Quebec French phonology

Quebec French has more phonemes than Metropolitan French as it retains phonemic distinctions between IPA|/a/ and IPA|/ɑː/, IPA|/e/ and IPA|/ɛ/, and IPA|/ɛ̃/ and IPA|/œ̃/ whereas the latter of each pair has disappeared in Paris and several other parts of France.

Vowels

Quebec French replaces tense vowels with their lax equivalents when the vowels are both short (e.g. not before "r", IPA| [ʒ] , IPA| [z] and IPA| [v] ) and in a closed syllable. This means that the masculine and feminine adjectives "petit" and "petite" (IPA| [pəti] and IPA| [pətit] in France) are IPA| [pət͡si] and IPA| [pət͡sɪt] in Quebec. The same goes with IPA| [y] → IPA| [ʏ] and IPA| [u] → IPA| [ʊ] . In some areas, notably Beauce, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and (to a lesser extent) Quebec City and the surrounding region, even long tense vowels may be laxed.

This laxing of the high vowels IPA|/i/, IPA|/u/ and IPA|/y/, in the specified context is compulsory in stressed syllables, "e.g. lutte" IPA| [lʏt] , but it is optional in unstressed syllables, "e.g., vulgaire" can be IPA| [vʏlgɛːʁ] or IPA| [vylgɛːʁ] . The lax allophone of a high vowel may also appear in open syllables by assimilation to a lax vowel in a following syllable, "e.g., musique" can be either IPA| [myzɪk] or IPA| [mʏzɪk] . The lax vowel may even be retained in derived words where the original stressed lax vowel has disappeared, "e.g. musical" can be IPA| [myzikal] or IPA| [mʏzikal] . Also, the lax allophone may arise optionally in open syllables through dissimilation as in "toupie" IPA| [tupi] or IPA| [tʊpi] , especially in reduplicative forms such as "pipi" IPA| [pipi] or IPA| [pɪpi] . These phenomena are conditioned lexically and regionally. For example, for the word "difficile", the expected pronunciation IPA| [d͡zifisɪl] is found throughout Quebec, but the alternative pronunciation IPA| [d͡zifɪsɪl] is characteristic of the Beauce region, while IPA| [d͡zɪfisɪl] is characteristic of Montreal French. [Harvcoltxt|Dumas|1991|p=94-99]

The nasal vowels are slightly different. IPA| [ɛ̃] and IPA| [ɔ̃] are pronounced as IPA| [ẽ] (or even IPA| [ĩ] ) and IPA| [õ] , whereas IPA| [ɑ̃] is fronted into IPA| [ã] . Also, nasal vowels under stress in a final closed syllable are long and may be diphthongized in colloquial speech.

One distinct pronunciation in Quebec French is the sound represented by the letter "IPA|A." The normal realization in final open syllable is IPA| [ɔ] , which is nowadays strongly marked as colloquial, with IPA| [ɑ] being seen as more socially elevated. Parisian IPA| [a] is often perceived as very formal. Word-internally, IPA| [aː] and IPA| [ɑː] often change into IPA| [ɑː] and IPA| [oː] respectively although this too is increasingly considered to be colloquial. These variations are also found in several European pronunciations.

Metropolitan French's IPA| [wa] (represented by ) can be IPA| [wa] , IPA| [wɑ] , or IPA| [wɑː] in formal Quebec French. It can also be realized in six additional different ways in less formal contexts, including IPA| [ɛ] found (exclusively) in "droit, froid," flexions of "noyer" and "croire," and "soit." These pronunciations are remnants from one of the founding French dialects.

Another informal archaic trait from 17th century Parisian popular French is the tendency to open IPA| [ɛ] into IPA| [æ] in a final open syllable. On the other hand, in grammatical word endings, as well as in the indicative forms of verb "être," the IPA| [ɛ] is tensed into IPA| [e] . This is also common in France, but the failure to tense the IPA| [ɛ] in Quebec is usually perceived as quite formal.

Diphthongization

Long and nasalized vowels are normally diphthongized when stressed. For instance "père" (father), IPA|/pɛr/, is IPA| [pɛːr] in France but IPA| [paer] in Quebec. Other cases include:

*IPA| [ɛ:] → IPA| [ae]
*IPA| [ø:] → IPA| [œy]
*IPA| [o:] → IPA| [ou]
*IPA| [ɑ:] → IPA| [au]
*IPA| [œ:] → IPA| [aœ]
*IPA| [ã] → IPA| [ɑ̃ũ]
*IPA| [ẽ] → IPA| [ẽĩ]
*IPA| [õ] → IPA| [õũ]
*IPA| [œ̃] → IPA| [œ̃ỹ]

Diphthongization is considered as marking less educated speech and avoided in more formal contexts. Diphthongization of IPA| [oː] and IPA| [øː] is unaffected by this stigma, however, and usually goes unnoticed by most speakers.

Phonological feminine

Metonymies provide interesting evidence of this. For instance, although most adults would probably say that "autobus" is masculine if they were given reflection time, specific bus routes defined by their number are always feminine. Bus No. 10 is known as "l'autobus 10," or more often "la 10." Using "le 10" in this context, although normal in France, would be strikingly odd in Quebec (especially Montréal), except in some regions, particularly the Outaouais, where it is the standard. (An alternative explanation for this, however, is that bus routes in Montréal are called "lines", and therefore "la 10" is short for "la ligne 10", and not "l'autobus 10", since it is the route being referred to, and not an individual bus.)

There are many differences in informal grammar: for instance, some words have a different gender than in standard French ("une job" rather than "un job"). This is partially systematic. For example, just as the difference in pronunciation between "chien" IPA|/ʃjɛ̃/ (masc.) and "chienne" IPA|/ʃjɛn/ (fem.) is the presence or absence of a final consonant, likewise ambiguous words ending in a consonant (such as "job" (IPA|/dʒab/)) are often assigned to the feminine. Also, vowel-initial words that in standard grammar are masculine, are sometimes patterned as feminine; since preceding masculine adjectives are homophonous to feminine adjectives ("un bel avion"; "bel" IPA|/bɛl/ = "belle" fem.), the word is patterned as feminine ("une belle avion"). Another explanation would be that all other words ending in "-ion" are feminine ("nation, élection, mission, etc"), and that the grammatical gender of "avion" is made to conform to this pattern.

Consonants

Around twelve different rhotics are used in Quebec, depending on region, age and education among other things. The uvular trill IPA| [ʀ] has lately been emerging as a nation-wide standard, whereas the alveolar trill IPA| [r] was used before in and around Montreal. The voiced fricative IPA| [ʁ] can also be heard among younger people. As a matter of comparison, the voiced velar fricative or voiceless uvular fricative IPA| [χ] is more generally used in France. There is a tendency to vocalize final IPA| [ʀ] into IPA| [w] or drop it altogether.

The velar nasal IPA| [ŋ] is often found as an allophone of the palatal nasal IPA| [ɲ] .

Dental stops are very often affricated before high front vowels and semivowels: in other words, IPA|/ty/, IPA|ti/, IPA|/dy/, IPA|/di/ are then pronounced IPA| [t͡sy] , IPA| [t͡si] , IPA| [d͡zy] , IPA| [d͡zi] . Depending on the speaker, the fricative may be more or less strong or sometimes even assimilate the stop in informal speech: IPA| [kõstɪtʏsjõ] → IPA| [kõst͡sɪt͡sʏsjõ] → IPA| [kõssɪsʏsjõ] .

In very informal speech, some final mute "t"'s will sometimes be pronounced: IPA| [li] → IPA| [lɪt] "(lit)." There is also the special case of "debout" and IPA| [ɪsɪt] , "ici" (sometimes actually written "icitte"). On the other hand, the "t" in "but" and "août" are not pronounced in Quebec but they are in France (albeit decreasingly for "but"). These often reflect centuries-old variation or constitute archaisms.

Many of the features of Quebec French are mistakenly attributed to English influence; however, the historical evidence shows that most of them either descend from earlier forms from specific dialects, forms that have since changed in France, or internal developments ("i.e.", changes that have occurred in Canada alone but not necessarily in all parts).

Consonant reduction

It has been postulated that the frequency of consonant reduction in Quebec French is due to a tendency to pronounce vowels with more "strength" than consonants, a pattern reversing that of European French.

Consonant clusters finishing a word are reduced, often losing altogether the last or two last consonants, in both formal and informal Quebec French. It seems that the liquids IPA|/ʀ/ and IPA|/l/ are especially likely to get dropped, as in "table," IPA| [tabl] → IPA| [tab] , or "astre," IPA| [astʀ] →IPA| [ast] → IPA| [as] .

The phone IPA|/l/ in article determiners and even more in personal pronouns in most dialects doesn't exist in the mental representation of these words. As a matter of fact, pronouncing "il" and "elle" as IPA| [ɪl] and IPA| [ɛl] is seen as very formal and by some pedantic. "Elle" is further modified into IPA| [aː] in informal speech, a sound change similar to that of IPA| [ɛ] into [a] before /r/.

In colloquial speech, the combination of the preposition "sur" + definite article is often abbreviated: "sur + le" = "su'l"; "sur + la" = "su'a" or "sà"; "sur + les" = "sès". Sometimes "dans" + "un" or "dans" + "les" is abbreviated to just "dins". In the informal French of France, "sur + le" also becomes "su'l", such as "L'dimanche, i'est su'l pont dès 8 heures du mat'" ("On Sundays, he's hard at work since 8am".). No other contractions are used.

Some initial consonants are also reduced: IPA| [ɰœl] "gueule" (France, IPA| [gœl] ), especially in the construction "ta gueule" IPA| [tæɰœl] , "shut up".

Combinatory phenomena

Vowel harmonization and consonant assimilation

The high front vowels in Quebec French show a net tendency to be unvoiced, as in "municipalité," IPA| [mʏnɪsɪpalɪte] → IPA| [mʏ̥nɪ̥sɪ̥palɪ̥te] (sometimes even noted IPA| [mnspalte] ). Interestingly, the unvoiced vowels are not immediately audible to native French speakers of other dialects, causing incomprehension.

Much more generalized (but only in Quebec and Ontario) is the nasalization of vowels placed after (or occasionally before) a nasal consonant: IPA| [mɛːm] → IPA| [mɛ̃ːm] , IPA| [nɛːʒ] → IPA| [nɛ̃ːʒ] .

Similarly, consonants in clusters are often assimilated, usually with the consonant closer to the stress (that is, to the end of the word) transmitting its phonation (or its nasalization): IPA| [dmãd] → IPA| [nmãd] . Progressive assimilation, although rare, also exists in very "strong" consonants such as IPA| [ʃ] , IPA| [ʃval] → IPA| [ʃfal] .

The drop of the IPA|/ə/, which is as usual in Quebec as it is in France (although it does not happen in the same places,) creates consonant clusters, hence making a ground for assimilation to happen. For instance, the 1st person singular pronoun "je" may be devoiced before a verb with a voiceless consonant initial. This is most notable in verbs normally beginning with an IPA| [s] , as the well-known example "je suis" ("I am") that is often realized as "chu" (IPA| [ʃy] ), or "je sais" ("I know"), realized as "ché" (IPA| [ʃe] ). Since the drop of IPA|/ə/ is not exclusive to Quebec, this phenomenon is also seen in other dialects.

One extreme instance of assimilation in Quebec French is vocalic fusion, associated with informal speech, rapid elocution, and consonant drops. Vocalic fusion can be total – as in prepositional determiners "sur la," IPA|/sʏʀla/ → IPA| [sʏa] → IPA| [saː] or "dans la," IPA|/dãla/ → IPA| [dãa] → IPA| [dãː] – or it can be partial, as in "il lui a dit," IPA|/ɪlɥiɑd͡zi/ → IPA| [iɥiɑd͡zi] → IPA| [ijɑd͡zi] . Partial fusion can happen also in slow elocution.

Linking ("liaison")

Linking ("liaison") is a phenomenon found in spoken French where an otherwise mute final consonant is moved to the beginning of a following word beginning with a vowel.

The rules for linking are complex in both standard and Quebec French. The general belief among linguistswho is that Quebecers link less frequently than their European counterparts (this is a feature also common in regional varieties of French in France). Linking is mandatory only if the first word is monosyllabic or is "petit" (normally monosyllabic anyway) or "méchant" and is usually avoided in all other cases.

Some frequent co-occurrences such as "ma tante" ("my aunt") have been reanalyzed as IPA|/ma matãt/, some say as a parallel to "maman." Another, more likely, explanation lies in the fact the words "ma tante" had been used in a very polite matter (not unlike English speakers would say "My lord") and subsequent generations slowly started using the new form. "Matante" is used as a noun without a possessive pronoun: "les matantes" etc. In the example of "mon mononcle" ("my uncle") we see the linking has been fossilized as well in IPA|/mõ mõnõkl/.

References

Bibliography

*citation
last=Dumas
first=Denis
year=1987
title=Nos Façons de Parler: les Prononciations en Français Québécois
publisher=
ISBN=2-7605-0445-X