Describes and classifies French consonants from an articulatory-phonological perspective. (JB)

This test, conducted to prove that closed vowels can be heard in fricative utterances as open vowels in explosive utterances, gives further evidence for the closing action of constrictives and the opening action of occlusives. It also reveals a possible articulatory and auditive convergence between consonants and vowels. (Text is in French.)…

The present work begins with a phonetic description of the acceptable French /R/ and descriptions of several allophones of English /R/ which must be avoided while learning the French. Various theories are discussed concerning the relationship between the position of the /R/ in an utterance and the difficulty students have in pronouncing it…

This article describes a technique used to monitor the action of the upper front surface of the soft palate during normal speech in French. Results tend to confirm the findings of other instrumental phonetic research, and contradict some theoretical claims of French phonology. (CLK)

Studies the sounds of the Parisian French /R/ consonant by examining sound spectrograms and X-ray photographs of speakers' pharynxes. Illustrates the phonetic distinctions and compares the Parisian consonantal usage to usage in other languages, including American English. (AM)

A study investigated the range of articulatory patterns in French in which occlusive consonants are followed by anterior vowels, and the resulting acoustic phenomena. Articulatory factors examined include the place of articulation of the occlusive consonant; the nature of contact during the occlusion; articulatory movements at the consonants'…

The characteristics of French nasal vowels in the case of various CVCV combinations are studied. A set of CVCV utterances was read by speakers (5 males and 5 females) and analyzed using predictive coding techniques. The consonant consisted of voiced stops, unvoiced stops, nasal consonants... while the vowel V was one of 4 nasal French vowels.…

A study of the phonetic combination of a constrictive consonant (specifically, [f], [v], and [r]) and a vowel in French using x-ray and oscillograph technology focused on the speed and process of articulation between the consonant and the vowel. The study considered aperture size, nasality, labiality, and accent. Articulation of a total of 407…

A study investigated the realization of voicing contrasts ("breathiness") in plosive consonants produced by young French adults, particularly as they differ in males and females. Data came from acoustic analysis of recordings of nine informants reading lists of monosyllabic words with initial plosive consonants in isolation and in the content,…

The objectives of this project were the instrumental analysis and detailed description of the phonetic features of American English and of the foreign languages most commonly taught in the United States--German, Spanish, and French. Eleven prosodic features, 13 vocalic features, and 16 consonant features of each are compared to English. A…

This transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist French-speaking immigrants in erasure of their foreign accents can be used for either individual or group study. Narrative and taped demonstrations of American English that pinpoint typical phonological barriers and pronunciation difficulties are outlined. The author's own…

This booklet, part of a course for teaching English to adult Francophones, is designed to assist the student in learning to produce the "th" sound in English. The voiceless and voiced "th" sounds are described, articulation techniques for both sounds are presented, and listening discrimination and production exercises are provided. A special…

This volume is devoted to phonetics and phonology. It consists of the following papers: (1) "Generative Phonology, Dependency Phonology and Southern French," by J. Durand, which discusses aspects of a regional pronunciation of French, the status of syllables in generative phonology, and concepts of dependency phonology; (2) "On the…

This is the first in a series of articles on general phonetic characteristics of American English. Language research techniques of spectrographic analysis, spectrographic synthesis, articulatory motion-picture study, and statistical calculation are briefly described. Thirty-five areas of phonetic difference for comparison of English to Spanish,…