The accent the site's French transcription describes, with the mergers of the last fifty years applied. Paris has lost the fourth nasal vowel — 'brun' and 'brin' are now one word — and the two a's of 'patte' and 'pâte' have collapsed. The r is uvular, the schwa is dropped wherever the consonants allow, and the melody is flatter than anywhere else in the French-speaking world.
Where: Paris and most of the north; the broadcast standard
Anything the spelling engine can transcribe, the accent can move. Slow it down to hear the shape.
Stress lands on the last syllable of a phrase, and only there — French has no word stress at all. Paris flattens everything before it. Questions rise; the famous 'accent parisien' is mostly this flatness plus a slightly fronted, tense delivery.
In the order the mouth applies them. Every before-and-after is playable — click the IPA. The pattern is the rule as the engine runs it, for the curious.
œ̃ → ɛ̃How: Say the nasal of 'vin' and do not round the lips.
Parisians under sixty do not have œ̃ at all. Marseille, Belgium and Québec keep it, and the contrast is one of the fastest ways to place a speaker.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| brun | now identical to 'brin' | ||
| un | |||
| parfum |
ɑ(?![̃]) → aOlder French had two a's, front and back, and the spelling still marks the back one with a circumflex. Paris stopped hearing the difference.
| Word | Reference | Accent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pâte | now identical to 'patte' | ||
| bas |
Other accents of French: Québécois · Marseille / Midi · Belgian · all accents