Specifications

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• in careful speech ‘e’ is pronounced as a closed ‘e’ when it is followed
by a syllable containing a closed vowel (y, i, e) e.g. pressé /pRese/
• ‘e’ is pronounced as an open ‘e’ when it is followed by a syllable
containing an open vowel e.g. pressant /pREs~A/ .
Mute ‘e’
The pronunciation of mute ‘e’ varies considerably depending on the level
of language used and on the region from which the speaker originates.
As a general rule it is only pronounced at the end of a word in the South
of France or in poetry and it is, therefore, not shown. In an isolated word
the mute ‘e’ preceded by a single consonant is dropped e.g. parfaitement
/paRfEtm~A/ , but probablement /pRObabl@m~A/ . In many cases the
pronunciation of the mute ‘e’ depends on the surrounding context. Thus
one would say une reconnaissance de dette /ynR@kOnEs~Asd@dEt/ , but,
ma reconnaissance est éternelle /maRkOnEs~AsEtetERnEl/ . The mute
‘e’ is shown in brackets in order to account for this phenomenon.
Stress
There is no real stress as such in French. In normal unemphasized
speech a slight stress falls on the final syllable of a word or group of
words, providing that it does not contain a mute ‘e’. This is not shown in
the phonetic transcription of individual entries.
PWE260_introD_1031.pm65 10/31/2005, 14:3476
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