French phonology

Notable phonological features include the uvular r present in some accents, nasal vowels, and three processes affecting word-final sounds: An example of the above is this: Phonetic notes: Although double consonant letters appear in the orthographic form of many French words, geminate consonants are relatively rare in the pronunciation of such words.

[15] The geminate pronunciation [ʁʁ] is found in the future and conditional forms of the verbs courir ('to run') and mourir ('to die').

When the prefix in- combines with a base that begins with n, the resulting word is sometimes pronounced with a geminate [nn] and similarly for the variants of the same prefix im-, il-, ir-: Other cases of optional gemination can be found in words like syllabe ('syllable'), grammaire ('grammar'), and illusion ('illusion').

[18] The deletion of word-internal schwas (see below), for example, can give rise to sequences of identical consonants: là-dedans [lad.dɑ̃] ('inside'), l'honnêteté [lɔ.nɛt.te] ('honesty').

Even though it often merges with one of the mid front rounded vowels, its patterning suggests that it is a separate phoneme (see the subsection Schwa below).

However, there are minimal pairs:[22] Beyond the general rule, known as the loi de position among French phonologists,[25] there are some exceptions.

The phonemic oppositions of /ɔ/ and /o/ and of /œ/ and /ø/ in terminal open syllables have been lost in almost all of France, but not in Belgium or in areas with an Arpitan substrate, where pot and peau are still opposed as /pɔ/ and /po/.

First of all, the distinction is most often preserved in word-final stressed syllables such as in these minimal pairs: There are certain environments that prefer one open vowel over the other.

Also, in some regions, there also is an opposite movement for /ɔ̃/ for which it becomes more open like [ɒ̃], resulting in a merger of Standard French /ɔ̃/ and /ɑ̃/ in this case.

[43] The main characteristic of French schwa is its "instability": the fact that under certain conditions it has no phonetic realization.

[45] For example, une grande femme fut ici, [yn ɡʁɑ̃d fam fy.t‿i.si] in ordinary speech, would in verse be pronounced [y.nə ɡʁɑ̃.də fa.mə fy.t‿i.si], with the /ə/ enunciated at the end of each word.

The enclitic pronoun le, for example, always keeps its vowel in contexts like donnez-le-moi /dɔne lə mwa/ → [dɔ.ne.lœ.mwa] ('give it to me') for which schwa deletion would normally apply (giving *[dɔ.nɛl.mwa]), and it counts as a full syllable for the determination of stress.

Cases of word-internal stable ⟨e⟩ are more subject to variation among speakers, but, for example, un rebelle /œ̃ ʁəbɛl/ ('a rebel') must be pronounced with a full vowel in contrast to un rebond /œ̃ ʁəbɔ̃/ → or [œ̃ʁ.bɔ̃] ('a bounce').

[48] Except for the distinction still made by some speakers between /ɛ/ and /ɛː/ in rare minimal pairs like mettre [mɛtʁ] ('to put') vs. maître [mɛːtʁ] ('teacher'), variation in vowel length is entirely allophonic.

[51] The following table presents the pronunciation of a representative sample of words in phrase-final (stressed) position: In Parisian French, the close vowels /i, y, u/ and the mid front /e, ɛ/ at the end of utterances can be devoiced.

For example, compare the pronunciation of the unstressed subject pronoun, in je dors /ʒə dɔʁ/ [ʒə.dɔʁ] ('I am sleeping'), and in j'arrive /ʒ‿aʁiv/ [ʒa.ʁiv] ('I am arriving').

For example, while the pair loue/louer shows an alternation between [u] and [w], the same suffix added to cloue [klu], a word with a complex onset, does not trigger the glide formation: clouer [klu.e] ('to nail').

[58] However, in colloquial registers, si elle [si.ɛl] ('if she') can be pronounced just like ciel [sjɛl] ('sky'), or tu as [ty.ɑ] ('you have') like tua [tɥa] ('[(s)he] killed').

[63] Emphatic stress is used to call attention to a specific element in a given context such as to express a contrast or to reinforce the emotive content of a word.

The characteristics associated with emphatic stress include increased amplitude and pitch of the vowel and gemination of the onset consonant, as mentioned above.