Book chapter
OA Policy
English

Variation in Switzerland : the behaviour of schwa in Martigny, Neuchâtel and Nyon

Published inDetey, S., Durand, J., Laks, B. & Lyche, C. (Ed.), Varieties of spoken French, p. 430-440
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date2016-07-28
First online date2016-10-20
Abstract

The chapter focuses on presence vs. absence of the schwa vowel in the initial syllable of polysyllables (e.g. semaine, genou), a well-known phenomenon in the area of phonological variation. It presents a comparative study of schwa, based on conversational PFC data from 12 speakers originating from three investigation points in Switzerland (Martigny, Neuchâtel, and Nyon). The global results first confirm that schwa is more prone to deletion in the Swiss varieties compared to Hexagonal French varieties. Second, the results show cross-regional variation in Switzerland: while speakers from Martigny and Nyon seem to employ extreme schwa reduction to a higher degree than speakers from Neuchâtel, speakers from Neuchâtel seem to employ complete schwa deletion to a higher degree than speakers from Martigny and Nyon.

Keywords
  • Switzerland
  • Schwa
  • Diatopic variation
  • Schwa deletion
  • Schwa duration
  • Phonological alternation
  • Phonetic reduction
  • Acoustic analysis
Citation (ISO format)
ANDREASSEN, Helene, RACINE, Isabelle. Variation in Switzerland : the behaviour of schwa in Martigny, Neuchâtel and Nyon. In: Varieties of spoken French. Detey, S., Durand, J., Laks, B. & Lyche, C. (Ed.). [s.l.] : Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 430–440. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199573714.003.0034
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Book chapter (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
ISBN9780199573714
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