Speaking French - Elocution Exercises

To start with, here are four sound extracts, with text, taken from the program La grande librairie. You will hear four speakers, François Busnel, who speaks a French typical of the TV presenter, fast, relaxed, educated. Then a much older man, Daniel Cordier, who was in the Resistance, and who speaks the French of his generation, rather aristocratic, very rich. Just listen to how he pronounces Londres !

As a contrast we have the English writer, Anthony Beevor, whose French is excellent, but who retains that stiff upper lip.

Finally, a young French writer, Fabrice Humbert, whose speech is typical of younger French people. Listen for the upward inflexion at the end of almost every phrase.

I suggest you listen to each extract, read though the text, then read the text out loud. See if you can read at the speed of the original... not easy in the case of the presenter. Choose a (French) speaker you would like to imitate, listen for particular phrases, and try to say them in the same way. For instance, if you choose Fabrice Humbert, try to imitate the nasal quality which is typical of younger French people.

François Busnel			Audio	Text
Daniel Cordier			Audio	Text
Anthony Beevor			Audio	Text
Fabrice Humbert			Audio	Text

In the first extract we listened to different types of French speech in order to make the point that speaking the language is a matter of adopting models of diction. Young people imitate the young people they talk to, not just the slang, but the music and rhythm of the language, and even the accent where the language of a particular immigrant community has become attractive.  British students who spend their final year in France sometimes return speaking as incomprehensibly as the rest of French youth.

But where do we start, the rest of us ? This week I offer a clip from a stunningly good film by Sacha Guitry, Les perles de la couronne. Guitry is from the same epoque as Noel Coward. Since nobody speaks like that today, why take it as a model ? Because it makes an excellent exercise. It is a pure French, full of the head voice that we call 'nasal', and which is the principal difference between English and French speech. Try to imitate Guitry playing the part of François I. Lock yourself away, make sure no-one can hear you, because you will make a noise like a bleating sheep.

Les perles de la couronne

Text

I tried to find a modern and completely neutral voice. Jean-Hubert Martin is the man who has organised the art exhibition at the Grand Palais which you can visit until 6 July. His voice has some of the quality that you hear in terribly well-educated antique experts, bit it's not over-refined.  Listen to it here In the text, which is for you to read aloud, trying to catch some of the quality of original, I have indicated a few typical speaking habits. There is a little music that the French always do when they read a list.... les images réversibles qu'on retourne, des images composites. Note the little lilt at the end of each phrase.  Also quand is very often pronounced as if there were a t  at the end, and Il y a, even in the mouths of educated speakers, becomes Y a.

And when you read a novel, or poetry, you always, always - of course - read aloud. And you listen to yourself. If you're very brave, record yourself and listen to that.

Here is the short poem of Baudelaire l'Albatros., and the text here. English speakers tend to start with Les fleurs du mal, which is relatively accessible. As indeed on the 'Net  is the full audio recording of the work and the text.

Here is the voice of an actor, a very beautiful voice, from the theatre presentation Gary/Ajar  on the life of the Polish writer Romain Gary (known also as Emile Ajar). Note the lifting of the voice in mid phrase, and words like absence, and saisissante, where the richness of the sound is emphasised.

Gary / Ajar

Text

Here are two voice-overs, one male one female.

The first is from the film Home which was such a success on France 2. The voice is clear and perfectly neutral. Note the r sound. Anglophones often seem to think that the rolled r that you hear in French chansons. Not at all. The r is merely breathed. Listen to the sound of  'Les rivières arrachent à la roche.'  The second example is a voice-over by an actress for a documentary on Concorde. The voice is less neutral and is a good model for a 'standard' female elocution.

There are some interesting and very formal voices in this extract from a documentary on Napoleon. The voice over, and the historien interviewed.

A voice I like very much is that of the actor Michel Leeb who here tells the story of his escape from his Jesuit college

Here is a British actress, Jane Birkin who has an accent greatly admired by the French. It has the brusque quality of English, but it is completely French. Not a bad model

French is 'the language of Molière', so we must have an example from the great man. The actors who take these roles belong to a tradition which is largely dead in Great Britain - formal, classical acting. (Watch Kenneth Branagh play Shakespeare and weep). I have a preference for the prose plays, and so, here is Don Juan.

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