A Parisian French Accent

People

AH PARIS... The city of light

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. It is the fourth-largest city in the European Union and the 30th most densely populated city in the world as of 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, fashion, and gastronomy. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its early and extensive system of street lighting, in the 19th century, it became known as the City of Light.

SOME DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

As of January 1, 2019, the city of Paris had a population of 2,165,423 people within its administrative city limits. French censuses do not ask questions regarding ethnicity or religion, but do gather information concerning one's country of birth. Under French law, people born in foreign countries with no French citizenship at birth are defined as immigrants. From this, it is possible to determine that Paris and its metropolitan area is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe. According to the 2012 census, 135,853 residents of the City of Paris were immigrants from Europe, 112,369 were immigrants from the Maghreb, 70,852 from sub-Saharan Africa and Egypt, 5,059 from Turkey, 91,297 from Asia (outside Turkey), 38,858 from the Americas, and 1,365 from the South Pacific. In 2020–2021, about 6 million people, or 41% of the population of the Paris Region, were either immigrants (21%) or had at least one immigrant parent (20%).

FRENCH AROUND THE WORLD

French is considered one of the Romance languages, languages directly descended from Vulgar Latin. It is an official language in 27 countries and is spoken across all continents. It is also one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language.

KEVI DONAT - founder of Le Paris Noir

French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers, about 235 million daily fluent speakers, and another 77–110 million secondary speakers who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency, mainly in Africa. It was estimated in 2022 that, all told, about 321 million people speak French. With so many speakers worldwide, it is easy to conclude that there are many French accents and that speakers from varying regions carry different linguistic features with them when they speak English. Here we will explore the specific sound of Parisian French-accented English.

(information above courtesy of Wikipedia)

Our Donors

Some of the anonymous voices that contributed to this breakdown

00:00 / 00:32

Cécile - 31 years old, female, Paris

00:00 / 00:50

Marianne - 65 years old, female, Paris

00:00 / 00:53

Victor - 26 years old, male, Paris

00:00 / 00:38

Axel - 29 years old, male, Paris

00:00 / 04:35

Guillaume - age unknown, male, Paris

Posture

The Hesitation Sound - [œː]

When Parisians think on voice, they gravitate toward a long open-mid front rounded vowel [œː]. The front of the tongue is gently cupped, and the lip corners may feel slightly forward, but not overly so. This vowel is a reliable home base sound and will occur as an option in many lexical sets. It is the sound in the French word "jeune" which means "young."

Axel

Cécile

Guillaume

What Does it Feel Like?

INSIDE THE CAVE

The velum tends to feel low, and the back of the tongue is held somewhat high. This posture allows French speakers to articulate easily both the uvular /r/ sound [ʁ] and the nasal vowels [ɛ̃], [ɔ̃], and [ɑ̃] that are prevalent in the language.
The tongue rests and articulates forward. Many alveolar consonants such as [t], [d], [n], [s], [z], and [l] will be produced with the lamina or maybe even the front of the body of the tongue rather than the tip with the point of articulation on the back of the top teeth. And because French favors short vowels and does not include diphthongs, the tongue and lips move quickly from syllable to syllable. The sensation is very active.
The point of resonance is placed far forward on the back of the top front teeth. For a milder accent, try letting the focus of resonance move back a bit.
The jaw may feel more forward while at the same time higher and less active than in a so-called General American accent.
The cheeks will engage and the buccinators draw inward.

THE LOVELY LIPS

The lips are key players in this accent. The lip corners rest in a somewhat forward position, pinned against the bicuspids. From there, the orbicularis oris stays quite engaged. Pursing, trumpeting, and full rounding are all on the menu. Like the tongue, the lips will feel particularly active. Lip corner retraction may be reserved for smiling.

What Does it Look Like?

pursing

depressor labii inferioris oris

trumpeting

full lip rounding

French actress and singer Stéfi Celma

OBSERVE ORAL POSTURE IN FLOW

Omar Sy speaking English

Nicky Doll speaking French

Isabelle Huppert speaking French

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･t̻̪ˢɪd̻̪˺ t̻̪ˢʏ̥̆ ɗ̻̪ʏ‿wœːː ä̝･ʁ̝ĭ̞･p˭ø･ˈt̻̪ʰœʁ̝ɵ̆ s̻t̻˺jʏ̆･d̻̪jos̻ bøt̻̪ˢ‿œːː ʔi̞t̻̪ˢ‿f͈ʏlː t̻̪˺s̻o̰ŭ̯ ʔɵm kɹœ̞i̯ji̞ŋ‿ɵn̻s̻̪äi̯d̻ɵ̆

Prosody

THE MUSIC

TEMPO

Many people experience French as rapid and gently percussive. French vowels are generally short and the language does not contain diphthongs. As a result it moves with alacrity from one consonant to the next. Stress is, for the most part, evenly distributed across syllables, identifying it as a syllable-timed language.

STRESS

Unlike English which is spoken word by word, French is spoken in rhythmic phrases called stress groups or breath groups. 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 :

1. On the last full syllable of a breath group. (one that does not contain a schwa).

2. On the first consonant initial syllable of a word stressed for emphasis. For example formidable (terrific) or épouvantable (horrible).

Therefore, two places to look for atypical stress in this accent are on the last full syllable of a phrase, or the first consonant initial syllable of a word emphasized for meaning. Where applied, stress is created using amplitude, pitch, and gemination (lengthening) of the onset consonant.

WORD BOUNDARIES & JUNCTURE

While French moves along quickly, it is also characterized by smooth transitions between words, which has earned it a reputation for being "sexy."

There are three processes in French that affect the boundaries between words:

liaison - when word-final consonants, which would usually be silent, are pronounced when followed by a word that begins with a vowel, forming a consonant bridge between the two words. A liaison.
elision - certain instances of schwa [ə] are dropped, such as when a word ends in [ə], and the next word begins with a vowel. Thus the words are joined or elided together.
enchaînement - a consonant at the end of a word may attach itself to the first syllable of the word following and vice versa, a consonant at the beginning of a word may become part of the syllable which precedes it. When this happens, words lose their separateness and become an interwoven chain.

Because of these three features, French speakers have a different relationship to word endings than Gen-Am speakers. They put sounds in and take them out as the linguistic environment requires to achieve smoothness, and there's a lot of flexibility in pronunciation as it relates to spelling. Naturally, that carries over into French-accented English, and it can be extremely interesting to spend some time listening to word boundaries in donor samples and to try to pick up instances of liaison, elision, and enchaînement.

PITCH, RESONANCE, & MELODY

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.
The focus of resonance is right behind the upper front teeth as well as in the nose.
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.

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

As is true for many L2 speakers of English, orthography plays a significant role for Parisians in the attempted pronunciation of English words. English language spellings are unpredictable and yield a wide variety of phonetic outcomes. Because each lexical set encompasses a range of spellings, each set contains some inconsistency based on what the learner sees on the page. French speakers are also faced with the challenge of a home base vowel system that does not align with the vowels of so-called General American or most other world Englishes. There are some consonant sounds in Gen-Am that are very familiar to Parisians, such as /ʒ, j, w/, and others that do not occur in French at all, such as /ɹ, h, θ, ð, tʃ, ʤ/.

It is necessary to assume, however, that individuals approaching English from a French background are as keenly aware of the primary phonetic differences between the two languages as English speakers are when they study French. They are, therefore, making their best attempt to cross over into uncharted waters. It is unfair, and frankly a little bit silly, to represent the French accent strictly as English words spoken in French phones. This breakdown attempts to dispel the myth that in French-accented English all "r's" become uvular fricatives, all "h's" are dropped, all "th" sounds are unpronounceable, and diphthongs entirely elude the English speakers of Paris. None of these things are uniformly true, and failure to recognize this will only lead to the most comical, cliché accent.

Characteristic Vowels & Diphthongs

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"

Rounded Front Vowels /y, ø, œ, ɵ, ɞ/

A quick look at this vowel chart reveals that French phonology includes a number of rounded vowels unfamiliar to Gen-Am speakers. /y, ø, œ, ɵ, ɞ/ all require some study and are linked here to their wiki pages for further investigation. Using the French words listed on the chart to explore the differences between the rounded sounds can be very helpful.

Nasal Vowels /ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ɑ̃/

French makes a distinction between nasal vowels and oral vowels. In Paris, there are three nasal vowels to become familiar with;

/ɛ̃/ as in the French word "vin" (wine)

/ɔ̃/ as in the French word "bon" (good)

/ɑ̃/ as in the French word "sans" (without)

Here are some typical spellings that may elicit each nasal vowel

/ɛ̃/ - "im, in, ing"

/ɔ̃/ - "ent, ment, ant, tion, sion" (add the glide /j/ before the vowel for "tion" and "sion" to get /sjɔ̃, zjɔ̃, tjɔ̃/)

/ɑ̃/ - "an, en"

Glides /w, j, ɥ/

While French does not traffic in diphthongs, it does make use of three semi-vowels to create glides, or movement, from a semi-vowel into a full vowel, which feels a great deal like a diphthong. The three semi-vowels or approximant consonants are /w, j, ɥ/, and they step in to do the work of these vowels, /u, i, y/, when another vowel follows. The sensation is similar to the RP "liquid u" in "duty" /djutɪ/. When one of these vowels, /u, i, y/, directly precedes another vowel, it may be substituted for its glide counterpart. /u → w, i → j, y → ɥ/. Even though glides are prevalent, sometimes a [j] is accidentally omitted because the English spelling doesn't correspond to a spelling that would trigger a glide in French.

Listen here to the realization of the word "parliament."

And here to the missing [j] in furious

One can undoubtedly observe the use of gliding semi-vowels in French-accented English, and /j/ sometimes pops up at the end of a word. It's a fun feature to look out for. For more on glides, visit the Wiki page for French Phonology.

NOTABLE VOWEL FEATURES

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. This strongly influences pronunciation in English. Spelling can be very seductive. Where a Frenchwoman sees a "u," she may pronounce her version of a "u," regardless of lexical set, and so on.

Most Vowels are Short (but not all)

Some dialect sources will claim that all vowels in French are short; this is, however, a myth. The vowels /o, ø, ä, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ɑ̃/ can all be lengthened before consonants and all vowels are lengthened before a voiced fricative /v, z, ʒ, ʁ/ or by a /vʁ/ combination. Imagine the French word for book, "livre," with a short /i/. It doesn't quite work. The word is /liːvʁ/. It is true that French is a language without diphthongs, and that does give it a characteristic alacrity. But vowel length is not entirely off the table in the flow of speech.

Devoiceing of Final Vowels /ç/

In Parisian French the vowels /i, ʏ, u. e, ɛ/ can be devoiced when they occur at the end of a word and may be followed by a breathy sound somewhat akin to the voiceless palatal fricative /ç/. There is a sense that the word continues on breath past its finish, lingering in the air for a moment.

Lexical Sets

KIT = FLEECE → [i̞],[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 [i̞]. Both of the samples below favor [i̞] but also contain at least one [ɪ]. It is also possible to hear an [ɪ] applied to a FLEECE word.

[i̞]

yes I know what it means it means this this this

[i̞],[ɪ]

I go visit because I still have you know I got a lot of family in California but I got you know a lot of family in um in Paris also

TRAP = BATH → [ɛ],[ä̝],[æ]

TRAP and BATH merge usually favoring [ɛ]. [ä] 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.

[ɛ]

I am in a small cabinet

[ä]

It's the story of... of a family of a woman

STRUT → [ø/œ],[ʏ] & [õ] (before /n, ŋ/)

The spellings for the STRUT set are uC, oCe, oC, ouC, and ood. The first choice for the STRUT set, regardless of spelling will be either /ø/ or /œ/. The uC and ood spellings might be realized as /ʏ/ (luxury, push, blood). When the consonant in the oC or ouC spellings is the nasal /n/ or /ŋ/, the vowel may be heard as the nasal /ɔ̃/ (country, tongue, money). Note, this breakdown uses the slightly lower near-close near-mid rounded vowel, [ʏ], where other sources use [y]. The lower more central [ʏ] is typical of Parisian French.

[ø]

it's the perfect combination between tarot, bridge, and blood

[ʏ]

the mix of cultures is very very interesting

[õ]

and then I came here in this country

[ø],[õ],[ʏ]

to the pubs... i hope... what else... maybe London eye... Buckingham

FOOT = GOOSE → [ʏ]

This is the near-close near-front rounded vowel [ʏ] which is more typical of Parisian French than the front close rounded [y]. One can still arrive at it by forming the mouth shape for [u] and speaking [i], but it is slightly more relaxed.

FOOT

they had fried shitake... so good

FOOT, GOOSE

I wanted to do Harry Potter Studios but it's full... so I'm crying inside

GOAT → [o]

The GOAT set is less diphthongal than in Gen-Am favoring 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 ??

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. As mentioned above, the presence of glides in French accustoms French speakers to the sensation of moving from a semi-vowel into a full vowel, and many of the speakers here attempt Gen-Am diphthongs with gusto. The first stage of the diphthong will likely align with the French vowel inventory, and the second stage seems to be close to the slightly lowered [i̞] as is used in the KIT set. The single-stage diphthong nucleus remains an option but is much less common.

FACE → [ei̞̯],[e]

This accent seems to favor the diphthong [ei̞̯] over the single stage [e] which so many other French accent breakdowns suggest.

[ei̞̯]

This is the place we have right now

[ei̞̯]

no... well maybe in the summer we gonna try

[e]

my courage fails

PRICE → [äi̞̯],[ä]

As in the FACE set, the diphthong [äi̞̯] is used more often than the single stage [ä].

[äi̞̯]

even if you don't like... if it's spicey... you can eat no spicey

[äi̞̯]

I'm so surprised that I'm learning... teaching... no... informing this to you

CHOICE → [ɞi̞̯][œi̞̯]

The first stage of the Gen Am CHOICE vowel [ɔ] lives further forward on the vowel chart in Paris at either [ɞ] as in the French word "porte" (door) or [œ] as in the French word "jeune" (young).

[ɞi̞̯]

a furious hoarse voice whispers

[œi̞̯]

it's... it's super annoying

RHOTICITY

French is a rhotic language, and /r/ is pronounced in all positions. The /r/ sound used in French is either the voiced or unvoiced uvular fricative [χ, ʁ] (depending on the environment). When speaking English, Parisians seem to make a valiant effort to replace the uvular fricative with a sturdily bunched molar [ɹ̟̹̈] that lives somewhere in the neighborhood of the familiar (to the French) voiced labial-palatal approximant [ɥ] as in the French word "huit" (eight). This [ɹ̟̹̈] is both advanced and lip rounded. As a consonant, it can also sometimes sound like a [w]. In the case of the rhotic vowels, the question will always be, to bunch or not to bunch? Or to fricative or not to fricative. One must choose. But first, please find a nucleus. Two rules of thumb are:

[œ] can be plugged in just about anywhere.
Let the spelling be your guide.

lettER → [ɛ],[ä],[ɞ],[œ],[ʏ] + rhoticity [ ˞˞],[ʁ̞]

In English, this lexical set depends on the reduction of many different vowels to a common schwa. French, however, stresses all syllables evenly (more or less). Broadly speaking, it has no unstressed syllables, and no need to reduce the vowel sounds at all. We might then say that this set does not exist for French speakers of English who often speak with the stress pattern of their L1. If there's no such thing as an unstressed syllable, there's no such thing as a lettER set. To further complicate things, the added rhoticity may either feel like a high degree of bunching in the mid/front section of the dorsum [˞˞], or a light uvular fricative [ʁ̞]. You may find the fricative is the less common of the two choices.

But let's take a look anyway. 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 will receive its own specialized pronunciation. It might be described like this: stell/äʁ̝/, bett/ɛʁ̝/, elix/i̞ʁ̝/, act/ɞʁ̝/, sulf/ʏʁ̝/, and cult/jœʁ̝/. 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.

[ɛʁ̞]

well maybe in the summer we gonna try

[œ˞˞]

meeting at the end of the day with a supplier... my biggest supplier and with the dock management of the supplier

NURSE → [œ],[ɛ] + rhoticity [ ˞˞],[ʁ̞]

With the rhotic vowels of this accent, it's a bit of a two-step process. First, you need to identify your base vowel and then decide which rhotic element to apply. The choices for rhoticity are either bunching in the front/mid of the dorsum applied to the vowel with some strength [ ˞˞] or a light uvular fricative [ʁ̞]. The NURSE set generally utilizes the open-mid front rounded vowel [œ] plus the rhotic element of your preference. There are a few more vowel options based on spelling. NURSE words spelled "er," as in "verse," may use [ɛ + /r/]. NURSE words spelled "or," as in "work," may use [ɞ + /r/]. And NURSE words spelled "ir," as in "fir," may use [i̞ + /r/].

[œʁ̞]

I wouldn't say dirty work

[ɛʁ̞]

like the best version of myself

Characteristic Consonants

Lengthening of Consonants

Germination (lengthening of consonants) occurs in certain instances in French. Sometimes, it happens because there is a double letter in the spelling, though not always. It can also happen in cases of emphatic stress. The first consonant of the first consonant initial syllable may become lengthened as in the French word /fː/formidable (terrific) or é/pː/mountable (horrible). So lengthening of consonants is something to listen for in your accent samples.

Omission of Final Consonants

In French, many words end in consonants which are not pronounced unless specifically followed by a vowel. When the vowel is present, the consonants are used as a bridge from one vowel to another rather like the RP "linking r." This is called liaison. However, when the next word begins with a consonant, and no bridge is needed, the word's final consonants are left silent. This may promote a tendency in French speakers of English to omit some final consonant sounds, including the last sound of a consonant cluster, or a word final consonant before a word that starts with another consonant.

Devoiceing of Final Consonants

Final voiced consonants like [v, d, z] can be swapped for their voiceless counterparts. "Good" may become [gʏtʰ] and prize may become [pʁ̞äi̞s].

Move More Breath Through the Consonants

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.

/ɹ/ → [ɥ˞][ɹ̟̹̈],[ʁ̞/χ],[w]

To produce a convincing French accent, it's a good idea to either understate the /ʁ/ or overstate the /ɹ/. If you decide to work with the uvular fricatives, it's interesting to note that you have access to a voiced [ʁ] and an unvoiced [χ]. The voiceless [χ] can occur after a voiceless consonant or at the end of a sentence. /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 in IPA terms as an advanced, lip-rounded, molar alveolar approximant. But this author is toying with the idea that [ɥ˞] might be a more efficient way to describe it. And just for fun, let us celebrate the fact that [w] can also show up to do the work of /r/, and he's a hoot! The life of the party.

[ɥ˞]

most of the time it's just to read stuff

[ɹ̟̹̈]

the road are the same

[ʁ̞/χ]

I feel like Hercules Poirot... ok we have to find the murderer before tonight

[w]

after that I travel all over Europe

/n, t, d, s, z/ and sometimes /l/ → laminal, dental

These consonants are formed by the lamina making contact with the back of the upper front teeth or just slightly behind 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 Mr. [t], there is also quite a bit of aspiration at play. So play!

[n̻̪, t̻̪, d̻̪, s̻̪, z̻̪, l̻̪]

get to the point and stop lying and saying this excessive drone of talking to me and making me super offers

/θ/ → [t],[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

/h/ → sometimes included, sometimes not

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...

/l/ → usually slender apical alveolar

/l/ is a forward sound in most cases, formed with the tongue tip on the alveolar ridge. Sometimes it can become laminal dental with so many of it's alveolar consonant buddies, and sometimes retroflex before /f, ʒ/.

so I explain basically what I do in my ivory tower in Lyons

Off-glide

When a final consonant is pronounced with vigor, an tiny baby schwa "off-glide" can be heard.

because after on the twenty ninth

Transcription of sound token

/tʃ/ → [ʃ]
/dʒ/ → [ʒ]

The affricates [tʃ] and [dʒ] do not occur in French. They may be pronounced, or reduced to their second element.

Parisian Accent Cheat Sheeet - quick and dirty

People

Paris - capital city of France
One of the most diverse cities in Europe
321 million people worldwide speak French

Posture

Lip corners pinned
Orbicularis oris trumpeting, pursing
Velum low
Jaw high-ish
Lips and tongue active
Alveolar consonants laminalized, dentalized
Hesitation sound [œː]
Buccinators engaged

Prosody

Quick
Stress-times
Short even vowels
Smooth word Boundaries
Pitch slightly higher than Gen-Am
jump up or down at the end of a phrase
wider pitch range then Gen-Am

Pronunciation

Vowels

Round vowels /ʏ, ø, œ, ɞ/
Nasal vowels /ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ɑ̃/
Rhoticity [ɹ̟̹̈] or [ʁ̞]
No weak vowels
KIT = FLEECE → [i̞]
STRUT = [œ]
FOOT = GOOSE → [ʏ]

Consonants

Move more air through the consonants
Alveolars are laminal, dental
/h/ dropping
slender /l/
off-glide [ɵ]

Full Lexical Set Chart for Parisian French

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