Phonologie du Français Contemporain
Encyclopedia
Phonologie du Français Contemporain (PFC) is an international linguistics
research project devoted to the creation and use of resources for the study of the phonology
of contemporary French
.
regions as possible. The database currently contains data from 450 speakers representing 75 geographical areas. Each speaker is recorded in various speech situations (reading out loud of texts and wordlists, guided conversation, spontaneous conversation). The data made available in the PFC corpus includes demographic information about each speaker, the sound files, an orthographic transcription, and several types of annotation. In particular, special encodings are used to indicate speakers' pronunciation of schwa
and liaison.
The corpus is meant to be a resource for linguistic research into French phonology and a source for the development of tools for teaching French as a foreign language. The project also plays an important cultural role in the documentation of endangered regional varieties of French.
Research on French phonology using the PFC resources and tools is carried out at many other sites.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
research project devoted to the creation and use of resources for the study of the phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of contemporary French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Activities
The main objective of the PFC project is the creation of a large, machine-readable, publicly-available annotated corpus of contemporary spoken French, including data from as many francophoneFrancophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
regions as possible. The database currently contains data from 450 speakers representing 75 geographical areas. Each speaker is recorded in various speech situations (reading out loud of texts and wordlists, guided conversation, spontaneous conversation). The data made available in the PFC corpus includes demographic information about each speaker, the sound files, an orthographic transcription, and several types of annotation. In particular, special encodings are used to indicate speakers' pronunciation of schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
and liaison.
The corpus is meant to be a resource for linguistic research into French phonology and a source for the development of tools for teaching French as a foreign language. The project also plays an important cultural role in the documentation of endangered regional varieties of French.
Participating institutions
Researchers from the following institutions have contributed to the development of the PFC database.- LIMSI
- Paris X University Nanterre
- Radboud University NijmegenRadboud University NijmegenRadboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
- Université catholique de LouvainUniversité catholique de LouvainThe Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...
- Stendhal University (Grenoble III)
- University of OsloUniversity of OsloThe University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
- University of OsnabrückUniversity of OsnabrückThe University of Osnabrück is a public university located in the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany.In 2010 it was attended by 9,298 students. In 2009, the staff of 1,570 consisted of 214 professors, 662 additional academic personnel and 694 non-academic personnel...
- University of Provence Aix-Marseille IUniversity of ProvenceThe University of Provence Aix-Marseille I is a public university mostly located in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. It is one of the three Universities of Aix-Marseille and is part of the Academy of Aix and Marseille.-Overview:...
- University of ToulouseUniversity of ToulouseThe Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...
- University of TromsøUniversity of TromsøThe University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
Research on French phonology using the PFC resources and tools is carried out at many other sites.