Quebec French phonology

Quebec French has more phonemes than French of France as it retains phonemic distinctions between and,  and ,  and ,  and  whereas the latter of each pair has disappeared in French of France, though the  and  distinction is upheld in Meridional French.

Vowels
Quebec French replaces tense vowels with their lax  equivalents when the vowels are both short (e.g. except before, ,  and , but the vowel  is pronounced  before ) and only in closed syllables. This means that the masculine and feminine adjectives petit and petite ( and in France) are  and  in Quebec. The same goes with →  and  →. In some areas, notably Beauce, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and (to a lesser extent) Quebec City and the surrounding region, even long tense vowels may be laxed.

This laxing of the high vowels, and , in the specified context is compulsory in stressed syllables, e.g. lutte , but it is optional in unstressed syllables, e.g., vulgaire can be  or. The lax allophone of a high vowel may also appear in open syllables by assimilation to a lax vowel in a following syllable, e.g., musique can be either or. The lax vowel may even be retained in derived words where the original stressed lax vowel has disappeared, e.g. musical can be or. Also, the lax allophone may arise optionally in open syllables through dissimilation as in toupie or, especially in reduplicative forms such as pipi  or. These phenomena are conditioned lexically and regionally. For example, for the word difficile, the standard pronunciation is found throughout Quebec, but the alternative pronunciations,  and  are also used.

One distinct pronunciation in Quebec French is the vowel a, and  are pronounced differently. The general realization in final open syllables is or  (Canada  or ), but  is nowadays strongly marked as informal. There are some exceptions, the words la, ma, ta, sa, fa, papa and caca are always pronounced with the sound, as in French of France. In internal open syllables, some Quebecers pronounce the vowel as  or  (gâteau  or ), this is considered to be informal. Some Quebecers diphthongize the vowel as  in final closed syllables (pâte ).

The vowel is pronounced  in Quebec French.

Metropolitan French's (represented by ) can be only pronounced  or  in standard Quebec French, but it can also be realized in some additional different ways  in Joual, including  found (exclusively) in droit, froid, flexions of noyer and croire, and soit. These pronunciations are remnants from one of the founding French dialects.

Another informal archaic trait from 17th century Parisian popular French is the tendency to open into  in a final open syllable. On the other hand, in grammatical word endings, as well as in the indicative forms of verb être (es and est), the is tensed into. This is also common in France, but the failure to tense the in Quebec is usually perceived as quite formal, Quebecers pronounce  when they are reading.

As well, the phoneme can be also pronounced, as it is generally pronounced further front and more closed than the Parisian. Quebec French approaches  even more when it is located in a closed syllable or an unstressed open syllable.

Nasal vowels
The nasal vowels are very different: →,  → ,  → , and  is generally pronounced  or. Some speakers pronounce as  in open syllables. and are always diphthongized.

Diphthongization
Long and nasalized vowels are generally diphthongized when stressed, except the vowel. The phoneme is also diphthongized to  in unstressed syllables. For instance, the word neige ('snow') is pronounced in French of France, but  ~  in Quebec French. Other cases include:
 * → ; before /ʁ/;  (unstressed), as in fête, Eng. "party"; père , Eng. "father"; fêter , Eng. "celebrate";
 * →, as in neutre , Eng. "neutral";
 * →, as in cause , Eng. "cause";
 * → ; (before /ʁ/), as in pâte, Eng. "paste"; bar , Eng. "bar";
 * → (only diphthongized before /ʁ/), as in bord, Eng. "side";
 * →, as in cœur , Eng. "heart";
 * →, as in livre , Eng. "book/pound";
 * →, as in four , Eng. "oven";
 * →, as in cure , Eng. "treatment";
 * →, as in banque , Eng. "bank";
 * →, as in quinze , Eng. "fifteen";
 * →, as in son , Eng. "sound";

The diphthongs, , , , , and  are considered informal and rarely used in formal contexts, although some Québécois teachers use them, but the diphthongs , , , , , , , ,  and  are not considered informal, and usually go unnoticed by most speakers. The vowel is not diphthongized by some speakers, and  is only diphtongized in Joual.

Phonological feminine
Metonymies provide interesting evidence of a phonological feminine. For instance, although most adults would probably say that autobus is masculine if they were given reflection time, specific bus routes defined by their number are always feminine. Bus No. 10 is known as l'autobus 10, or more often la 10. Using le 10 in this context, although normal in France, would be strikingly odd in Quebec (especially Montreal), except in some regions, particularly the Outaouais, where it is the standard. (An alternative explanation for this, however, is that bus routes in Montreal are called "lines", and therefore "la 10" is short for "la ligne 10", and not "l'autobus 10", since it is the route being referred to, and not an individual bus.)

There are many differences in informal grammar: for instance, some words have a different gender from in standard French (une job rather than un job). This is partially systematic. For example, just as the difference in pronunciation between chien (masc.) and chienne  (fem.) is the presence or absence of a final consonant, likewise ambiguous words ending in a consonant (such as job ) are often assigned to the feminine. Also, vowel-initial words that in standard grammar are masculine, are sometimes patterned as feminine; since preceding masculine adjectives are homophonous to feminine adjectives (un bel avion; bel = belle fem.), the word is patterned as feminine (une belle avion). Another explanation would be that many other words ending in -ion are feminine (nation, élection, mission, etc) and that the grammatical gender of avion is made to conform to this pattern, but the number of "-ion" words that are masculine ("lion, pion, camion, lampion," etc.) weakens this explanation.

Consonants
Around twelve different rhotics are used in Quebec, depending on region, age and education among other things. The uvular trill has lately been emerging as a provincial standard, whereas the alveolar trill  was used before in and around Montreal. In modern Quebec French, the voiced fricative is more common. As a matter of comparison, the voiced velar fricative or voiceless uvular fricative  is more generally used in France.

The velar nasal is often found as an allophone of the palatal nasal, the word ligne may be pronounced.

In colloquial speech, the glottal fricatives are found as allophones of /ʃ/ and /ʒ/, respectively. They can also be pronounced as and  if the original fricatives aren't entirely relaxed. This is particularly found in the Beauce region, to the point where the pronunciation is frequently stereotyped, but can be found throughout Quebec, as well as other French-speaking areas in Canada.

Dental stops are very often affricated before high front vowels and semivowels: in other words,, , , , , , , are then pronounced , , , , , , ,  (e.g. except in Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine and Côte-Nord). Depending on the speaker, the fricative may be more or less strong or sometimes even assimilate the stop in informal speech. For example, constitution could have any of the following pronunciations: →  →.

In Joual, some final mute t's may be pronounced:
 * lit →.

There is also the special case of "debout" and "ici"  (sometimes actually written icitte). On the other hand, the t in but and août are not pronounced in Quebec, but they are pronounced in France (decreasingly for but). These often reflect centuries-old variation or constitute archaisms.

Many of the features of Quebec French are mistakenly attributed to English influence; however, the historical evidence shows that most of them either descend from earlier forms from specific dialects and are forms that have since changed in France, or internal developments (changes that have occurred in Canada alone but not necessarily in all parts).

Consonant reduction
It has been postulated that the frequency of consonant reduction in Quebec French is due to a tendency to pronounce vowels with more "strength" than consonants, a pattern reversing that of European French.

Consonant clusters finishing a word are reduced, often losing altogether the last or two last consonants, in both formal and informal Quebec French. It seems that the liquids and  are especially likely to get dropped, as in table,  →, or astre,  →  →.

The phone in article determiners and even more in personal pronouns in most dialects does not exist in the mental representation of these words. As a matter of fact, pronouncing il and elle as and  is seen as very formal and by some pedantic. Elle is further modified into in informal speech, a sound change similar to that of  into  before.

In colloquial speech, the combination of the preposition sur + definite article is often abbreviated: sur + le = su'l; sur + la = su'a or sa; sur + les = ses. Sometimes dans + un and dans + les is abbreviated to just dun and dins. In the informal French of France, sur + le also becomes su'l, such as L'dimanche, i'est su'l pont dès 8 heures du mat ('On Sundays, he's hard at work from 8am'). No other contractions are used.

Some initial consonants are also reduced: gueule (France, ), especially in the construction ta gueule  "shut up".

Vowel harmonization and consonant assimilation
The high front vowels in Quebec French show a net tendency to be unvoiced or even disappear, as in municipalité, →,.

Much more generalized is the nasalization of some long vowels placed after (or occasionally before) a nasal consonant: même →, jeûne  → , jaune  →  etc.

Similarly, consonants in clusters are often assimilated, usually with the consonant closer to the stress (that is, to the end of the word) transmitting its phonation (or its nasalization): demande →, chaque jour  →. Progressive assimilation, although limited to [ʃ] and [s] before [v] and [m], also exists: cheval →, semaine  →.

The drop of the, which is as usual in Quebec as it is in France (although it does not happen in the same places), creates consonant clusters, hence making a ground for assimilation to happen. For instance, the 1st person singular pronoun "je" may be devoiced before a verb with a voiceless consonant initial. This is most notable in verbs normally beginning with an, as the well-known example je suis 'I am' that is often realized as "chu" , and je sais 'I know', realized as "ché". Since the drop of is not exclusive to Quebec, this phenomenon is also seen in other dialects.

One extreme instance of assimilation in Quebec French is vocalic fusion, associated with informal speech, rapid elocution, and consonant drops. Vocalic fusion can be total – as in prepositional determiners sur la →  →  or dans la  →  →  – or it can be partial, as in il lui a dit,  →  →  →. Partial fusion can happen also in slow elocution.

Linking (liaison)
Linking (liaison) is a phenomenon found in spoken French where an otherwise mute final consonant is moved to the beginning of a following word beginning with a vowel.

The rules for linking are complex in both French of France and Quebec French. The general belief among linguists is that Quebecers link less frequently than their European counterparts (this is a feature also common in regional varieties of French in France). Linking is mandatory only if the first word is monosyllabic or is petit (normally monosyllabic anyway) or méchant and is usually avoided in all other cases.

Example
From Les insolences du Frère Untel (1960), by Jean-Paul Desbiens, p. 27.