Schwa insertion and consonant cluster simplification in

French: An Analysis of Covariance

Peter Milne Université d’Ottawa

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The relationship between consonant cluster simplification and schwa insertion in French

Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

!2

Schwa as an alternative?

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"texte" /tɛkst/ [tɛks] [tɛkstә]?

"règle" /ʁɛglә/ [ʁɛg] [ʁɛglә]?

"reste" /ʁɛstә/ [ʁɛstә] [ʁɛstә]?

"notre" /nɔtʁ/ [nɔt] [nɔtʁә]?

Schwa insertion by Cluster simplification

!4

Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

FranceQuébec

Hypothesis of coincidence?

!5

Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

French

Hypothesis of parallelism?

!6

Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

FranceQuébec

Outline

!7

Background on schwa

and simplification

Outline

!8

Background on schwa

and simplification

Data

Outline

!9

Background on schwa

and simplification

Data

ANCOVA

Outline

!10

Background on schwa

and simplification

Data

ANCOVA

Next steps...

Outline

!11

Background on schwa

and simplification

Data

ANCOVA

Next steps...

Background: Schwa vs Simplification

1)“titres de gloire”

a)[tit dә glwaʁ] b)[titʁә dә glwaʁ]

2)“manifestent leur colère” a)[manifɛs lœʁ kɔlɛʁ] b)[manifɛstә lœʁ kɔlɛʁ]

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Background: Schwa or Simplification

Schwa

• The insertion of schwa at word-boundaries in French has been extensively studied (Grammont, 1961; Dell, 1985; Tranel, 1987; Picard, 1991; Dell, 1995; Ayres-Bennett and Carruthers, 2001; Côté, 2000, 2007; Eychenne, 2005).

• Eyechenne (2003), Kemp et al. (1980): Very little schwa in Québec vernacular; some instances of schwa following /ʁ, l/.

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Background: Schwa or SimplificationSimplification

• Laks (1977): /ʁ/ deletion patterns according to social, stylistic, and phonetic factors.

• Côté (2004a,b): Word-final consonant clusters are susceptible to deletion when the cluster contains either a rising sonority contour, or lacks crucial featural contrasts.

• Tranel (1987), Goad (2002): Overt release of word-final consonants in Continental French prevents simplification.

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Background: Schwa and Simplification Milne & Côté (2009)

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Ove

rall

rate

as

% o

f tot

als

0%

15%

30%

45%

60%

Simplification Schwa insertionQuébec France Québec France

40%

18% 20%

51%

Background: Schwa and Simplification Milne & Côté (2009)

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Québec

Stable5%

Simplify95%

France

Stable50%

Simplify50%

Background: Schwa and Simplification Milne & Côté (2009)

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Québec

Stable5%

Simplify95%

Hypothesized a possible relationship between cluster

simplification and schwa insertion: In cases where

simplification did not occur (for whatever reason),

schwa insertion was an alternative

Milne & Côté (2009): Possible sources of error

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Different styles of speech

Québec Political debate

More formal

France Conversational speech

Less formal

Milne & Côté (2009): Possible sources of error

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Different division of clusters

Québec "Simplify" = 16 clusters

/r, l/ + stops

France "Simplify" = 12 clusters Only /r, l/

Data Table

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2 Québec ('QF') France ('FR')

1 Assemblée nationale du Québec

Assemblée nationale de France

17.5 hrs 9 hrs 8.5 hrs

21 kst, kt, sk, st, bl, br, dr, fr, gl, kl, pl

pr, rdr, sm, tr, vr, ks, rl, rm, rn, rt

5428 2840 2588

Coding the data: Raw counts

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Cluster Dialect (a) Schwa

(b) Simplify

(c) Neither

br FR 138 72 15

rt FR 32 4 45

... FR

br QF 39 141 10

rt QF 17 9 91

... QF

Coding the data: Calculating rates

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Cluster Dialect (a) Schwa

(b) Simplify

(c) Neither

br FR 138 72 15

rt FR 32 4 45

... FR

br QF 39 141 10

rt QF 17 9 91

... QF

Simplification = b / (a + b + c)

Schwa = a / (a + c)

Coding the data: Calculating rates

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Cluster Dialect Schwa Simplify

br FR 0.902 0.32rt FR 0.416 0.049... FRbr QF 0.796 0.742rt QF 0.157 0.077... QF

Schwa = "How frequently was schwa inserted just in those cases where simplification did not happen?"

y = α + βx

H0: β = 0 = "schwa is not an alternative to simplification"

4 Possible Functions

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(a)Sc

hwa

Simplification(d)

Schw

a

Simplification

(b)

Schw

a

Simplification(c)

Schw

a

Simplification

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Ove

rall

rate

s

0%

12.5%

25%

37.5%

50%

Simplification Schwa insertionQuébec France Québec France

0%

18%

0%

43%

t(40)=3.268, p=0.002

Simplication[QF] > Simplification[FR]

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Ove

rall

rate

s

0%

15%

30%

45%

60%

Simplification Schwa insertionQuébec France Québec France

60%

18%

54%

43%

t(40)=3.268, p=0.002

Simplication[QF] > Simplification[FR]

ANCOVA

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Rate

of S

chw

a as

Alte

rnat

ive

Rate of Simplification

FranceQuébec

ANCOVA: Schwa on Simplification by Dialect

1.Y = β0 + β1 x + β2 z + β3 x×z

1.Y = rate of Schwa, x = rate of Simplification, z is a dummy variable defined by:

1.z = 1 if Dialect is FR, 0 if Dialect is QF

2.ŷ = 0.23431 + 0.71969x + 0.26673z - 0.13844x×z

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Hypothesis of coincidence

•Y = β0 + β1 x + β2 z + β3 x×z •H0: β2 = β3 = 0 •F(2,38) = 3.98668, p = 0.03 •H0 is rejected, the two lines are not coincident.

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df Sum Sq Mean Sq F value

Dialect 1 0.45575 0.45575 7.8324

Simplification 1 0.77249 0.77249 13.2756

Dialect:Simplification 1 0.00822 0.00822 0.1412

Residuals 38 2.21116 0.05819

Hypothesis of parallelism

•Y = β0 + β1 x + β2 z + β3 x×z •H0: β3 = 0 •F(1,38) = 0.1412, p = 0.71 •H0 is accepted. The two lines are parallel.

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df Sum Sq Mean Sq F value

Dialect 1 0.45575 0.45575 7.8324

Simplification 1 0.77249 0.77249 13.2756

Dialect:Simplification 1 0.00822 0.00822 0.1412

Residuals 38 2.21116 0.05819

• H0 is accepted. The two lines are parallel.

• France

• Y = (β0 + β2) + β1 x

• y = (0.23431 + 0.26673) + 0.71969x

• y = 0.50104 + 0.71969x

• Québec

• Y = β0 + β1 x

• y = 0.23431 + 0.71969x

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ANCOVA plot

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0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Reduction

Sch

wa

kst

kt

sk

st bl

b�

d�

f�

gl

kl

pl

p��d�

sm t�

v�

ks�l

�m

�n

�t

kst

kt

sk

st

bl

b�

d�

f�

gl kl pl

p�

�d�

smt�

v�

ks

�l

�m

�n

�t

Possible effect of style in France?

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Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

More formalLess formal

Possible effect of style in Québec?

!34

Rate

of S

chw

a In

serti

on

Rate of Simplification

QuébecLess formal?

Ayres-Bennett, W. and Carruthers, J. (2001). Schwa: a maverick vowel. In Problems and perspectives: studies in the modern French language, chapter 3. Harlow: Pearson Ed.

Côté, M-H. (2000). Consonant cluster phonotactics: a perceptual approach. PhD thesis, MIT. Chapter 2.

Côté, M-H. (2004a). Consonant cluster simplification in Québec French. PROBUS, 16:151-201.

Côté, M-H. (2004b). Syntagmatic distinctness in consonant deletion. Phonology 21:1-41.

Côté, M-H. (2007). Rhythmic constraints on the distribution of schwa in French. In Camacho, J., FloresFerrn, N., Sanchez, L., Duprez, V., and Cabrera, M., editors, Romance linguistics 2006. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

Dell, F. (1985). Les règles et les son. Introduction à la phonologie générative. Hermann, Paris.

Dell, F. (1995). Consonant clusters and phonological syllables in French. Lingua, 95:5-26.

Eychenne, J. (2003). La phonologie du français au Québec et le statut du e-caduc. In Durand, J., Laks, B., and Lyche, C., editors, la prononciation du français, vol 33, pp72-77. Tribune internationale des langues vivantes.

Eychenne, J. (2005). The emergence of prosodic schwa in French: a typological approach. In Bilbao-Deusto Student Conference of Linguistics, Bilbao.

Goad, H. (2002). Markedness in rightedge syllabification: parallels across populations. Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 47:151-186

Grammont, M. (1961). La prononciation française: traité pratique. Delagrave, Paris.

Hayes, B.P. (1997). Gradient well-formedness in optimality theory. In Dekkens, J., van der Leeuw, F., and van de Weijer, J., editors, The Pointing Finger: Conceptual Studies in Optimality Theory. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Kemp, W., Pupier, P., and Yaeger, M. (1980). A linguistic and social description of final consonant cluster simplification in Montréal french. In Shuy, R. And Shnukal A., editors, lLanguages and the uses of language, pp 12-40. Georgetown University Press, Washington.

Laks, B. (1977). Contribution empirique a l'analyse socio-différentielle de la chute de /r/ dans les groupes consonantiques finals. Langue française, 34:109-125.

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Lyche, C. (1979). French schwa deletion in natural generative phonology. Journal of Linguistics, 2:91-111.

Milne, P.M. and Côté M.-H. (2009). Les relations France-Québec: insertion de schwa vs réduction des groupes consonantiques. In Réunion 2009, Paris, France. Phonologie Français Contemporain.

Picard, M. (1991). The sounds of French: An introduction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

van Oostendorp, M. (1997). Style levels in conflict resolution. In Hinskens, F., van Hout, R., and Wetzels, W.L., editors, Variation, change and phonological theory, pp 207-229. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Philadelphia.

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http://aix2.uottawa.ca/~pmiln099/

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