French Phonetics and Phonology

Catalog description

The course provides the student with a broad introduction to the linguistic analysis of the French sound system, addressing the difference between French phones (phonetic realizations) and phonemes distinctive units. Topics covered in this course are: articulatory phonetics, IPA transcription, phonological rules, register effects and literary pronunciations, syllabic and metrical structure, liaison, intonation, and prosody, as well as the relationship between orthography and speech (with occasional reference to dialectal variation and historical changes in the language). Mastery of the linguistic phenomena under study is developed through written homework exercises and tested regularly by means of written quizzes and exams.