In France, does the similar sound of the words au-dessus (above) and au-dessous (below) cause a lot of "What did you say? 'Above' or 'below'?"? (Except in French.) Just seems like a major language design flaw to me.
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ANSWERS: 2
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1) When it is said by a French person, another listening French person will probably recognize it without doubt. Vowels are very important in French for the understanding of words and the French people normally know exactly how they are pronounced. 2) There could eventually be some problems if the speaker is a foreign person. Foreign speakers have some difficulty to recognise and to pronounce vowels which do not exist in their language. Also, misunderstandings (or lack of understanding) could sometimes appear with strong regional accents. 3) Here the vowels in phonetic notation: "dessus /dÉ™.sy/" http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/dessus "dessous /dÇ.su/ " http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/dessous 4) "This article mainly discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect." "Standard French contrasts up to thirteen oral vowels and up to four nasal vowels." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_pronunciation
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In French you would hear the difference. But there are many words with the same similarities, and you get used to the difference. For example: Tu (you) and tous (all), it would be the same two different vowel sounds. Or vous (you again) and vu (seen), again the same two vowel sounds. This happens quite frequently in French, so a French speaker gets used to hearing the two differences. Coup (hit) and cul (ass) is another example, there`s many.
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