Pronunciation Difficulties

Those who do not speak French may want to cross out silent letters to make it easier to ignore them. The IPA on the previous pages reveals which letters are silent, but the lists and rules below might be an easier way for some people to find them. The rules are simplified to deal just with cases arising in these texts.

Final consonants l usually pronounced; silent in gentil, soleil, sommeil, rveil r usually pronounced; silent in aimer, regarder, louer,

lasser, penser, flat(t)er s, t usually silent; pronounced in Christ d, x, z always silent

A final e is silent if the music does not give it a syllable of its own. (See page 4.) Any other final vowels are pronounced.

More silent letters h hant, Haut, Christ, inhumaines, Hiver, hymne, haleine

ll scintillement, raillez u qui, que, qu, languissante s chascun, Est, tousjours, estes (see Debussy below) g ung, temoing (see Debussy below)

Nasal vowels and silent n or m Nasal a and e sound the same. Nasal i, ai and ei sound the same. The other nasal sounds are nasal o and nasal u. An n or m usually makes the preceding vowel nasal. If it does so without a liaison

(see below), the n or m is silent except for its effect on the vowel.

The vowel is not nasal if the n or m is followed by another n or m (e.g. immortelle, hymne, flamme, bonne) or the vowel is not in the same syllable as the n or m (e.g. ai-mez, re-nat, il-lu-mi-ne).

Another exception is that the i in the first syllable of inhumaines is not nasal, nor is the neutral e in the last syllables of plaisent, consolent, accompa(i)gnent, enflamment.

Liaisons Even those who speak French may want to mark the liaisons. They are more common in sung French than in spoken French. Liaisons are shown on the previous two pages with an underscore between two words. The final consonant of the first word would normally be silent but, due to the liaison, is pronounced as if it were at the start of the next word.

In a liaison, s, x or z sounds like z, and d or t sounds like t. In en_elle, cha(s)cun_est, en_exil, un_hymne, the n nasalizes the preceding e or u and also has its consonant sound.

A slash between two words indicates no liaison. The final letter of the first word remains silent even though the next word starts with an e or h and no punctuation mark intervenes. The reasons for no liaison are that trop modifies plein, not tes, and that the silent hs in Haut and hant are the so-called aspirated h. (They are the only examples of h aspir in the texts.)

Other challenges The letter o is closed at the end of a word and in choses (also when nasal). Otherwise, it is open. An open o goes against the grain when a cognate English word has a long o (e.g. domine, pote, profonde, consolent). The spelling au always sounds like closed o in these texts, but it is like open o in the name Faur.

The spelling eu has two sounds, which are also the two sounds for in German. The open sound is used before r (e.g. fleurs, splendeur) and in seul and peuple. The closed sound is used at the end of a word (e.g. cieux, feu) and in gracieuse.

cheapRectangle

cheapRectangle