6 - E
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Introduction
We said in Chapter 3 (p. 34) that contrary to vowels in English, vowels in standard French are not reduced and always preserve their full quality. As we shall see in this chapter, there actually exists an important case of vowel reduction in French, but it affects only one particular vowel under certain well-defined conditions. In addition, when this vowel is reduced, it is reduced to nothing: it completely disappears from the pronunciation. Otherwise, it appears as a full-fledged vowel, namely [œ]. The word petit ‘small’ may thus be pronounced [pœti] or [pti], depending on the context. This exceptional vowel is known under many names, among others: mute e (‘e muet’), feminine e (‘e féminine’), unstable e (‘e instable’), fleeting e (‘e caduc’), and schwa. Here we shall simply speak of e, since the vowel whose behavior we wish to study is generally written this way in French orthography.
Since orthography, rather than sounds, constitutes our strategic point of departure in this chapter, and since e is used in French orthography with many different values, it is necessary to define precisely the specific category of e which concerns us here. Briefly, it consists of the es which occur between two consonants or at the end of a word, and which correspond to the sound [œ] when they are pronounced. The words in Table 6.1 contain examples of relevant es.
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- The Sounds of FrenchAn Introduction, pp. 86 - 107Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987
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