Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T00:12:13.712Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Consonantal systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Bernard Tranel
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Get access

Summary

Introduction

This chapter is devoted to a comparative survey of the French and English consonantal systems, and to an examination of the most important articulatory differences between phonetically close consonants in these systems. The fundamentally distinct properties of l and r in the two languages warrant a separate chapter for these two consonants (Chapter 9). In Chapter 10, we shall consider questions internal to French regarding the pronunciation of double consonants and final consonants. Finally, in Chapter 11, we shall examine the phenomenon of liaison, which was already touched on in the discussion of nasal vowels in Chapter 5.

Consonant inventories and comparative overview

Tables 8.1–2 present the consonant inventories of French and English, together with the main articulatory parameters necessary to their description, with examples.

As these tables indicate, English uses a slightly larger consonant inventory than French: there are 22 consonants in English, compared to 17 in French. The stop systems closely resemble each other; however, the nasal series differ in that English has the velar [ŋ], whereas French has the palatal [ŋ]. The existence of the velar nasal [ŋ] in English does not create great difficulties for French speakers learning English. As a matter of fact, this consonant tends to enter into the French consonantal system; thus, some speakers use it in the ending -ing often found in words borrowed from English (see the first group of examples in Table 8.3), as well as in pseudo-borrowings (see the second group of examples).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Sounds of French
An Introduction
, pp. 125 - 134
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Consonantal systems
  • Bernard Tranel, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: The Sounds of French
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620645.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Consonantal systems
  • Bernard Tranel, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: The Sounds of French
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620645.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Consonantal systems
  • Bernard Tranel, University of California, Irvine
  • Book: The Sounds of French
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511620645.009
Available formats
×