Contact-induced change in Francoprovençal phonological systems caused by standard French

Abstract

Abstract:The phoneme or sound inventories of different Francoprovençal varieties are presented and compared. Typical Francoprovençal sounds are identified. This serves as a basis to study contact-induced sound change. Language contact and the influence of French on the phonological systems are examined in more detail. Changes are illustrated by corpus data from the Monts du Lyonnais area and compared with other sources, focusing on consonants. Dialectometric analysis of ALF-data confirms heavy French influence on Francoprovençal phonology, which cannot be recent. In the last hundred years, probably only minor changes in unstressed vowels occurred in the area studied.

Acoustic characteristics of fricatives in Francoprovençal (Nendaz)

“…Table 1 illustrates a large consonantal inventory, but it should be stressed that a comparison across varieties, such as that proposed by Hinzelin (2018), makes it difficult to define 'typical' FP phonemes. For example, while more conservative FP varieties spoken in Savoie (e.g.…”

“…To date, FP remains under-described and documented. In the area of phonology and phonetics, specifically, there is scholarly work available that focuses on describing the diachronic changes that have resulted in the synchronic sound system (see Hinzelin 2018 and references therein). However, there is very little work on the synchronic phonological and phonetic patterns in FP, and no existing studies that provide an acoustic description of any aspect of the FP sound system, with the exception of one small illustration (Kasstan 2015).…”

“…Third, FP remains largely under-documented, which complicates the task of offering a complete picture of the phonology and phonetics of this severely endangered language. While there is scholarship available on the phonology of the language in diachrony, little is available on the synchronic shape of the FP sound system (Hinzelin 2018: 50). These caveats aside, the consonantal (excluding consonantal allophony; Table 1) and vocalic inventories below are based on the available impressionistic work and grammatical sketches in the FP-speaking region (principally Bert 2001, Duraffour 1932, Martinet 1956 [1939], Bjerrome 1957, Gardette 1983, Krier 1985, Stich 1998, Nagy 2000, Tuaillon 2007, Kasstan 2015), as well as proposed standards (Stich 1998, Martin 2005).…”

“…Hauteville) or the Canton of Valais (e.g Saint Luc) feature interdental fricatives and palatal plosives, those spoken in France (e.g. Monts du Lyonnais) do not (see Kasstan 2015, Hinzelin 2018). Table 1 thus gives an indicative view of the shape of the consonantal inventory of FP.…”

The Genesis of Spanish /θ/: A Revised Model

“…It should be borne in mind, however, that this type of result is not exclusive to northern Iberia. Thus, /θ/ occurs in conservative varieties of Venetian (Zamboni 1974), where its distribution resembles that of Castilian /θ/, and also in certain dialects of Franco-Provençal, although in the latter language it appears to be limited to contexts in which French has /S/ (Hinzelin 2018). In addition, it should not be forgotten that in some varieties of Andalusian Spanish, the merged phoneme corresponding to Castilian /s/ and /θ/ has traditionally been capable of being articulated as [θ]-a phenomenon known as ceceo-although the relevant speakers typically alternate this pronunciation with more sibilant-like realizations (see Navarro Tomás et al 1933;Villena Ponsoda et al 1994-1995.…”