01.07.2013 Views

An Introduction to French Pronunciation

An Introduction to French Pronunciation

An Introduction to French Pronunciation

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Liaison 133<br />

(i) words ending in -t, e.g. petit /pcti / but un petit enfant /j<br />

ptit efe/, <strong>to</strong>ut /tu/ but <strong>to</strong>ut à fait /tut a fε/, il est là /il ε la/ but<br />

il est ici /il εt isi/, tant /te/ but je l’ai tant aimé /ʒc le tet<br />

eme/, haut /o/ but de haut en bas /dc ot e ba/, vingt livres<br />

/vh li:vr/ but vingt élèves /vht elε:v/, il dit /il di/ but que dit-il?<br />

/kc dit il/;<br />

(ii) the preposition chez /ʃe/ and verb forms ending in -ez,<br />

e.g. chez eux /ʃez ø/, vous avez fini /vuz ave fini/ but vous avez<br />

entendu /vuz avez etedy/;<br />

(iii) the words beaucoup /boku/ and trop /tro/, e.g. je l’ai<br />

beaucoup aimé /ʒe le bokup eme/, il a trop hésité /il a trop<br />

ezite/, trop à faire /trop a fε:r/, trop ennuyeux /trop endijø/;<br />

trop has the minor complication that, in the liaison form,<br />

the vowel may be opened <strong>to</strong> /b/, e.g. /trbp ezite/, /trbp a fε:r/,<br />

but in ordinary conversational usage /trop/ is more usual and<br />

that is the form that will be adopted below in the phonetic<br />

representation of examples involving trop;<br />

(iv) the adjectives premier /prcmje/, dernier /dεrnje/ and léger<br />

/leʒe/; note that in the liaison form the vowel /e/ is frequently<br />

opened <strong>to</strong> /ε/, particularly in careful speech (in which case<br />

the words in question are therefore pronounced like the feminine<br />

forms première, dernière, légère), e.g. le premier homme<br />

/lc prcmjer bm/ or /lc prcmjεr bm/, le dernier arrêt /lc dεrnjer<br />

arε/ or /lc dεrnjεr arε/, un léger espoir /j leʒer εspwa:r/ or /j<br />

leʒεr εspwa:r/.<br />

19.3.3 The liaison form of words ending in -s or in -x ends<br />

in /z/, e.g. dans un livre /dez j li:vr/, sous un arbre /suz jn<br />

arbr/, pas encore /paz ekb:r/, plus ou moins /plyz u mwh/, nous<br />

avons été /nuz avfz ete/, les innocents /lez inbse/, mes bons<br />

amis /me bfz ami/, les grands arbres /le grez arbr/, quels<br />

enfants? /kεlz efe/, un malheureux accident /j malhœrøz<br />

akside/, deux enfants /døz efe/, six ans /siz e/, dix heures /diz<br />

œ:r/, tes beaux yeux /te boz jø/.<br />

As many of the above examples show, this type of liaison<br />

form frequently occurs with plurals and is therefore particularly<br />

widespread.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!