Re: English and French vowels
| From: | Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, March 4, 2004, 20:29 |
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En réponse à Trebor Jung :
>French:
>/a/
>/E/
>/e/
>/2/
>/i/
>/o/
>/O/
>/9/
>/u/
>/y/
As far as oral vowels go, you forgot /@/ (the vowel of "le", "de", "ce",
etc..., only possible in unstressed position, but *not* the unstressed form
of any other vowel). And you forgot also all the nasal vowels (which are
phonemic too): /a~/, /O~/, /E~/.
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~/.
Christophe Grandsire.
http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.
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