A Linguistics Workbook, 4th Edition

Name

Section

3.9 Special Topic 3: Phonetic Variation (French Vowels)

Examine the following data from French and answer questions A-D. (Assume that

/e/ - /c/, /o/ - Is/, and /o/ - 131 form three pairs of allophones.)

French form English gloss

1. /bate/ beautk "beauty"


2. /bel/ belle "beautiful"


3. /PO/ Peu "small amount"


4. /pk/ peur "fear"


5. /mo/ mot "word"


6. /mx/ mort "death"

Questions

A. In what environment do /e/, /o/, and /o/ occur? (Hint: Look at syllable

structure.)

B. In what environment do /c/, /5/, and 131 occur? (Hint: Again, look at syllable

structure.)