The Neutralization of /ε/-/œ/ in French

Abstract

Abstract This article, the seventh in a series of statistical analyses of a surreptitiously recorded corpus representing 50 half-hour conversations with cultivated middle-class Parisians, deals with the acoustic and articulatory parameters of the present-day product of the neutralization of the former /ε/-/œ/ opposition. A variety of techniques are used to study the question (the measurement of spectrograms, a synthetic speech experiment and high-speed full-face and profile motion pictures). The pronunciation patterns of a representative group of speakers show that the change is now consummated on that level, but that preference patterns are somewhat more conservative. It is furthermore demonstrated that the phenomenon has not developed through the gradual abandonment of /œ/ in favor of /ε/ but rather by a rapprochement of the features of both, with the resulting loss of distinctive lip position.