The Issue of Rhythmic Groups in Spoken French

The study is concerned with the division of the French speech into rhythmic groups. The first part attempts to outline the theoretical background of the issue. The thesis is concerned with terms such as rhythmic groups, the French accent and the comparison between the French and the Czech phonetic system. The aim of the practical part of this paper is to find out to what extent Czech students of French at the Faculty of Education are able to use the phenomenon spontaneously in their speech with regard to the complete difference between the phonological rules of both languages. For reaching the aim of the paper several methodological procedures are employed. The first part which is concerned with theory books of both languages allows forming the hypothesis. Subsequently, the hypothesis is verified in quality-based research which examines the production of speech by Czech students. To analyze correctly the tested speech produced by Czech students, a comparison with speech recorded by French native speakers is used. The division into rhythmic groups and the correct use of accent are analyzed and evaluated in the final part. KEYWORDS Phonetics, Phonology, Rhythmic Groups, Accent, Frenc