French phonology

Although double consonant letters appear in the orthographic form of many French words, geminate consonants are relatively rare in the pronunciation of such words. The following cases can be identified.[15]

The geminate pronunciation [ʁʁ] is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs courir ('to run') and mourir ('to die'). The conditional form il mourrait [il.muʁ.ʁɛ] ('he would die'), for example, contrasts with the imperfect form il mourait [il.mu.ʁɛ] ('he was dying'). In some other words, most modern speakers have reduced [ʁʁ] to [ʁ], such as "il pourrait" ('he could'). Other verbs that have a double ⟨rr⟩ orthographically in the future and conditional are pronounced with a simple [ʁ]: il pourra ('he will be able to'), il verra ('he will see').

When the prefix in- combines with a base that begins with n, the resulting word is sometimes pronounced with a geminate [nn] and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-:

• inné [i(n).ne] ('innate')
• immortel [i(m).mɔʁtɛl] ('immortal')
• illisible [i(l).li.zibl] ('illegible')
• irresponsable [i(ʁ).ʁɛs.pɔ̃.sabl] ('irresponsible')

Other cases of optional gemination can be found in words like syllabe ('syllable'), grammaire ('grammar'), and illusion ('illusion'). The pronunciation of such words, in many cases, a spelling pronunciation varies by speaker and gives rise to widely varying stylistic effects.[16] In particular, the gemination of consonants other than the liquids and nasals /m n l ʁ/ is "generally considered affected or pedantic".[17] Examples of stylistically marked pronunciations include addition [ad.di.sjɔ̃] ('addition') and intelligence [ɛ̃.tɛl.li.ʒɑ̃s] ('intelligence').

Gemination of doubled ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ is typical of the Languedoc region, as opposed to other southern accents.

A few cases of gemination do not correspond to double consonant letters in the orthography.[18] The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants: là-dedans [lad.dɑ̃] ('inside'), l'honnêteté [lɔ.nɛt.te] ('honesty'). The elided form of the object pronoun l' ('him/her/it') is also realised as a geminate [ll] when it appears after another l to avoid misunderstanding:

• Il l'a mangé [il.lamɑ̃.ʒe] ('He ate it')
• Il a mangé [il.amɑ̃.ʒe] ('He ate')

Gemination is obligatory in such contexts.

Finally, a word pronounced with emphatic stress can exhibit gemination of its first syllable-initial consonant:

• formidable [fːɔʁ.mi.dabl] ('terrific')
• épouvantable [e.pːu.vɑ̃.tabl] ('horrible')

Many words in French can be analyzed as having a "latent" final consonant that is pronounced only in certain syntactic contexts when the next word begins with a vowel. For example, the word deux /dø/ ('two') is pronounced [dø] in isolation or before a consonant-initial word (deux jours /dø ʒuʁ/ → [dø.ʒuʁ] 'two days'), but in deux ans /døz‿ɑ̃/ (→ [dø.zɑ̃] 'two years'), the linking or liaison consonant /z/ is pronounced.

In contrast with the mid vowels, there is no tense–lax contrast in close vowels. However, non-phonemic lax (near-close) [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ] appear in Quebec as allophones of /i, y, u/ when the vowel is both phonetically short (so not before /v, z, ʒ, ʁ/) and in a closed syllable, so that e.g. petite [pə.t͡sɪt] 'small (f.)' differs from petit 'small (m.)' [pə.t͡si] not only in the presence of the final /t/ but also in the tenseness of the /i/. Laxing always occurs in stressed closed syllables, but it is also found in other environments to various degrees.[20][21]

In Metropolitan French, /i, u/ are consistently close [i, u],[22][23][24] but the exact height of /y/ is somewhat debatable as it has been variously described as close [y][22][23] and near-close [ʏ].[24]

Although the mid vowels contrast in certain environments, there is a limited distributional overlap so they often appear in complementary distribution. Generally, close-mid vowels (/e, ø, o/) are found in open syllables, and open-mid vowels (/ɛ, œ, ɔ/) are found in closed syllables. However, there are minimal pairs:[22]

• open-mid /ɛ/ and close-mid /e/ contrast in final-position open syllables:

  allait [a.lɛ] ('was going'), vs. allé [a.le] ('gone');

• likewise, open-mid /ɔ/ and /œ/ contrast with close-mid /o/ and /ø/ mostly in closed monosyllables, such as these:

  jeune [ʒœn] ('young'), vs. jeûne [ʒøn] ('fast', verb),

  roc [ʁɔk] ('rock'), vs. rauque [ʁok] ('hoarse'),

  Rhodes [ʁɔd] ('Rhodes'), vs. rôde [ʁod] ('[I] lurk'),

  Paul [pɔl] ('Paul', masculine), vs. Paule [pol] ('Paule', feminine),

  bonne [bɔn] ('good', feminine), vs. Beaune [bon] ('Beaune', the city).

Beyond the general rule, known as the loi de position among French phonologists,[25] there are some exceptions. For instance, /o/ and /ø/ are found in closed syllables ending in [z], and only [ɔ] is found in closed monosyllables before [ʁ], [ɲ], and [ɡ].[26]

The Parisian realization of /ɔ/ has been variously described as central [ɞ][24] and centralized to [ɞ] before /ʁ/,[2] in both cases becoming similar to /œ/.

The phonemic opposition of /ɛ/ and /e/ has been lost in the southern half of France, where these two sounds are found only in complementary distribution. The phonemic oppositions of /ɔ/ and /o/ and of /œ/ and /ø/ in terminal open syllables have been lost in almost all of France, but not in Belgium or in areas with an Arpitan substrate, where pot and peau are still opposed as /pɔ/ and /po/.[27]

The phonemic contrast between front /a/ and back /ɑ/ is sometimes not maintained in Standard French, which leads some researchers to reject the idea of two distinct phonemes.[28] However, the distinction is still clearly maintained in other dialects such as Quebec French.[29]

While there is much variation among speakers in France, a number of general tendencies can be observed. First of all, the distinction is most often preserved in word-final stressed syllables such as in these minimal pairs:

tache /taʃ/ → [taʃ] ('stain'), vs. tâche /tɑʃ/ → [tɑʃ] ('task')

patte /pat/ → [pat] ('leg'), vs. pâte /pɑt/ → [pɑt] ('paste, pastry')

rat /ʁa/ → [ʁa] ('rat'), vs. ras /ʁɑ/ → [ʁɑ] ('short')

There are certain environments that prefer one open vowel over the other. For example, /ɑ/ is preferred after /ʁw/ and before /z/:

trois [tʁwɑ] ('three'),

gaz [ɡɑz] ('gas').[30]

The difference in quality is often reinforced by a difference in length (but the difference is contrastive in final closed syllables). The exact distribution of the two vowels varies greatly from speaker to speaker.[31]

Back /ɑ/ is much rarer in unstressed syllables, but it can be encountered in some common words:

château [ʃɑ.to] ('castle'),

passé [pɑ.se] ('past').

Morphologically complex words derived from words containing stressed /ɑ/ do not retain it:

âgé /ɑʒe/ → [aː.ʒe] ('aged', from âge /ɑʒ/ → [ɑʒ])

rarissime /ʁaʁisim/ → [ʁaʁisim] ('very rare', from rare /ʁɑʁ/ → [ʁɑʁ]).

Even in the final syllable of a word, back /ɑ/ may become [a] if the word in question loses its stress within the extended phonological context:[30]

J'ai été au bois /ʒe ete o bwɑ/ → [ʒe.e.te.o.bwɑ] ('I went to the woods'),

J'ai été au bois de Vincennes /ʒe ete o bwɑ dəvɛ̃sɛn/ → [ʒe.e.te.o.bwad.vɛ̃.sɛn] ('I went to the Vincennes woods').

The phonetic qualities of the back nasal vowels differ from those of the corresponding oral vowels. The contrasting factor that distinguishes /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ is the extra lip rounding of the latter according to some linguists,[32] and tongue height according to others.[33] Speakers who produce both /œ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ distinguish them mainly through increased lip rounding of the former, but many speakers use only the latter phoneme, especially most speakers in northern France such as Paris (but not farther north, in Belgium).[32][33]

In some dialects, particularly that of Europe, there is an attested tendency for nasal vowels to shift in a counterclockwise direction: /ɛ̃/ tends to be more open and shifts toward the vowel space of /ɑ̃/ (realised also as [æ̃]), /ɑ̃/ rises and rounds to [ɔ̃] (realised also as [ɒ̃]) and /ɔ̃/ shifts to [õ] or [ũ]. Also, there also is an opposite movement for /ɔ̃/ for which it becomes more open and unrounds to [ɑ̃], resulting in a merger of Standard French /ɔ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ in this case.[33][34] According to one source, the typical phonetic realization of the nasal vowels in Paris is [æ̃] for /ɛ̃/, [ɑ̃] for /ɑ̃/ and [õ̞] for /ɔ̃/, suggesting that the first two are unrounded open vowels that contrast by backness (like the oral /a/ and /ɑ/ in some accents), whereas /ɔ̃/ is much closer than /ɛ̃/.[35]

In Quebec French, two of the vowels shift in a different direction: /ɔ̃/ → [õ], more or less as in Europe, but /ɛ̃/ → [ẽ] and /ɑ̃/ → [ã].[36]

In the Provence and Occitanie regions, nasal vowels are often realized as oral vowels before a stop consonant, thus reviving the ⟨n⟩ otherwise lost in other accents: quarante /kaʁɑ̃t/ → [kaʁantə].

Contrary to the oral /ɔ/, there is no attested tendency for the nasal /ɔ̃/ to become central in any accent.

When phonetically realised, schwa (/ə/), also called e caduc ('dropped e') and e muet ('mute e'), is a mid-central vowel with some rounding.[22] Many authors consider its value to be [œ],[37][38] while Geoff Lindsey suggests [ɵ].[39][40] Fagyal, Kibbee & Jenkins (2006) state, more specifically, that it merges with /ø/ before high vowels and glides:

netteté /nɛtəte/ → [nɛ.tø.te] ('clarity'),

atelier /atəlje/ → [a.tø.lje] ('workshop'),

in phrase-final stressed position:

dis-le ! /di lə/ → [di.ˈlø] ('say it'),

and that it merges with /œ/ elsewhere.[41] However, some speakers make a clear distinction, and it exhibits special phonological behavior that warrants considering it a distinct phoneme. Furthermore, the merger occurs mainly in the French of France; in Quebec, /ø/ and /ə/ are still distinguished.[42]

The main characteristic of French schwa is its "instability": the fact that under certain conditions it has no phonetic realization.

• That is usually the case when it follows a single consonant in a medial syllable:

  appeler /apəle/ → [ap.le] ('to call'),

• It is occasionally mute in word-final position:

  porte /pɔʁtə/ → [pɔʁt] ('door').

• Word-final schwas are optionally pronounced if preceded by two or more consonants and followed by a consonant-initial word:

  une porte fermée /yn(ə) pɔʁt(ə) fɛʁme/ → [yn.pɔʁ.t(ə).fɛʁ.me] ('a closed door').

• In the future and conditional forms of -er verbs, however, the schwa is sometimes deleted even after two consonants :

  tu garderais /ty ɡaʁdəʁɛ/ → [ty.ɡaʁ.d(ə.)ʁɛ] ('you would guard'),

  nous brusquerons [les choses] /nu bʁyskəʁɔ̃/ → [nu.bʁys.k(ə.)ʁɔ̃] ('we will precipitate [things]').

• On the other hand, it is pronounced word-internally when it follows more pronounced consonants that cannot be combined into a complex onset with the initial consonants of the next syllable:

  gredin /ɡʁədɛ̃/ → [ɡʁə.dɛ̃] ('scoundrel'),

  sept petits /sɛt pəti/ → [sɛt.pə.ti] ('seven little ones').[43]

In French versification, word-final schwa is always elided before another vowel and at the ends of verses. It is pronounced before a following consonant-initial word.[44] For example, une grande femme fut ici, [yn ɡʁɑ̃d fam fy.t‿i.si] in ordinary speech, would in verse be pronounced [y.nə ɡʁɑ̃.də fa.mə fy.t‿i.si], with the /ə/ enunciated at the end of each word.

Schwa cannot normally be realised as a front vowel ([œ]) in closed syllables. In such contexts in inflectional and derivational morphology, schwa usually alternates with the front vowel /ɛ/:

harceler /aʁsəle/ → [aʁ.sœ.le] ('to harass'), with

il harcèle /il aʁsɛl/ → [i.laʁ.sɛl] ('[he] harasses').[45]

A three-way alternation can be observed, in a few cases, for a number of speakers:

appeler /apəle/ → [ap.le] ('to call'),

j'appelle /ʒ‿apɛl/ → [ʒa.pɛl] ('I call'),

appellation /apelasjɔ̃/ → [a.pe.la.sjɔ̃] ('brand'), which can also be pronounced [a.pɛ.la.sjɔ̃].[46]

Instances of orthographic ⟨e⟩ that do not exhibit the behaviour described above may be better analysed as corresponding to the stable, full vowel /œ/. The enclitic pronoun le, for example, always keeps its vowel in contexts like donnez-le-moi /dɔne lə mwa/ → [dɔ.ne.lœ.mwa] ('give it to me') for which schwa deletion would normally apply (giving *[dɔ.nɛl.mwa]), and it counts as a full syllable for the determination of stress.

Cases of word-internal stable ⟨e⟩ are more subject to variation among speakers, but, for example, un rebelle /œ̃ ʁəbɛl/ ('a rebel') must be pronounced with a full vowel in contrast to un rebond /œ̃ ʁəbɔ̃/ → or [œ̃ʁ.bɔ̃] ('a bounce').[47]

Except for the distinction still made by some speakers between /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ in rare minimal pairs like mettre [mɛtʁ] ('to put') vs. maître [mɛːtʁ] ('teacher'), variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic. Vowels can be lengthened in closed, stressed syllables, under the following two conditions:

• /o/, /ø/, /ɑ/, and the nasal vowels are lengthened before any consonant: pâte [pɑːt] ('dough'), chante [ʃɑ̃ːt] ('sings').
• All vowels are lengthened if followed by one of the voiced fricatives—/v/, /z/, /ʒ/, /ʁ/ (not in combination)—or by the cluster /vʁ/: mer/mère [mɛːʁ] ('sea/mother'), crise [kʁiːz] ('crisis'), livre [liːvʁ] ('book'),[48] Tranel (1987:49–51) However, words such as (ils) servent [sɛʁv] ('(they) serve') or tarte [taʁt] ('pie') are pronounced with short vowels since the /ʁ/ appears in clusters other than /vʁ/.

When such syllables lose their stress, the lengthening effect may be absent. The vowel [o] of saute is long in Regarde comme elle saute !, in which the word is phrase-final and therefore stressed, but not in Qu'est-ce qu'elle saute bien ![49] In accents wherein /ɛː/ is distinguished from /ɛ/, however, it is still pronounced with a long vowel even in an unstressed position, as in fête in C'est une fête importante.[49]

The following table presents the pronunciation of a representative sample of words in phrase-final (stressed) position:

In Parisian French, the close vowels /i, y, u/ and the mid front /e, ɛ/ at the end of utterances can be devoiced. A devoiced vowel may be followed by a sound similar to the voiceless palatal fricative [ç]:

Merci. /mɛʁsi/ → [mɛʁ.si̥ç] ('Thank you.'),

Allez ! /ale/ → [a.le̥ç] ('Go!').[50]

In Quebec French, close vowels are often devoiced when unstressed and surrounded by voiceless consonants:

université /ynivɛʁsite/ → [y.ni.vɛʁ.si̥.te] ('university').[51]

Though a more prominent feature of Quebec French, phrase-medial devoicing is also found in European French.[52]

The final vowel (usually /ə/) of a number of monosyllabic function words is elided in syntactic combinations with a following word that begins with a vowel. For example, compare the pronunciation of the unstressed subject pronoun, in je dors /ʒə dɔʁ/ [ʒə.dɔʁ] ('I am sleeping'), and in j'arrive /ʒ‿aʁiv/ [ʒa.ʁiv] ('I am arriving').

The glides [j], [w], and [ɥ] appear in syllable onsets immediately followed by a full vowel. In many cases, they alternate systematically with their vowel counterparts [i], [u], and [y] such as in the following pairs of verb forms:

nie [ni]; nier [nje] ('deny')

loue [lu]; louer [lwe] ('rent')

tue [ty]; tuer [tɥe] ('kill')

The glides in the examples can be analyzed as the result of a glide formation process that turns an underlying high vowel into a glide when followed by another vowel: /nie/ → [nje].

This process is usually blocked after a complex onset of the form obstruent + liquid (a stop or a fricative followed by /l/ or /ʁ/). For example, while the pair loue/louer shows an alternation between [u] and [w], the same suffix added to cloue [klu], a word with a complex onset, does not trigger the glide formation: clouer [klue] ('to nail'). Some sequences of glide + vowel can be found after obstruent-liquid onsets, however. The main examples are [ɥi], as in pluie [plɥi] ('rain'), [wa], as in trois [tʁwa] ('three'), and [wɛ̃], as in groin [gʁwɛ̃] ('snout').[53] They can be dealt with in different ways, as by adding appropriate contextual conditions to the glide formation rule or by assuming that the phonemic inventory of French includes underlying glides or rising diphthongs like /ɥi/ and /wa/.[54][55]

Glide formation normally does not occur across morpheme boundaries in compounds like semi-aride ('semi-arid').[56] However, in colloquial registers, si elle [si.ɛl] ('if she') can be pronounced just like ciel [sjɛl] ('sky'), or tu as [ty.ɑ] ('you have') like tua [tɥa] ('[(s)he] killed').[57]

The glide [j] can also occur in syllable coda position, after a vowel, as in soleil [sɔlɛj] ('sun'). There again, one can formulate a derivation from an underlying full vowel /i/, but the analysis is not always adequate because of the existence of possible minimal pairs like pays [pɛ.i] ('country') / paye [pɛj] ('paycheck') and abbaye [a.bɛ.i] ('abbey') / abeille [a.bɛj] ('bee').[58] Schane (1968) proposes an abstract analysis deriving postvocalic [j] from an underlying lateral by palatalization and glide conversion (/lj/ → /ʎ/ → /j/).[59]

Emphatic stress is used to call attention to a specific element in a given context such as to express a contrast or to reinforce the emotive content of a word. In French, this stress falls on the first consonant-initial syllable of the word in question. The characteristics associated with emphatic stress include increased amplitude and pitch of the vowel and gemination of the onset consonant, as mentioned above.[62] Emphatic stress does not replace, but occurs in tandem with, grammatical stress.[63]

• C'est parfaitement vrai. [sɛ.paʁ.fɛt.mɑ̃.ˈvʁɛ] ('It's perfectly true.'; no emphatic stress)
• C'est parfaitement vrai. [sɛ.ˈp(ː)aʁ.fɛt.mɑ̃.ˈvʁɛ] (emphatic stress on parfaitement)

For words that begin with a vowel, emphatic stress falls on the first syllable that begins with a consonant or on the initial syllable with the insertion of a glottal stop or a liaison consonant.

• C'est épouvantable. [sɛ.te.ˈp(ː)u.vɑ̃ˈ.tabl] ('It's terrible.'; emphatic stress on second syllable of épouvantable)
• C'est épouvantable ! [sɛ.ˈt(ː)e.pu.vɑ̃.ˈtabl] (initial syllable with liaison consonant [t])
• C'est épouvantable ! [sɛ.ˈʔe.pu.vɑ̃.ˈtabl] (initial syllable with glottal stop insertion)