French Phonemic Vowels

The following chart shows the phonemic vowels of standard French.  In addition to those listed below, French also distinguishes three to four nasal vowels: /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ and /œ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ (although many speakers have merged /œ̃/ with /ɛ̃/.


For example: the following words each begin with the same sound /s/ and differ only in the vowel that follows (except soeur and sort which both end with /ʁ/): su /y/; sous /u/; ceux /ø/; se /ə/; c'est /e/; ses /ɛ/; soeur /œ/; sort /ɔ/; sein /ɛ̃/; sont /ɔ̃/; sans /ɑ̃/

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If you compare the French vowel chart to the IPA vowel chart (below), you will see that French alters the normal place of articulation for several of these vowels.  The /ɛ/ is slightly raised, as is the /e/, the /ɔ/ is slightly fronted, and the /a/ is retracted to be more central/ low.

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Tips for Teachers: Understand Phonetic Articulation and Phonemics

Below is a chart of the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols.  These symbols represent all the sounds that have been found in languages around the world.  The chart also distinguishes the place of articulation and the articulators used for each sound.  Find out which of these sounds are phonemes in the language you are teaching and compare them to the phonemes of the languages from which your students come.

In the next couple of days I will be posting specifically about French phonemic vowels their comparison to the phonemic vowels of other world languages.

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