Quebec French close vowels in lengthening contexts: tense, lax or diphthongised? An acoustic study

Quebec French close vowels /iyu/ are regularly lengthened in syllables closed by the consonants /ʁvzʒ/. The quality of these variants is subject to debate: they are variously described as tense, slightly unstable or diphthongised. It has also been suggested that they would be tense before /vzʒ/, but lax before /ʁ/, with a concomitant diphthongisation. The present study aims to provide an acoustic account of the question. 360 tokens of lengthened close vowels produced by 30 speakers from three cities were analysed and compared to short (tense and lax) variants. The duration was calculated and F0, F1, F2 and F3 were estimated at 25, 50 and 75% of the duration. Our results suggest that the F1 of lengthened variants is intermediate between tense and lax values, and that it decreases during emission. Furthermore, the acoustic characteristics of lengthened vowels vary according to the following consonant and the speaker’s geographical origin.