Influence of the Weakness of Accent-stress on Phonetic Change in French

Abstract

The science of phonetics is still so new that it may seem premature to suggest the possibility of a partially deductive method of exposition, but if it is to be used in teaching beginners in a language how to pronounce, how much easier the task would be if we could begin by stating certain general characteristics which color the whole phonetic field of that language so that the peculiarities of every sound in it, and the rules of phonetic change might be largely explained by and remembered through them. That this will some day be done, I firmly believe, and I wish here to suggest how one such characteristic of French may be used in this way.