Les voyelles nasales en français du québec

Abstract

RéSUMé This article summarizes but a segment of long term ongoing research on the phonological system of French from Quebec. The particular point discussed here concerns the nasal vowels, namely / /, / /, / / and / /. In order to assess the present day situation concerning these phonemes, a detailed phonological and phonetical survey (generating 4,240 vowels) was conducted on a population of 40 students attending Laval University in Quebec City. Four different kinds of analyses were conducted : a study of the functional load of the phonemes on the basis of their occurrences in free speaking interviews ; an examination of the relationship between speaker behaviour and speaker attitude ; a statistical analysis, using a variationist model, establishing the relative weight of 13 functional and structural variables on the catalysis of particular changes (diphthongization, closure, and fronting) occurring in this vocalic sub-system ; and finally, an acoustic description of the main phonetic variants of these phonemes of Quebec French, principally in terms of their duration and formantic structure.