Re: English and French vowels

Christpohe écrit:

>The two vowels /A/ and /9~/ that used to be part of the French vowel
>system up to only twenty years ago have now completely disappeared
>(I have witnessed them vanish from everyone's speech, *including
>mine*! :) A very good proof of the existence of sound changes
>*during* people's life, not only during the learning of language by
>children). /A/ has merged with /a/, and /9~/ with /E~/.
I've heard you say this before, and wept openly. I love my /9~/ (if
that's the "un" of "brun" (not "brin"!)). Well, I'm foreign and
haven't been to France in 20 years, and I'm a curmudgeon, so I'll
keep "un" defiantly and be labeled a "personne vieux jeu". Thus far,
natives ain't complained (though who knows how long they've been out
of the loop :) ).

Kou

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