Louisiana French/Pronunciation

[Note: Further additions and modifications to this page are in the works.]

Pronouncing Louisiana French correctly is often challenging for a beginner. The dialect has several sounds that are not found in English, and it takes time to learn how to differentiate these sounds from one another and to produce them effectively and consistently. This chapter aims to set you on the right track, though it cannot possibly cover everything. Louisiana French pronunciation is too nuanced and various to be fully explained so succinctly. We will try to cover the basics, but those with the best pronunciation practice often, and, crucially, listen carefully to the speech of native speakers to improve their accent and phonetic comprehension.

This chapter, like the rest of this book, uses the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent the sounds of Louisiana French. This has a few advantages. Firstly, in principle, each letter of the IPA is written and pronounced the same way each time. There is no need to learn complex spelling rules once you recognize the symbols. Secondly, the IPA is widely used among language enthusiasts, and so many people will already be familiar with it. Thirdly, our other options have issues. Rewriting words phonetically according to French spelling is only helpful if you already know French spelling, and English transliterations (though initially convenient) are less useful in representing sounds that are foreign to English. However, for your reference, we will relate these IPA symbols to both French and English words as best as possible. Though it is always best to listen to and imitate native speakers rather than trusting a phonetic transcription or approximation.

The following tables were largely adapted from Valdman's Dictionary of Louisiana French (2010):

Semiconsonants, or semivowels, are sounds that are phonetically similar to a vowel sound but function as syllable boundaries (rather than the nuclei) of syllables. What this means practically is that some letters and letter pairs that usually function as vowels (like u, i, and ou) may also function as consonants. A great example is the word ouaouaron ("bullfrog"), which is not pronounced /uauarɔ̃/ but /wawarɔ̃/, and that bears out in the alternative spelling wawaron. In other words, the letter pair ou /u/ is read as w /w/ when in a consonant position. The same goes for i (as a vowel: /i/; as a consonant: /j/) and u (as a vowel: /y/; as a consonant: /ɥ/).

Oral vowels are those vowels that are not nasalized.

Diphthongs (combinations of two adjacent vowel sound in the same syllable) are not native to French: pure vowels are preferred. However, the following diphthongs can be found in English borrowings.

Nasal vowels are integral to French pronunciation. Physiologically, a nasal vowel is produced by lowering the soft palate so that airflow escapes through the nose and mouth simultaneously. English actually has nasalized vowels, though we do not tend to think of them in the same way. Take for example the English words "sat" and "sang". If you hold you nose and say "sat" aloud, you should hear little or no sound pass through your nose. If you do the same for "sang", you should hear a lot more noise (trying to) pass through your nasal cavity. This is what makes a nasal vowel "nasal" ("nose-related"). Whereas nasal vowels in English are merely considered different realizations of the same sound/letter (in this case, "a"), Louisiana French nasal vowels are considered sounds in their own right.^{[note 2]}

Because Louisiana French's nasal vowels are not used in English, you will need to study these carefully. Listen to native speakers' pronunciations and do your best to repeat after them as closely as possible. Even if, after practicing, you cannot match their speech exactly, at least ensure that you are differentiating them. One nasal vowel could be the difference between the words banc /bɑ̃/ ("bench"), bon /bɔ̃/ ("good"), or bain /bɛ̃/ ("bath").

• (International) French spelling to sound correspondences