mid-level tone on the last syllable; or Bonjour! hello or coucou! peek-a-boo with high-mid tonal patterns
announcing someones arrival. In an interesting article, Fnagy et al. (1983)
survey a wide variety of intonation clichs in SF, linking them to a variety of
expressive functions as well.
This concludes the survey of SF intonation patterns, a survey that cannot do
justice to the richness and complexity of the domain. As the examples make
clear, syntactic and discourse function, expressivity, variable syntactic structures (some more characteristic of spoken and occasionally familiar language),
stress, and rhythmic patterns all combine (or collide) to render a discussion of
intonation more than challenging. To close this chapter, we will present a few
additional examples from colloquial speech, examples that illustrate some of
the syntactic variability that is possible in that register, and that have intonational consequences.
6.3
6.3 Colloquial Constructions
The structures to follow, drawn from le franais informel are most appropriately restricted to certain less formal contexts and may give some indication
of the direction in which French syntax will evolve. A brief, nontechnical
description of the innovation precedes each example set.12
(8) Sample colloquial constructions
(a) interrogative morpheme at end rather than beginning of sentence
tu las vu o?
You saw it where?
vous partez quand?
Youre leaving when?
tu las pay combien?
You paid how much?
187
188
Prosody
Chapter 6
Notes
(b) lack of inversion after interrogative morpheme

o tu vas?
Where are you going?
de quoi tu parles?
What are you talking about?
quoi a sert?
Whats that for?
1.
For studies of SF addressing these topics, see Lucci (1983) or Lacheret-Dujour

and Beaugendre (1999). There are additional, theory-specic uses of the term
prosody in Firthian Prosodic Analysis, or in approaches known as Prosodic
Phonology and Morphology, which need not concern us here.
2.
For the latter, Lon (1993) represents an excellent introduction.
3.
As was observed, for example, by Delattre (1938).
4.
This distinction is an approximation only. For some discussion of the complexities involved, see Wenk and Wioland (1982).
5.
To be complete, we should note that there is by now an extensive literature dealing with nonnal or secondary stress in French, seen in terms of rhythmic patterning. This topic is beyond the bounds of our current discussion. For further
information, consult (in addition to Di Cristo [1998: 19699, 1999, 2000]),
Dell (1984), Fnagy (1979), or Lacheret-Dujour and Beaugendre (1999).
The existence of these phrase-internal rhythmic patterns does not lead synchronically to the reduction of rhythmically weak vowels. It does mean,
however, that the approximate equality attributed above to all pretonic
syllables is an idealization for expository and pedagogical purposes.
The terms emphatic and phrasal stress are used in the sense of Di Cristo
(1988). Lucci (1983), who presents one of the most substantial studies of emphatic
stress in SF, also notes the terminological richness in this area. Phrasal stress is
also known as laccent dintensit, dynamique, tonique, normal, nal, among
others. Emphatic stress is variously called laccent dinsistance, intellectuel, distinctif, oratoire, affectif, motionnel (with certain authors e.g., Marouzeau
[1924] distinguishing, within emphatic stress, between affectif and intellectuel). Lucci uses the term accent didactique for what we are calling emphatic
stress. See also Sguinot (1977).
6.
Because the reading of the words lists is also a formal exercise, the speakers heard
on the accompanying CD-ROM also manifest a tendency to accent the initial syllable of the words being read.
7.
Pitch, in turn, is the perceptual correlate of the frequency of a sound, such frequency determined in speech by the rate of vibration of the vocal cords: the more
rapid the rate of vibration, the higher the pitch. Languages in which pitch variation occurs within words rather than over longer sequences, where such changes
produce different meanings when associated with identical sequences of consonants and vowels, are known as tone languages. In simplied terms, therefore,
tone refers to pitch changes within words while intonation refers to pitch
changes within phrases and longer sequences. As noted by Trask (1996: 184),
studies of intonation may additionally involve factors such as tempo, loudness,
(c) suppression of pronominal subject (often with falloir)

faut pas faire a
Dont do that.
faudrait lui tlphoner
You should call her.
a, pas question tu sais
Dont even think about it.
Rue Mouffetard?, connais pas
Rue Mouffetard, I dont know it.
(d) nominal subject or object accompanied by resumptive pronoun

son frre il est malin
His brother, hes tricky.
ses voisins ils sont pas gentils
His neighbours arent nice.
les artichauts je les aime pas
Artichokes, I dont like them.
il la rat son examen
He failed his exam.
enn, il la eu, son bac?
So did he get it, his degree?
(e) pronouns repeated with corresponding disjunctive forms

tu veux y aller, toi?
Do you want to go there?
jai lair dun ic, moi?
Do I look like a cop, me?
toi, tu me fatigues
Youre bothering me.
moi, lui, je laime pas
Him I dont like.
(f) prepositions stranded in nal position

combien tas pay pour?
You paid how much?
on peut se laver sans
We can wash without it.
tu viens avec?
You coming with us?
la lle que je sors avec
the girl Im dating
These examples give only the briefest indication of a very rich set of morphological and syntactic innovations in contemporary spoken French.13 Further
data and discussion, indicating the frequency and extent of these changes, may
be found in Bauche (1920), Frei (1929), Gadet (1989), Guiraud (1965), or
Mougeon (1998). Rather than dwell on an area that has at best only indirect
implications for our current phonological discussions, let us turn, in the next
chapter, to certain phonological phenomena that occur at what one might call
the periphery of the phonological system.
189
190
191
Chapter 6
and pauses; see Fougeron and Jun (1998) for an analysis of the effect of tempo on
French intonation.
8.
9.
It is possible to distinguish intonational phrases from phonological phrases, as do

Nespor and Vogel (1986, chapter 7). This distinction is not necessary for our purposes here. The discussion to follow relies heavily on Di Cristo (1998: 200 - 17).
For much more detailed information, see Rossi (1999).
There is a second type of yes/no question, also frequent in spoken language, called
tag questions. This type ends in markers such as oui, non, si, hein, daccord,
nest-ce pas, and shows the normal declarative contour followed by a rapid rise on
the tag marker: Elle est malade, non? Shes sick, isnt she?; On part, daccord?
Lets go, okay?
10. Actually, as Di Cristo describes (1998: 205), there are two main types of partial
questions: the neutral partial questions illustrated below and echo partial questions, in which the speaker asks for a repetition
or reformulation of a response not
.
fully understood. Echo questions show a contour similar to that of yes/no questions: Qui est tomb? = Who did you say fell?
11. Also called clichs mlodiques; cf. Fnagy et al. (1983).
12. Note, as a general rule, that the negative particle ne is virtually
absent from cur.
rent spoken French, except in the most formal registers.
13. Lexical choice is also obviously correlated with stylistic level consider a series
such as vhicule, voiture, bagnole, char, vehicle, automobile, car, jalopy for
example. A separate work would be needed to consider this matter fully.
Chapter 7
Around the Phonological Periphery:
Playing with Language.
7.0
7.0 Introduction
Virtually all languages allow manipulation of their phonological structure

for what we might call recreational or expressive purposes. Punning, onomatopoeia, nicknames, and diminutives provide four widespread and familiar
examples of the type of activity involved and indicate further the primary
sociolinguistic connotations of such phonological manipulations. Word play
is, at least at the outset, more characteristic of casual or relaxed situations
where the participants know each other well than it is of formal contexts. This
being said, however, one of the intriguing aspects of French word play is the
degree to which acronyms or the use of verlan, to take the two most obvious
examples, have extended into standard usage. In the following sections, we
will illustrate four types of processes with which all speakers of French are
familiar and which have been widely discussed in both the technical and the
popular literature. While each of these processes involves obvious phonological manipulations, we should also note that they may be considered, along
with derivation and compounding, as word-formation mechanisms (albeit of a
minor kind) that serve to expand the contents of the lexicon. 1
7.1
7.1 Abbreviations
Abbreviation, also often called clipping, is a word-formation process by means

of which a new item is formed by the removal of part of a larger word or
phrase. The new formation has the same meaning and grammatical category
membership as its parent. A variety of straightforward abbreviations is given
in (1).2
(1) Simple abbreviations
Abbreviation
Full form
abrv
abrviation
abbreviation
agreg
agrgation
competitive degree
appart
appartement
apartment
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Around the Phonological Periphery: Playing with Language
Chapter 7
alu
aluminium
aluminum
bnf
bnce
benet
calva
calvados
Calvados
dg
dgueulasse
disgusting
dgueu
dgueulasse
disgusting
diapo
diapositive
slide
estome
estomac
stomach
fac
facult
faculty
fana
fanatique
fan
impec
impeccable
perfect
imper
impermable
raincoat
Lib
Libration
Libration newspaper
manif
manifestation
demonstration
maths
mathmatiques
math
perpte
perptuit
life sentence
prof
professeur
professor
pub
publicit
commercial
rcr
rcration
recess
scu
scurit (sociale)
Social Security
sensa
sensationnel
terric
sensass
sensationnel
terric
sympa
sympathique
nice
tiche
t-shirt
t-shirt
Simple in these cases refers to the fact that the abbreviations are identical
to part of the original forms and show no further phonological changes (other
than the regular adjustments of the mid vowels). The examples here all truncate the nal part of the word, and this appears to be the most frequent pattern, despite the existence of forms like ricain for amricain American, pitaine for capitaine captain, or bib for toubib doctor. Otherwise, we nd
some variation (e.g. sensa and sensass) and both monosyllabic and polysyllabic examples, as well as both vowel and consonant nal forms.3
More complicated types of abbreviation also exist, of which we will
illustrate only two: abbreviation of phrases or compound words and the
generalization of the sufx -o, both illustrated in (2). Note that -o in some
forms may not actually be a sufx, but rather part of the word itself. These
forms are included here because of their general similarity to sufxed forms in
form and in impression conveyed.
(2) Complex abbreviations
Abbreviation
Full form
(a) phrases
ctap
cet aprs-midi
until this afternoon
plute
plus tard
see you later
aprm
aprs-midi
afternoon
tout
tout lheure
see you shortly
beau-f
beau-frre
brother-in-law
cit-u
cit universitaire
student residences
comif
comme il faut
properly
dacc
daccord
okay
deuxch
Deux Chevaux
(type of car)
doccase
doccasion
second hand
sans dec
sans dconner
no kidding
sciences po
sciences politiques
political science
tag
ta gueule
shut up
Boul Mich
Boulevard Saint Michel (street)
Nouvel Obs
Nouvel Observateur
(magazine)
ado
adolescent
adolescent
amerlo
amerloque (amricain) American
anarcho
anarchiste
anarchist
apro
apritif
aperitif
aristo
aristocrate
aristocrat
bolcho
bolchviste
Bolshevist
collabo
collaborateur
collaborator
dbilos
dbile
moron
(b) sufxes
193
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Chapter 7
7.2
7.2 Acronyms
dmago
dmagogue
demagogue
diapo
diapositive
slide
colo
cologiste
ecologist
gaucho
gauchiste
leftist
hebdo
hebdomadaire
weekly paper
hystro
hystrique
hysterical
intello
intellectuel
intellectual
interro
interrogation
interrogation
labo
laboratoire
laboratory
Macdo
McDonald
McDonalds restaurant
mto
mtorologie
weather
mollo
mollement
take it easy
(a) spelled acronyms
Montparno
Montparnasse
Montparnasse quarter
AJ
Auberges de jeunesse
youth hostels
moto
motocyclette
motorcycle
ANPE
parano
paranoaque
paranoid
Agence nationale pour

lemploi
national employment
agency
rapido
rapidement
quickly
BCBG
bon chic, bon genre
preppy
resto
restaurant
restaurant
BD
bande dessine
comic strip
socio
sociologie
sociology
BNP
Banque nationale de Paris
(name of bank)
toxico
toxicomane
junkie
CCP
compte chque postal
post ofce bank account
CEE
Communaut conomique
europenne
EEC
CES
collge denseignement
secondaire
junior high school
CGT
Confdration gnrale
du travail
(trade union)
CNPF
Conseil national du
patronat franais
(employers federation)
CNRS
Centre national de recherche (research council)

scientique
CPFH
collier de perles,
foulard Herms
snooty
CRS
Compagnies rpublicaines
de scurit
state security police
In many of these forms (e.g., aristo, labo, toxico), the nal /o/ can be simply
the segment preceding the truncated part of the abbreviation. In others, however, there is no trace of the /o/ in the original, and the vowel must be interpreted as a sufxal addition to the base word (apro, intello, rapido, and so
on). Many of these creations have a jocular or sarcastic tone, as indicated in
the observation of Prigniel (1966: 63): Il [le sufx -o] a une allure bon enfant,
il est familier et dsinvolte, vulgaire, ironique. Sa bonne humeur, souvent,
donne une nuance enjoue aux propos.4 The formation of words in -o is
very productive (cf. Macdo), a productivity reinforced by the ability of -o
to combine with other segments in an expanded series: classicos (classique),
dbilos (dbile), vulgos (vulgaire), cinoche (cinma), floche (flicitations),
and others.
Acronyms, not unrelated to abbreviations, are words formed by combining

into a new word the initial letters of the constituents of a phrase: UFO
(unidentied ying object); AIDS (acquired immune deciency syndrome).
Sometimes the acronym is spelled out (the letters are read individually), as in
UFO; sometimes the combination of letters is pronounced or read as a new
word (AIDS). There are even mixed forms, such as CD-ROM (compact disk,
read-only memory). It takes very little contact with contemporary France to
be convinced that acronyms (acronymes or sigles in French) now play a signicant communicative role, reect a very large set of mutually understood
cultural concepts, and are freely used at all levels of communication. (It is difcult to read the current press without a grasp of a large number of acronyms.)
The examples in (3) are a tiny proportion of those that may be found in SF. 5
(3) Acronyms
195
196
Chapter 7
DST
Direction de la surveillance
du territoire
(comparable to CIA)
TVA
taxe la valeur ajoute
value added tax
EDF
Electricit de France
(national electric company)
UDF
Union pour la
dmocratie franaise
(political party)
GDB
gueule de bois
hangover
VO
version originale
original version
HLM
habitation loyer modr
public housing
VTT
vlo tout terrain
mountain bike
IVG
interruption voluntaire
de grossesse
abortion
(b) read acronyms
JO
Jeux olympiques
Olympic games
MLF
Mouvement de libration
des femmes
Womens Lib
Ofce de la radiodiffusion
et tlvision franaises
(French national
broadcasting service)
Parti communiste
international
International Communist
Party
PDG
prsident-directeur gnral
chairman and CEO
PME
petites et moyennes
entreprises
small and medium

business
PNB
produit national brut
gross national product
PPH
passera pas lhiver
on deaths door
PS
Parti socialiste
Socialist Party
PTT
Postes, tlgraphe,
tlphone
(national post ofce and

telephone service)
PV
procs-verbal
parking/speeding ticket
RAS
rien signaler
nothing new
RATP
Rgie autonome des

transports parisiens
(Paris city transport

authority)
RER
Rseau express rgional
(high speed train service in

Paris region)
RPR
Rassemblement pour la
Rpublique
(political party)
SDF
sans domicile xe
homeless person
SNCF
Socit nationale des

chemins de fer franais
(French national railway

company)
TGV
train grande vitesse
high speed train
TP
travaux pratiques
lab work
ORTF
PCI
CAPES
Certicat daptitude au
high school teachers
professorat denseignement diploma
secondaire
CHRU
Centre hospitalier rgional

universitaire
regional university
hospital centre
DEUG
diplme dtudes
universitaires gnrales
diploma received after two

years at university
DOMTOM Dpartements dOutre-Mer French overseas

departments and
et Territoires dOutre-Mer
territories
ENA
Ecole nationale
dadministration
college for senior civil

servants
FNAC
Fdration nationale
dachat pour les cadres
(national chain of stores)
INSEE
Institut national de la
statistique et des
tudes conomiques
national institute of
economic and statistical
information
ONU
Organisation des
Nations Unies
UN
OPEP
Organisation des pays

exportateurs de ptrole
OPEC
OTAN
Organisation du Trait de
lAtlantique du Nord
NATO
OVNI
objet volant non-identi
UFO
RIB
relev didentit bancaire
particulars of ones bank

account
SAMU
Service daide mdicale

durgenceservice
mobile emergency
medical service
SDECE
Service de documentation
extrieure et de
contre-espionnage
(comparable to CIA)
197
198
Chapter 7
SIDA
syndrome immunodcitaire acquis
AIDS
SMIC
salaire minimum
interprofessionnel
de croissance
minimum wage
TUC
travail dutilit collective
community work/
employment training
ZUP
zone durbanisation
prioritaire
urban development zone
The productive role of acronym formation is further indicated in two ways: by

the possibility that their innovative pronunciation violates regular phonotactic constraints (CHRU [5y], SDECE [sd's], FNAC [fnak] are phonotactically
irregular) and by the appearance of acronyms as the base for new derivational
formations, as exemplied in (4).
(4) Acronyms in derived forms
World War. Now, virtually every semantic domain is replete with its own
siglaisons, and the frequency of many forms has led to their replacing the
original phrases (e.g., le smic). Rather than being limited to the shortening of
the names of organizations or ofcial structures, acronyms based on slang or
common phrases (TP, VO, BCBG, CPFH) now demonstrate the continually
expanding importance of this means of lexical enrichment.
7.3
7.3 Reduplication
Reduplication is a process of word formation whereby all or part of a word

is repeated for grammatical or semantic purposes. Certain languages use reduplication productively in their inectional systems (e.g., for plural formation).
Others, like English, make limited use of it for expressive purposes (really,
really big; teeny weeny problem; etc.). Reduplication can be total (where a
whole word is repeated) or partial (where only a part of the word is involved).
The process has interesting theoretical implications, particularly involving
syllable structure, regarding the identication of that part of the word to be
repeated and the places where the repeated parts may appear. The semantic
effects of the phenomenon are also intriguing. While reduplication need not
be considered a major aspect of French morphology, it does occur widely and
productively, as demonstrated convincingly by Morin (1972).6
Morin considers reduplication to have two primary functions in French: the
production of diminutives (chouchou favourite) and of onomatopoeic words
(ron-ron cats purring). The use of such forms occurs primarily in informal
situations, where the speakers know each other well, or in child language.
Morin also established a basic phonological description for French reduplication. In partially reduplicated forms, the rst or reduplicated syllable is a
partial copy of the second or stem syllable, which must itself begin with a consonant.7 Examples of reduplicated forms and their proposed bases are given in
(5); note that a further characteristic of onomatopoeic forms is that they have
no obvious base.
ajisme, ajiste
youth hostelling, hosteller
bcbgisme
preppiness
bdphile
comic strip fan
capsien
student preparing the CAPES
cgtiste
member of the CGT
narque
student or former student of the ENA
hachelmiser
to develop public housing
onusien
UN ofcial
otanesque
NATO-like
siden, sidatique
with AIDS, AIDS sufferer
smicard
minimum wage earner
tucard, tuciste
community worker, employment trainee
bbte
bte
silly
ufologie
ufology
coco
communiste,
communist
vtteux
mountain biker
coco
cocane
cocaine
zupage, zuper
rapid urbanization
cracra
crasseux
dirty
dodo
dormir
sleep
fanfan
enfant
child
fofolle
folle
mad, foolish
Initially characteristic of the spoken language and of certain limited domains

(names of countries, political parties, businesses, etc., as in USA, URSS
USSR, PC, PTT, SNCF), use of acronyms has exploded since the Second
(5) Reduplication in French

(a) partial
base form
199
200
Chapter 7
jojo
joli
pretty
joujou
jouet
toy
mm
grand-mre
grandma
mmre
grand-pre
grandpa
mimi
minet
cat
nounours
un ours
teddy bear
zonzon
maison, prison house, prison
(b) full
base form
blabla
chatter, babble (cf. blablater)
bobo
hurt
bonbon
bon
candy
chaud chaud
chaud
hot
coin-coin
sound of duck
durdur
dur
quite difcult
foufou
fou
mad, foolish
gaigai
gai
happy
glouglou
sound of running liquid or

of turkey (cf. glouglouter)
menumenu
menu
tiny
miamiam
yum yum
ronron
purr (cf. ronronner)
tata
tante
aunt
tonton
tata+oncle
uncle
vroumvroum
sound of engine
Fully in line with Morins proposals, these examples should sufce to convey
both the informal nature and general semantic character of reduplication in
French.8
7.4
7.4 Word Games: Verlan
Language games, secret languages, or disguised speech, such as the Pig Latin
familiar to many English speakers, are very widespread throughout the worlds
speech communities. Such phenomena give rise to a number of interesting

theoretical and descriptive questions involving both the phonological structures resulting from the formal manipulations and the conditions of their use.9
Structurally, the processes normally involve the movement of a sound or syllable from one point in the word to another and/or the insertion of sounds at
a speciable point, as well as potential further adjustments depending on the
nature of the sequences resulting from these operations. Use of such devices
is sociolinguistically complex, not unrelated to the functions of slang, professional jargon, or other indications of social class membership.
In French, the disguised language currently garnering the most attention
is verlan (French spoken lenvers).10 Linked to the vernacular of the northern suburbs of Paris and initially used as a symbol of group membership by
younger and marginalized speakers of North African immigrant communities,11 verlan has now become increasingly integrated into the linguistic mainstream. Verlan forms appear as the title of lms (Les Ripoux [= Les Pourris,
crooked policemen], in songs (Laisse bton [= laisse tomber drop it] by
Renaud Schan) and les bds [= bandes dessines comics], in publicity (Le
rap est dans la cepla [= place place], in a Virgin Records advertisement), in
book titles (Seguin, Boris: Les Cfrans [= les Franais the French] parlent
au Franais, Seuil) and even in the speech of the President of the Republic
(Mittrands famous Mais on ne dit plus chbran [= branch with it] on dit
cbl ou mme blca [= cbl with it], in response to an interviewer). The
co-opting of such expressions by mainstream media also reects a normal
sociolinguistic trajectory and contributes to the constant renewal of slang:
once the forms become too well known, they no longer serve their original
purpose of in-group identication and are replaced.
How, then, is verlan spoken? The name itself gives a good initial indication: in bisyllabic words, the order of the syllables is reversed (lenvers wrong
way around > verlan, caf coffee > fca, mtro subway > trom, bonjour
hello > jourbon, paquet dose of cocaine > kpa, etc.). Needless to say, however, the situation is more complicated. Inversion may also apply to longer
words, but differentially. The syllable order 1-2-3 may change to 3-2-1, as in
portugais Portuguese > gutupor, cigarette > rettegaci, or to 1-3-2, as in
enculer to sodomize > enlcu, couter to listen to > tcou.12 Monosyllabic
words may simply have the order of sounds reversed (fou crazy > ouf, chaud
hot > auche). More frequently, though, such words, especially when they are
consonant-nal (whether or not they end in mute-e in the orthography), are
treated is if they were pronounced with nal schwa (realized as [] or []).
Inversion then takes place, with any residual word-nal vowel deleted: mec
guy > keum (from /m'k/), femme woman > meuf (from /fam/). Finally,
once inversion has taken place, further truncation of syllables can occur, rendering words still more difcult to recognize: couter > tcou > tcou; jobard
looney > barjo > barge; Arabe > Beura > Beur; bidon phoney > dombi
/dnbi/ > dombe /dnb/; etc. The following set of examples illustrates these processes more completely. (The social domains where this type of vocabulary is
primarily used will be evident from the translations.)
201
202
Chapter 7
(6) Verlan
(a) vowel-nal monosyllables
bagnole > gnolba
car
baskets > sketba
sneakers
bien > iemb
well
bizarre > zarbi
weird (also > zarb)
bon > ombe
good
blouson > zomblou
jacket
a > a
this
bouffe > fbou
food
chier > iche
to be very bored
braquer > kbra
to stick up
feu > euf
a light (for a cigarette)
cam > mca
stoned
moi > wam
me
choper > pcho
to catch
nez > zen
nose
clochard > charclo
hobo
drogu > gudro
drug addict
gonzesse > zessegon
chick
hachisch > chicha
hashish
Paris > Ripa
Paris
pdale > dallep
homosexual
pinard > narpi
wine
ptard > tarp
joint
salope > lopsa
bitch
voler > lvo
to swipe
voyou > youvoi
hooligan
(b) consonant-nal monosyllables (often with addition of nal < e >

[= [] or [], subsequently spelled < eu >] to provide the new base
vowel), plus optional truncation of the nal vowel.
bac > keuba
baccalaureate degree
Beur > Rebeu < Arabe
(a reverlanized verlan form)
cher > reuch
expensive
cul > luc
ass
femme > meuf
woman, girl
fesse > seffe
buttock
fte > teuf
party
ic > keuf
cop
juif > feuj
Jew, Jewish
mec > keum
guy
mre > reum
mother
punk > keupon
punk, punk rocker
skin > neusk
skinhead
soeur > reuss
sister
thunes > nuts
dough
tronche > chetron
face (pejorative)
(c) bisyllables
poil > oilp, oilp
naked
arnaque > karna
swindle
(d) longer forms

dfonc > foncd
drunk, drugged
dgueulasse > lasdgueu
dirty, repulsive
fatigu > gutifa
tired
frangine > ngifran
sister
ma parole > marolepe
you dont say!
oublier > bliou
forget
partouze > zetoupar
orgy
rigoler > golerie
to kid around
(e) truncated forms

bouffer > fbou > feb
eat
bouger > gbou > geb
move
203
204
Chapter 7
braquer > kbra > keb
steal
cond > dcon > dec
cop
copain > painco > painc
pal
dguis > kisd
plainclothes policeman
mongol(ien) > golmon > gol
stupid, moron
(for)niquer > kni > ken
to copulate
parents > rempas > remps
parents
pd > dp > dep
homosexual
ticket > keuti > keut
ticket
A closer look at certain complex forms reveals additional details that demonstrate the relevance of language games in confronting a number of questions of phonological theory, such as the behaviour of certain latent consonants
(the appearance of /z/ in nez nose > zen), of consonant clusters (/bl/ remain
together in bliou < oublier to forget, while /rt/ are separated in zetoupar
< partouze orgy), of nasal vowels (no latent nasal consonant appears: bon
good > ombe, not *nombe), of schwa (schwa is identied with one of the
vowels // or //, and accordingly written with < eu >), and so on. While these
issues are very interesting, they take us beyond our current descriptive concerns. Much further detail concerning the theoretical implications of verlan,
as well as large amounts of additional data, is available in the references of
footnote 9.
This concludes our discussion of language play. The phenomena considered here have counterparts in most languages. They reect, in a further way,
the adaptation of language to its context of use, and implement in addition a
very widespread tendency in informal speech: the shortening of words by various means. More generally, language play shows yet again how phonological
processes are intimately involved in word formation in relating the varying
word forms of a single lexical item. This theme, a reection of the discussions
throughout previous chapters, underlines the close connections between phonology and morphology and reinforces the conclusion that one cannot study
French sounds in isolation but only as part of an integrated set of linguistic
systems, systems used in a variety of speech situations. Hence the title with
which we began: French Sound Structure.
Notes
1.
See Valdman (2000b) for an excellent survey of this type of speech behaviour.
2.
This data is taken from Scullen (1997), the most comprehensive general analysis
of the various phenomena involved in this chapter. Scullen worked with a corpus
of approximately one thousand abbreviated items from SF.
3.
The ease with which consonant-nal abbreviations are formed contradicts the
claim that French is a strongly open-syllable language.
4.
For many additional examples and further analysis, see Offord (1989).
5.
The terminology spelled and read acronyms is that of Scullen (1997).

Dictionaries of acronyms now run to hundreds of pages.
6.
In Morins approach, reduplicated forms are called echo words. For further discussion, in addition to Scullen (1997), see Thiele (1987: 107 08).
7.
Scullen (1997: 135) recognizes this description as largely correct. Subsequent

analyses reect theoretical developments in phonology since Morins groundbreaking work.
8.
We cannot discuss here one additional complicated and very productive area
of reduplication (and, in fact, of abbreviation as well): the formation of hypocoristics or nicknames. Scullen (1997: 148 70) divides nicknames into four classes:
reduplicated (Kiki < Christophe, Bbert < Albert, Coco < Colette, Vvette <
Yvette, Popol < Jean-Paul), abbreviated (Dom < Dominique, Isa < Isabelle, Gus <
Auguste), compounded (Mah < Marie-Hlene, Marie-T < Marie-Thrse), and
sufxed (Thomassou < Thomas, Alexo < Alexandre, Toinon < Antoine). Variants
of many nicknames abound, often combining different abbreviatory or reduplicative processes. Further discussion these processes may be found in the work of
Marc Plnat (e.g., Plnat 1984).
9.
For an insightful review of this question in the French context, see Lefkowitz
(1991), especially chapters 2 and 3, as well as Antoine (1998). Villon, in his
Ballades en jargon from the mid-1400s, presents one early and well-known
example of a secret language in the French literary domain. Further information
may be found in Azra and Cheneau (1994), Plnat (1995), Scullen (1997), or various recent issues of Le Nouvel Observateur (e.g., No. 1771 of October 15, 1998).
10. Other possibilities, far less actively used at the moment, include javanais (formed
by inserting -av-, -va-, or -ag-: chatte cat > chagatte, jeudi Thursday > javeudavi), largonji (formed by replacing the rst letter of the word by l and moving
the rst letter to the end of the word and adding a vowel: jargon > largonji, caf
> lafk), or loucherbem, a creation of Paris butchers (formed by replacing the
205
206
207
Chapter 7
rst consonant or consonant cluster by l, moving the initial segments to wordnal position and adding -em: boucher butcher > loucherbem, truc thing, trick
> louctrm). For further details, cf. Plnat (1985, 1991).
11. The verlan form Beur (= Arab) is widely used as a designation for second generation North African immigrants, and one can now listen to Radio Beur.
12. In a number of polysyllabic verlan forms, the order of syllables actually appears
random: cigarette > rettegaci, garettci, or retciga; dfonc smashed > foncde,
fondc, or cfond; etc.
Appendix
Appendix
Text: Le Premier Ministre ira-t-il Beaulieu

Diagnostic Word List: Standard French
Diagnostic Word List: Canadian French
Speaker 1: Georges Blary, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise
Speaker 2: Jean-Bernard Gauthier, Oucques, Loir-et-Cher
Speaker 3: Sverine Lamontre, Chaumont, Haute-Marne
Speaker 4: Etienne Grang, Pau, Pyrnes-Atlantiques
Speaker 5: Fleur Larocque, Montral, Qubec
The Appendix contains the text of recordings of the following passage and
word lists, read by ve speakers and included on the CD-ROM. (The speaker
from Montral reads the additional list designed to illustrate certain phonological properties of the French language as spoken in Canada.) The purpose of
these recordings is to give examples of connected speech and to illustrate three
different varieties of French, a standard northern accent, a southern accent and
a Canadian accent.
Northern speakers:
Georges Blary, Pontoise, Val-d'Oise
Jean-Bernard Gauthier, Oucques, Loir-et-Cher
Sverine Lamontre, Chaumont, Haute-Marne
Southern speaker:
Etienne Grang, Pau, Pyrnes-Atlantiques
Canadian speaker:
Fleur Larocque, Montral, Qubec
208
Appendix
Appendix
Note: as has been made abundantly clear in the text itself, there is considerable
variation in the pronunciation of Standard French. This means that the speakers reading the texts or lists of data will themselves manifest elements of this
variation, and that the examples read may not always correspond exactly to
the point being discussed in the text. This lack of correspondence primarily
affects vowel length, the mid vowels /e ', 1 ,o n/, the nasal vowels /' /, the
low vowels /a #/, the retention or deletion of e-muet, certain nal consonants,
and the use of an accent dinsistance (inital stress on words). It is, however, a
useful exercise for listeners to be made aware of these minor discrepancies.
Le Premier Ministre ira-t-il Beaulieu?

Le village de Beaulieu est en grand moi. Le Premier Ministre a, en effet,
dcid de faire tape dans cette commune au cours de sa tourne de la rgion
en n d'anne. Jusqu'ici les seuls titres de gloire de Beaulieu taient son vin
blanc sec, un champion local de course pied (Louis Garret), quatrime aux
jeux olympiques de Berlin en 1936, et plus rcemment son usine de ptes italiennes. Qu'est-ce qui a donc valu Beaulieu ce grand honneur? Le hasard, tout
btement, car le Premier Ministre lass des circuits habituels qui tournaient
toujours autour des mmes villes veut dcouvrir ce qu'il appelle "la campagne
profonde".
Le maire de Beaulieu Claude Bousquet est en revanche trs inquiet. La
cote du Premier Ministre ne cesse de baisser depuis les lections. Comment,
en plus, viter les manifestations qui ont eu tendance se multiplier lors des
visites ofcielles ? La cote escarpe du Mont Saint Pierre qui mne au village
connat des barrages chaque fois que les opposants de tous les bords manifestent leur colre. D'un autre ct, chaque voyage du Premier Ministre, le
gouvernement prend contact avec la prfecture la plus proche et s'assure que
tout est fait pour protger le Premier Ministre. Or, un gros dtachement de
police comme on en a vu Jonquire et des vrications didentit risquent
de provoquer une explosion. Un jeune membre de l'opposition aurait dclar:
"Dans le coin, on est jaloux de notre libert. S'il faut montrer patte blanche
pour circuler, nous ne rpondons pas de la raction des gens du pays."
De plus, quelques articles parus dans La Dpche du Centre, L'Express,
Le Nouvel Observateur et Ouest-Libert indiqueraient que des activistes
des communes voisines prparent une journe chaude au Premier Ministre.
Quelques fanatiques auraient mme entam un jene prolong dans l'glise de
St Martinville.
Le sympathique maire de Beaulieu ne sait plus quel saint se vouer. Il
s'est, en dsespoir de cause, dcid crire au Premier Ministre pour vrier
si son village tait vraiment une tape ncessaire dans la tourne prvue.
Beaulieu prfre tre inconnue et tranquille plutt que de se trouver au centre
d'une bataille politique dont, par la tlvision, seraient tmoins des millions
dlecteurs.
Diagnostic Word List: Standard French

1. roc
31. djeuner
2. rat
32. ex-femme
3. jeune
33. lige
4. mal
34. baignoire
5. ras
35. pcheur
6. fou lier
36. socialisme
7. des jeunets
37. relier
8. intact
38. aspect
9. nous prendrions
39. niais
10. ftard
40. pais
11. nice
41. des gents
12. pte
42. blond
13. piquet
43. creux
14. pe
44. reliure
15. compagnie
45. piqu
16. fte
46 malle
17. islamique
47. gnle
18. agneau
48. bouleverser
19. pcheur
49. million
20. mdecin
50. explosion
21. paume
51. inuence
22. infect
52. mle
23. dgeler
53. ex-mari
24. btement
54. pomme
25. pier
55. trier
26. millionnaire
56. chemise
27. brun
57. brin
28. scier
58. lierre
29. fter
59. blanc
30. mouette
60. petit
209
210
Appendix
Appendix
61. jene
78. quatrime
25. pur
56. toi
62. rhinocros
79. muette
26. rouge
57. bois
63. miette
80. piquais
27. neige
58. boivent
64. slip
81. trouer
28. neutre
59. noir
65. compagne
82. piquer
29. chaude
60. boisson
66. peuple
83. creuse
30. pre
61. voyons
67. rauque
84. beaut
31. beurre
62. soire
68. cinquime
85. patte
32. port
63. doigt
69. nier
86. pte
33. part
64. avoir
70. extraordinaire
87. pais
34. pte
65. boire
71. meurtre
88. pe
35. crainte
66. froid
72. vous prendriez
89. jeune
36. emprunte
67. crois
73. bott
90. jene
37. honte
68. poign
74. patte
91. beaut
38. lente
69. bain
75. triller
92. bott
39. quiper
70. quinze
76. faites
93. brun
40. dput
71. un
77. feutre
94. brin
41. couter
72. jungle
42. professuer
73. crayon
43. piscine
74. honte
44. malle
75. absent
45. mle
76. il vente
46. Jacques
77. reculer
47. cadenas
78. brouette
48. clater
79. fvrier
49. clat
80. tabernacle
50. il est l, l
81. coutume
51. voyage
82. rendu
52. voyager
83. dire
53. mauvais
84. dite
54. jamais
85. duel
55. parfaite
86. tube
Diagnostic Word List Canadian French

1. mettre
13. vire
2. matre
14. juge
3. coeurer
15. court
4. vque
16. courte
5. sable
17. boulevard
6. vite
18. ltrer
7. libre
19. abusif
8. juste
20. ministre
9. plume
21. pilule
10. couple
22. touriste
11. pitoune
23. cuisine
12. ville
24. cuisiner
211
212
213
Appendix
87. tuile
102. champagne
88. pas dide
103. dehors
89. vote immense
104. hler
90. le prtre
105. chercher
91. aveugle
106. arbre
92. convaincre
107. plutt
93. vinaigre
108. il en a
94. orchestre
109. je lai vu
95. anglicisme
110. cest-tu ttu
96. debout
111. cent piastres
97. pourrie
112. sur la table
98. ombre
113. dans la maison
99. pingle
114. je les ai vus
100. signe
115. sans les voir
101. enseigner
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Index
Index
/a - #/, 60-62
/e - '/, 48-59
/':/ , 45
/o - n/, 48-59
/ - /, 48-59
/sC/, 28, 52
CL, 85, 87, 89, 101, 103, 120-121,
136
X - VN, 65
VC.CV, 27-28, 139
VCCCX, 82-86
VCCX, 82-86, 90
abbreviation, 191-194
accent d insistance, 91, 131, 181-182,
186
acronym, 195-199
afx, 14
alternation, 16, 49, 59, 71, 92,
104-105, 153, 157-158
analogy, 52-56, 61
aspirate-h, 9, 78, 86, 105, 107, 128,
140, 147
assimilation, 135, 140
Canadian French, See CF
CF, 5-6, 44, 48, 75-76, 95
circonexe, 47, 62
clitic, 31, 84, 87, 105, 107, 181
closed syllable, 50-52, 57, 78, 93,
107, 110
coda, 23-27, 30, 43, 74, 103, 126-128
colloquial, 3, 86-90, 187
compensatory lengthening, 44, 62
compound, 85, 163, 168, 192

conjugation, 49, 57, 87
conservative, 45, 48, 60, 63, 133
constraint, 48, 55, 64, 77-78, 84, 86,
105, 136
derivation, 14, 67, 156, 191
dialect, 6
emphasis, 181
en-, 64-65, 73
enchanement, 30-31, 37, 107,
143-145, 160, 165, 167
English, 1, 5, 15, 44, 62, 134-135,
146, 158, 178-179
epenthesis, 85-86, 128-130
exception, 50, 55, 61, 64-65, 78-79,
83, 92, 99, 120, 150-151
false liaison, 165
familiar, 4, 187
feminine, 14, 47, 51, 65, 71, 87, 95,
97-99, 153
nal consonant, 95, 148-152, 163
formal, 2-6, 35, 54, 88-89, 104-105,
130, 136, 165, 169, 182, 187, 201
geminate, 73, 104, 130-131, 177
gender, 13-14, 95, 98-99
glides, See also semi-vowels, 21-22,
24-25, 31, 41, 100, 103-106,
127-128, 146
hiatus, 47, 78, 105-106, 146
high vowels, 22, 31, 41, 100, 104
inection, 14, 65, 153, 156
informal, 4, 58, 87, 145, 169,
199-200, 204
228
Index
Index
insertion, 80, 85-86, 95, 97, 201

latent, 25, 148-149, 152-157,
160-161, 167, 204
Latin, 1, 6-8, 15, 96, 98, 130, 147,
179,
learned, 8, 15-16, 28, 47-48, 62,
93-95, 99, 125, 130, 151-152, 156,
159
lengthening consonants, 42-43, 47
lexicon, 14, 140, 147, 191
liquids, 22, 81, 119-120, 128, 139-140
loi de position, 51-52, 55-56, 59, 107
loi des trois consonnes, 82
masculine, 14, 47, 65, 71, 95, 98
merger, 59-60, 62-63, 79-80, 91,
MF, 48, 55-57, 75, 96, 111, 116
mid vowels, 22, 29, 48-60, 106-107,
192
Midi French, See MF
minimal phrase, 34-36, 88-89,
180-181
morphology, 13-17, 53, 65, 87, 92-93,
99, 128-129, 148, 153, 199, 204
mute-e, See also schwa, 52, 85,
95-96, 201
nasal consonants, 22, 31, 63-64,
73-74, 106-107, 132, 136
nasalization, 44, 71-75, 130, 150
neologism, 14-15
nonstandard, 3, 106, 191-194,
199-204
nucleus, 23-27, 126-128
number, 13-14, 158
-o, 193-194
OF, 6-7, 15, 74, 96-99, 128-130, 147,
158
Old French, See OF
onset, 23-27, 30, 126-128, 140, 161
open syllable, 23, 27, 44, 48-50,
52-57, 93, 148
optional, 26, 35, 105, 151-152, 161,
163-164, 169, 202
orthography, 7, 11-12, 50, 57, 59,
73-75, 86, 92, 95, 99, 132, 148-149,
153, 157, 201
person, 14, 151, 167-168
phoneme, 13, 103, 133, 135, 158

phonological hierarchy, 23, 30
phonological phrase, 30-37, 80-84,
88-89, 99, 106-107, 131, 161, 169,
178, 182, 184
phonology, 5, 13, 16-17, 22, 28,
30-31, 91, 95, 103, 107, 125, 128,
149, 177, 182, 204
phonotactic, 24-25, 29, 31, 37, 77, 86,
106-107, 121-128, 136, 198
phrase-initial, 37, 80-81, 83, 87, 181
plural, 14, 47, 65-66, 71, 145, 151,
158-159, 163, 168, 199
popular, 3-4, 6, 15, 89-90, 99, 145,
156, 191
prex, 14, 64-65, 69, 73, 83, 91
productivity, 14, 194
proper noun, 78
prosody, 131, 169, 177-187
rapid speech, 13, 105, 115, 140, 146
reduplication, 14, 199-200
register, 3-6, 186-187
resyllabication, 37, 107, 161, 165
rhythm, 31, 84-85, 177-178, 183
root, 14, 52-53, 56, 61, 65, 73, 77
schwa, See also mute-e, 3, 25, 30-31,
37, 42, 48, 60, 75, 99, 105-107,
125-126, 128, 130-131, 136, 139,
143-146, 148, 153, 178-179, 182,
201, 204
semi-vowels, See also glides, 21,
24-25, 41, 100, 102-105, 139, 146
SF, See also Standard French, 6, 21,
25, 29, 41-42, 48, 55-56, 75, 88,
107, 119, 121, 135, 140, 147
singular, 14, 47, 65-66, 71, 145, 151,
158-159, 162
slang, 2, 4, 75, 199, 201
stable, 51, 56, 60, 79, 86, 90-91,
147-149, 153, 160
standard, 2-6, 18, 48, 136, 191
Standard French, See also SF, 2-3, 5,
8, 160
strength, 27, 30, 129, 136
stress, 7, 23, 30-32, 42, 46, 53, 91-92,
108, 116, 131, 169, 177-182, 187
style, 5, 169
sufx, 14, 51, 53, 65, 93, 104, 126,
134-135, 193-194
syllabication, 27-31, 52, 125, 139,
159-161, 167, 177
syllable-nal, 74, 120, 125, 128,
138-140
syllable-initial, 120-121, 126, 128,
137, 139
variation, 2-3, 5, 8, 12, 16, 52, 74, 76,
86, 88, 99, 106-107, 133, 136, 140,
146, 148, 179, 182
variety, 2, 5-6, 62, 76, 89, 95-96, 160,
165, 182, 191
verlan, 191, 200-202, 204
vowel harmony, 52, 54-56
vowel system, 41-42, 57, 60, 62, 64,
106-108
word, 13-16, 30-31, 37, 48, 67, 73,
77-78, 82-83, 86-87, 90, 99, 102,
105-107, 126, 128, 131, 161-163,
178-179, 181-182, 191-195,
199-201, 204
word-nal, 30-31, 43-44, 46, 49-50,
59, 72, 75, 79, 83, 96, 102,
106-107, 119, 125-126, 135, 137,
148-149, 152, 157, 160-161, 178,
201
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4.4.4 History and Orthography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

7. Around the Phonological Periphery: Playing with Language . . . . .191

Standard French Vowels and Semi-vowels

Standard French Consonants

apical palatal velar uvular

*In International Phonetic Association (IPA) notation, [] represents a voiced

Abbreviations and Symbols

1.1 The French Language

Originating in the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul and establishing itself as

The Object of Description

The wide geographic distribution of the French language is understandably

The Object of Description

innovative (although highly formal speech can also be innovative

(b) standard (franais courant, usuel, commun, ordinaire): the

(f) Je vous prie de ne pas fermer la porte.

(c) familiar: used in less formal situations, primarily in oral

May I ask you not to close the door?

The following graded examples, moving from formal to familiar or popular,

Where do you reside?

O est-ce que vous habitez?

Where do you live?

You live where?

(b) Voil une voiture qui fait sensation.

This car is creating a

Elle est sensationnelle cette voiture.

This is a sensational car.

Elle est sensas cette bagnole.

What a terric car!

(c) Que dites-vous?

May I ask what youre

Quest-ce que vous dites?

What are you saying?

Vous dites quoi?

Youre saying what?

(d) Elle sest prise de lui au premier regard.

Ctait qui le premier ministre?

Who was the rst prime

the man they came with

Minor lexical or phonetic differences aside, in fact, Standard Canadian French

1.2 A Brief Historical Review

As the foregoing remarks have indicated, SF is a product of a combination

The Object of Description

The Object of Description

Warnant, interestingly enough in this context, is Belgian. The quotation is taken

The Serments de Strasbourg from 842, a document conrming a political alliance

Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts

2.1 Orthography and Pronunciation

Clearly, there exists some type of systematic relationship between French

Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts

(b) one spelling several sounds

cinq petits chiens

/pln / /pln bje/

(f) stylistic variation

namely the symbols of the International Phonetic Association (IPA), which we

2.2 Morphological and Lexical Notions5

As we have already remarked, sounds combine to form words, the fundamental

Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts

-ique (informatique computer science, robotique robotics), for example,

Key Descriptive and Theoretical Concepts

je pars nous partons

je dors nous dormons

nous venons ils viennent /vn+n /

/pln/ /plnbje/

nous venons ils viennent /vn+n/

nous crevons ils crvent /kv+n/

petit gamin petit enfant /ptigam'/ /ptit#f#/