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Re: USAGE: French nasal vowels

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Friday, October 9, 1998, 15:45
At 09:58 09/10/1998 -0400, you wrote:
>Christophe Grandsire wrote: > >> I must agree with Mathias (I don't even find any difference between >> 'en' and 'in', > >There is none, except of course that "chien" is /SjE~/ and >"brin" is /bRE~/; in other words, there is a /j/ glide in "chien" >that is not present in "brin". > >> I know it's done in Portuguese, but when I try to speak it, I >> must spend at least a minute in order to give my mouth the correct >> articulation). > >Sure. Portuguese has a genuine [i~] which does not exist in >French; French has only [E~], [O~], and [A~] plus marginally [oe~]. > >> It also reminds me of a strange adventure of mine. I realized just >> some months ago that when I was younger, I made a real difference between >> 'un' and 'in' (I really made a difference between 'brun' (brown) and 'brin' >> (I don't know the word in English)) > >"Sprig". > >> but I lost it and now can hear the >> difference, but have difficulties to say it. Is it a consequence of the >> evolution of French? > >Almost certainly. The vowel /oe~/ as in "brun" is disappearing >from the language and will probably be gone in 30-40 years as >older speakers die off, making "brin" and "brun" exactly the same. >There are almost no minimal pairs anyhow. (This may not apply to >Canadian French, I don't know.) >
As far as I know, Canadian French is very different to "French French" as for pronunciation. As C. French is more conservative than F. French, I wouldn't be surprised if the pair 'un'/'in' was conserved in Quebec.
>-- >John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org > You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. > You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. > Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5) > >