The Phonetic Status of the French A-Vowels.

OVER TWENTY YEARS AGO AN ARTICLE IN THIS REVIEW discussed the ambiguous status of the French A-phonemes. Pierre Delattre in La Question des deux 'a' en frangais' in effect described the weak linguistic function of the vowel traditionally called a posterieur. Now there is new information on the current phonetic state of this vowel which differs somewhat from the expectations drawn from past descriptions. In addition to the practical interest in studying these sounds for pedagogical reasons, the A-vowels in themselves are interesting phenomena. Perhaps no two other phonemes in the traditional French inventory are so subtly differentiated acoustically, articulatorily and perceptually. In terms of absolute values, used to measure and compare them, the differences are small. Yet Parisians are able to identify these sounds. This ability to detect subtle differences points to a perceptual language model which is based on the principle of comparison; rather than recognizing speech bits according to absolute values, we must identify these segments relatively, one point in relation to another. These Parisian A-vowels are also interesting from a sociological perspective. The shade of difference which distinguishes the two vowels and the infrequent occurrence of posterior A render this latter vowel prestigious. Its rarity and subtlety are two probable factors which identify the articulator of this A-vowel as belonging to the Parisian upper-middle class.