Quebec French Phonology

The phonology of Quebec French is more complex than that of Parisian or Continental French. Quebec French has maintained phonemic distinctions between and , and , and , and . The latter phoneme of each minimal pair has disappeared in Parisian French, and only the last distinction has been maintained in Meridional French though all of those distinctions persist in Swiss and Belgian French.

Vowels

The phonemes and are both realized as ( 'because', ), but before , is diphthongized to or if it is in the last syllable.

Tense vowels () are realized as their lax () equivalents when the vowels are both short (not before , , and , but the vowel is pronounced before ) and only in closed syllables. Therefore, the masculine and feminine adjectives 'small' and ( and in France) are and in Quebec. In some areas, notably Beauce, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, and (to a lesser extent) Quebec City and the surrounding area, even long tense vowels may be laxed.

The laxing of the high vowels (, , and ) in the specified context always occurs in stressed syllables, ( 'struggle'), but it sometimes does not occur in unstressed syllables: 'vulgar' can be or . The lax allophone of a high vowel may also appear in open syllables by assimilation to a lax vowel in a following syllable: 'music' can be either or . The lax vowel may be retained in derived words even if the original stressed lax vowel has disappeared: can be or . Also, the lax allophone may sometimes occur in open syllables by dissimilation, as in 'spinning top' or , especially in reduplicative forms such as 'pee-pee' or . Such phenomena are conditioned lexically and regionally. For example, for the word 'difficult', the standard pronunciation is found throughout Quebec, but the alternative pronunciations , and are also used.

The phonemes and are distinct. is not diphthongized, but some speakers pronounce it if it is in a closed syllable or an unstressed open syllable, as in French of France. The pronunciation in final open syllables is always phonemically , but it is phonetically ranges between or speaker-to-speaker ( or ), the latter being informal. There are some exceptions; the words and are always pronounced with the phoneme . In internal open syllables, the vowel is sometimes pronounced or ( 'cake' or ), which is considered to be informal. The vowel is sometimes pronounced as in final closed syllables ( 'paste' ), but it is diphthongized as before ( 'late' ). Otherwise, there are many words which are pronounced with the long even though there is no circumflex: and (noun), etc. There are some words that are pronounced with the short , even though there is a circumflex; they are exceptions: and , etc. Some words are pronounced differently in different regions; for example, the words and are exceptions and are pronounced with the short in Eastern Quebec but the long in Western Quebec.

The phonemes and are always distinct. In open syllables, is diphthongized to ( is pronounced ), but it is pronounced before ( "mayoralty" ) and ( 'truce' ), and in closed syllables, it is diphthongized to , , or ( 'head' , , or ); on Radio-Canada, speakers pronounce in both open syllables and closed syllables.

Also, many words are pronounced with the long , even though there is no circumflex: , etc. There are a few exceptions, which are pronounced with the short phoneme even though there is a circumflex: (adjective), etc. Some words are pronounced differently in different regions; for example, the words and are exceptions: they are pronounced with short in Eastern Quebec but with long in Western Quebec.

Like in other dialects of French, the phonemes and are not distinct in Quebec French. The spellings <î û oû> was the long phonemes, had merged with the short counterparts very early on. Modern Quebec French, the phoneme is used only in loanwords, mainly English ( ʃiːp''cool'' uːl

The phoneme is pronounced or ( 'strong' or ) before .

The spelling ⟨oi⟩ phonemically is either or depending on the word ( 'you' , but 'three' ), but when it is before or in closed syllables, it is phonemically always : and , etc. In joual, can be pronounced or , but is found exceptionally in and and in inflexions of and , as well as in Those pronunciations are remnants from one of the founding French dialects. is pronounced as in formal speech but becomes in informal speech. The ⟨oî⟩ spelling is phonemically . It is phonetically in formal speech, but it can also be pronounced in some additional different ways () in joual ( 'box' ). Also, there are many words which are pronounced with the long even though there is no circumflex: and , etc.

Another informal trait from 17th-century Parisian popular French is the tendency to open into in a final open syllable. On the other hand, in grammatical word endings and in the indicative forms of verb ( and ), the is tensed into . That is also common in France, but failure to tense the in Quebec is usually perceived as quite formal. However, Quebecers usually pronounce when they are reading.

Nasal vowels

Apart from , the nasal vowels are very different from Modern Parisian French, but they are similar to traditional Parisian French and Meridional French. is pronounced exactly as in Meridional French: → , → ( 'storm' ), 'when' ), → ( 'icicle' ), and is pronounced . occurs only in open syllables. and are always diphthongized.

Diphthongization

Long and nasalized vowels (except ) are generally diphthongized in closed syllables, but , , and are not diphthongized if they are before (with some exceptions: "bean", , "goldsmith" and "dream"):
* → , but before , as in , Eng. "party"; , Eng. "father"; , Eng. "celebrate";
* → , as in , Eng. "neutral"
* → , as in , Eng. "cause"
* → , ( before ), as in , Eng. "paste" , Eng. "bar"
* → (only occurs before ), as in , Eng. "side"
* → (only occurs before ), as in , Eng. "heart"
* → , as in , Eng. "book/pound"
* → , as in , Eng. "oven"
* → , as in , Eng. "treatment"
* → , as in , Eng. "bank"
* → , as in , Eng. "fifteen"
* → , as in , Eng. "sound"
* → , as in , Eng. "one"
* → , as in , Eng. "box"

Diphthongs , , , , , ,
and are the most exaggerated and so they are considered informal, but even some teachers use them. and are rarely used in formal contexts. and are never diphthongized except in joual. Diphthongs , , , , , , and are considered formal and usually go unnoticed by most speakers. and are not diphthongized by some speakers.

Phonological feminine

Metonymies provide interesting evidence of a phonological feminine. For instance, although most adults would probably say that is masculine if they were given time to think, specific bus routes defined by their number are always feminine. Bus No. 10 is known as or more often Using in such a context, although it is normal in France, would be strikingly odd in Quebec (especially Montreal) except in some regions, particularly the Outaouais, where it is usual. (An alternative explanation, however, is that bus routes in Montreal are called "lines" and so is short for , not since it is the route that is being referred to, not an individual bus.)

There are many grammatical differences in informal speech. For instance, some words have a different gender from standard French (, rather than ). That is partially systematic; just as the difference in pronunciation between (masc.) and (fem.) is the presence or absence of a final consonant, ambiguous words ending in a consonant (such as ()) are often considered to be feminine.

Also, vowel-initial words that in standard grammar are masculine are sometimes considered to be feminine, as preceding masculine adjectives are homophonous to feminine adjectives (; = fem.): the word is considered to be feminine (). Another explanation would be that many other words ending in are feminine (, etc.) and that the grammatical gender of is made to conform to this pattern through analogy. However, the number of words that are masculine, particularly concrete nouns like (, etc.), as opposed to abstract nouns, weakens that explanation.

Consonants

Around 12 different rhotics are used in Quebec depending on region, age, education, and other things. The uvular trill has lately been emerging as a provincial standard, and the alveolar trill was once used in informal speech in Montreal. In modern Quebec French, the voiced uvular fricative (though voiceless before and after voiceless consonants: ''treize'' ) is most common.

The velar nasal is found in loanwords (''ping-pong'' ), but is often found as an allophone of the palatal nasal , the word ''ligne'' 'line' may be pronounced .

In colloquial speech, the glottal fricatives are found as allophones of and , respectively. They can also be pronounced as and if the original fricatives are not entirely relaxed. That is particularly found in the Beauce region to the point that the pronunciation is frequently stereotyped, but it can be found throughout Quebec as well as other French-speaking areas in Canada.

Dental stops are usually affricated before high front vowels and semivowels: in other words, , , , , , , , are then pronounced , , , , , , , (except in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord). Depending on the speaker, the fricative is more or less strong or sometimes even assimilates the stop in informal speech. For example, ''constitution'' may have any of the following pronunciations: → → .

In joual, some instances of final mute '' t'' may be pronounced:
:''lit'' → .
There is also the special case of "debout" 'standing up' and "ici" 'here' (sometimes actually written ''icitte''). On the other hand, the ''t'' in ''but'' 'goal' and ''août'' 'August' are not pronounced in Quebec, but they are pronounced in France (increasingly for ''but''). They often reflect centuries-old variations.

Many of the features of Quebec French are mistakenly attributed to English influence; however, the historical evidence shows that most of them descend from earlier forms from specific dialects and are forms that have since changed in France, or they are internal developments (changes that have occurred in Canada alone but not necessarily in all parts).

Consonant reduction

It has been postulated that the frequency of consonant reduction in Quebec French is caused by a tendency to pronounce vowels with more "strength" than consonants, a pattern that reverses that of European French.

Consonant clusters at the end of words are reduced and often lose altogether the last or two last consonants in both formal and informal Quebec French. The liquids and seem to be especially likely to get dropped, as in ''table,'' → , or ''astre,'' → → 'star'.

The phone in article determiners and even more in personal pronouns in most dialects does not exist in the mental representation of these words. As a matter of fact, pronouncing ''il'' and ''elle'' as and is seen as very formal and by some pedantic. ''Elle'' is further modified into in informal speech, a sound change that is similar to that of into before .

In colloquial speech, the combination of the preposition ''sur'' + definite article is often abbreviated: ''sur + le'' = ''su'l''; ''sur + la'' = ''su'a'' or ''sa''; ''sur + les'' = ''ses''. Sometimes ''dans'' + ''un'' and ''dans'' + ''les'' is abbreviated to just ''dun'' and ''dins''. In the informal French of France, ''sur + le'' also becomes ''su'l'', such as ''L'dimanche, i'est su'l pont dès 8 heures du mat'' ('On Sundays, he's hard at work from 8 a.m.'). No other contractions are used.

Some initial consonants are also reduced: ''gueule'' (France, ), especially in the construction ''ta gueule'' "shut up". Many Québécois even write ''gueule'' as ''yeule''.

Aspiration of voiceless plosives

In spoken Standard French, , and are by and large regarded as unaspirated. However, in Quebec and certain other Canadian variants of spoken French, aspiration in those consonants is quite common. The voice onset time of these sounds produced by Québécoise francophones is, to some extent, longer than that of their French counterparts and so that they are often categorized as aspirated.

Combinatory phenomena

Vowel harmonization and consonant assimilation

The high front vowels in Quebec French show a net tendency to be unvoiced or even lost, as in ''municipalité'' → , .

Much more common is the nasalization of some long vowels placed before a nasal consonant: ''même'' → ~ , ''jeûne'' → , ''jaune'' → , etc.

Similarly, consonants in clusters are often assimilated, usually with the consonant closer to the stress (the end of the word), which transmits its phonation (or its nasalization): ''demande'' → , ''chaque jour'' → . Progressive assimilation also occurs but only for and before and : ''cheval'' → .

The dropping of , which is as frequent in Quebec as it is in France (but occurs in different places), creates consonant clusters, which causes assimilation. For instance, the first-person singular pronoun "je" may be devoiced before a verb with a voiceless consonant initial. That occurs most notably with verbs that normally begin with , as the well-known example ''je suis'' 'I am' is often realized as "chu" () and ''je sais'' 'I know' as "ché" () or even (). However, the elision of is not exclusive to Quebec, and the phenomenon is also seen in other dialects.

One extreme instance of assimilation in Quebec French is vocalic fusion, which is associated with informal speech and fast speech and consonant elisions. Vocalic fusion can be either total (as in prepositional determiners ''sur la'' → → , ''dans la'' → → , and ''dans les'' → ) or partial (as in ''il lui a dit,'' → → → or ). Partial fusion can occur also in slow speech.

Liaison

Liaison is a phenomenon in spoken French in which an otherwise-silent final consonant is pronounced at the beginning of a following word beginning with a vowel. The rules for liaison are complex in both European French and Quebec French.

Sample passage

From ''Les insolences du Frère Untel'' (1960), by Jean-Paul Desbiens, p. 27.

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

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See also

*French orthography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quebec French Phonology
Phonology
French phonology