Canadian French Vowel Laxing: Articulation, Acoustics, and Variation

Canadian French vowel laxing has typically been studied through its phonological and acoustic patterns. Using ultrasound tongue imaging alongside acoustic measures, this talk examines how high vowels shift when realized as lax forms, and distinguishes laxing from coarticulation before /ʁ/. It also explores variation in vowel harmony across speakers before introducing a new international project to build an articulatory corpus of Canadian French speech.

Suzy Ahn is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics and co-director of the Sound Patterns Laboratory at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

This event is supported by a Magic Grant from the Humanities Council and a faculty grant from the Council’s Fund for Canadian Studies.