Studies in French and Comparative Phonetics

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This work delves into various aspects of French phonetics, exploring its general characteristics and phonetic modes. It examines the instability of certain sounds, particularly the unstable "e" in monosyllables and its implications for liaison, including trends and classifications. The frequency and factors influencing optional liaison in French are discussed, alongside the nuances of accent, including final accents of intensity, height, and duration, as well as word and group accents. Intonation is analyzed through a comparative study involving Simone de Beauvoir's lessons and a cross-linguistic examination with American English and Spanish. The text also investigates the concepts of tenseness and laxness, vowel duration, and the relationships between vocalic duration, timbre, and syllabic structure. It addresses the articulation force of consonants and the conscious versus unconscious vowel duration, emphasizing the importance of vowel duration in teaching. Syllabication is scrutinized, questioning whether a word is a phonetic entity in French, and discussing trends in syllabic division and the treatment of silent "e." Historical phonetics are explored through stages of Old French phonetic changes and their reflection in modern Spanish, alongside contributions to the understanding of specific phonetic phenomena. Acoustic phonetics is also covered, focusing on the physiological interpretation of sound spectrograms, the acou