Nasal vowels (was Re: French spelling scheme)
| From: | Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, May 5, 2001, 21:05 |
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On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 10:06:54PM +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
> Hey, it's /bO~/ - all the modern French nasal vowels are low. We have:
> /bO~/ masculine before a pause or word begining with a consonant;
> /bO~n/ (written _bon_) masculine before a word beginning with a vowel;
> /bOn/ _bonne_ feminine in all environments.
I was just wondering the other day why the French nasal vowels evolved the
way they did. Anyone know? Is there something in phonetic/phonological
theory saying that nasal vowels tend to be qualitatively different (aside
from their nasality of course) from their oral counterparts?
--
Eric Christopherson / *Aiworegs Ghristobhorosyo
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