An Introduction to French Pronunciation

The Vowels in Detail 67
(iii) in the ending -otion, e.g. dévotion /devosjf/, émotion
/emosjf/, promotion /prbmosjf/, notion /nosjf/.
In many words, either pronunciation is possible, e.g. autel
/btεl/ or /otεl/, auto /bto/ or /oto/, automne /btbn/ or /otbn/,
fossile /fbsil/ or /fosil/, hôpital /bpital/ (the more usual pronunciation)
or /opital/, hôtel /btεl/ or /otεl/, mauvais /mbvε/ or
/movε/, naufrage /nbfra:ʒ/ or /nofra:ʒ/, rôtir /rbti:r/ or /roti:r/;
note that this also applies to the future and conditional of the
verbs avoir, falloir, savoir and valoir, e.g. nous aurons /brf/ or
/orf/, (il) faudra /fbdra/ or /fodra/, ( je) saurai /sbre/ or /sore/,
(il ) vaudrait /vbdrε/ or /vodrε/.
10.8.8 Alternatively, as in the case of /e/ and /ε/ (10.6.5 (i))
and of /ø/ and /œ/ (10.7.7 (iii)), an intermediate vowel, i.e.
a vowel somewhere between /o/ and /b/, is often heard in
unstressed syllables, either closed or open.
10.9 /a/ – Low Front Unrounded;
/§/ – Low Back Rounded
10.9.1 It must be stressed at the outset that, in a sense,
there is no problem since many native-speakers of French no
longer distinguish between these two vowels, using /a/ instead
of /a/ in all circumstances. Many speakers, particularly non-
Parisians, still do use /a/, particularly in stressed position and
particularly in the case of a few words such as pas /pa/ and
trois /trwa/ and before /z/, e.g. base /ba:z/, emphase /efa:z/,
phrase /fra:z/, but the foreign learner who prefers to make
life simpler by pronouncing /a/ even in such words as these
is in good company and is unlikely to attract criticism. The
indications that follow are, therefore, descriptive of only one,
and that a rather conservative, type of pronunciation and
may, if the reader wishes, be ignored. On the other hand,
in some varieties of what is considered as a substandard
Parisian pronunciation, the difference between the two
vowels is exaggerated, with the result that the vowel of pas