The article describes the spectral characteristics of stressed front vowels in the French speech of native speakers, Russian, Hill and Meadow Mari speakers under conditions of «artificial» bilingualism. Vowel spectra were determined by the F-picture (the first two formants). The research revealed that Russian and Mari native speakers demonstrate an ability to differentiate the rise of French vowels more frequently. Correct pronunciation of a number of French vowels is observed more frequently in the speech of the Hill Mari, more rarely- in the speech of the Meadow Mari. Russian speakers hardly differentiate vowel rows. However, the "poor" quality of speech in a foreign language does not prevent one from good understanding due to the fact that for a bilingual speaker the sounding of tokens on the morphemic level becomes less relevant than the meaning. Sufficiently deep immersion into lifestyle, behavior of speakers of another language can help achieve a real image of the picture of another language.

French language, Mari languages, spectral analysis, acoustic characteristics of vowels