French and the Phonetic Alphabet Week 5 French and the Phonetic Alphabet Antonio Tilli
French pronunciation is represented by a relatively small number of IPA characters, so in order to transcribe French phonetically, you just need to memorize those. French IPA symbols can be divided into four categories: Consonants Vowels Nasal Vowels Semi-Vowels
Consonants chart
Consonants ipa symbol /k/ for spelling such as C CH CK K QU café - sucre psychologie Franck ski quinze
/ʃ/ CH SH chaud - anchois short
/f/ F PH février - neuf pharmacie
/ʒ/ G J gèle - aubergine jaune - déjeuner
/ŋ/ GN agneau - baignoire
/ ʁ / simplified R rouge NB The French rhotic has a wide range of realizations: the uvular fricatives [χ] and [ʁ] (the latter also realized as an approximant), the uvular trill [ʀ], the alveolar trill [r], and the alveolar tap [ɾ]. These are all recognized as the phoneme /r/, but all except [ʁ] and [χ] are considered dialectal. [ʁ] is the standard consonant. Always check with native speakers and/or modification for lyric diction.
/s/ C Ç S SC SS TI X ceinture caleçon sucre sciences poisson attention soixante
/t/ D T TH quand on (only in liaisons) tomate théâtre
/z/ S X Z visage - ils ont deux enfants (only in liaisons) zizanie
Vowels There are 12 IPA symbols used to transcribe French vowel sounds in French, not including nasal vowels and semi-vowels.
Vowels chart Front Central Back unrounded rounded Close oral i y u Front Central Back unrounded rounded Close oral i y u Close-mid e ø ə o Open-mid ɛ (ɛː) œ ɔ nasal ɛ̃ (œ̃) ɔ̃ Open ɑ̃ a (ɑ)
/a/ A ami – quatre /ɑ/* Â AS pâtes bas *point of articulation is further back compared to /a/. Always check with native speakers for the most accurate rendition of the sound.
/e/ AI É ES EI ER EZ (je) parlerai été c'est peiner frapper vous avez
[ɛ] È Ê E AI EI exprès tête barrette (je) parlerais treize
[ɘ] E le - samedi (E silent or muet)
/ œ / EU ŒU professeur œuf - sœur / ø / EU ŒU bleu œufs
[i] I Y dix stylo
/o/ O Ô AU EAU dos - rose à bientôt chaud beau /ɔ/ O bottes - bol
[u] OU douze – nous [y] U Û sucre - tu bûcheur (hard workinɡ)
Nasal vowels French has four different nasal vowels. The IPA symbol for a nasal vowel is ~ ( tilde) over the corresponding oral vowel The ɡrapheme ~ is also referred to as squiggly or squiggle.
/ã / AN AM EN EM banque chambre enchanté embouteillage
/ɛ̃/ IN IM YM cinq impatient sympa
/ɔ̃/ ON OM bonbons comble /œ̃/ UN UM un - lundi parfum
Semivowels French has three semi-vowels (sometimes called semi-consonnes in French): sounds created by the partial obstruction of air through the throat and mouth.
/j/ I L LL Y adieu œil fille
/ɥ/ U nuit - fruit
[w] OI OU W boire ouest Wallon (mainly foreign words)
What is the sound? Ɛ
Ʒ
w
ã
what’s the word? [aɲo]
[fːɔʁmidabl]
can you guess the spelling? [lu]
Loup wolf
What is the word? unvoiced post alveolar fricative oral open back vowel unvoiced dental alveolar (or dental stop) close-mid oral back vowel
château [ʃɑ’to] castle