Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

En réponse à Robert Hailman <robert@...>:

> >
> > I know a sound change even more sudden, because it happened *during*
> my
> > generation: it's the collapse of [9~] and [E~] (written generally 'un'
> and 'in'
> > in French) into [E~]. When I arrived at primary school (I was 6),
> everyone was
> > still pronouncing them different, even me (at least where I lived).
> When I
> > arrived in senior high school (I was 16), the difference had
> disappeared, even
> > in my own idiolect! I can still pronounce them differently, but if I
> don't pay
> > attention I just pronounce them the same (but after having thought of
> those
> > sounds, I'm going to pronounce them differently again for a few hours,
> without
> > really paying attention :) ). I really lived through a sound change!
> (and what
> > surprised me is that without realizing I participated to it :) )
> There's also
> > the collapsing of the two French 'a': [a] and [A], but [A] had nearly
> > disappeared already when I was in primary school (I just missed that
> sound
> > change I think).
>
> Interesting! All I have for a reference is my own pronounciation of
> French. (which is mighty bad, of course) [9~] & [E~] exist for me, but
> [A] does not, or at least not in any words I can think of.
>
It was always marked by â (a-circonflexe) like in "pâtes" /pAt/: pasta, as
opposed to "pattes" /pat/: legs (of an animal). The opposition has now
disappeared. I think it's normal that in your L2 pronunciation of French, you
have both [9~] and [E~], but no [A]. As I said, the distinction between [a] and
[A] have vanished earlier than the one between [9~] and [E~] (which is still not
complete, as there are still people like me who oscillate between the two phones
when [9~] was supposed to be the correct one - but nobody ever says [9~] when
originally it must be [E~], the confusion seems to go only in one direction).

Christophe.