An Introduction to French Pronunciation

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100 The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops 14 14.1 Introduction The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops 14.1.1 French has what can be considered, with a fair amount of justification, as the same six stops (see 6.3.1) as English, viz.: (i) the voiceless and voiced bilabial stops, /p / and /b/; (ii) the voiceless and voiced dental (or, in English, alveolar – see 14.4.2) stops, /t/ and /d/; (iii) the voiceless and voiced velar stops, /k/ and /g/. 14.1.2 However, though the two languages have the same inventory of phonemes in this respect, and though anyone who uses the English stops when speaking French will usually be understood without difficulty, there are several significant differences in the way French and English stops are articulated, so much so that an English stop is rarely if ever identical with its French equivalent. 14.2 Mode of Articulation (General) 14.2.1 The utterance of a stop normally involves three stages, viz.:
The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops 101 (i) the closing or implosion, i.e. the stage at which the flow of air is stopped at (to consider only the stops of French and English) the lips (/p/ and /b/), the teeth or alveoli (/t/, /d/), or the velum (/k/, /g/); this stage is sometimes referred to as ‘closure’, but since this term is also used with reference not to the ‘act of closing’, i.e. stage (i), but to the ‘period of closure’, i.e. stage (ii), it is perhaps better avoided; (ii) the holding stage during which the air is held in a state of compression (the term ‘compression’ is sometimes used for this stage) behind the point of articulation; (iii) the release or explosion, i.e. the stage at which the pent-up air is released and an audible ‘explosion’ is created. 14.2.2 As we have seen (6.4), the vocal cords may or may not be vibrating during the production of a consonant; a consonant (or segment of a consonant) that is accompanied by vibration of the vocal cords is voiced, one that is not is voiceless. 14.2.3 In discussing the most significant differences between French and English stops, we have to take account both of the different stages referred to in 14.2.1 and of the voicedvoiceless opposition. 14.3 French and English Stops 14.3.1 In the English of most native-speakers (though not necessarily all) the release of voiceless stops, particularly at the beginning of a word, is accompanied by a puff of air – this can be felt if you put the back of your hand an inch or so in front of your mouth and say pin or pool or pie or some other word beginning with /p/ (it is less noticeable in the case of words beginning with /t/ or /k/, but it is there). This is known as aspiration and so we can say that voiceless stops in English are aspirated. If we represent this by a superscript [ h ], we can transcribe pin, pool as [p h in], [p h u:l]. French voiceless
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An Introduction to French Pronuncia
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An Introduction to French Pronuncia
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Contents Preface x 1 General Consid
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Contents vii 8.4 Closed and Open Sy
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Contents ix 16.1 The Varieties of F
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General Considerations 1 1 General
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General Considerations 3 material.
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General Considerations 5 standard w
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General Considerations 7 to pronoun
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General Considerations 9 Transcript
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General Considerations 11 We are th
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2 The Production of Speech 13 The P
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Lips T T A Tip T = Teeth A = Alveol
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The Production of Speech 17 (iii) t
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3 The Articulation of French 19 The
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4 The Vowel Phonemes 4.1 Principles
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4.5 Orality or Nasality The Vowel P
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The Vowel Phonemes 25 However, the
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5 5.1 General The Semi-Consonants T
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6 The Consonant Phonemes 29 The Con
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6.4 Presence or Absence of Voice Th
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The Consonant Phonemes 33 discussed
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The Consonant Phonemes 35 IPA symbo
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The Rhythmic Group 37 shall call
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The Rhythmic Group 39 froid chez vo
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8 The Syllable 8.1 Introduction The
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The Syllable 43 (v) A cluster consi
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9 Stress 9.1 Normal Stress Stress 4
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Stress 47 He’s fantastically clev
Page 59 and 60: Stress 49 word is sometimes stresse
Page 61 and 62: Stress 51 9.5.4 An utterance such a
Page 63 and 64: 10 10.1 Introduction The Vowels in
Page 65 and 66: The Vowels in Detail 55 to attempt
Page 67 and 68: The Vowels in Detail 57 The pronunc
Page 69 and 70: The Vowels in Detail 59 contrasted
Page 71 and 72: The Vowels in Detail 61 - to substi
Page 73 and 74: The Vowels in Detail 63 jeudi /ʒø
Page 75 and 76: The Vowels in Detail 65 English wor
Page 77 and 78: The Vowels in Detail 67 (iii) in th
Page 79 and 80: The Vowels in Detail 69 (iii) (with
Page 81 and 82: The Vowels in Detail 71 The only ci
Page 83 and 84: The Vowels in Detail 73 /e/ is alwa
Page 85 and 86: The Vowels in Detail 75 10.12.3 The
Page 87 and 88: Mute e 77 when unstressed. This see
Page 89 and 90: Mute e 79 /mc kfpre ty/, ne dites p
Page 91 and 92: Mute e 81 ‘rules’ given below i
Page 93 and 94: Mute e 83 as have actually been hea
Page 95 and 96: Mute e 85 than one word may in cert
Page 97 and 98: Mute e 87 (ii) before onze, onzièm
Page 99 and 100: Vowel Length 89 ‘long’. In real
Page 101 and 102: 12.6 Rule 4 Vowel Length 91 Other v
Page 103 and 104: Vowel Length 93 In the circumstance
Page 105 and 106: The Semi-Consonants in Detail 95 co
Page 107 and 108: The Semi-Consonants in Detail 97 th
Page 109: The Semi-Consonants in Detail 99 13
Page 113 and 114: 14.4 Point of Articulation The Cons
Page 115 and 116: The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops
Page 117 and 118: The Consonants in Detail: (II) Fric
Page 119 and 120: 16 The Consonants in Detail: (III)
Page 121 and 122: The Consonants in Detail: (III) /r/
Page 127 and 128: 17 Gemination Gemination 117 17.1 L
Page 129 and 130: Gemination 119 with either a simple
Page 131 and 132: Gemination 121 (i) some words havin
Page 133 and 134: Consonantal Assimilation 123 18.1.3
Page 135 and 136: Consonantal Assimilation 125 necess
Page 137 and 138: Consonantal Assimilation 127 18.3.4
Page 140 and 141: 19 19.1 Origins Liaison Liaison 129
Page 142 and 143: 19.2 The Problem Liaison 131 19.2.1
Page 144 and 145: Liaison 133 (i) words ending in -t,
Page 146 and 147: Liaison 135 in such expressions as
Page 148 and 149: Liaison 137 va/. (The reason why th
Page 150 and 151: Liaison 139 after an imperative, e.
Page 152 and 153: Liaison 141 19.6.2 The following, t
Page 154 and 155: Liaison 143 19.7.4 Between a verb (
Page 156 and 157: 20 Intonation 20.1 Introduction Int
Page 158 and 159: Intonation 147 Foremost among such
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Intonation 149 But if no syllable (
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20.4 Yes-No Questions Intonation 15
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Dans quelle rue | l’avez-vous ach
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20.7 Level Intonation Intonation 15
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References and Further Reading 157
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160 Index Allemagne 113 allemand 79
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162 Index cent 25, 33, 73, 129, 137
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164 Index différentes 137 différe
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166 Index filtre 91 fini 90 finir 1
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168 Index intention 42 iode 98 iodi
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170 Index mourait 120 mourir 120 mo
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172 Index plâtre 68 plein 25, 42,
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174 Index sciure 98 se 79, 82 sec 5
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176 Index vaciller 95 vague 102 vai
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An Introduction to French Pronunciation

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