Phonetic Features of Ivory Coast French

The article analyses the phonetic features of the systems of vocalism and consonantism, prosodic features of the French language of Ivory Coast, and also reveals the frequency of manifestation of these features in the Ivorian language. The phonetics of the French language is signifi cantly infl uenced by the numerous autochthonous languages of Ivory Coast, which are native languages for the majority of the country's population. Ivorian French often exhibits several phonetic features at the same time.
The vocalisation system of Ivory Coast French is characterised by the substitution of French vowel sounds with similar sounds of autochthonous languages: [œ] to [o], [ɔ] / [o], [y] / [i], [y] / [u], [ə] / [e]. The most productive are the substitutions of the sounds [y] / [u] and [ɔ] / [o]. Other common features include denasalisation of nasal vowels, as well as epenthesis. Analysis of the consonantal system reveals such phonetic features as substitution of consonantal phonemes [∫] / [s], [ʒ] / [z], [z] [/s], tendency to palatalisation, apocope, epenthesis, stunning consonant sounds. The most frequent prosodic feature of Ivorian pronunciation is the omission of obligatory and optional binding.