A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status
What is commonly considered as an epenthetic vowel can actually refer to at least two different realities: phonological epenthesis or phonetic excrescence. French schwa, noted [ә], is a vowel alternating with zero and limited to unstressed syllables that can appear word-internally or word-finally. T...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Isogloss |
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| Online Access: | https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/152 |
| _version_ | 1819227874058567680 |
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| author | Mathilde Hutin Adèle Jatteau Ioana Vasilescu Lori Lamel Yaru Wu Martine Adda-Decker |
| author_facet | Mathilde Hutin Adèle Jatteau Ioana Vasilescu Lori Lamel Yaru Wu Martine Adda-Decker |
| author_sort | Mathilde Hutin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | What is commonly considered as an epenthetic vowel can actually refer to at least two different realities: phonological epenthesis or phonetic excrescence. French schwa, noted [ә], is a vowel alternating with zero and limited to unstressed syllables that can appear word-internally or word-finally. This paper presents an extensive description of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French in order to shed light on its nature: is it an intrusive vowel or a full epenthetic vowel? To that extent, three large corpora of French containing more than 110 hours of speech were used to establish the presence of word-final schwa as a function of sociolinguistics, orthography, phonotactics and phonetics. Our conclusions are that word-final schwa is impacted by speech style, gender, orthography, phonotactics (i.e., the number of adjacent consonants and their sonority profile), and the phonological properties of the codas. However, speech rate does not impact word-final schwa realization. The specific results lead us to suggest that word-final schwa in Standard French shares similarities with intrusive vowels but ultimately behaves like a legit epenthetic vowel. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T10:48:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a9fd6bbdb54d403dbee4d4359a348ac0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2385-4138 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T10:48:19Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Isogloss |
| spelling | doaj.art-a9fd6bbdb54d403dbee4d4359a348ac02022-12-21T17:49:58ZengUniversitat Autònoma de BarcelonaIsogloss2385-41382021-12-01710.5565/rev/isogloss.152A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological statusMathilde Hutin0Adèle JatteauIoana VasilescuLori LamelYaru WuMartine Adda-DeckerLISNWhat is commonly considered as an epenthetic vowel can actually refer to at least two different realities: phonological epenthesis or phonetic excrescence. French schwa, noted [ә], is a vowel alternating with zero and limited to unstressed syllables that can appear word-internally or word-finally. This paper presents an extensive description of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French in order to shed light on its nature: is it an intrusive vowel or a full epenthetic vowel? To that extent, three large corpora of French containing more than 110 hours of speech were used to establish the presence of word-final schwa as a function of sociolinguistics, orthography, phonotactics and phonetics. Our conclusions are that word-final schwa is impacted by speech style, gender, orthography, phonotactics (i.e., the number of adjacent consonants and their sonority profile), and the phonological properties of the codas. However, speech rate does not impact word-final schwa realization. The specific results lead us to suggest that word-final schwa in Standard French shares similarities with intrusive vowels but ultimately behaves like a legit epenthetic vowel.https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/152SchwaEpenthesispronunciation variationStandard FrenchLarge corporaautomatic alignment |
| spellingShingle | Mathilde Hutin Adèle Jatteau Ioana Vasilescu Lori Lamel Yaru Wu Martine Adda-Decker A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status Isogloss Schwa Epenthesis pronunciation variation Standard French Large corpora automatic alignment |
| title | A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| title_full | A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| title_fullStr | A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| title_full_unstemmed | A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| title_short | A corpus-based study of the distribution of word-final schwa in Standard French and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| title_sort | corpus based study of the distribution of word final schwa in standard french and what it teaches us about its phonological status |
| topic | Schwa Epenthesis pronunciation variation Standard French Large corpora automatic alignment |
| url | https://revistes.uab.cat/isogloss/article/view/152 |
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