An Introduction to French Pronunciation

88 Vowel Length
12
12.1 Introduction
Vowel Length
12.1.1 As in all languages, the vowels of French vary in
length, in the sense that, whether one is speaking quickly or
slowly, some are longer than others. Such variations in length
may or may not be significant and, if they are not, the nativespeaker
may not even be aware of them: for instance, how
many native-speakers of English are conscious of the fact
that they use a longer vowel in such words as leave, ease, feed
than in such words as leaf, cease, feet? But it is important for
a non-native-speaker to get it right: if a foreigner whose accent
is in other respects impeccable pronounces leaf, cease, feet with
the slightly longer vowel of leave, ease, feed, a native-speaker
will recognize that something is not quite right even if he or
she is not necessarily able to identify just what it is about the
foreigner’s pronunciation that sounds wrong.
12.1.2 In discussing the length of vowels in French, we
have to consider (i) in what circumstances vowels can be long
(12.3–12.7) and (ii) whether or not the difference between
short and long vowels is ever significant (or distinctive, or
phonemic) (12.8).
12.1.3 In practice, we shall need to consider only two
degrees of length that, for simplicity, we can call ‘short’ and