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Variant pronunciation of the ending é

French translation: regional or not regional ?

17:31 Jan 12, 2004
French language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
French term or phrase: Variant pronunciation of the ending é
Since I had another question about pronunciation in French, i.e., Charm el Cheihk being pronounced finally with a jay as in Juan: I think I noticed especially when watching soccer matches that the perfect é ending is sometimes pronounced in a similar fashion, i.e., il a marqueje un but, etc.
Is this some sort of advanced pronunciation, regional, typical for sports announcers or is simply a bad speech habit?
Yngve Roennike
Local time: 12:08
Selected answer:regional or not regional ?
Explanation:
Maybe this is what you've heard:
I noticed over the last few years (and I'm not the only one who did ;O)) that french people (I'm french too...) especially from the west (I'm too and I've been told once or twice that I do it too...) tend to add a very light "e" (like english "a" in "a cat") after the ending "é". An example:
"il est arrivé" --> pronounced "il est arrivé(e)"
I think this happens especially when this word is the last one in the sentence.

People from southern France also do this. And I know a couple of sport journalists come from the south. Maybe you've heard one of them...
Selected response from:

Emmanuelle Riffault
Australia
Local time: 02:08
Grading comment
Bon, merci!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +5it could be southern France accent (accent du Midi)
jemo
4 +3regional or not regional ?
Emmanuelle Riffault
5 +1é is é, period!
sarahl (X)
2 +3Bad speech habit i'm afraid
Xiaren
4ci-dessous
lien


Discussion entries: 3





  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Variant pronunciation of the ending é
ci-dessous


Explanation:
il y a deux sortes de é en francais : le é fermé et le è ouvert.
Cela aussi comprend les ai, er.
Mais la prononciation varie avec l'accent local.

lien
Netherlands
Local time: 17:08
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 8
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13 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
Variant pronunciation of the ending é
regional or not regional ?


Explanation:
Maybe this is what you've heard:
I noticed over the last few years (and I'm not the only one who did ;O)) that french people (I'm french too...) especially from the west (I'm too and I've been told once or twice that I do it too...) tend to add a very light "e" (like english "a" in "a cat") after the ending "é". An example:
"il est arrivé" --> pronounced "il est arrivé(e)"
I think this happens especially when this word is the last one in the sentence.

People from southern France also do this. And I know a couple of sport journalists come from the south. Maybe you've heard one of them...

Emmanuelle Riffault
Australia
Local time: 02:08
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 88
Grading comment
Bon, merci!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  co.libri (X): T'es d'où exactement, Emmanuelle?
58 mins
  -> T'es bien curieuse, ma p'tite Hélène ;O)

agree  Florence Bremond: Je vois bien ce que tu veux dire...j'ai devant moi un dictionnaire du poitevin-saintongeais où la chose est orthographiée "àie" (ex : marée = maràie)- depuis que j'ai acheté ce dico je comprends enfin mes voisins ;-)
3 hrs
  -> Ah, ah ! Et là d'où je viens, ce n'est pas bien loin ;O) (Ça va faire plaisir à Hélène ;O)...) Bonsoir !

agree  Jérôme Haushalter: Ah d'accord, alors Alain Madelin parle poitevin! ;-) Je crois que je vois ce que tu veux dire!
14 hrs
  -> ;O)

agree  Lucie Brione: Il me semble bien que je le fais ou faisais aussi. Un non-francophone a une fois répété mon prénom "Lucish" !
18 hrs
  -> Pareil !! Ça m'est arrivé aussi que des personnes qui n'avaient aucune connaissance en fcs entendent et répètent également ce son en fin de mot que je n'avais pas l'impression d'avoir prononcé ;O)

neutral  Jean-Luc Dumont: sceptique - régionalismme français serait la prononciation en é plus ou moins ouvert voire è - marqué -r- un but - ça fait plutôt accent belge une fois
1 day 12 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
é is é, period!


Explanation:
the people commenting a soccer game can get excited sometimes, or they can be holding the microphone too close to their mouths. Or they could be freezing if they're outside and it's very cold and windy. There could be a million explanations to what you heard but the fact remains that é is é anywhere and everywhere!

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Note added at 2004-01-13 00:03:57 (GMT)
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Besides, Thierry and Jean-Michel are not exactly linguists!

sarahl (X)
Local time: 09:08
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 38

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Shog Imas
4 hrs
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4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +5
Variant pronunciation of the ending é
it could be southern France accent (accent du Midi)


Explanation:
no such a thing in "advanced pronunciation" or sports

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Note added at 14 mins (2004-01-12 17:46:02 GMT)
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explanation:

Dans le Midi, le débit, la vitesse à laquelle les gens parlent, tend à être plus rapide. Donc les mots tendent à être davantage liés les uns aux autres. (Allez à Marseille et demandez votre chemin et il faudra souvent tendre l\'oreille et/ou faire répéter pour comprendre).
C\'est d\'autant plus vrai chez les commentateurs sportifs qui doivent suivre l\'action rapide se déroulant sur le terrain. Donc les mots ne sont pas toujours bien détachés. La conjonction du \"é\" à la fin de marqué et du \"un\" de \"un but\" peut alors s\'entendre de la façon évoqué.
Un débit rapide, tel celui des commentateurs sportifs\" peut aussi amener à faire des fautes de prononciations (penser marquer au lieu de marqué\" et faire la liasion \"marquerunbut\")

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Note added at 16 mins (2004-01-12 17:47:36 GMT)
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corr:
\"de la façon évoquée\" et non \"de la façon évoqué\"

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Note added at 1 hr 32 mins (2004-01-12 19:03:26 GMT)
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\"Disclaimer\"

La référence à l\'accent du Midi est
1)purement subjective (la position de l\'auditeur) voire même spéculative, et
2)ne saurait en aucune façon être interprétée comme la mise en équivalence avec une mauvaise prononciation.




jemo
United States
Local time: 12:08
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 84

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Thierry LOTTE
1 min

agree  ben baudoin: je suis d'accord avec l'explication de jemo sauf que marquer (r)un but peut se dire.tout dépend du contexte (verbe à l'infinitif ou pas)
1 hr
  -> merci. La phrase de référence était, si j'ai bien compris "Il a marqué un but"

agree  Iolanta Vlaykova Paneva
1 hr

agree  Pascal Roseau: Exactement
1 hr

agree  Jean-Luc Dumont: je vois plutôt la liaison avec l'infinitif - pour marquer_un butdans le midi on aurait peut-être tendance à "ouvrir" les voyelles - é se rapproche du è
1 day 12 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +3
Variant pronunciation of the ending é
Bad speech habit i'm afraid


Explanation:
I'm not sure about what you're asking but what you've heard could be the result of a common "grammatical" error among French journalists : they very often pronounce "Il a marque-r-un but" instead of "il a marqué un but".
I mean, they add an infinitive form where it shouldn't appear in a correct grammatical tense. The result is an inappropriate "liaison".

In the same way, they often add a "t" to the third singular person : for example : "il va-t-à la ville" instead of "il va à la ville".

You can heard this kind of errors every day on French radios.

Xiaren
Local time: 17:08
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 24

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  sarahl (X): c'est vrai, beaucoup de liaisons mal-t-à propos dans les media.
28 mins

agree  Jérôme Haushalter: tout à fait (Thierry)!
59 mins

agree  lien
5 hrs
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