Quebec French Phonology - Vowels

Vowels

Quebec French replaces tense vowels with their lax equivalents when the vowels are both short (e.g. not before /ʁ/, /ʒ/, /z/ and /v/) and in a closed syllable. This means that the masculine and feminine adjectives petit and petite ( and in France) are and in Quebec. The same goes with /y/ → and /u/ → . In some areas, notably Beauce, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and (to a lesser extent) Quebec City and the surrounding region, even long tense vowels may be laxed.

This laxing of the high vowels /i/, /u/ and /y/, in the specified context is compulsory in stressed syllables, e.g. lutte, but it is optional in unstressed syllables, e.g., vulgaire can be or . The lax allophone of a high vowel may also appear in open syllables by assimilation to a lax vowel in a following syllable, e.g., musique can be either or . The lax vowel may even be retained in derived words where the original stressed lax vowel has disappeared, e.g. musical can be or . Also, the lax allophone may arise optionally in open syllables through dissimilation as in toupie or, especially in reduplicative forms such as pipi or . These phenomena are conditioned lexically and regionally. For example, for the word difficile, the expected pronunciation is found throughout Quebec, but the alternative pronunciation is characteristic of the Beauce region, while is characteristic of Montreal French.

Some speakers pronounce /ɛ/, /œ/, /ɔ/ as, before /ʁ/.

The nasal vowels are slightly different. /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/ are pronounced and, whereas /ɑ̃/ is fronted into . /œ̃/ may be pronounced or . Also, nasal vowels under stress in a final closed syllable are long and may be diphthongized in colloquial speech.

One distinct pronunciation in Quebec French is the sound represented by the letter A. The normal realization in final open syllable is, which is nowadays strongly marked as colloquial, with being seen as more socially elevated. Parisian is often perceived as very formal. Word-internally, and often change into and respectively although this too is increasingly considered to be colloquial. These variations are also found in several European pronunciations.

Metropolitan French's (represented by ) can be, or in standard Quebec French. It can also be realized in six additional different ways in less formal contexts, including found (exclusively) in droit, froid, flexions of noyer and croire, and soit. These pronunciations are remnants from one of the founding French dialects.

Another informal archaic trait from 17th century Parisian popular French is the tendency to open into in a final open syllable. On the other hand, in grammatical word endings, as well as in the indicative forms of verb être (es and est), the is tensed into . This is also common in France, but the failure to tense the in Quebec is usually perceived as quite formal.