Re: Schwa in French (Re: non-phonetic english spelling)

From: Ruud Harmsen (realemailseesite01_at_rudhar.com.invalid)
Date: 12/24/04 

Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 01:15:09 +0100

Fri, 24 Dec 2004 09:26:53 +1000: Jacques Guy <jguy@alphalink.com.au>:
in sci.lang:

>Ruud Harmsen wrote:
>
>> OK. So if a French person reads a telephone number with a 5 in the
>> units somewhere, really slowly and carefully to avoid any
>> misunderstanding, perhaps over the telephone, what is the last sound
>> in cinq? A [k] or a [@]? And what about the 6? Doesn't it at all sound
>> just a little bit like "sisse"? It does, doesn't it? Same with dix =
>> disse.
>
>I tried the "cinq", ended with an ejective [k'] followed
>by about the same vowel as in Chinese "four" (which I
>leave you to figure out as an exercise) and then, only
>then, realised that I had been taken for a ride.

You haven't, not by me, I'm completely serious in this.

>"To
>avoid any misunderstanding" with what? Cinq with...
>six? with cent? with vingt?

Je ne sais pas, la seul chose que je fais est raconter ce que j'ai
entendu pendant des longues voyages sur les autoroutes, quand il n'y
avait aucun autres radios que lesquels en français.

>Ça encore, ça ne tient pas
>debout and the situation does not arise.

C'est possible, mais c'est ce que je me souviens avoir entendu. De
"aveque" je suis 100% sûre.

>Observations
>that you prise out of informants by insisting on answers
>for situations that not arise are worthless. Oh yes,
>they sometimes teach you to do it.
>I was taught this
>nonsense and it took me almost a year of fieldwork
>to see that it was nonsense.

I have had French lessons only between 1965 and 1971, and never
afterwards. And pronunciation was hardly ever an issue in those
lessons at all.
Everything else I know is by listening, later on. I've heard quite
some speakers from the South, but the ones I'm referring to now
certainly didn't have a Southern accent. 

-- 
Ruud Harmsen - http://rudhar.com/

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