La troisième application de Cleanaccent
est en disponbile sur iPad (janvier 2017)
*
Cleanaccent’s third application
is available on iPad (January 2017)

“French IPA : transcribing words into IPA”

== Application gratuite ==
== Free application ==

Voir l'information sur App Store

 

 

1. Why to learn how to transcribe a language into phonetics?

 

Transcribing written French words into phonetics allows you to greatly improve your pronunciation in a very pleasant and rapid way and to feel much more comfortable.

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2. What is this free application offering?

 

The app tests the passage from Orthography to IPA (“oiseau” > [wazo]).

This application treats the following phenomena, which are characteristics of the French language and that learners have to master:

 

 

1. Juncture
(liaison):
# OBLIGATOIRE
article + nom:

  • “les amis” > [lezami]

adjectif + nom:

  • “petit ami” > [pətitami]
  • “petits amis” > [pətizami]
# FACULTATIVE

nom + adjectif:

  • “les soldats anglais”
    > [soldaɑ̃glɛ] or [soldazɑ̃glɛ]
  • “le soldat anglais”
    > [soldaɑ̃glɛ] or [soldazɑ̃glɛ]
2. Linking
(enchaînement):
article + nom:

  • “une” > [unami]

adjectif + nom:

  • “petite amie” > [pətitami]

nom + adjectif:

  • “homme ami” > [ɔmami]
3. Mute h
(h aspiré, germanic h):
  • “les hommes” > [lezɔm]

versus

  • “les héros” > [leeʁo]

versus

  • “les zeros” > [lezeʁo]
4. The mid vowels
(with two timbers)
[ɔ] / [o]

  • “le bol” > [bɔl]

versus

  • “la Baule” > [bol]
[e] / [ɛ]

  • “épée” > [epe]

versus

  • “épais” > [epɛ]
5. The regular and irregular plurals
Regular:

  • le chat – les chats
Irregular:

  • le cheval – les chevaux
6. the masculine-feminine forms
  • le chat / la chatte
     
7. Mute final consonant
  • le bus [lə bys] > / l’abus [aby]
     
8. the homophones
  • “samedi” > [samədi]
  • “mercredi” > [mɛkʁœdi]
9. which are written in different ways
  • “sang, sent, cent” > [sɑ̃]
     

 

 

The great advantage of this application is the following: if you wish (and click on the right button!), at the end of the session, you may obtain the list of words for which you made an error.

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3. On which ‘rules’ is the phonetic transcription based?

 

The “rules” used to binary accept or reject your phonetic transcription can be found on our website: cleanaccent.com, where you can find academic references to authors.

The choices here are based on the usages at the Sorbonne University in Paris by Jacqueline Vaissière, professor of Phonetics (La Phonétique (2011, 2015) Que sais-je ?, PUF, Paper version : https://www.puf.com/content/La_phon%C3%A9tique, digital version : https://itunes.apple.com/fr/book/la-phonetique/id1015237531?mt=11). The same choices are not uniformly done since the usages are depending :

  1. on the region (here the so-called standard French)

    • standard French “la rose” > [laʁoz]
    • south French > “la rose” > [laʁɔz]

    (références:
    – Y. Scherrer, P. Boula de Mareüil, J.-P. Goldman (2015), Cartopho, https://cartopho.limsi.fr/,
    – Y. Scherrer, P. Boula de Mareüil, J.-P. Goldman (2015), « Crowdsourced mapping of pronunciation variants in European French », 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Glasgow.)

  2. the style (here hyperarticulated)

  3. the rate of speech (here slow speech)

  4. the sociocultural status of the speaker (here academic speech)

  5. and the generation of the speaker (here over 60)

    (“patte” [a] and “pâte”[ɑ], “brin”[ɛ̃] and “brun” [œ̃] are differentiated but both transcriptions are accepted.

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4. What will this premium application offer?

 

The presents app tests the passage from Orthography to IPA (“oiseau” > [wazo]).

In a next (premium) version, the following options will be offered

  • a personalized follow-up

  1. from IPA to orthography

  2. from sound to IPA

    • you see on the screen [wazo], you have to write “oiseau”

  3. from sound to orthography

    • you hear the word <l’oiseau>, you have to write [lwazo]

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