ABSTRACT
The vowel which we referred to in Part I as 'canonically a central vowel' (Section 2.1.4), is known inter alia as 'schwa', 'mute e', 'e caduc', 'e instable', 'e feminin' and 'E'. This multiplicity of names is symptomatic of the multiple problems posed by the vowel, which concern both its phonetic and phonological identity and its unusual behaviour in various contexts in Modern French. The problems are mirrored in other languages (see, for example, Van Oostendorp 1998), but it is perhaps French which has received the most attention in this respect.
