French Homophones

French is a language with many homophones. Common examples of homophones in English include flour/flower, meat/meet and son/sun. However, French also has many homophones.

Here is a list of French homophones:

auteur/hauteur (author/height)

dans/dent (in/tooth)

guère/guerre (hardly/war)

maire/mer/mère (mayor/sea/mother)

pain/pin (bread/pine)

peau/pot (skin/pot)

renne/reine (reindeer/queen)

cent/sang/sans (hundred/blood/without)

sou/sous (cent/under)

ver/verre/vers/vert (worm/glass/towards/green)

The list illlustrates that French is a language of many homophones.  Many of the words from the list have silent letters. Though the words are spelt differently, they sound the same. 

Uvular Fricative of Eifel German

In Standard German post-vocalic /r/ is vocalic. It is pronounced similarly to the schwa in English. However, in an area of western Germany known as the Eifel area, it can be realized as a voiceless uvular fricative. The voiceless uvular fricative occurs before voiceless consonants.

The following words can be pronounced with the voiceless uvular fricative in Eifel German:

Berg (mountain)

dort (there)

hart (hard)

Karte (map)

Korb (basket)

Park (park)

Pferd (horse)

Sport (sport)

stark (strong)

Verb (verb)

The words Berg, Korb, Pferd and Verb end with voiceless consonants. This is the result of word-final devoicing. The word-final voiceless consonants create the environment necessary for the realization of the voiceless uvular fricative. The use of the voiceless uvular fricative before voiceless consonants is a feature of Eifel German.

Thought-Thaw Split in Cockney English

Cockney English is a well-known variety of English that is spoken in London. One of the distinctive features of Cockney is the thought-thaw split. The word thought is pronounced with a diphthong which consists of a mid back rounded tense vowel and a high back rounded lax vowel. However, the word thaw is pronounced with a diphthong which consists of a mid back rounded lax vowel and a schwa. The first diphthong occurs word-medially and the second occurs word-finally.

Words such as thought, taught, force, north, board, pause, clause and sword are pronounced with the combination of the mid back rounded tense  vowel and high back rounded law vowel. In contrast, words such as north, door, force, four, saw, bored, paws and claws have the mid back rounded law vowel and schwa. Though words such as bored and paws do not have a word-final vowel, grammatical endings do not affect the pronunciation. The result is that paw/paws and bore/bored have the same vowel.

In most varieties of English, word pairs such as board/bored, sword/soared, clause/claws and pause/paws sound the same. However, that is not the case in Cockney English. The word pairs are pronounced distinctly. In the first word of each pair, the first component of the diphthong is pronounced with a higher vowel than in the second word of the pair.

Many features serve to distinguish Cockney English from other varieties of English. One of the distinctive features is undoubtedly the thought-thaw split. It allows Cockney to distinguish words which are pronounced identically in most other varieties of English.

Two Finnish Words for Or

The word or is expressed with two forms in Finnish. They are tai and vai. The word vai is only used in questions.

Only the word tai is used in statements. For example, Hän nimensä oli Marja tai Martta means Her name was Marja or Martta. There are only two options, Marja or Martta.

In questions both tai and vai are used. The question Haluatko sokeria vai kermaa? means Do you want sugar or cream? The listener has four options. They are a) sugar b) cream c) both and d) neither. However, in the question Haluatko kahvia vai teetä? (Do you want coffee or tea?), the listener has two options. They are a) coffee or b) tea.

Let us look at two more examples. The question Puhuuko hän englantia tai saksaa? (Does he speak English or German) can be answered in three ways. They are a) He speaks English b) He speaks German c) He speaks neither. However, in the question Puhuuko hän englantia tai saksaa?, the listener has two options. They are a) English or b) German.

For yes/no questions, tai is used. In the question, Can you come on Monday or Tuesday?, tai is used if the answer is Yes, I can or No, I can't. However, if the answer is I can come on Monday or I can come on Tuesday, vai is used.

The conjunction vai is only used in questions, not in statements. It is used for questions in which the listener must focus on the options. However, the conjunction tai is used in situations in which the focus is on affirmation or negation of the question. The use of tai and vai in Finnish clarifies questions that may be ambiguous in other languages.

Word-Final Palatalization in Swedish

The palatal glide is very common in Swedish. Unlike in English, in which it only occurs syllable-finally in diphthongs, the Swedish palatal glide can occur word-finally in combination with liquids. Here are ten words which end with the palatal glide:

arg (angry)

detalj (detail)

familj (family)

färg (colour)

helg (weekend)

korg (basket)

medalj (medal)

sorg (sorrow)

varg (wolf)

älg (elk)

The use of the word-final palatal glide after liquids does not occur in the closely related Danish and Norwegian languages. For example, colour is farve in Danish and farge in Norwegian, and family is familie in Danish and Norwegian. Unlike in Danish and Norwegian, Swedish phonotactics allow the use of the word-final palatal glide following liquids.

Words with Variable Positions in English Sentences

Many English words have fixed positions in English sentences. Prepositions are placed at the beginning of prepositional phrases and articles come before nouns. However, for certain words, more than one position is possible.

The word please can be placed at the beginning or end of imperatives. Both Please hurry! and Hurry, please! are correct. When it is placed at the end, it sounds more emphatic.

The comparative adjective more can come before or after the noun. For example, both ten more minutes and ten minutes more are correct. However, in phrases such as more time and more quickly, the word more must be placed before.

Another word which has more than one possible position is often. The sentences Often he arrives early, He often arrives early and He arrives early often are all correct. The most common of the three is He often arrives early.

The phrase half an hour can also be expressed with a half hour. The first consonant of hour is silent, which is the reason that the form an is required.

Separable phrasal verbs also allow different positions in the sentence. The sentences I want to take off my shoes, I want to take my shoes off, I should put on my sweater and I should put my sweater on are all correct. When the phrasal verb is separated, it sounds a little more casual that when it is not separated, but the meaning is identical.

It is clear from the examples that many English words have more than one possible position in the sentence. The phrase half an hour is unusual because articles usually precede adjectives. However, the phrase a half hour follows the usual order for articles and adjectives.