L’“ortograf fonétik” de Raymond Queneau dans Zazie dans le métro (1959)

Abstract

 Based on a digitised version of the novel Zazie dans le metro (1959), this paper presents the first quantitative study of “phonetic orthography’ (eye dialect) in the work of Raymond Queneau. Although non-standard graphic forms in the novel are rarer by far than standard spelling forms, they sometimes appear in accumulations, which explains the often-described shock effect. The features analysed in detail in this paper are schwa (<e>), liquids and liaison. The absences of <e> (86 occ.) and liquids (15 occ.) mainly appear in phonotactic contexts where the corresponding phonemes are variable, especially in frequent grammatical words or constructions where deletion is most common. In the case of liaison (36 occ.), we observe the opposite phenomenon: liaison consonants are mostly represented orthographically in categorical contexts. All three cases share a common trend: ‘phonetic orthography’ appears – as usual – mainly in direct discourse and quite scarcely in the narrative parts of the text.