Seetha Jayaraman

Phonetic Environment and F1-f2 Frequencies of French Oral Vowels: Acoustic Analysis of Oral Vowels in French Seetha Jayaraman

Acoustic Phonetic Analysis is an effective method of describing speech sounds. The importance of acquiring near-native pronunciation of the sounds in language learning/teaching is being increasingly emphasized and drawing the attention of researchers. Analysis of vowels and the pedagogical implications of acquisition of vowels in a multilingual setting is an interesting area of study. The present study investigates the formant frequencies of French oral vowels in different phonetic environments and quantifies the vowel articulation. Formant frequencies and the mean difference of F2- F1 values for oral vowels preceded and followed by different consonants viz., plosives, fricatives and nasals have been used as the parameters. Duration of the vowel segment was also taken as a supporting parameter. As a correlate of the vowel articulation, the formant transitions from/to the preceding/following consonant are also considered as an evidence of variation in articulation. The results of the analysis are found to be in line with those of earlier studies.