Word of the Week #34 - “On”-- No Nasal Before Vowel - Mastering French Pronunciation w/ Geri Metz

WORD OF THE WEEK #34-denasalization of “on” in front of a vowel: “bon ami”
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Word of the Week # 34 bonheur (happiness) (bɔ nœ r
I like to feature words that are uplifting whenever I can so this week I chose “bonheur”, meaning happiness. This word brings up an interesting feature in French pronunciation. One might think that the word would be pronounced with the nasal vowel “on”, but when the nasal vowel “on” is in front of a vowel sound, it de-nasalizes. So the sound becomes like the feminine form “bonne” as in Bonne Année. You have this feature also in bon anniversaire (happy birthday), or bon ami. Now you might think that this nasal vowel is in front of a consonant, the consonant “h”. But all h’s are silent in French so the h does not count as a consonant. The oral vowel in the second half of the word is “ euh” the same vowel sound you have in oeuf or neuf. This sound is usually a little difficult to get right and it only appears in a closed syllable, that is, a syllable that is closed by a consonant, as we have here, the syllable being closed by the final “r”. To make the “euh” sound, take the tongue position of the vowel “eh”, with the tongue rounded in the front of the mouth, and then round the lips like you were saying the open “o” as in “bonne”. And to make this vowel correctly you need to bring in the corners of the mouth a bit. So both the vowels in this word have the same rounded lip position, but on the inside of the mouth the tongue is shifting from being raised in the back of the mouth to make the “o”, to being raised in the front of the mouth to make the “eh” sound : bon-heur. We should also mention the consonant “n”. In English you would make this sound by putting the tip of the tongue against the gum ridge, but in French you keep the tongue tip down and make the “n” sound against the upper teeth. So putting it all together, we have “bonheur”. Alors, je vous souhaite une semaine pleine de bonheur, et à la prochaine.

[@kerrylosi1595]

Merci beaucoup Geri 😀 très utile