French–English

The overlay of the native phonemes onto the target English inventory gives us the following picture:

French consonants that are not relevant for the discussion are /ɲ, ɥ/.

Missing target phonemes include the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ (which are rendered as [s] and [z] respectively, giving rise to mispronunciations such as think [sɪŋk], that [zæt]) and affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ (which are rendered as [ʃ] and [ʒ] respectively). The status of /ŋ/ is different in that while it does not occur in native French words, one does find it in final position in borrowed words.

Allophonic differences may be observed in /p, t, k/ regarding aspiration. As in other Romance languages, voiceless stops are unaspirated in French, leading to mispronunciations of English targets.

Salient phonetic differences belong, once again, to the realm of liquids. The lateral in French is always ‘clear’, and the non-lateral is either an alveolar trill, /r/, or the uvular fricative/approximant, /ʁ/, and these are consistently used to substitute for the English liquid targets. The sounds /t, d/ present minor phonetic differences, as these are dental in French.

The mismatches and the under-differentiations regarding the target vowel contrasts are highlighted in the following diagram:

French vowels that are not relevant are /y, ø, œ/ and the nasal vowels / ε͂, ɑ͂, ɔ͂, œ͂/.

The syllable structure of French, which can be described as (C) (C) V (C) (C), allows a maximum of double onsets and codas. In addition, the combinations allowed by these double onsets (basically, C₁ = /f, v/ or stop, C₂ = liquid), and codas (basically C₁ = liquid, C₂ = stop) are more limited than those of English. Thus, some problems are expected in these mismatches.

Although French is classified as a syllable-timed language, it does not have the typical ‘staccato’ (or ‘machine-gun’) rhythm, and has reduced vowels.

Despite this, the rhythm is quite different than that of English. In an English rhythm group, the first syllable is stressed and its pitch is higher than the other unstressed syllables. In French, on the other hand, the final syllable of each rhythmic group is lengthened and its pitch is leveled to half way before it is lowered. Thus, learners have considerable problems with English stress and rhythm.

The following summarizes the major trouble spots:

• missing target phonemes: / θ, ð, ʧ, ʤ, (ŋ)/;

• aspiration;

• salient phonetic differences: liquids;

• certain onset and coda clusters;

• insufficient separation of several target vowel contrasts;

• stress;

• rhythm.