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An end-of-semester project that combined an elicitation of spoken French from a native speaker and some light linguistic analysis of the data.
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Peter Sipes
Ling 401
Class Project: French
Technical note: many IPA symbols did not combine with the
diacritics. That's life.
Sipes 2
Background Facts
History
French is a language with a long history. Depending on the stage of its development, we may refer to it
by one of several names. Under the name Old Latin, it is traceable to the 6th Century BCE, where it
first appears in central Italy as one of the languages on the Italic branch of the Indo-European family.
Once the Romans gained control of the Italian peninsula, they started to spread their military influence
—and language, Latin—across the Mediterranean basin. In the 1st Century BCE under the leadership
of Julius Caesar, the Roman army invaded and conquered Transalpine Gaul, which roughly corresponds
to modern France. Over the next centuries spoken Latin gained linguistic ground on the native Celtic
languages to the point that the only Celtic language spoken today in France (Breton) finds its origins in
Insular Celtic and not the previously existing Continental branch of the Celtic languages. (Latin
likewise supplants the non-Latin Italic languages of modern Italy and all languages of Spain, except for
the Basque-speaking areas near the Spain-France border.) Over the following centuries the Roman
Empire rose and fell.
Latin's grip on the western part of the Empire never waned. It continued to be spoken despite waves of
Germanic invaders across Western Europe. Though they conquered the political portion of life, their
influence on the spoken language, called Romance at this stage, was mostly in the realm of vocabulary
—particularly vocabulary having to do with war. As Romance broke up, it broke in to far more
languages than one might suspect given a cursory knowledge of the languages of Europe. One stage of
this development in France is called Old French.
With the welter of dialects across France, political leaders—first royal, later republican and imperial—
Sipes 3
wanted to standardise the French language. The first step was the foundation of the French Academy.
Later the Parisian dialect was used as the exclusive language of instruction of schools in France, which
in turn led to the spread of Parisian French as the standard variety. (My informant confirmed that this
was still the case while her mother was in school in the 1960s.) Throughout the 19th Century and into
the 20th, French was a worldwide language of diplomacy, and even today many English speakers
consider it to be a prestigious language to know rather than merely useful like Spanish.
The vitality of modern French can also be seen in its literature (e.g. The Little Prince), journalism (e.g.
Le Monde), grapic novels (e.g. The Airtight Garage), cinema (e.g. Jean de Florette) and websites (e.g.
fr.wikipedia.org).
Further reading
Caesar, Gaius Julius. (1917). Caesar: The Gallic War (Loeb Classical Library). (H. J. Edwards,
Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Nadeau, Jean-Benoit & Barlow, Julie. (2008). The story of French. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Ostler, Nicholas. (2007). Ad infinitum: A biography of Latin. New York: Walker Publishing Company.
History with English
French has a complex relation to English. After the Norman invasion of 1066, French became a
prestige language since the new kings and noblility spoke French. Many words in English have both a
French derived and Anglo-Saxon derived synonym (e.g. royal/kingly, pig/pork). In other cases, French
derived words completely supplanted the native words (e.g. malignant/yfelcund).
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Even after the English kings resumed speaking Enligsh, French maintained its place. Kings of England
either ruled large portions of France or attempted to assume the French crown outright. This led to
many English soldiers spending time in France over the course of the Hundred Year War. Additionally
after the Reformation the many French Protestants (Huguenots) settled in England bringing their
language with them.
As French came to assume its role as a diplomatic language, it maintained its prestige in the minds of
English speakers. Directly borrowed terms in this area include coup [d'etat] and detente. Since France
was also an innovator in cooking, art and fashion, many English terms in these areas were borrowed
from French as well (e.g. restaurant, trompe l'oeil and couture). Even now, when a company wants to
brand itself as being exceptional in these areas, French words come in to use. A sandwich shop can
differentiate itself by chosing the name Pret A Manger instead of Burger King. Where would be
makeup be better? Lancôme or Mabelline?
With this place of prestige, English speakers are familiar with the accent of French speakers—ahem,
Francophones—using English. Or at least familiar enough that a characters in cartoons and movies may
use French accents as a shorthand for being romantic (e.g. Miss Piggy), or for comic effect (e.g.
Inspector Clouseau).
Further reading
McWhorter, John. (2009). Our magnificent bastard tongue: The untold history of English. New York:
Gotham Press.
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Distribution
There are about 53 million native speakers of French in France and a further 15 million native speakers
in other countries. French is an official language in many countries of the Americas, Europe, Africa and
Asia. Their distribution is a reflection of French colonialism. There are an estimated 55 million second
language speakers of French worldwide (Lewis, 2009).
French is a commonly taught language in secondary and post-secondary schools throughout the
Chicago area. While there is a branch of Alliance Française in Chicago, I neither am aware of a large
French-speaking community nor have heard French spoken in the Chicago area.
On the other hand I can vouch for a strong presence of French speakers in other parts of North
America, as I have heard people speak French—presumably natively—in the Canadian provinces of
Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories as well as the US state of Maine.
Further ReadingLewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL
International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
Informant
My informant is a 37 year-old woman, who is English/French bilingual. She is a native of San
Francisco, CA, whose mother spoke French and father spoke English with her from infancy.
Interestingly Ms Stark does not know how to read or write French despite a full command of the
spoken language. She assumes she speaks Norman French, since her mother is from Normandy. I
cannot comment on what differences there may be between Norman French and Standard French.
Sipes 6
LexiconEach word will be presented in the following order: English word, IPA transcription of informant's
response, dictionary entry as found in WordReference.com's Enlgish-French dictionary, Latin word. I
include the Latin word to give an idea of the continuity of French from its Latin origin, though I have
one caveat. Latin, as received, is a literary language related to spoken Latin. French is a spoken
language derived from spoken Latin. French words do not necessarily derive from literary Latin.
It is interesting to see how the spelling of French words is less divergent from Latin than the
pronunciation in some cases. Some words do not seem to have anything to do with the Latin word.
Body parts
English word French IPA French written Latin
finger lə dwɑ le doigt digitus
hand lɑ mɑ˜ la main manus
arm lə bʁɑ le bras bracchium
head la tɛt la tête caput
nose lə ne le nez nasus
eyes ləz ju les yeux oculi
mouth lɑ buʃ la bouche os
ear lɑ ʁej la oreille auris
neck lɑ gɑ˜z la ganse collum
leg lɑ ʒɑm la jambe crus
foot lə pie le pied pes
toe lə dwɑ (dœ pie) le doigt (de pied) digitus pedis
tongue lɑ lɔ˜g la langue lingua
teeth lə dɔ˜ les dents dentes
Family and people
mother mɛʁ mère mater
father pɛʁ père pater
mom mɑmɔ˜ maman mama
Sipes 7
English word French IPA French written Latin
dad pɑpɑ papa papa
sister sɔʁ sœur soror
brother fʁɛʁ frère frater
son fis fils filius
daughter fi fille filia
aunt tɑ˜nt tante amita (m's sister)
uncle ɑ˜nc oncle avunculus (m's brother)
grandmother gʁɑmɛʁ grand-mère avus
grandfather gʁɑ˜pɛʁ grand-père avia
girl fi fille puella
boy gɑʁsɔ˜ garçon puer
man lum l'homme vir
woman lɑ fɑm la femme femina
Everyday nature
sun lə solel* le soleil sol
moon lɑ lun la lune luna
sky lə siel le ciel caelum
cloud nejɑʒ nuage nubis
rain lɑ plui la pluie pluvium
snow lɑ nɛʒ la neige nix
water lo l'eau aqua
hot ʃo chaud caldus
cold fʁɑ froid frigidus
winter livɛʁ l'hiver hiems
spring pʁɑ˜tɔ˜ printemps ver
summer lɛte l'ete aestas
fall lɔtũm l'automne autumnus
day ʒuʁ jour dies
night lɑ nui la nuit nox
*informant insisted there was something at the end of this word, but I could not tell what it was. I put /l/.
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English word French IPA French written Latin
river ʁivjɛʁ rivière fluvius
ocean lɑ mɛʁ la mer oceanus
lake lə lɑc lake lə lɑc
mountain mõtɑɲə montagne mons
hill kɔlin colline collis
Animals
dog ʃiẽ chien canis
cat ʃɑ chat felis
mouse suʁi souris mus
wolf lu loup lupus
bird wɑzo oiseau avis
cow vɑʃ vache vacca
horse ʃɛvɑl cheval equus
Actions
sit ɑswɑ asseoir sedere
stand døbu debout stare
walk mɑʁʃe marcher ambulare
talk pɑʁle parler loqui
run kuʁiʁ courir currere
cook feʁ lɑ kwizin faire la cusine
kwizine cuisinier coquere
read liʁ lire legere
love əme aimer amare
be born nesɑ˜s naître nasci
die muʁiʁ mourir moriri
Numbers
one ɑ˜ un unus
two dø deux duo
three tʁɔ trois tres
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English word French IPA French written Latin
four kɑtʁ quatre quattuor
five sɑ˜nk cinq quinque
six sis six sex
seven sɛt sept septem
eight uit huit octo
nine nøf neuf novem
ten dis dix decem
eleven ɔ˜z onze undecim
twelve døz douze duodecim
thirteen tʁɛz treize tredecim
fourteen kɑtɔʁz quatorze quattuordecim
fifteen kɑnz quinze quindecim
sixteen sɛz seize sedecim
seventeen disɛt dix-sept septendecim
eighteen dizuit dix-huit duodeviginti
nineteen diznøf dix-neuf undeviginti
twenty vɛ˜ vingt viginti
thirty tʁɑnt trente triginta
forty kɑʁɔnt quarante quadraginta
fifty sɑnkɔnt cinquante quinquaginta
sixty swɑsɔnt soixante sexaginta
seventy swɑsɔnt diz soixante-dix septuaginta
eighty kɑtʁɛ vɛ˜ quatre-vingts octoginta
ninety kɑtʁɛ vɛ˜diz quatre-vingt-dix nonaginta
hundred sɔ˜ cent centum
two hundred dø sɔ˜ deux cents ducenti
thousand mil mille mille
two thousand dø mil deux mille duo mille
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Phonology
This area presented some difficulties for me. The first of which is that French and English have
different inventories of phonemes.
This caused three sorts of problems. It was at times difficult to distinguish /Vn/ and /V [+nasal]/. The
biggest problem of this nature was /ɔ˜/. In my variety of English we have /ɔ/ and we have nasalized
vowels—though they aren't phonemic—but we don't have /ɔ˜/ (that I can easily think of). Then there
were sounds that I could hear and distinguish, but not effectively reproduce to my informant's
satisfaction. The biggest offender in this category was /ʁ/. Finally there were sounds I was not at all
familiar with, such as /ø/ and /œ/. I did my best with those.
The other difficulty is that different sources indicate different inventories of phonemes. As the French
might say: c'est la vie.
Vowels
i+y--------------+---+u \ | | \ | | \ | | e+ø----------+---+o \ | | \ ə | \ | | ɛ+œ------+---+ɔ \ | | \ | | \ | | a+---+--ɑ+
There is also a phonemic distinction between several nasal and non-nasal vowels. The are: /ɑ/ and
/ɑ˜/; /ɔ/ and /ɔ˜/; /ɛ/ and /ɛ˜/; and /œ/ and /œ˜/. There are also several diphthongs: /aj/, /ɛj/, /œj/ and /ij/.
(At least diphthongs as we indicated them in this class.)
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Vowels not present in English
/y/ – high, front rounded vowel
like /i/ but with rounded lips (Note: easy to distinguish, not too difficult to produce)
/ø/ – mid, front rounded vowel
like /e/ but with rounded lips (Note: hard to distinguish)
/œ/ – mid, front rounded vowel
like /ɛ/ but with rounded lips (Note: hard to distinguish, but I didn't hear it in the lexicon list.)
/a/ – low, front unrounded vowel
(Note: not too tricky to distinguish, not too tricky to produce. I'd be hard pressed to tell you that
I heard this sound.)
Vowel frequencyVowel Count
ɑ 33 Note: after the first appearance, I no longer counted the vowel sounds in the article.
None of the vowels seem to be overly dominant in the way that English has the “when it doubt schwa it out” rule of thumb. That said, /ɑ/ and /i/ stand out as much more frequent than the other vowels. This distribution is not too surprising since they are in opposite corners of the vowel grid, which makes them sound distinct.
Had I included the vowels in the article in the count /ɑ/ and /ə/ would have had much higher counts.
In no case does a nasalized vowel occur more often than its non-nasalized counterpart. /ɔ/ and /ɔ˜/ have the same number, but ths could be because I was struggling to differentiate between /ɔ˜/ and /ɑ˜/ even with multiple repititions. I figured if I couldn't tell the difference (as we do have /ɑ˜/ in English, even if it isn't phonemic), it must not be /ɑ˜/.
ɑ˜ 9
ɔ 8
ɔ˜ 8
o 4
u 14
ũ 1
i 29
y 0
e 13
ẽ 1
ø 7
ɛ 18
ɛ˜ 3
œ 0
ə 2Source for vowelshttp://www.ciltplus.org.uk/phonology/?q=content/phonemes
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Consonants
Labial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular
Stop p b t d k g
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ ʁ*
Nasal m n ɲ
Glides w
Approximant
Lateral Approximant
l j
Consonants not present in English
/ʁ/ – voiced uvular fricative, distinctly an “r” sound.
(Note: easy to distinguish—perhaps a stereotypical French sound, difficult to produce to my
informant's satisfaction.)
/ɲ/ – voiced palatal nasal
like ñ in Spanish cañon. (Note: easy to distinguish, easy to produce)
Note: My informant told me her mother said that the r-sound in French is trilled like /r/ or /ʀ/. Many
online sources indicated /ʁ/, which is a fricative and not a trill. I'm going with /ʁ/, since I didn't hear
what I thought was a trill. If the Phonology class tell me I'm wrong about what I heard, I'll write an
apology note.
Source for consonantshttp://www.nou.edu.ng/noun/NOUN_OCL/pdf/edited_pdf3/FRE%20231%20Introduction%20to%20French%20Phonology%201.pdf
Sound combinations not allowed in Enlgish• French may start a word with /ʒ/
French phonology, while different from English, is amenable to lending words to English. CCVCC is
the maximum syllable structure in my lexicon. English, as mentioned in class, has a maximum of
CCCVCCCC. The limit of English is below French's. /ʁ/ might need to g to /ɹ/ or /ø/ might get
unrounded to /e/, but there is no need for an epenthetic /ə/ when English borrows from French.
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Morphology
Present and Past tense verb conjugationThe verb /fɛt/ — make, do
Present Past
Singular Plural Singular Plural
1st Person ʒø fɛ ɑ˜ fɛ ʒø fe ɑ˜ fe
2nd Person ty fɛ vu føze ty a fe vuz ave fe
2nd Person—alternate
vu føze vu zave fe
3rd Person—masculine
il fɛ il føzɑ˜ il a fe il zɔ˜ fe
3rd Person—feminine
ɛl fɛ il føzɑ˜ ɛl a fe il zɔ˜ fe
Before choosing this verb for inclusion as my example, I verified with my informant that this verb was
regular in its conjugation. That is to say that it was more like the English verb type
smack/smacked/smacked than sing/sang/sung and certainly not like the viciously irregular
go/went/gone.
In the past tense, a French verb conjugation book, Barron's French Verbs (2011), confirmed what I was
told. The typical past tense is more like the English “I have made” and less like “I made.” In French,
there is a tense that more or less corresponds with “I made”, but it is not used in spoken French. To
reiterate, this information agrees with the data points my informant related.
Noun compoundspolice car /vwatuʁ dø polis/
car of policeThis is an actual compound
clown car /vwatuʁ dø clun/ car of clown
This one is made up.
idiot car /vwatuʁ dø idʒɔ/ car of idiot
So is this one.
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French would not seem to be able to make N-N compounds the way English does. French would prefer
to make compounds this way: head /dø/ modifier.
Note: I needed to grease the skids by suggesting a pre-existing compound (police car) to get the juices
flowing. For whatever reason, this section stumped my informant, though she knew how to do this in
both English and French.
Do-er compoundsgateau maker /lə pɛʁsɔ˜ ki fe lə gatɔ/
det person who makes det gateaua man gets /lə/
/lɑ pɛʁsɔ˜ ki fe lə gatɔ/det person who makes det gateau
a woman gets /lɑ/
I asked for a few other data points about various-thing-makers, but they were all prefaced with /lə
pɛʁsɔ˜ ki fe/…. It seems that while French may have simple words that correspond to butcher or baker,
there is no easy way to generalize to candlestick maker.
Adjective comparisonPositive /mɑ vwɑtuʁ ɛ ʁuʒ/
my car is redMy car is red.
• Word for word same as English
Comparative /ma vwɑtuʁ ɛ plu ʁuʒ/ my car is more redMy car is redder.
• This is different
than yours /ma vwɑtuʁ ɛ plu ʁuʒ kə votʁ/ my car is more red than yours.fml yours.plMy car is redder than yours.
• Showing how to add a compared thing
Superlative /ma vwɑtuʁ ɛ lɑ plu ʁuʒ/ my care is the more red.My car is the reddest.
French, despite its highly-inflected Latin origin, seems to completely lack any inflection in adjective
comparison. Instead it relies on /plu/ to form the comparative degree and /lɑ plu/ to form the
superlative degree. Presumably, a noun that had the article /lə/ would use that in place of /lɑ/.
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Syntax
The article•French has an article. Two actually. It seems to be much more tightly bound to the noun than the
English article. Nearly every vocabulary term in the lexicon was given—and recorded where
given—with a definite article.
•I heard several forms of the definite article: /l/, /lɑ/, /lə/ and /ləz/. There seems to be some sort of
sandhi (or maybe crassis, I'm not quite sure on the technical term) going on between /lɑ/ /lə/
and /l/. So far as I can tell, words that begin with consonants get /lɑ/ and /lə/. Words that begin
with vowels get /l/. I cannot generalize about /ləz/ as it only occurred once—though with a
plural noun. On the other hand, another plural noun had /lə/ as its article.
•There is also an indefinite article /un/. I was not careful enough to elicit a plural.
•Given what I know about Spanish, I would assume that the /lɑ/ /lə/ difference is gender. If so, French
would appear to have two genders, though /ləz/ could be a 3rd gender (but I doubt it).
•The article always comes before the noun, and any pre-noun adjectives.
Verbs•Verbs inflect for person and number in writing. In speech there looks to be three distinct the present
tense verb forms: 2nd person plural, 3rd person plural and everything else. Since four
combinations require the same verb form, it is no surprise that pronouns are required.
•Masculine and femine agents use the same pronouns until third person. Then gender is distinguished.
•There is an informal 2nd person singular /ty/ and formal 2nd person singular /vu/. The formal /vu/ is
the same as the 2nd person plural pronoun and inflects in the same way. This is different from
Spanish where /usted/ takes 3rd person singular verb inflection. There is also no formal 2nd
person, which is also different from Spanish, which has /ustedes/.
Sipes 16
Other items•For the most part, word order is on par with English in terms of flexibility.
•I tried to stay well away from pronouns as I know that they are a bear in Spanish, and I know they
share the same source.
Sample sentencesBasic declarative sentence /ʒø vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/
I see.1s det catI see the cat.
•SVO order•relatively inflexible order•No case marking
/il vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/he sees.3s det catHe sees the cat.
•with subject as pronoun•some sort of subject seems to be required (like English)
Basic question /ɛsku ʒø vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/ do I see.1s det catDo I see the cat?
•seems to require a question word, like English does, for yes/no questions
Wh-question /ki vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/who sees.3s det catWho sees the cat?
•No wh-move needed
/kɛsku ʒø vwɑ/what I see.1sWhat do I see?
•What do I see? Wh-movement.
Preparing to embed /ʒø di/ I said.1sI said.
•Apparently you can say this without an NP after V.
/ʒø di sɑ/ I said.1s itI said it.
•Another SVO sentence•Checking to see if /sɑ/ hangs around after the embed. (No.)
Embedding /ʒø di ku ʒø vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/ I said that I see.1s det catI said that I see the cat.
•/ku/ is the C•Everything after /ku/ is the IP compliment to C
Passive /lɑ ʃɑ ɛ vu/det cat is.3s seenThe cat is seen.
•This looks a lot like English. •Copula and a passive participle.
Negative sentence /ʒø ne pɑ vu lɑ ʃɑ/I did not see.1s det catI didn't see the cat.
•Negative is two words.•Seems to affect the pronunciation of the main verb.
/ʒø vwɑ pɑ lɑ ʃɑ/I see.1s not det catI didn't see the cat.Lit: I see not the cat.
•Two ways to negate. This time with only one negating word.
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Adjective /ʒɛ un gʁɑn mezɔ˜/I.have det big house.I have a big house.
•Somehow the words corresponding to I and have are fused into /ʒɛ/. •Some adjectives take their position in front of the noun—big and small were the culprits I ran across.
/ʒɛ un vwɑtuʁ ʁuʒ/I.have det car redI have a red car.
•But usually adjectives come after the noun they modify.
Prepositions /ʒø vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ dɔ˜ lɑ ʁu/ I see.1s det cat in det streetI see the cat in the street.
•Unmarked order.•Preposition, not postposition
/dɔ˜ lɑ ʁu ʒø vwɑ lɑ ʃɑ/ in det street I see.1s det cat In the street, I see the cat.
•Moving the prepositional phrase here seemed odd, but acceptable.•Maybe a little non-native sounding, in the same way the corresponding English sentence sounds a bit off to a native speaker.•PP passes the move test, so it is a component on its own
*/ʒø vwɑ dɔ˜ lɑ ʁu lɑ ʃɑ/ I see.1s in det street det catI see in the street a cat.
•This was deemed to be irreparably wrong.•This V has NP as compliment
and not adjunct.
Causative sentences /ʒø fɛ lɑ ʃɑ un vwɑtuʁ/I make det cat det carI make the cat a car.
•Word for word the same as English.
/lə sole fɛ lɑ ʃɑ ʃo/det sun makes det cat hotThe sun makes the cat hot.
•Again.
/lə sole ʁɔ˜ lɑ ʃɑ ʃo/det sun makes det cat hotThe sun makes the cat hot.
•/fɛ/ and /ʁɔ˜/ seem to be synonyms here.