Laura Esposito
Let's Learn...
A Parisian French Accent
People
AH PARIS... The city of light
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Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centers of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, fashion, and gastronomy.
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For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its early and extensive system of street lighting, it became known as the City of Light. (fun fact: the lights were installed due to high crime rates)
SOME DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
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Paris is the most populous metropolitan region in the European Union. In 2023, it had an estimated population of 12.4 million people.
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It is also one of the most multicultural cities in Europe.
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Some of the represented regions are the Maghreb, Sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, Türkiye, Asia (outside Türkiye), the Americas, and the South Pacific.
FRENCH AROUND THE WORLD
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French is a Romance language. Other Romance languages include Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan (Hi, Marc!)
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French is an official language in 32 states and governments, 23 of which are in Africa.
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With an estimated 321 million speakers, French is the 5th most spoken language in the world, after Mandarin, English, Spanish, and Arabic.
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The far reach of the French language is largely due to French Colonialism.
PARISIAN FRENCH vs OTHER VARIETIES
KEVI DONAT - founder of Le Paris Noir
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France has about 28 different regional accents based on the various historical regional languages of the country.
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Regional accents are sometimes mocked, imitated, and generally disrespected.
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Parisian French is very close to so-called "Standard French." Many Parisians will tell you that they "do not have an accent."
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A few things that may distinguish the Parisian accent are a fast tempo, "clear pronunciation," and the use of elision and liaison.
Our Donors
Some of the anonymous voices that contributed to this breakdown
Cécile - 31 years old, female, Paris
Marianne - 65 years old, female, Paris
Victor - 26 years old, male, Paris
Axel - 29 years old, male, Paris
Guillaume - age unknown, male, Paris
Posture
The Hesitation Sound - [œ̱̜ː]
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When Parisians think on voice, they gravitate toward a long open-mid, near-front vowel with gentle lip rounding [œ̱̜ː].
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The mid/front of the tongue is somewhat cupped, and the lip corners may feel forward, but not overly so.
Axel
Cécile
Guillaume
What Does it Feel Like?
OBSERVE ORAL POSTURE IN FLOW
Omar Sy speaking English
Nicky Doll speaking French
Isabelle Huppert speaking French
INSIDE THE CAVE
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The velum tends to feel low.
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The back of the tongue is held somewhat high.
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The tongue root is advanced.
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The tongue tip is forward and resting behind the lower front teeth. Alveolar consonants are produced with the lamina on the front of the alveolar ridge.
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The jaw height may feel higher, more forward, and less active than in a so-called General American accent.
THE LOVELY LIPS
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The lips are key players in this accent.
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The lip corners rest in a forward position, pinned against the bicuspids.
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The orbicularis oris is quite engaged. Pursing, trumpeting, and full rounding are all on the menu. Like the tongue, the lips will feel particularly active.
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The cheeks engage, and the buccinators draw gently inward.
What Does it Look Like?
pursing
depressor labii inferioris
trumpeting
full lip rounding
French actress and singer Stéfi Celma
Put it Together with a Magic Phrase
I wanted to do uh... Harry Potter Studios but uh... it's full so I'm crying inside
full speed
reduced speed
ä̝ɪ̯̆ wɔ̃･t̻ˢɪd̻˺ t̻ˢʏ̥̆ ɗ̻u‿wœ̱̜ːː ä̝･ʁ̝ĭ̞･p˭ø･ˈt̻ʰœʁ̝ɵ̆ s̻t̻˺jʏ̆･d̻jo̘s̻ bø̙t̻ˢ‿œ̱ːː ʔi̞t̻ˢ‿f͈ʏlː t̻˺s̻o̰ŭ̯ ʔɵm kɹɜ̹ji̞ŋ‿ɵn̻s̻äɪ̯d͈
Prosody
THE MUSIC
TEMPO
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Many people experience French as rapid and gently percussive.
French
English
WORD BOUNDARIES & JUNCTURE
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French is characterized by smooth transitions between words, which has earned it a reputation for being "sexy." Three processes in French (liaison, elision, and enchaînement) affect word boundaries and have to do with the omission or inclusion of word-final sounds. This can carry over into English in the form of dropping sounds at the end of a word or blending two vowels together.
that fluffy little kitten slashed the cotton sofa apart
Two vowels blended together
cheeses
Omission of word final sounds
planted, trees
months
PITCH, RESONANCE, & MELODY
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Wider pitch variety - French is generally pitched higher than Gen-Am with occasional descent into extremely low pitch. There is a wider and more varied pitch range with changes of pitch occurring on the word rather than within the word.
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Forward focus of resonance - The focus of resonance is right behind the upper front teeth as well as in the nose. This is a result of the advanced tongue root and forward rounded lip posture.
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Highs, lows, and plateaus - The tune tends to bounce up and down and then either jump down to finish a thought or jump up for an unfinished thought. There are also plateaus where the pitch rests in one place for a series of syllables. And there is the possibility of a large jump up followed by sustain at a fairly high note.
STRESS
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Stress is, for the most part, evenly distributed across syllables, identifying it as a syllable-timed language.
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All Vowels are Full Value - French does not reduce vowel sounds in unstressed syllables because most syllables get equal stress. Therefore all vowels, even the "little" ones, retain their full quality.
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Unlike English which is spoken word by word, French is spoken in rhythmic phrases called breath groups.
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Word stress in French is not as strong or varied as it is in Gen-Am, and it follows a predictable pattern. It will consistently fall in two places :
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1. On the last full syllable of a breath group. (one that does not contain a schwa).
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2. On the first consonant initial syllable of a word stressed for emphasis. For example, formidable (terrific) or épouvantable (horrible).
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Stress at the end of a phrase
Emphatic stress on the initial syllable
excessive
recall
Some Prosodic Patterns
I'm a super casual list...
I don't question where does it come from... uh... who wrote it... uh... who owns the newspaper...
Guys... this is serious!
We have to find the murderer. Before tonight.
Finishing the thought...
next to the river... in front of La Conciergerie.
I'm so excited!
Yes! I know what it means it means this this this
Pronunciation
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Spelling Affects Pronunciation - English language spellings are unpredictable and yield a wide variety of phonetic outcomes.
Characteristic Vowels & Diphthongs
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A Different Vowel System - French uses a vowel system that does not align with the vowels of so-called General American. Parisian French is spoken with several rounded front vowels as well as three nasal vowels, which may show up in French-accented English.
Front Rounded Vowels - /y/,/ø/,/œ/ - to be discussed in the lexical sets below.
Nasal Vowels - occur before nasal consonants /m/,/n/,/ŋ/. Here are some typical spellings that may elicit
each nasal vowel
/ɛ̃/ - "im, in, ing, ain"
/ɑ̃/ - "an, en, em"
/ɔ̃/ - "on, ent, ment, ant"
/sjɔ̃, zjɔ̃, tjɔ̃/ - "tion, sion" (add the glide /j/ before the vowel for "tion" and "sion" )
[ɔ̃]
country
[ɑ̃]
warm
[ɔ̃]
different
PARISIAN VOWEL INVENTORY
[i] as in "fini"
[y] as in "tu"
[e] as in "beauté"
[ø] as in "peu"
[ɛ] as in "bête"
[œ] as in "jeune"
[ɛ̃] as in "brin"
[ä] as in "sa"
[ɵ] as in "je"
[ɞ] as in "sort/sotte"
[u] as in "sous"
[o] as in "sot"
[ɔ̃] as in "son"
[ɑ̃] as in "sans"
Lexical Sets
STRUT → [œ̱] but could also be [ʉ/ʏ] & [ɔ̃] before a nasal consonant
The spellings for the STRUT set are uC, oCe, oC, ouC, and ood. Examples: such, above, does, flood, undone, enough.
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The first choice for the STRUT set, regardless of spelling will be /œ̱/.
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If the spelling suggests "ooo-ishness," it might be realized as /ʉ/ or /ʏ/ (luxury, push, flood).
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STRUT before a nasal may be heard as /ɔ̃/ (country, tongue, money).
[œ̱]
it's the perfect combination between tarot, bridge, and blood
[ʉ]
fighting a fog of sudden nightmare visions
[ʏ]
the mix of cultures is very very interesting
[ɔ̃]
and then I came here in this country
[œ̱],[ɔ̃],[ʉ]
to the pubs... i hope... what else... maybe London eye... Buckingham
✶ Practice words
[œ] - up, cup, supper, double, luggage, struggle, suck, budge
[ʉ/ʏ] - floodlight, blood, cucumber, culture
[ɔ̃] - monthly, front, money, wonderful, London, country, young
FOOT = GOOSE → [ʉ], [ʏ]
These sets are merged to [ʉ] with the possibility of the near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ]. The [ʏ] realization is more likely to be heard in the FOOT set than the GOOSE set. When the English GOOSE word would have a "liquid u," the [j] will often be committed.
FOOT [ʏ]
they had fried shitake... so good
FOOT [ʏ]
I wanted to do Harry Potter Studios but it's full... so I'm crying inside
FOOT [ʉ]
the quick brown fox took four small sips
GOOSE [ʉ]
I wanted to do Harry Potter Studios but it's full... so I'm crying inside
✶ Practice words
FOOT - book, look, could, put, should, crook
GOOSE - scuba, ruby, tune, loop, shoot, tomb, huge, view
KIT = FLEECE → [i̽],[ɪ]
French does not contain the near-close, near-front unrounded vowel [ɪ]. Some speakers manage it, but usually, KIT merges with FLEECE and is realized as a slightly lowered cardinal 1 [i̽]. The samples below favor [i̽] but also contain [ɪ].
[i̽],[ɪ]
for me it was easy I said yes I know what it means it means this this this
[i̽]
what frosty land is this
[i̽],[ɪ]
the quick brown fox took four small sips of strong coffee
✶ Practice words and phrases -
KIT - it, city, inside, big, sister, this, script, in, bit, little, him, myth
FLEECE - creep, speak, leave, feel, key, people
The big city in the distance is Paris.
GOAT → [o]
The GOAT set is not a diphthong as it is in Gen-Am, but rather a short, pure vowel, [o].
[o]
everybody speaks French but there is coconut trees everywhere
[o]
I didn't want to go down to ?? go up from ?? to Paris going to Corsica going down again to ??
✶ Practice words and phrases -
go, home, stone, alone, so, joke, vote, grow
Do you know when Oprah was on the cover of Vogue?
TRAP = BATH → [ɛ],[a̽] and PALM → [a̽]
TRAP and BATH merge usually favoring [ɛ]. [a̽] is another great option. Some Parisians, particularly those who have lived in an English speaking country have the [æ] sound. It may be slightly raised or lowered depending on the idolect of the speaker.
TRAP [ɛ]
I am in a small cabinet
BATH [ɛ]
Dali's last hurrah
TRAP [a̽]
It's the story of... of a family of a woman
BATH [a̽]
It's humoristic so sometimes you really laugh and smile
PALM [a̽]
father is mad as hell
✶ Practice words
TRAP - black, sparrow, shadow, jazz, lamb
BATH - staff, brass, dance, ask, sample, calf
PALM - father, bra, spa, lager, psalm, Kanye, Afrikaans, drama
DIPHTHONGS
Some descriptions of French accents contend that French speakers of English do not produce diphthongs. The donors used in this breakdown do not support that assertion. The second stage may be of equal length to the nucleus and feel somewhat emphasized, perhaps from the effort of realizing this unfamiliar two-stage sound. FACE, PRICE, CHOICE, and MOUTH all share this feature.
FACE → [ei̯̽], [e]
This accent seems to favor the diphthong [ei̯̽] over the single stage [e] which so many other French accent breakdowns suggest. You may hear the single stage [e], but let's let the target for this accent be [ei̯̽].
[ei̯̽]
carry these cheeses to the train before it's too late
[e]
my courage fails
✶ Practice words and phrases -
pay, take, day, grey, make, plays, place
PRICE → [äi̯̽]
As in the FACE set, the diphthong [äi̯̽] is used more often than the single stage [ä]. Before /l/ or /ɹ/ → [äi̯̽jə].
[äi̯̽]
even if you don't like... if it's spicey... you can eat no spicey
[äi̯̽]
I'm so surprised that I'm learning... teaching... no... informing this to you
✶ Practice words and phrases -
my, time, like, cry, writer, fight, why, price, ripe
RHOTICITY
Post Vocalic R - The Uvular Fricative [ʁ̞]
French is a rhotic language, and R is pronounced in all positions. The R sound used in French is the voiced uvular fricative [ʁ̞]. English rhoticity will either be realized in the French manner using [ʁ̞], or by adding a fairly strong dose of rhotic tongue bunching to the vowel [˞˞].
[äʁ̞]
uh from uh Madagascar
[œ̙˞]
meeting at the end of the day with a supplier... my biggest supplier and with the dock management of the supplier
lettER = NURSE→ [œ̱],[ɛ̞] + rhoticity [ ˞],[ʁ̞]
[œ̱] + rhoticity is a good catch-all option for both of these sets of words but spelling can also influence vowel choice.
The best advice this breakdown can offer is to let the spelling be your guide and use your knowledge of French vowels to aid you. This approach should also be applied to the commA set.
Here is a range of lettER set words from Eric Armstrong's Lexical Sets for Actors: stellar, better, elixer, actor, sulfur, zephyr, and culture. Each word ending that a Gen-Am speaker would sound as [ə˞] has a different spelling and may receive its own specialized pronunciation. It might be described like this: stell/äʁ̝/, bett/ɛʁ̝/, elix/i̽ʁ̝/, act/ɞʁ̝/, sulf/ʏʁ̝/, and cult/jʏʁ̝/. NURSE words spelled "er," as in "verse," may use [ɛ̞ + /r/]. NURSE words spelled "or," as in "work," may use [ɞ + /r/]. And NURSE words spelled "ir," as in "fir," may use [i̽ + /r/].
Many lettER words in a row
lettER[œ̱˞]
it was the winter in france so it was the indian summer there
lettER [ɛ̞ʁ̞]
Harry Potter studios
NURSE [œ̱ʁ̞]
I wouldn't say dirty work
NURSE [ɛ̞ʁ̞]
like the best version of myself
✶ Practice words
lettER - better, harbinger, sister, actor, professor, honor
NURSE - work, servant, sir, her, occur, disturbing
Characteristic Consonants
Prevocalic <r> → [ɹ̟̹̈],[ʁ̞]
To produce a convincing French accent, it's a good idea to either understate the /ʁ/ or overstate the /ɹ/. /ɹ/ is sometimes realized as something close to the palatal labial fricative /ɥ/ (the sound in the French word for the number 8, "huit"). It can be described as an advanced, lip-rounded, molar alveolar approximant [ɹ̟̹̈]. But this author is toying with the idea that [ɥ˞] might be a more efficient way to describe it.
[ɹ̟̹̈]
most of the time it's just to read stuff
[ɹ̟̹̈]
the road are the same
[ʁ̞]
I feel like Hercules Poirot... ok we have to find the murderer before tonight
✶ Practice words and phrases -
rose, republic, president, every, horror, mirror, read, red, pray, break, spirit
His friend ran down the red road. The sight in the morro filled him with horror.
/n, t, d, s, z/ and sometimes /l/ → laminal
These consonants are formed by the lamina making contact slightly behind the front teeth at the extreme front of the alveolar ridge. The tip of the tongue rests behind the lower teeth. This forward tongue posture can be a real game changer in your accent journey. For [t], there is also quite a bit of aspiration at play. So play!
[n̻, t̻, d̻, s̻, z̻, l̻]
get to the point and stop lying and saying this excessive ??? of talking to me and making me super offers
✶ Practice words and phrases -
total, take, die, did, no, never, sun, lily, will
Move More Breath Through the Consonants and Soften the Boundaries Between Words
In the initial position, plosive consonants will be unaspirated. But in other positions, unvoiced plosives can feel more aspirated than in Gen-Am. Voiced plosives can have a schwa-like off-glide, fricatives can be lengthened, devoiced final vowels can linger in the air like the unvoiced palatal fricative /ç/, and the French uvular [ʁ̞] requires an acceleration of flow to make it sound. This, in combination with the forward, rounded lip posture, may create the overall sensation that more air is moving or even being pushed through a smaller opening.
Devoiceing of final voiced consonants /v̥/, /z̥/, /d̥/
z̥
flocks of trembling sparrows cluster about blood red barns
z̥
glassy pools reflect thier huge queer forms
d̥
they had fried shitake... so good
✶ Practice words and phrases -
love, friends, food
Consonant Substitution and Omission - There are some consonant sounds in English that do not occur in French at all, such as /ɹ, h, θ, ð, tʃ, ʤ/. Some of these phonemes will be substituted by other, more familiar sounds, and some may simply be omitted.
/θ/ → [s] and /ð/ → [d],[z]
The "th" sounds do not exist in French, but Parisians are more than capable of producing them and often do. It would be a mistake to substitute all of them. The word "the" is almost always sounded as [dɵ], but more operative words will have their "th's" pronounced. When a substitution is desired, the alveolar plosives and fricatives come to the rescue. Free variation is highly encouraged.
[θ →s]
i think it's an excellent movie
variation
the problem with them too is that they are... they had made great great studies and... but not in political stuff so they didn't know really what an ideology was... they thought they didn't have an ideology and so basically you could send them... you could send them something to read
✶ Practice words and phrases -
thank, thing, author, earth, truth, thin, think, breath, this, there, father, rather, these, them, those, breathe, with, bathe
Thank you for the thought. The father said to put this thing there.
/h/ → sometimes omitted
As with the "th" sounds, /h/ is not a phoneme with French citizenship. But that does not mean it can't come to the US on a visa. As you craft your accent, play around with /h/ dropping but also realize that /h/ inclusion is just as cool. There's also the option to pop in an /h/ where it's not required.
I don't question where does it come from... who wrote it... who own the newspaper
right now we have a client... a huge bank... he would like to to know can we still be...
✶ Practice words and phrases -
hello, here, Henri, behave, inhabit, uphold, home, whole, who, him, her, behind, Ohio
Hello, Henri, when will you be here? Her behavior had a very heavy affect on him.
/tʃ/ → [ʃ]
/dʒ/ → [ʒ]
The affricates [tʃ] and [dʒ] do not occur in French. They may be pronounced, or reduced to their second element.
I feel the flashing claws of the chalk white terror rip at my breath
✶ Practice words and phrases -
church, chocolate, chicken, bachelor, search, choke, breeches, rich, judge, Jack, justice, age, page, joke, bridge, average
The bachelor paid the check for lunch. Cheese and chicken do not go together. The judge got the jump on Jack and George. The children sold the orange to the agent.
All the Lexical Sets
Parisian Accent Cheat-Sheet
People
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Paris - capital city of France
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One of the most diverse cities in Europe
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Parisian French is very close to so-called Standard French
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321 million people worldwide speak French
Posture
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Lip corners pinned
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Orbicularis oris trumpeting, pursing
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Velum low, back of tonge high
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Jaw high-ish
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Alveolar consonants laminalized
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Hesitation sound [œ̱̜ː]
Prosody
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Quick
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Stress-timed
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Short even vowels
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Smooth word Boundaries
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jump up or down at the end of a phrase
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wider pitch range then Gen-Am
Pronunciation
Vowels
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Round front vowels
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Rhoticity [˞] or [ʁ̞]
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KIT = FLEECE → [i̽]
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STRUT = [œ̱]
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FOOT → [ʉ]
Consonants
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Move more air through the consonants
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[ɹ̟̹̈] or [ʁ̞]
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Alveolars are laminal
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/h/ dropping
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devoicing final consonants
Um... this is hilarious! You're welcome.
Resources
Lexical Sets for Actors - Eric Armstrong
French Phonology - Wikipedia
Stage Dialects - Jerry Blunt
Accents: A Manual for Actors - Robert Blumenfeld
Accents and Dialects for Stage and Screen - Paul Meier
French for Actors - Gillan Lane-Plescia