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The Effect of Linguistic and Paralinguistic Variables on the Elision of the French Mute-e
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1976
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FrenchSpeech SciencesMultilingualismFrench Mute-eSpeech ArticulationSpeech ScienceLanguage VariationParalinguistic VariablesSpoken FrenchPhonologyInternal SpeechPhoneticsProsody (Film Studies)Language StudiesAcoustic AnalysisHealth SciencesSpeech ProductionProsody (Linguistics)Speech AcousticSpeech CommunicationBilingual PhonologyConservative TendenciesContiguous SyllablesPhonology MorphologySpeech AcousticsEighth ReportLanguage ScienceRomance LanguagesParalinguisticsSpeech PerceptionLinguistics
Elision of the French mute‑e varies with phonetic and paralinguistic context, a topic previously explored in the Paris Project. The authors aim to analyze the frequency of mute‑e elision among 10,891 instances in natural conversation, assessing phonetic and paralinguistic influences. The analysis includes separate examinations of coupled liquid‑mute‑e elision (e.g., I’autre jour /lot<sub>3</sub>ur/ and pane que /paskÓ™/) and the frequency of the hesitation vowel euh across three demographic categories. The study found new details that modify traditional mute‑e elision rules and revealed that speakers aged 30–59 are most diachronically advanced, whereas younger and older groups show conservative tendencies.
Abstract This eighth report on the ‘Paris Project’ deals with a computer-assisted analysis of the frequency of elision among 10,891 mute-e’s in natural conversations as a function of phonetic context (number and nature of consonants contiguous to the /Ó™/, position in utterance, presence of other mute-e’s in contiguous syllables) and selected paralinguistic factors (sex, age, occupation, loudness, articulatory intensity, syllabic rate, degree of formality, attitude and posture vis-à-vis interlocutor, and subject matter). A separate analysis is made for coupled liquid and mute-e elision in cases such as I’autre jour /lot<sub>3</sub>ur/ and pane que /paskÓ™/. Finally, the frequency of occurrence of the hesitation vowel euh is calculated in the three demographic categories indicated above. The results of the investigation reveal a number of new details and indicate some modifications in the traditional rules for its maintenance and elision. The paralinguistic correlates confirm an important discovery that is emerging from our long-range research, namely that in the dialect in question the most diachronically advanced speakers belong to the central age groups (30–59 years), the youngest (20–29) and the oldest (60–69) manifesting marked conservative tendencies.