Re: French Grammar

Christophe Grandsire scripsit:

> IMO the roundedness of the French schwa is only due to the fact that it's
> a "lazy" vowel, pronounced according to the principle of least effort. Since
> it's more of an effort to have tight unrounded lips, the French schwa appears
> unrounded.
Well, I think that it is an effort either to round or to unround, and that
truly lax sounds are somewhere in between.  Consider /i/ vs. /y/: which is
least-effort?  Neither, I think.

> But I don't think that roundedness is a feature worth noting (except
> maybe in phonetic realisations). We could also say it's kind of a lax version
> of /2/ ('eu' in 'feu').
Indeed, as indicated by the fact that when "le" is stressed, it comes
out [l2].

Personally, I prefer the view that [@] has no underlying /@/, and is
either /2/ or a svarabhakti vowel with no underlying representation.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan