Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

List of Tables

1Introduction

Being well acquainted with both of those languages, I have been observing great differences in the way they are articulated, namely the differences in the amount of articulatory energy the speakers of English and French need to produce in order to make themselves understood properly. While English does not require much movement of articulatory organs to produce a well articulated discourse, and even many variation in the production of vowels and consonants are tolerated, French phonetic system does not allow the speakers of French any sort of placidity; the tension and precise movement of the articulatory organs is essential in French language.

This thesis might help the French learners of English, who are prone to making mistakes in their pronunciation. The comparison of both phonetic systems might help them realize the significant differences in articulation of these languages and the study of the most typical mistakes might then allow them to find mistakes in their own speech and eliminate them.

In the following pages, the phonetic systems of both English and French are introduced; the vowels and consonants of these languages are characterized and systematized, and, by their comparison, the difficulties in pronunciation for the French speakers of English are predicted. Subsequently, words in connected speech and suprasegmental features of both of these languages are shortly discussed and, in the same manner, predictions are made. In the research part, the speech of six French speakers of English is analysed by comparison to a recording of a British speaker of English. Both reading and off-hand discourses are taken into account. I argue that French speakers will make mistakes in pronouncing the sounds their phonetic system lacks and, most significantly, that they will stumble on vowel sounds.

Furthermore, the research part also has a sociolinguistic layer. The French speakers are divided into two groups according to their age. The pronunciation of respondents over 30 years old is compared to that of younger participants. This part of research was based and inspired by James Emil Flege’s research. He dealt with the effect of age on second language learning and with the ways the native language affects the pronunciation of a second language. I suggest that the older speakers of English will make more mistakes in their speech than the younger ones, taking into account the age in which they started to learn English (in the past few years, a large number of French people have been required to know English actively, however, not all the French speakers started to learn as early as the current generation of the French).

In addition, it is clear that both of those languages feature many different varieties, and this affects not only the lexis and some minor issues in syntax, but also and mainly the pronunciation, which literally serves as an indicator of the region a speaker comes from. In order to conscientiously describe and compare the phonetic systems of both English and French, it is necessary to select varieties that would function as “ideal” models of pronunciations. For the purposes of this thesis, the British Received Pronunciation and the Accent Parisien have been chosen. Even though, none of the varieties of English has been regulated by an institution¹, I consider this selection to be reasonable, as the RP has been mainly taught in schools. However, I respect my respondents’ desires and intentions to perceive General American as their model of English, and on that account, I do not evaluate the features of General American pronunciation as incorrect in their pronunciation. The Accent Parisien has been selected for roughly the same reasons. Moreover, French people themselves elevate this variety of French and, by the means of the Institute, protect it meticulously from any external influences from other languages.

As far as works cited are concerned, the most useful sources for the description of English phonetics and phonology have been Gimson’s Pronunciation of English (1997) revised by Allan Cruttenden, Daniel Jones’s Outline of English Phonology (1957), whose model of cardinal vowels has been used, and English Phonetics and Phonology (1983) by Peter Roach. The works on French phonetics are quite limited, nevertheless, Marie Dohalská and Olga Schulzová’s Fonetika francouzštiny (1991) has been the most relevant source for this thesis, together with Bartoš and Ducháček’s Grammaire du français contemporain (1976) and Grevisse’s Le Bon Usage (1961).