En France, les nuances qui distinguent les nasales sont de plus en plus subtiles. IN ressemble de plus en plus à AN et AN s'approche du ON. Quant à UN, il tend à se confondre avec IN. Le véritable son UN pourrait bien disparaître d'ici quelques décennies. Il faut sortir de l'Hexagone pour entendre des nasales vraiment distinctes. Dommage...
Bonjour, je suis mexicain et j'ai beaucoup de difficultés avec la pronociation des voyelles nasales, mais spécialement avec celle-ci. Le première prof de français que j'ai eu était haïtien et la façon dont il prononçait ce son était différent et je me suis habitué a le prononcer comme lui, puis j'ai eu aussi des profs canadiens et du sud de la France. Devrais-je changer ma prononciation de cette voyelle pour le faire comme vous? Ou c'est correcte comme je le fais?
@cucarachon Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire ! En fait, il existe plusieurs communautés linguistiques où cette voyelle se prononce différemment. Si vous faites votre formation en français "standard", vous aurez un registre qui peut s'employer partout. Vous pourriez ensuite adopter les habitudes articulatoires de la communauté linguistique que vous préférez.
@Lubrem Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire! Both of those are cases where liaisons are "forbidden" (liaisons interdites): (1) with few exceptions, liaisons are never made between a singular noun and the following adjective; (2) normally, there is no liaison after a noun phrase that acts as subject of the following verb, especially when an adjective ending in a nasal vowel occurs in front of the verb. Bonne continuation!
You said that an English speaker could taken a model of this nasal sound from the word "can". But then, as far as I'm concerned, the word can is pronounced /kæn/; so I think the nasal sound demonstrated in this video must be /æ̃/ instead of /ɛ̃/. Could you explain it to me?
@akumaunonton Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire! You are correct that the sound I produce in these Standard French videos is like an /æ̃/, but the traditional written representation is /ɛ̃/. The /æ/ is not part of the phonetic representation for modern French, whereas the /ɛ/ is the closest French vowel. For pedagogical purposes, I find that the use of /æ̃/ makes it much easier for students to produce a good sound for /ɛ̃/ if imitation is not sufficient.
@gilsonbicudo Bonjour! Thank you for requesting clarification for the articulation of /ɛ̃/. In fact, for French nasal vowels the relative height of articulation is often less important than other factors. The nasalized "e" in the English word "friend" can certainly be an approximate representation of the French /ɛ̃/, and I may even use it occasionally. Although variations in vowel production exist in both languages, my pedagogical results are better when I use an approximation of /æ̃/.
@frenchsounds ThanX for such a kind answer. "IMportant", "chiEN", etc pronounced as a /æ̃/ would sound a bit Québecois for me. Is this perception correct? I also have the impression that more open or more closed nasal vowel articulation in French has a lot to do with the speaker's regional accent. The Parisien pronunciation always sound kinda closer to me. Do I get the correct idea?
@gilsonbicudo Oui, vous avez raison. The relative height of the nasal vowel depends in large part on regional variations. I agree that most Parisian speakers currently use a more closed position for /ɛ̃/, whereas in Caen, for example, one of my subscribers commented earlier on hearing a more open variation than the one I teach. As for Québécois usage, many variations exist as well. You might find the /æ̃/ pronunciation, but you can also hear a more closed version that is diphthongized.
@frenchsounds I just wanted to thank you for clarifying this. Many times I heard French speaker say words like "bien" and the nasal vowel sounded closer to /æ̃/ than to /ɛ̃/, but unfortunately this fact is not mention in any book, forum or article that I've read so far.
En France, les nuances qui distinguent les nasales sont de plus en plus subtiles. IN ressemble de plus en plus à AN et AN s'approche du ON. Quant à UN, il tend à se confondre avec IN. Le véritable son UN pourrait bien disparaître d'ici quelques décennies. Il faut sortir de l'Hexagone pour entendre des nasales vraiment distinctes. Dommage...
zzzut 2 months ago
@zzzut Merci pour ces précisions. Le français est une langue bien vivante et en pleine évolution, surtout dans la région parisienne !
frenchsounds 2 months ago
@frenchsounds Heureusement que les langues évoluent. Sinon, nous parlerions encore latin! :)
zzzut 2 months ago
Bonjour, je suis mexicain et j'ai beaucoup de difficultés avec la pronociation des voyelles nasales, mais spécialement avec celle-ci. Le première prof de français que j'ai eu était haïtien et la façon dont il prononçait ce son était différent et je me suis habitué a le prononcer comme lui, puis j'ai eu aussi des profs canadiens et du sud de la France. Devrais-je changer ma prononciation de cette voyelle pour le faire comme vous? Ou c'est correcte comme je le fais?
cucarachon 2 months ago
@cucarachon Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire ! En fait, il existe plusieurs communautés linguistiques où cette voyelle se prononce différemment. Si vous faites votre formation en français "standard", vous aurez un registre qui peut s'employer partout. Vous pourriez ensuite adopter les habitudes articulatoires de la communauté linguistique que vous préférez.
frenchsounds 2 months ago
Un grand merci! Chiara from Italy :-)
ChiJoix 2 months ago
Is there a liaison in the phrase?
Ce fin vin_italien_intéresse Saint-Martin
vanitaliananteres? something like that?
Lubrem 6 months ago
@Lubrem Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire! Both of those are cases where liaisons are "forbidden" (liaisons interdites): (1) with few exceptions, liaisons are never made between a singular noun and the following adjective; (2) normally, there is no liaison after a noun phrase that acts as subject of the following verb, especially when an adjective ending in a nasal vowel occurs in front of the verb. Bonne continuation!
frenchsounds 6 months ago
@Lubrem no liaison im french
ThePonpon78 3 months ago
Bonjour Madame,
I have one question regarding this nasal vowel.
You said that an English speaker could taken a model of this nasal sound from the word "can". But then, as far as I'm concerned, the word can is pronounced /kæn/; so I think the nasal sound demonstrated in this video must be /æ̃/ instead of /ɛ̃/. Could you explain it to me?
Merci beaucoup ! :)
akumaunonton 9 months ago
@akumaunonton Bonjour et merci de votre commentaire! You are correct that the sound I produce in these Standard French videos is like an /æ̃/, but the traditional written representation is /ɛ̃/. The /æ/ is not part of the phonetic representation for modern French, whereas the /ɛ/ is the closest French vowel. For pedagogical purposes, I find that the use of /æ̃/ makes it much easier for students to produce a good sound for /ɛ̃/ if imitation is not sufficient.
frenchsounds 9 months ago
@frenchsounds Isn't the sound /e/, as in bEd, frIEnd, brEAd, dEAd, etc. make a closer representation?
gilsonbicudo 9 months ago
@gilsonbicudo Bonjour! Thank you for requesting clarification for the articulation of /ɛ̃/. In fact, for French nasal vowels the relative height of articulation is often less important than other factors. The nasalized "e" in the English word "friend" can certainly be an approximate representation of the French /ɛ̃/, and I may even use it occasionally. Although variations in vowel production exist in both languages, my pedagogical results are better when I use an approximation of /æ̃/.
frenchsounds 9 months ago
@frenchsounds ThanX for such a kind answer. "IMportant", "chiEN", etc pronounced as a /æ̃/ would sound a bit Québecois for me. Is this perception correct? I also have the impression that more open or more closed nasal vowel articulation in French has a lot to do with the speaker's regional accent. The Parisien pronunciation always sound kinda closer to me. Do I get the correct idea?
gilsonbicudo 9 months ago
@gilsonbicudo Oui, vous avez raison. The relative height of the nasal vowel depends in large part on regional variations. I agree that most Parisian speakers currently use a more closed position for /ɛ̃/, whereas in Caen, for example, one of my subscribers commented earlier on hearing a more open variation than the one I teach. As for Québécois usage, many variations exist as well. You might find the /æ̃/ pronunciation, but you can also hear a more closed version that is diphthongized.
frenchsounds 9 months ago
@frenchsounds I just wanted to thank you for clarifying this. Many times I heard French speaker say words like "bien" and the nasal vowel sounded closer to /æ̃/ than to /ɛ̃/, but unfortunately this fact is not mention in any book, forum or article that I've read so far.
jefflunar 8 months ago
@jefflunar Most Brazilians perceive it as /ɐ̃/ and think that French sounds "in" and "an" are pronounced in the same way.
leolucas1980 2 months ago
@akumaunonton It's closer to the sound cAN't in the US accent
frenchmotorbike 8 months ago
Thank you for this posting. I was having a hard time distinguishing the different nasal sounds and this has been a tremendous help.
Bdgreat1 1 year ago
Could someone (else) post a video on pronunciation of Polish nasals?
Myrtone 1 year ago