Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

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2Theoretical section

In this part of the thesis, the segmental and suprasegmental features of English and French will be described and categorized, and, subsequently mutually compared and contrasted. After each chapter, hypotheses on the pronunciation of English by the French will be made.

2.1Consonants and vowels

In order to effectively compare the sounds of English and French, and, consequently, find out what sounds cause major problems for the French speakers of English, it is necessary to set a system of phonetic description. The definitions of a consonant and a vowel are crucial, however, many authors treat this particular issue very differently. It is a curious fact that none of the definitions proposed by the authorities describes them perfectly without exceptions. Daniel Jones (1957) asserts that a vowel is a “voiced sound in forming which the air issues in a continuous stream”, nonetheless, we can say that this statement is very vague, (p. 23). As Peter Roach (1983) points out, the sounds such as /h/ and /w/ do not obstruct the air flow, and we still think of them as consonants, (p. 10). Gimson (1997) and Roach prefer the phonological approach: the former reckons that, traditionally, a consonant is a sound that occurs at the edges of syllables, whereas vowels stand in the centre (pp. 27–8). A distribution of those sounds is therefore presented as the main criterion for the definition.

2.1.1English consonants

As far as the classification of consonants is concerned, a system designed by Gimson and Cruttenden will be used. They propose six different criteria for classification, but two of them, the means by which the air stream is set in motion, and the direction of the airstream, are irrelevant for English sounds. They are always pulmonic (the airstream is set by the lungs), and egressive (the airstream is pushed outwards).

Cruttenden suggests a division of consonants into two large groups, according to their noise components, into obstruents and sonorants. Obstruents are articulated with “a total closure or a stricture causing friction”, whereas sonorants are charaterized by “only a partial closure or an unimpeded oral or nasal escape of air” (Cruttenden, 1997, p. 138). These sounds are similar to vowels by their nature.

Another criterion of his classification is whether or not the vocal folds vibrate. When an airflow is forced between vocal cords that are drawn near together, a sound is produced; such phonemes are called voiced. If they are widely apart, the airflow passes and no sound is produced, such sounds are voiceless (Jones, 1957, p. 19). This distinction is closely related to the articulatory energy. English voiceless sounds are fortis – their articulation is stronger and more energetic. Lenis sounds are pronounced with lesser muscular effort and they are potentially voiced. As Collins and Mees point out, lenis consonants typically lose some voicing in initial positions, and are almost completely devoiced in final positions (Collins and Mees, 2008, p. 52).

Place and manner of articulation are other descriptive labels. According to the former criterion, Cruttenden distinguishes bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, retroflex, palato-alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal consonants². The latter criterion divides English consonants into plosives, affricates, nasals, fricatives and approximants³ (Cruttenden, 2007, pp. 29–31).

Plosives are characterized by three stages of articulation: first, the articulatory organs move together to make an obstruction, second, the air behind the closure is compressed, and finally, the obstruction is released and the air escapes abruptly. English voiceless plosives are usually aspired in the stressed initial positions, unless they are preceded by /s/ or followed by an approximant. Voiced plosives are often devoiced in final positions. (Cruttenden, 2007, pp. 139–141).

The sound is fricative, when the two organs move together close enough to produce a friction when the airstream passes between them. Affricates consist of a plosive and a fricative constituent parts; when the closure is open, the airflow does not escape as abruptly as in plosives, and therefore creates a friction. As for nasals, a complete closure is made, but the air escapes through the nasal cavity while the soft palate is lowered. Approximants are rather difficult to characterize. Cruttenden (2007) asserts that “a narrowing is made in the mouth but [it] is not quite sufficient to cause friction”. On the other hand, Roach is hesitant about using the term “approximant”. He claims that these consonants are continuants, but in other respect they vary greatly from each other (p. 56).

The most common English allophone of /r/ is a voiced alveolar approximant [ɹ]. It is pronounced with the tip of the tongue lifted towards the rear part of the alveolar ridge, but not touching, therefore, no obstruction is made. This allophone is, therefore, vowel-like, but regarding the definition above, we classify it as consonant (it never stands in the middle of a syllable).

The distribution of RP English consonants is shown in the table below.

Table 1 – English consonants (according to Cruttenden, 1997, p. 138)

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alv.	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
OBSTRUENTS	Plosives	/p/ /b/			/t/ /d/			/k/ /g/	/Ɂ/
	Affricates					/ʧ/ /ʤ/
	Fricatives		/f/ /v/	/θ/ /ð/	/s/ /z/	/ʃ/ /ʒ/			/h/ -
SONORANTS	Nasals	/m/			/n/			/ŋ/
	Approximants				/r/
					/l/
		/w/					/j/

2.1.2French consonants

French system of consonants is resembling to the one of English, however it is not as rich and it slightly differs in certain aspects. Similarly to English, a French consonant never stands in the centre of a syllable; it forms an initial and/or a coda of a syllable.

Dohalská (1991) proposes a different categorization of consonants: she does not consider the distinction of sonorants and obstruents, and maintains that liquids and other approximants have fricative nature (p. 122), but for the purposes of the comparison, Gimson’s division will be applied on the French phonic system as well, i.e. categorization according to place and manner of articulation, and sonority. The articulatory energy, and hence the division into fortis and lenis consonants, is not a relevant feature in French consonants either.

The plosives /p/, /t/, /k/, and their voiced opposites /b/, /d/, /g/ are pronounced in a very similar manner, nevertheless, as far as the voiceless phonemes are concerned, they are never aspired in the initial positions, and may have slightly palatalized allophones (Dohalská, 1991, p. 121). Voiced plosives and other consonants are never devoiced in final positions, except for certain cases of liaison⁴ (Ducháček, 1976, p. 15).

French fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ are more rounded. Affricates are missing completely in the phonic system as well as dental consonants.

As Dohalská (1991) suggests, the nasal consonants /m/ and /n/ have a stronger and more solid closure (p. 121). Manifestly, it is due to the existence of nasal vowels in French; the consonants must be clearly distinguishable from vowels. In addition, French lacks a velar nasal, but features a palatal one. Other particularities concerning the nasal pronunciation are mentioned in Grevisse’s Le Bon Usage.

One of the most distinctive sounds is the dorsal /r/. There are many possible allophones of this sound, yet only Parisian pronunciation will be taken into account. Dohalská (1991) maintains that /r/ is articulated when a tongue is raised towards the soft palate but can be also slightly approaching towards the uvula. She calls this sound “r parisien” and accepts the classification of it as both velar and uvular (p. 148). Ducháček (1976), on the other hand, presents two different acceptable varieties of /r/, first being the dorsal [ʀ], which he calls “r parisien”, and which is in the International Phonetic Alphabet considered a trill and the other being [ʁ], if the pronunciation is accompanied by the vibration of the uvula; such sound is called “r grasseyé” or “r uvulaire” (p. 13), which can be found in the table of IPA as fricative. None of the sources consulted are consistent in the description of this sound. It is of author’s conviction that this sound should be classified as uvular [ʁ], as it is this sound which can be heard in Paris, and therefore should be considered as one of the distinctive sounds of “accent parisien”.

Both Ducháček and Dohalská mention a possibility of gemination of some consonants, typically liquids and nasals, especially in mots savants⁵. Gemination becomes a distinctive feature in certain verbal forms, where the /r/ sound is typically doubled in conditionals and simple future tense (Ducháček, 1976. p. 15). In addition, Pačesová (1998) proposes a list of all words where the consonants are silent (pp. 62–71).

The glottal stop is rarely manifested in French. It occurs in initial h-aspiré positions (such words begin with the grapheme in written text). According to Boersma (2007), it is not common for French vowel-initial words to start with a glottal stop. The h-aspiré never succumbs to the rules of elision and liaison, the glottal should be always manifested (p. 1990).

Furthermore, there are three phonemes with a special status: /j/, /w/ and /ɥ/. The phoneticians are not unanimous about the classifications of these sounds. As Ducháček (1976) mentions, “some [of them] claim that they are simple variants, because they can alter /i/, /u/ and /y/ respectively in certain positions“⁶ (p. 22). Nevertheless, Dohalská (1991) considers them to be „semi-consonants“, and places them outside the system (p. 114).

The classification of French consonants is shown in the table below.

Table 2 – French consonants (according to Dohalská, 1991, p. 122)

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alv.	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
OBSTRUENTS	Plosives	/p/ /b/		/t/ /d/⁷			/k/ /g/		/Ɂ/
OBSTRUENTS	Fricatives		/f/ /v/	/s/ /z/	/ʃ/ /ʒ/
SONORANTS	Nasals	/m/		/n/		/ɲ/
SONORANTS	Approximants (liquids)			/l/			/r/

2.1.3Presumed difficulties for French speakers

In the previous sections, the properties of the consonant systems of English and French have been described. The most striking differences concern the places of articulation. First, it is the author’s conviction that phonemes, which are not inherent in the French phonic system, or those the articulation of which differs from English, will cause major difficulties for the French speakers. It is the case of the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, and glottal fricative /h/. The French learners of English may replace these fricatives with either labiodental or alveolar fricatives. This is an important issue for the French as these three groups of phonemes have distinctive function in English, and therefore, their confusion may lead to misunderstandings. The glottal fricative /h/ is very likely to be replaced with the glottal stop. Also, there are no affricate sounds in French; but these sounds should not be problematic, as both the plosive and fricative constituent parts of the affricates are represented in the French system separately.

Second, there are phonemes the properties of which slightly differ in both of these languages. They are the plosives /t/ and /d/; in French they are pronounced rather alveodentally, whereas in English, there is an apparent dental realization of these sounds. The “r parisien” is, naturally, missing in English pronunciation; a few less eager French speakers may not focus on the correct pronunciation of the approximant [ɹ], but as this sound is, generally speaking, not difficult to imitate, it should not cause major trouble.

Finally, the French tend to palatalize some plosives in the initial or medial positions, especially the alveolar /t/ and velar /k/ and /g/. Furthermore, the devoicing of voiced consonants may be problematic as well as the pronunciation of consonant clusters in the medial and final positions of the words (juxtaposition of more than two consonants is rarely found in French). These mistakes, however, should not prevent the French speakers from being understood.

2.1.4English vowels

The criteria for the description of the sounds are the position of the soft palate, the kind of aperture formed by the lips, and the vertical and horizontal position of the tongue in the mouth cavity (Cruttenden, 1997, p. 34). The phoneticians are aware of the fact that the description of vowels present substantial difficulties. As Cruttenden (1997) points out, the description is often „based on auditory judgements of sound relationships, together with some articulatory information“ (p. 34) and therefore the classification may be significantly subjective.

In his Outline of English Phonetics, Daniel Jones (1957) devises the scale of Cardinal vowels, i. e. vowel sounds with set auditory and articulatory properties that are intelligible to a large circle of readers and speakers of different nationalities (p. 28). There are eight Cardinal vowels, which are represented in the International phonetic alphabet by the symbols: i, e, ɛ, a, ɑ, ɔ, o, and u, where i is close and front, and ɑ is open and back. This categorization is, needless to say, insufficient for a complex system of English vowels, however, it creates a basic “net” for further classification.

Table 3 – Cardinal vowels (according to Jones, 1957, p. 28)

According to Cruttenden (1997), there are twelve relatively pure vowels that have distinctive function in English, and another eight diphthongs (vowel sounds that glide from one position to another) (p. 88).

Table 4 – English diphthongs (according to Cruttenden, pp. 119–128)

640px-rp_vowel_chart_(diphthongs).gif

In Roach’s book English Phonetics and Phonology (1983), a term “triphthong” is introduced (p. 23). This sound is produced when a diphthong is further glided to a central vowel /ə/. Nevertheless, in his article about triphthongization, David Jowitt (2001), considering Gimson’s and Jones’s work, introduces two types of possible RP pronounciation of triphthongs, and further discusses them: they are the mainstream [aːə] and [ɑːə], and near-/adoptive [aɪə] and [ɑʊə]. He explains that the triphthongs tend to disappear in favour of diphthongs, and also points out that varieties of English, in which the /r/ is kept instead of the schwa sound, do not have triphthongs. A complete chart of these sounds is shown below.

There are also phonetic relationships between long and short vowels in English, even though it is only the case of /ə/ and /ɜː/ where the opposition solely of length exists. (Cruttenden, 1997, pp. 91–2). The length of vowels can be reduced depending on the immediately following consonant’s sonority.

Table 5 and 6 – English vowels and triphthongs (according to Cruttenden, p. 88, 129)

2.1.5French vowels

The French vowel system is very large and elaborate. In addition to the distinctive labels of rounding, and horizontal and vertical position of the tongue, French system also distinguishes nasal and oral vowels. The nasal vowels are pronounced when the soft palate is lowered and the air flows through both nasal and mouth cavity at the same time. The system lacks diphthongs or triphthongs completely. There are sixteen vowels in total; they are listed in a chart using the cardinal vowels below.

In French, the quality of the vowels change, depending on the properties of the syllable, i.e. whether or not the syllable is open or stressed. There are four such archiphonemes, each of them has two allophones, open and close: /Œ/ which can be realized as [ø] or [œ], /E/ has the allophones of [e] and [ɛ], /O/ realizes as [o] or [ɔ], and /A/ can be either [a] or [ɑ]. The rules of distribution of these allophones are largely complex, but somehow vague, full of exceptions, and sometimes even ambivalent. Most of them are proposed in Dohalská (1991, pp. 75–95).

It is important to mention that there are no inherently long vowels in French. The length of a vowel is not a distinctive feature any longer⁸, however, it is given by “lengthening consonants”⁹ in a closed syllable, i.e. in a syllable with a coda. The vowels /o/, /ø/, /a/ and all the nasals are always long in any closed syllable (Dohalská, 1991, pp. 67–68).

The table of French vowels is shown below. lol 001 (1).jpg

Table 7 – French vowels (according to Dohalská, p. 66)

Due to the similarities of some of the vowels, there are phonemes that tend to merge, therefore, recently, they have been losing their distinctive function. As a matter of fact, the nasal neutral /œ̃/ has been disappearing and merging with /ɛ̃/ in many French dialects, for example lundi can be pronounced as both [lœ̃di] and [lɛ̃di]. This opposition is preserved, when a change of meaning is implied: brun [brœ̃] and brin [brɛ̃]. The back vowel /ɑ/ has also been losing its distinctive function. Originally, words ending in -as, -asse, -aille and words containing <â> were articulated with the /ɑ/ sound, nevertheless, these sounds usually have no opposition with /a/, therefore, the sounds merge. /A/ is pronounced as [a] in 95 % of the cases in the contemporary French (Ducháček, 1976, p. 7). For example, Ducháček mentions the pronunciation of exploration [εksplɔʀɑsjɔ̃], but the French dictionary ATILF listed [εksplɔʀasjɔ̃] as the correct version.

In addition, Dohalská (1991) describes some cases of vocalic harmony in the French language. She asserts that when a syllable is open and not stressed, the articulation of a vowel can be assimilated to a vowel in a following syllable. For instance, the correct pronunciation of the words les faits can be considered [lɛfɛ] instead of [lefɛ], the same happens in les près [lɛprɛ] is more likely than [leprɛ]. This phenomenon is observable also in derivation of words. For example, the word fête is pronounced with open [ɛ], and according to the rules presented in her book, the derived word fêtant should contain the sound [e], because the stress is moved to the last syllable. Nevertheless, the /E/ sound will be realized as open. The vocalic harmony never exceeds the borders of a groupe rytmique¹⁰ (p. 155).

2.1.6Presumed difficulties for French speakers

Both English and French vowel systems are very rich in the variety of sounds, however, these sounds are very different, and therefore, it is the author’s conviction that most of the mistakes that would prevent French speakers from being understood are made in the pronunciation of the vowels.

First of all, there are no inherently long vowels in French, and therefore, French speakers of English might forget that the vowel length has a distinctive function in English. They might confuse words like, for instance, feel and fill, seen and sin, lark and luck, or cart and cut.

Secondly, there is no /æ/ sound in French. This sound can be confused with French /ɛ/ or even /e/ sound, or, if it is open too much, it might become /a/. Furthermore, there are no reduced /ɪ/ or /ʊ/ sounds in French whatsoever, so the important opposition with other vowels may be ignored. These vowels are very likely to be pronounced /i/ and /u/, which may lead to confusion with /i:/ and /u:/, for instance, the words pool and pull might be confused.

It is not assumed that rounded sounds like /y/, /ø/, and /œ/ will lead to misunderstandings, as these sounds are not represented in the register of English vowels. If they interfere French people’s speech, it will be induced by either a similarity graphemes that are connected with those sounds in French, such as , or by mispronouncing words that come from French, but are now adapted to the English pronunciation.

The nasals are not very likely to appear in the English language, as these sounds are too specific to be confused. The central /ə/ should be always pronounced correctly, because it is one of the few sounds that are shared by both systems (but again, the length of /ɜ:/ may be neglected).

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