An Introduction to French Pronunciation

3
The Articulation of French 19
The Articulation of French
3.1 Articulatory Tension
3.1.1 The first general distinction to be noted between the
pronunciation of English and that of French is that French
is characterized by much greater muscular tension. This has
important consequences for the pronunciation both of vowels
and of consonants. In particular:
3.1.2 Whereas in English the lips are relatively relaxed, in
French they are much tenser; this is very noticeable in the
fact that, when the lips are spread, particularly for the vowel
/i/ (as in words such as dit, vite, grise), the corners of the
mouth are stretched apart much more vigorously than in the
case of the English vowel of such words as tea, meet, please,
while they are much more decisively rounded and thrust
forward for the vowel of French coup, toute, rouge, etc., than
for the vowel of English coo, toot, spoon, etc.
3.2 Pure Vowels
The fact that the lower jaw does not move when a French
vowel is being pronounced means that its quality remains
steady throughout, i.e. French vowels are ‘pure’ and have
none of the fluctuation in quality that characterizes southern