Talk:French phonology

In French, voiced consonants are voiced!

It says that "Generally, /b, d, ɡ/ are voiced throughout". But aren't those sounds already voiced by definition? Voiced bilabial, alveolar and velar plosives. Or is it that sometimes, in some languages, voiced consonants are not voiced throughout the whole articulation? I tried to read the reference but I didn't find anything about this there. --Importantinformationfromme (talk) 15:25, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

English /b d g/ are often not fully voiced. This is described in Received pronunciation (Phonology) RoachPeter (talk) 15:38, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Calling pairs like French or English b/p, d/t, g/k "voiced/voiceless" is usually a misnomer (to a different degree in different languages, cf. the previous comment). If this was the only difference, you couldn't tell them apart while whispering. Nowadays they're usually described as "lenis/fortis" 213.134.172.126 (talk) 19:30, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

A few questions

• In current pronunciation, /ɲ/ is merging with /nj/. Does it include the word-final position? If so, what is /j/ realized like there? [ʝ], [ç]?
• The elided form of the object pronoun l' ('him/her/it') is also realised as a geminate [ll] when it appears after another l to avoid misunderstanding – why "to avoid misunderstanding"? It's the regular pronunciation for this spelling.

213.134.172.126 (talk) 20:16, 3 December 2024 (UTC)

/t/ unaspirated?

At least in Parisian French, it often strikes me as markedly aspirated, particularly before /y/ (possibly with slight palatalization, as in tu [tʰʲy] 'you'). Is that a new trend? Sol505000 (talk) 20:53, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

/ɛ̃/-centralization

In some European speakers, I'm having a very hard time telling /ɛ̃/ and /ɑ̃/ apart (unless I know the spelling already). The first one seems to be realized as closer to [ɐ̃] than [æ̃], with considerable centralization. Do we have a source for that? Sol505000 (talk) 13:40, 4 June 2026 (UTC)