Variations in the realization of the French accentual phrase in the light of language contact

Abstract

In this paper we discuss French prosody in the light of language contact. Data of three contact varieties of French are compared with two varieties spoken in monolingual contexts. The data are semi-automatically processed, and three prosodic features are analyzed: metrical weight of the Accentual Phrases (AP), respect of AP formation constraints, and realizations of sandhi phenomena. Rhythmic constraints and speech rate measurements are also considered. Our findings suggest that the contact varieties share several features with word prosodic systems.