Yesterday, I posted some information about French phonemic vowels. Today, I have posted several posts which compare the French phonemic vowels to those of other languages. My hope is that these posts might be a starting point for French language learners from which they can research further in order to improve their comprehension and production of the French language.
1. English vowels compared to French
2. Spanish vowels compared to French
3. German vowels compared to French
4. Dutch vowels compared to French
5. Japanese vowels compared to French
6. Standard Mandarin vowels compared to French
7. Western Armenian vowels compared to French
Disclaimers: these posts are by no means exhaustive and I do not claim to have specific experience with all of the listed languages. I am only passing on phonological information that I was able to find on the internet, as well as some of my personal experience concerning the English language as it compares to French. Furthermore, I only dealt with monophthong vowels in order to simplify the discussion a bit.
Showing posts with label Vowels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vowels. Show all posts
Friday, October 15, 2010
French Vowels Compared to English Vowels
As in French, English also has a large amount of phonemic vowels: up to 16 depending on the dialect (see English vowel chart below).
However, English speakers who are learning French will still have particular trouble with vowels because French has 6-8 phonemic vowels that are not used in English. What this means is that those six to eight vowels are interpreted by English speakers as allophones of one of the phonemic vowels in English, or simply as a foreign sounds. For example, my brain interprets the vowel /y/ as an allophone of /u/; /ø/ as an allophone of /ə/; and since the French /ɛ/ is raised, /ɛ/ as an allophone of /e/. The French phonemes /ɑ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ and /œ̃/ and /ɛ̃/ and /œ/ are all interpreted as foreiɡn sounds that my tonɡue is not comfortable with and which my ear sometimes has trouble distinɡuishinɡ.
In this sort of situation ear-training is essential. The tongue will follow the ear, but until the ear hears the differences between these vowels, correct comprehension and pronunciation will always be somewhat of a guessing game.
In this sort of situation ear-training is essential. The tongue will follow the ear, but until the ear hears the differences between these vowels, correct comprehension and pronunciation will always be somewhat of a guessing game.
French Vowel Chart:
French Vowels Compared to Spanish Vowels
Spanish has the following 5 vowel phonemes.
That means that Spanish speakers will have to train their ears to hear up to 10 new vowels when learning French.
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French Vowels Compared to Standard Mandarin Vowels
Standard Mandarin is said to have anywhere from 2-8 phonemic vowels. The two nucleus vowels in the barest Mandarin phonology are /a/ and /ə/. This is expanded by some to include some or all of the following: /e/ ([e ~ ɛ ~ œ]), /o/ ([o ~ ɔ]), /ɨ/ ([z̩ ~ ʐ̩]), /i/ ([i]), /u/ ([ʊ ~ u]), and /y/ ([y]). The allophones are listed in brackets.
Compare these to the French vowel chart below.
Compare these to the French vowel chart below.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
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/
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.
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/
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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