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Concept
Liaison (French)
Summary
In French, liaison (ljɛzɔ̃) is the pronunciation of a linking consonant between two words in an appropriate phonetic and syntactic context. For example, the word les () is pronounced /le/, the word amis () is pronounced /ami/, but the combination les amis is pronounced /lez‿ami/, with a linking /z/.
Liaison only happens when the following word starts with a vowel or semivowel, and is restricted to word sequences whose components are linked in sense, e.g., article + noun, adjective + noun, personal pronoun + verb, and so forth. This indicates that liaison is primarily active in high-frequency word associations (collocations).
Most frequently, liaison arises from a mute word-final consonant that used to be pronounced, but in some cases it is inserted from scratch, as in a-t-il (), which is the inverted form of il a (). In certain syntactic environments, liaison is impossible; in others, it is mandatory; in others still, it is possible but not mandatory and its realization is subject to wide stylistic variation.
Silent final consonants may be pronounced, in some syntactic contexts, when the following word begins with a vowel or non-aspirated h. It is important to note that many words with silent final consonants have utterly lost them, e.g. neither the 'n' in million nor the 't' in art are ever pronounced. A liaison should not be made just because a word ends in a silent consonant and the next one starts with a vowel.
The following list describes liaison from an orthographic point of view. Since the latent sound is an ancient one, spellings that are based on the etymology of the word may use a different consonant. Liaison consonants are pronounced as follows (the transcription uses IPA; in IPA, liaison is indicated by placing an undertie [‿] between the consonant and the vowel):
There is also a type of liaison where an adjective changes its form before a vowel-initial noun: adjectives ending on -ain, -ein, -en, -in or -on denasalize their vowels. The word bon is /bɔ̃/ but bon ami is /bɔ.n‿a.mi/. Similarly, certain ami /sɛʁ.
Official source
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