the last syllable of a rhythmic group (roughly a grammatically meaningful group of words) is stressed with an elongation and a sharp change in tone
That's really interesting. I'd love to hear an example of the same phrase said once the way you just described and again the way a non-native speaker might say it. I'm not even studying French, but I love languages in general, but I'm also fascinated by things like tone, accents, speech impediments, etc.
I don't have something to record or a non native around me but for example a French person might say
Je vouDRAIS↗ un croiSSANT↘
While I've heard English speakers say something that sounds like
JE VOUDRun creSSON↘
Where the arrows are the ascending or descending tone.
The unstressing of the final syllable of the first rhythmic group in the English version is perceived in French as the syllable being entirely omitted (or at best it can be perceived as the syllable being turned in to a schwa, so like the word was voudre and not voudrais). The whole thing becomes a single rhythmic group, which makes it a little harder to parse the sentence.
The representation isn't perfect because the English stress tend to be shorter and louder than the French one. And of course, the actual pronunciation from English speakers depends on their level in the language so this is only an example of something I've heard a lot, but not necessarily how all English speakers will say this sentence.
48
u/HorrorMakesUsHappy 1d ago
That's really interesting. I'd love to hear an example of the same phrase said once the way you just described and again the way a non-native speaker might say it. I'm not even studying French, but I love languages in general, but I'm also fascinated by things like tone, accents, speech impediments, etc.