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Could someone please give examples of the differences in the pronunciation of "Au revoir" by regional accent (Belgium, etc)?

Stéphane Gimenez
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Zoot
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    I don't see any, excepted the quite wide variations in the pronunciation of r and elisions made in more relaxed level of language (which isn't a regional variation). – Un francophone Aug 29 '11 at 15:48
  • Belgium: The au is usually prononced short like in the word mot instead of like in haut. (I'm quite flabbergasted that the IPA codes for both is [o], by the way.) – Joubarc Aug 29 '11 at 17:01
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    @Joubarc, for once we differ. I pronounce au revoir with [o], not with [ɔ]. – Un francophone Aug 29 '11 at 17:19
  • To be clear, I think the [o] pronunciation is incorrect, but that's the way we say it most of the time anyway. – Joubarc Aug 29 '11 at 17:24
  • @Joubarc: This is no worse than the fact that the French and American "L" are given the same letter in IPA, despite being radically different sounds... – Brennan Vincent Aug 29 '11 at 18:30
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    au is sometimes pronounced [ɑ̃] near Orléans. – Evpok Aug 29 '11 at 20:16
  • Lots of comments- no votes, no answers. What's the deal? – Zoot Aug 29 '11 at 21:21
  • No votes : imho the comments should be included in the question, as is it is not detailed enough. No answer : well, nobody has one, give us some time :) – Evpok Aug 29 '11 at 21:27
  • Probably because the question cannot be answered in full by just one person. – Joubarc Aug 30 '11 at 05:13
  • @Joubarc: funny, I pronounce mot and haut similarly, and can't think of any one doing the distinction… – Axioplase Aug 30 '11 at 06:50
  • I dunno why but I always pronounced au like en (for au revoir). I live in IDF. – Knu Dec 23 '13 at 20:59

2 Answers2

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  • Official pronunciation: [o ʁə.vwaʁ] — see le wiktionnaire
  • Global: the e in revoir is often omitted as in au r'voir, so revoir is closer to [rvwar]
  • Belgium: a lot of people shorten the au and thus pronounce [ɔ] instead of [o]
  • Orléans: au is sometimes pronounced [ɑ̃]
RegDwight
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Joubarc
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  • I can't see the Orléans phonetic markings. – Zoot Sep 01 '11 at 14:21
  • The prononciation mentionned for Orléans is one we hear often in Lorraine (with a leading [ɑ̃] sound). The omission of the [ə] is standard also, for a final result of [ɑ̃rvwar]. – Romain Valeri Jun 11 '12 at 13:55
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I'm from the south of the Poitou-Charentes (precisely often in Cognac, Saintes and La Rochelle) and as Joubarc mentions, it is also common there to hear either [ɔʁvwaʁ] or [ɑ̃ʁvwaʁ] (what I personally say).

RegDwight
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sinastral
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