Merde(uh): The Sound of Silent E
It’s one of the first pronunciation rules commonly taught to learners of French: the distinction between the endings of words like fatigue and fatigué. The accent aigu on the latter word may look minuscule in print, but the two words have significant differences in grammar and pronunciation. In particular, we’re often told, fatigué contains a whole syllable more than fatigue, which ends in a “silent e.” If you listen carefully, though, what comes after the hard g sound in fatigue isn’t exactly silence. So what’s going on?
Even though this unaccented e is most commonly referred to as e muet (“silent e”), it goes by more accurate names as well: e caduc (which we might think of as a “nullified,” “cancelled,” or “dropped” e) or e instable (“unstable e”). Depending on context, this letter can be silent, pronounced as part of a clear, full syllable, or fall somewhere in between. For purposes of this article, we’ll focus exclusively on how e muet is (or is not) pronounced when it falls at the end of a word.
Let’s start with a case so common we might not give it much thought: monosyllabic words ending in e muet. Generally speaking, depending on regional accents, these words are pronounced with a schwa (/ə/) or a forward-placed /œ/ vowel sound, similar to the interjection euh. However, the vowel sound in words like le, de, and ce is elided (or omitted) when followed immediately by a word beginning with a vowel sound: l’automne, d’habitude, c’est. They are often elided in casual speech as well. The refrain of the Zaz song “Je veux,” the lyrics of which adopt an informal, conversational tone, illustrates this beautifully, with the phrases de l’amour and de la joie represented with just two syllables each: d’l’amour, d’la joie.
Not all songs are composed like “Je veux,” however. In fact, vocal music is the context in which you are most likely to hear a final, unaccented e given the weight of a full syllable. Indeed, traditional songs and classical compositions with French lyrics generally lend a full /œ/ or /ə/ syllable to final, unaccented e. Think, for example, of the very first lines of “À la claire fontaine” (à la clai/re fon/tai/ne) or the French national anthem, La Marseillaise (al/lons en/fants de la pa/tri/e). Even in popular music of the last seventy-five years or so, unaccented e can be its own syllable, or not, depending on what works for the song’s rhythm and melody. In Claude François’s famous “Comme d’habitude,” the choice to pronounce an unaccented final e or elide it varies from one line to another (Je m’lève / Et je te bou/scule / Tu n’te ré/veille pas / Comme d’ha/bi/tu/de). This variation is not viewed as inconsistency, and the song is no less comprehensible for it; on the contrary, the flexibility of words ending in unaccented e is an asset in terms of meter and musical setting.
Why? In French, poetic meter is defined by the number of syllables. Traditionally, e muet is pronounced and counted as a full syllable when followed by a consonant sound within a line; it is pronounced and counted as an optional, unstressed syllable (a “feminine rhyme”) when it appears at the end of a line. Here’s one more example: listen to this lovely performance by Barbara Hendricks of “Mandoline,” an art song composed by Gabriel Fauré and based on a poem by Paul Verlaine. Note the pronounced e muet in the opening lines (Les don/neurs de sé/ré/na/des / Et les bel/les‿é/cou/teu/ses) and throughout the song.
If music and poetry play by their own rules, what determines whether an e muet is pronounced in everyday conversation? Perhaps the most important factor is the speaker’s regional accent. Broadly speaking, people from the South of France are more likely than their counterparts in the country’s northern and central regions to pronounce unaccented e at the ends of words or phrases. If you’ve heard regional accents from the South of France as “musical,” “melodic,” or “lilting,” this is a major contributing factor. Take, for example, this short clip featuring the Marseille-based actress Ariane Ascaride. Or, if you have a little more time, check out this compilation of video clips featuring speakers from various French regions, Cameroon, and Quebec, with a Parisian offering commentary (in English) about the variations among their accents. You’ll notice that the speakers from the South of France habitually pronounce e muet.
Why? This speech pattern is largely influenced by the Occitan language and its dialects. Unlike French, which places syllable stress at the end of a word or phrase, Occitan places the emphasis on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable of a word. By pronouncing e muet at the end of a word, French speakers with southern accents effectively reach a compromise: the stressed syllable is the same as it would be for any French speaker — but it’s also the penultimate syllable, as it would be in Occitan.
But that doesn’t explain every use of a pronounced e muet in conversational French. Surely you’ve heard this phenomenon in conversation with French speakers from other regions or countries — or perhaps you’ve witnessed drivers stuck in Paris traffic, mouthing “Merde!” with two distinct, drawn-out syllables (“Mer-deuh!”). That’s because a final, unaccented e can also be used for dramatic effect. For example, one minute into this news clip, a woman in Namur, Belgium, complains about the influence of a new traffic pattern on her bus route: “Ça va être la merde. […] Hier c’était la merde.” Notice that she pronounces the word merde differently in these two sentences. In the first, her tone is derisive, and she pronounces the word with two syllables; in the second, her tone is matter of fact, and she pronounces the word with a single syllable.
Why? Because this kind of emphasis helps underscore the speaker’s point. French is a syllable-timed language, meaning that, in principle, each spoken syllable takes roughly the same amount of time. The addition of a pronounced final e — in effect, a bonus half-syllable — varies the speech pattern and draws attention to that word or phrase. Whether the speaker’s intent is to be dramatic, witty, or sarcastic, this emphasis serves a purpose.
Before we wrap up, let’s take a quick look back at the pronunciations of fatigue back in the first paragraph. Should we conclude that all of those speakers are from the South of France? Or that they have a bit of an attitude when it comes to the word fatigue? No! In all likelihood, in the context of a sentence, these speakers would elide the final e. However, when asked to pronounce a word, in isolation and with clear enunciation, we have a tendency to emphasize final syllables — like the geuh sound you hear in these recordings — more than we would in a conversational context. For example, in English, try saying the word home out loud. Then try it in the context of a sentence: I’ll be home by six. Did your lips part at the end of the word home? They probably did when you said the word in isolation and were focusing on how to pronounce it clearly, but not when you used it in context.
… And context seems to be the key concept here, doesn’t it? There are plenty of reasons why a final, unaccented e might be pronounced — or not. As you learn French, it’s worthwhile to notice the contexts in which you hear “silent” e pronounced. You’ll become more attuned to conversational emphasis and regional accents, and you’ll gradually develop more native-like speech patterns of your own.
