French is a Romance language. However, the phonology of French differs from that of other Romance languages in many areas. Let us analyze the phonology of French.
Unlike other Romance languages, French has front rounded vowels. They occur in words such as lune (moon), tu (you), deux (two) and feu (fire). In words such as jeune (young) and peur (fear), the vowel is mid front lax rounded, but in deux and feu, it is mid front tense rounded.
In words such as rouge (red), roi (king) and mer (sea), French has a uvular consonant. It can be pronounced as a uvular fricative or uvular trill. It is different from the alveolar trill of Italian and Spanish.
A sound which is used in French but not in other Romance languages is the labiopalatal approximant. It occurs in words such as cuisse (thigh), huit (eight) and nuit (night).
Also characteristic of French is the stress. Instead of the word stress associated with other Romance languages, French tends to stress each word quite evenly with the strongest stress at the end of the phrase. In the phrase Excusez-moi (Excuse me), the main stress is placed on the final word moi.
French phonology differs signficantly from that of other Romance languages. Differences include the front rounded vowels, the uvular fricative or trill and the labiopalatal approximant. Another difference is the phrase-final stress rather than word stress.
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