Entre Québec et France, qu'en est-il de l'antériorisation de /ɔ/ en français contemporain ?

St-Gelais, Xavier; Coupé, Christophe; Pellegrino, François; Arnaud, Vincent

doi:10.21437/jep.2018-59

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This tendency for /ç/ to centralize, well documented in European French since Martinet (1958), has also been attested in some studies on Quebec French (e.g. Martin 2002, St-Gelais 2019. Finally, the female and male vowel spaces displayed in Figure 3 are visually similar, although the /ø/-/O/-/ç/ triangle seems slightly more compressed in female speakers.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 75%

A descriptive account of the Quebec French diphthongfête

Riverin-Coutlée¹,

Roy²

2020

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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Diphthongization has a long history in Quebec French. In this variety, lengthened vowels have the potential to be diphthongized. However, one vowel stands out, as it is always long and seems particularly inclined to be diphthongal: the fête vowel. While it has been much studied over the years, some uncertainties remain in the literature, especially whether length or quality primarily distinguishes it and which phonetic transcription appropriately reflects the way Quebec French speakers pronounce it today. This study addresses these issues by drawing a parallel between acoustic properties of the fête vowel and those of other vowels produced in similar consonantal contexts by 52 native speakers of Quebec French. After analyzing 8866 tokens, we present a descriptive account of their relative duration, location in F1/F2 planes and spectral changes. The results show that fête is, in fact, acoustically distinct, but more in terms of the spectral changes that occur than its duration. Its first two formants extensively shift between 25% and 75% of its duration, with a substantial F2 increase and F1 decrease. In F1/F2 planes, fête has onset values similar to /a/ and offset values similar to /ɛ/. Therefore, we argue that the two most commonly used phonological transcriptions for this singular vowel, /ɜ/ and /ɛː/, present some problems and do not capture its characterizing features. Drawing on our results and the IPA vowel chart, we suggest a more accurate symbol.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 75%

A descriptive account of the Quebec French diphthongfête

Riverin-Coutlée¹,

Roy²

2020

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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“…The /ʊ/ variant shows evidence of fronting and is more clearly separated from its tense counterpart than the other lax variants. Similarly, /ɔ/ is centralized, a tendency previously documented in Quebec French by St-Gelais et al (2018). The empty space between /ɛ/ and /a/ corresponds to the area where the /a͜ ɛ/ phonological diphthong, not analyzed here, should be located at 50% of its rising and fronting trajectory (Leblanc, 2012;Riverin-Coutlée & Roy, 2020).…”

Section: Sedentary Speakersmentioning

confidence: 70%

Using Mahalanobis Distances to Investigate Second Dialect Acquisition: A Study on Quebec French

2022

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Second dialect acquisition (SDA) can be defined as the process through which geographically mobile individuals adapt to new dialect features of their first language. Two common methodological approaches in SDA studies could lead to underestimating the phonetic changes that mobile speakers may experience: only large phonetic differences between dialects are considered, and external sources are used to infer what should have been the speakers’ original dialect. By contrast, in this study, we carry out a longitudinal analysis to empirically assess the speakers’ baseline and shift away from it with no priors as to which features should change or not. Furthermore, we focus on Quebec French, a variety with a relatively crowded vowel space. Using Mahalanobis distances, we measure how acoustic characteristics of vowels produced by 15 mobile speakers change relative to those of a control group of 8 sedentary speakers, with the mobile participants recorded right after they moved to Quebec City, then a year later. Overall, the results show a reduction of Mahalanobis distances over time, indicating convergence toward the control system. Convergence also tends to be greater in denser areas of the vowel space. These results suggest that phonetic changes during SDA could be finer than previously thought. This study calls for the use of methodological approaches that can reveal such trends, and contributes to uncovering the extent of phonetic flexibility during adulthood.

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Entre Québec et France, qu'en est-il de l'antériorisation de /ɔ/ en français contemporain ?

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

A descriptive account of the Quebec French diphthongfête

A descriptive account of the Quebec French diphthongfête

Using Mahalanobis Distances to Investigate Second Dialect Acquisition: A Study on Quebec French

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