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French phonology
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This article mainly discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect. French is notable for its uvular r, nasal vowels, and two processes affecting word-final sounds: liaison, a certain type of sandhi, wherein word-final consonants are not pronounced unless followed by a word beginning with a vowel; and elision, wherein a final vowel is elided before vowel initial words.
Consonants
Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents a voiceless consonant and the right represents a voiced consonant.
IPA chart French consonants Labial Dental/Alveolar Palato-
alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular
plain lab. plain lab.
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ1
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ ʁ2
Approximant3 j4 ɥ w
Lateral l (ʎ)4
Phonetic notes:
- The velar nasal /ŋ/ is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words in final position such as parking or camping.[1] People who have difficulty with this sound replace it with a prenasalized [ŋɡ] sequence instead of a single consonant [ŋ].[citation needed] This sequence also appears almost systematically where there is a possible liaison with the initial vowel of a word pronounced just after it.[citation needed]
- The French rhotic has a wide range of realizations. [ʀ], [ʁ] (both the fricative and the approximant), [r], [ɾ], and [χ] will all be recognized as "r",[2] but most of them will be considered dialectal.
- The approximants [j], [ɥ] and [w] correspond to [i], [y] and [u] respectively. While there are a few minimal pairs (such as loua [lu.a] 's/he rented' and loi [lwa] 'law'), there are many cases where there is free variation.[2]
- /ʎ/ has merged with /j/ in a number of dialects (including the standard). This accounts for the appearance of [j] in the syllable coda and minimal pairs like ail [aj] ('garlic') vs haï [ai] ('hated').[3]
/m/ [mjɛl] miel 'honey' /n/ [nu] nous 'we'
/ɲ/ [aɲo] agneau 'lamb' /ŋ/ [paʁkiŋ] parking 'parking lot'
/p/ [po] peau 'skin' /b/ [bo] beau 'beautiful'
/t/ [tu] tout 'all' /d/ [du] doux 'sweet'
/k/ [kø] queue 'tail' /ɡ/ [ɡɛ̃] gain 'gain'
/f/ [fu] fou 'crazy' /v/ [vu] vous 'you'
/s/ [su] sous 'under' /z/ [zɛ̃] zain 'whole-colored'
/ʃ/ [ʃu] chou 'cabbage' /ʒ/ [ʒu] joue 'cheek'
/l/ [lu] loup 'wolf' /ʁ/ [ʁu] roue 'wheel'
Geminates
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.[4]
The 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 [ilmuʁʁɛ] ('he would die'), for example, contrasts with the imperfect form il mourait [ilmuʁɛ] ('he was dying'). 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 can optionally be pronounced with a geminate [nn], and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-:
- inné [in(n)e] ('innate')
- immortel [im(m)ɔʁtɛl] ('immortal')
- illisible [il(l)izibl] ('illegible')
- irresponsable [iʁ(ʁ)ɛspɔ̃sabl] ('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 due to orthographic influence (see Spelling pronunciation), is subject to speaker variation, and gives rise to widely varying stylistic effects.[5] In particular, the gemination of consonants other than the liquids and nasals /m n l r/ is "generally considered affected or pedantic".[6] Examples of stylistically marked pronunciations include addition [addisjɔ̃] ('addition') and intelligence [ɛ̃tɛlliʒɑ̃s] ('intelligence').
Gemination of doubled 'm' and 'n' are 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.[7] The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants, e.g. là-dedans [laddɑ̃] ('inside'), l'honnêteté [lɔnɛtte] ('honesty'). Gemination is obligatory in such contexts. The elided form of the object pronoun l' ('him/her/it') can optionally (in non-standard, popular speech) be realized as a geminate [ll] when it appears after a vowel:
- Je l'ai vu [ʒœl(l)ɛvy] ('I saw it')
- Il faut l'attraper [ilfol(l)atrape] ('it must be caught')
Finally, a word pronounced with emphatic stress can exhibit gemination of its first syllable-initial consonant:
- formidable [ffɔrmidabl] ('terrible')
- épouvantable [eppuvɑ̃tabl] ('horrible')
Liaison
Many words in French can be analyzed as having a "latent" final consonant that is only pronounced 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/ → [døʒuːʁ] 'two days'), but in deux ans /dø.z‿ɑ̃/ ('two years'), the linking or liaison consonant /z/ must be pronounced: [døzɑ̃].
Vowels
Unrounded vowels are shown to the left of the dots and rounded vowels the right.
The speaker in question does not exhibit a contrast between /a/ and /ɑ/.
Standard French contrasts up to thirteen oral vowels and up to four nasal vowels. Note that the schwa (in the center of the diagram beside this paragraph) is not really a distinctive sound, but just a phoneme used in phonologic notations, for noting the e caduque which is most often realized in one of the other vowels, or not realized at all (see the sub-section Schwa below).