An Introduction to French Pronunciation

104 The Consonants in Detail: (I) Stops
more so before a /j/ as in English cube /kju:b/, contact is made
further forward, at the front of the velum and possibly the
back of the palate as well.
In French, this tendency to anticipate the point of articulation
of a following sound is even more marked than in English.
So, while /k/ and /g/ have a velar articulation before or after
a back vowel, as in coup /ku/, goutte /gut/, côte /ko:t/, de
Gaulle /dc go:l/, cote /kbt/, gorge /gbrʒ/, câble /ka:bl/, roc
/rbk/, vogue /vbg/, the point of articulation is appreciably
further forward before front vowels, particularly before
/i/ and /y/, as in qui /ki/, guide /gid/, cure /ky:r/, aigu
/egy/, and before the semi-consonant /d/, as in cuisse /kdis/,
aiguille /egdij/ – so much so that, in some people’s pronunciation,
what one hears is a palatal rather than a velar
stop. Before other vowels, e.g. in words such as quai /ke/, gué
/ge/, quelle /kεl/, guerre /gε:r/, quinze /kh:z/, gain /gh/, canne
/kan/, garde /gard/, the point of articulation is normally
somewhere in between, i.e. well forward on the velum without
however being as far forward as the palate.
14.5 A Canadianism
In Canadian French, the release of the dental stops /t/ and /d/
before the high front vowels /i/, /y/ or before the corresponding
semi-consonants /j/, /d/ is frequently accompanied by a
fleeting [s]-sound (after voiceless /t/) or [z]-sound (after voiced
/d/). This can be represented by a superscript [ s ] or [ z ],
e.g. tirer [t s ire], type [t s ip], tu [t s y], tube [t s yb], tiens [t s jh], tuer
[t s de], dire [d z i:r], dû [d z y], reduire [red z di:r]. (For the vowels
[i] and [y], see 10.12.2.) (For more on this, see Walker, 1984:
chapter 4, ‘Canadian French Consonant System’.)
14.6 The Glottal Stop
The glottal stop (represented by the symbol [ʔ]) is the sound
made by blocking the flow of air by closing the glottis or