Inter-gestural timing in French nasal vowels: A comparative study of (Liège, Tournai) Northern French vs. (Marseille, Toulouse) Southern French

This paper provides a comparative gestural account of nasal vowels in Southern French (Marseille, Toulouse) and in Belgian French (Liège, Tournai). Timing measurements based on acoustic data confirm a different temporal organisation of the gestures between the two dialects. We also report on statistical comparisons between phonetic events (such as duration of the SF 'nasal appendix' vs. duration of a plain nasal consonant), that help to confront competing hypotheses concerning the underlying phonological representation of SF nasal vowels.