An Introduction to French Pronunciation

General Considerations 11
We are therefore forced to the conclusion that in order to
understand the pronunciation of the consonants one needs
to know something about the vowels, and that in order to
understand the pronunciation of the vowels one needs to know
something about the consonants.
There is no fully satisfactory way out of the dilemma. The
solution adopted in this book is inevitably something of a
compromise. We begin with three general chapters, after which
we take a first, rather general, look at the vowels, the semiconsonants
and the consonants. This ought to provide the
reader with the basic knowledge needed in order to understand
later chapters in which the vowels, semi-consonants and
consonants are discussed at greater length.
Interspersed at appropriate places among the chapters on
vowels, semi-consonants and consonants, or following them,
are others discussing such highly important aspects of French
pronunciation as the rhythmic group, the syllable, liaison and
intonation.
1.6 References and Further Reading
A small selection of books that can be recommended on general
phonetics or on the pronunciation of French or English
is given at the end of the book under the title ‘References and
Further Reading’. Only works specifically referred to in this
book and a few other particularly useful works currently in
print are included. When reference is made to any of these in
the text of the book, the ‘author–date’ system is used – e.g.
‘Catford, 2001: 49–53’ refers to J. C. Catford, A Practical
Introduction to Phonetics, 2001, pp. 49–53.
1.7 Phonetic Symbols
1.7.1 The following IPA symbols (see 1.1.4) are used in this
book: