Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:03:44.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Southeastern French Nasal Vowels: Perceptual and Acoustic Elements

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Anne Violin-Wigent
Anne Violin-Wigent*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article describes the realization of nasal vowels in the southeast of France. Southeastern French retains four nasal vowels , contrary to more innovative varieties of French. The perceptual analysis based on eight participants shows that, for most of the instances of each of the four nasal vowels, the pronunciation is different from that of Reference French. Additionally, these nasal vowels are followed by a nasal closure in about 10% of cases, especially in front of a pause or stop. The perceptual analysis is supplemented by an acoustic description, based on two speakers, one male and one female. The acoustic description gives support to the perceptual analysis, showing the existence of the nasal closure and the realization of /ã/ as [ã], as [ẽ], and /õ/ as .

Résumé

Résumé

Cet article décrit la prononciation des voyelles nasales dans le sud-est de la France. Le français du sud-est se caractérise par quatre voyelles nasales , contrairement à d’autres variétés de français plus innovatrices. L’analyse perceptuelle, basée sur huit participants, montre que, pour la plupart des réalisations de chacune de ces quatre voyelles, la prononciation est différente de celle du français de référence. En outre, ces voyelles nasales sont suivies d’une fermeture nasale dans environ 10% des cas, surtout devant une pause ou une occlusive. Une description acoustique, basée sur deux locuteurs, un homme et une femme, vient compléter l’analyse perceptuelle. Cette description acoustique soutient l’analyse perceptuelle, montrant l’existence de la fermeture nasale et la prononciation de /ã/ en [ã], de en [ë] et de /õ/ en .

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 15 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2006 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bennett, William. 1991. Liaison in French. Word 42:57–88.Google Scholar
Benguerel, André-Pierre, and Lafargue, André. 1981. Perception of vowel nasalization in French. Journal of Phonetics 9:309–321.Google Scholar
Bjarkman, Peter C. 1985. Velar nasals and explanatory phonological accounts of Caribbean Spanish. In ESCOL 85: Proceedings of the Second Annual Eastern States Conference on Linguistics, ed. Choi, Soonja, 1–16. Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Blanchet, Philippe. 1993. Voyelles moyennes et accent tonique en français de Provence. La linguistique 29:103–112.Google Scholar
Carton, Fernand. 1974. Introduction à la phonétique du français. Paris: Bordas.Google Scholar
Carton, Fernand, Rossi, Mario, Autesserre, Denis, and Léon, Pierre. 1983. Les accents des Français. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Casagrande, Jean. 1984. The sound system of French. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Chaurand, Jacques. 1972. Introduction à la dialectologie française. Paris: Bordas.Google Scholar
Cheng, Yan Ming, and Guérin, Bernard. 1987. Nasal vowel study: Formant structure, perceptual evaluation, and neural representation in a model of the peripheral auditory system. Bulletin du Laboratoire de la Communication Parlée de Grenoble 1:91–132.Google Scholar
Crystal, David. 1987. The Cambridge encyclopedia of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Delattre, Pierre. 1954. Les attributs acoustiques de la nasalité vocalique et consonantique. Studia Linguistica 8:103–109.Google Scholar
Delattre, Pierre. 1966. Studies in French and comparative phonetics. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Durand, Jacques. 1988. An exploration of nasality phenomena in Midi French: Dependency phonology and underspecification. In French sound patterns changing perspectives, ed. Slater, Catherine, Durand, Jacques, and Bate, Michèle, 30–70. AFLS Occasional Papers No. 2/Occasional Papers No. 32 of the Department of Linguistics, University of Essex.Google Scholar
Fant, Gunnar. 1960. Acoustic theory of speech production. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Feng, Gang. 1987. Étude articulatori-acoustique des voyelles nasales du français. Bulletin de l’Institut de Phonétique de Grenoble 16:1–102.Google Scholar
Ferguson, Charles. 1963. Assumptions about nasals: A sample study in phonological universals. In Universals of language, ed. Greenberg, Joseph H., 53–60. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fujimura, Osamu. 1960. Spectra of nasalized vowels. MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics Quarterly Progress Report 58:214–218.Google Scholar
Fujimura, Osamu. 1961. Analysis of nasalized vowels. MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics Quarterly Progress Report 62:191–192.Google Scholar
Halle, Morris, Hughes, George W., and Radley, Jean-Pierre. 1957. Acoustic properties of stop consonants. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 29:107–116.Google Scholar
Hammond, Robert M. 1979. The velar nasal in rapid Cuban Spanish. In Colloquium on Spanish and Luso-Brazilian Linguistics, ed. Lantolf, James, Frank, Francine Wattman, and Guitart, Jorge, 19–36. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Sarah, and Stevens, Kenneth. 1985. Acoustic and perceptual correlates of the non-nasal-nasal distinction for vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 77:1560–1575.Google Scholar
Johnson, Keith. 1997. Acoustic and auditory phonetics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Krakow, Rena, Beddor, Patrice, and Goldstein, Louis. 1988. Coarticulatory influences on the perceived height of nasal vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 83:1146–1158.Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Landick, Marie. 1996. L’opposition ####/ê/~/œ/ en français parisien. Francophonie 13:35–37.Google Scholar
Longchamp, François. 1979. Analyse acoustique des voyelles nasales françaises. Verbum 2:9–54.Google Scholar
Lucci, Vincent, and Germi, Claudette. 1985. Les mots de Gap. Grenoble: ELLUG.Google Scholar
Maeda, Shinji. 1993. Acoustics of vowel nasalization and articulatory shifts in French nasal vowels. In Phonetics and phonology: Nasals, nasalization, and the velum, Vol. 5, ed. Huffman, Marie and Krakow, Rena, 147–167. San Diego: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Malmkjær, Kirsten, ed. 1991. The linguistics encyclopedia. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Martinet, André. 1969. Le français sans fard. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Mrayati, Mohammad. 1975. Étude des voyelles nasales françaises. Bulletin de l’Institut de Phonétique de Grenoble 4:1–26Google Scholar
Ruhlen, Merritt. 1973. Nasal vowels. Stanford University Working Papers on Language Universals 12:1–36.Google Scholar
Ruhlen, Merritt. 1974. Some comments on vowel nasalization in French. Journal of Linguistics 10:271–275.Google Scholar
Schane, Sanford. 1968. French phonology and morphology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Selkirk, Elizabeth. 1980. The phrase phonology of English and French. New York: Garland.Google Scholar
Simon, Pela. 1969. Différenciations phonétiques. Le français dans le monde 68:28–34.Google Scholar
Stevens, Kenneth. 1998. Acoustic phonetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Jill. 1996. La dynamique des voyelles nasales à Aix-en-Provence. La Linguistique 32:79–90.Google Scholar
Taylor, Jill. 1997. Voyelles nasales et normes locale à Aix-en-Provence. Cahiers de l’institut de Linguistique de Louvain 22:369–373.Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard. 1981. Concreteness in generative phonology: Evidence from French. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard. 1987. The sounds of French. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tranel, Bernard. 2003. Les sons du français. In Le grand livre de la langue française, ed. Yaguello, Marina, 259–315. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Trigo, R. Lorenza. 1988. The phonological behavior and derivation of nasal glides. Doctoral dissertation, Massachussetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Valdman, Albert. 1976. Introduction to French phonology and morphology. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Google Scholar
Valdman, Albert. 1993. Bien entendu! Introduction à la prononciation française. Engle-wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Violin, Anne. 2001. Variation in Southeastern French nasal vowels and Optimality Theory. Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette. 1976. La dynamique des phonèmes dans le lexique français contemporain. Paris: France Expansion.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette. 1977. La phonologie du français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette. 1982. Enquête phonologique et variétés régionales du français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Walter, Henriette. 1988. Le français dans tous les sens. Paris: Laffont.Google Scholar
Zerling, Jean-Pierre. 1984. Phénomènes de nasalité et de nasalisation vocaliques: Etude cinéradiographique pour deux locuteurs. Travaux de l’Institut de Phonétique de Strasbourg 16:241–266.Google Scholar