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The new stability of unstable –e in French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Douglas C. Walker
Douglas C. Walker
Affiliation:
Dept. of French, Italian and Spanish, University of Calgary, 2500 Universisty Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, CanadaT2N 1N4
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Abstract

Much recent work (e.g. Hansen 1994) is demonstrating that French schwa is becoming stable in many contexts where it formerly deleted freely. In this paper, I expand on Hansen's study of the new stability of schwa, extending consideration to the lexicalized conditioning of the stability as indicated in four contemporary pronouncing dictionaries of Standard French. This increasing stability also provides evidence for a reanalysis of schwa as underlying /œ/; the implications of this analysis for the distinction between lexical and post-lexical rules are briefly explored.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , September 1996 , pp. 211 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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