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More on (distinctive!) vowel length in historical French*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2008

RANDALL GESS
RANDALL GESS*
Affiliation:
Carleton University
*
Address for correspondence: Randall Gess, School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 215 Paterson Hall, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

While rejecting a claim for the disappearance of distinctive vowel length in historical French as ‘counterfactual’ (Picard, 2004: 3), Picard's own arguments in support of the existence of vowel length do not rise to the level of fact. Picard fails to differentiate between derived versus underlying (hence distinctive) features. Further, his assumptions regarding vowel length from the Middle French period on are ill founded. Regarding the truly minor vocalic contrasts that do exist in Canadian French mid and low vowels, Picard makes several unmotivated assumptions and unsupported assertions that preclude consideration of other, plausible scenarios for their existence. Minor vocalic contrasts such as these, with little to no functional load, can be modeled in phonological grammars without an unnecessary proliferation of phonological categories.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , July 2008 , pp. 175 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

For even more on this issue the reader is referred to Gess (2006) and Morin (2006), who have strongly divergent views on the historicity of vowel length in French and, in particular, its phonological status (distinctiveness, contrastiveness, relevance and/or salience, as well as functional load). Despite the publication date, Gess (2006) was written subsequently to the current article, which was submitted to this journal in February, 2005.

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