French Studies Publications
Title
Prosodic Rhythm in Ontario French
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2016
Volume
26
Issue
2
Journal
Journal of French Language Studies
First Page
183
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1017/S0959269515000307
Last Page
208
Abstract
This article presents the results of a study of rhythm in Ontario French in local minority and majority contexts. To determine whether French in a minority situation shows a less syllabic rhythm due to English influence than it does in a majority situation, we used the following rhythm measurements: %V, ΔV, ΔC, VarcoV, VarcoC and nPVI-V. The results suggest no effect of language contact on the minority setting data where we find even more syllable-timed rhythm than in the majority variety. In addition, we observe that women and older speakers exhibit a more syllabic rhythm than men and younger speakers.
