An Introduction to French Pronunciation

Liaison 135
in such expressions as le (or en) plein air /lc (e) plεn ε:r/,
en plein été /e plεn ete/, le plein-emploi /lc plεneplwa/, ancien
/esjh/, e.g. un ancien élève /jn esjεn elε:v/, and moyen,
especially in (le) moyen-âge /mwajεna:ʒ/ and Moyen Orient
/mwajεn brje/. (Some educated speakers of French pronounce
at least some of these words as if they fell into category
(i) above, e.g. d’un certain âge /dj sεrthn a:ʒ/, but in the case
of others, e.g. plein-emploi, moyen-âge, the pronunciation
/εn/ seems to be virtually universal. The foreigner is therefore
advised to follow the above rule in all cases.)
Note that the possessives mon, ton, son sometimes fall into
this category, e.g. mon esprit /mbn εspri/, ton ami /tbn ami/,
but the pronunciation with a nasal vowel, as in (i) above,
is now the usual one, e.g. mon esprit /mfn εspri/, ton ami
/tfn ami/, and should be adopted by foreigners.
19.3.7 Nine other words (in addition to some verb forms
– see 19.3.8) have special written as well as spoken liaison
forms:
(i) the masculine singular demonstrative ce /sc/: liaison form
cet /sεt/, e.g. ce livre but cet arbre /sεt arbr/;
(ii) the feminine singular possessives ma, ta, sa /ma, ta, sa/:
liaison forms mon, ton, son /mfn, tfn, sfn/ (or /mbn, tbn, sbn/
– cf. the end of paragraph 19.3.6), e.g. ma première étude, ta
meilleure amie, sa maison but mon étude /mfn etyd/, ton amie
/tfn ami/, son ancienne maison /sfn esjεn mεzf/;
(iii) the masculine singular adjectives beau /bo/, nouveau
/nuvo/, fou /fu/, mou /mu/, vieux /vjø/: liaison forms bel
/bεl/, nouvel /nuvεl/, fol /fbl/, mol /mbl/, vieil /vjεj/, e.g. un
bel homme /j bεl bm/, le Nouvel An /lc nuvεl e/, un fol
espoir /j fbl εspwa:r/, un mol oreiller /j mbl breje/, son vieil
ennemi /sf vjεj εnmi/.
19.3.8 Third person singular verbs ending in -e or in -a
have a special liaison form in /t/, indicated in writing by -t-,
when one of the pronoun subjects il, elle, on follows, either in
questions or when the normal subject–verb order is inverted