Vocalize ending "e" or not?

In Level 2, lesson 13.4, we have:

“Écoute, j'étais dehors en train de laver la voiture...”

I'm puzzled that the final e in Écoute and voiture is vocalized, whereas it ordinarily is silent. Does this indicate that the speaker is annoyed, and therefore drawling the words? Is it a regional accent?

I'd be interested in the answer to this myself! Although I believe that (as you suggest) it's common to sound the “e” in some regions. 

(Still maybe it is an expression of annoyance.)

You also hear it a lot in songs and poetry. 

An example, in this beautiful song by Françoise Hardy  she vocalises the second “e” in “cette nuit” three times, if you listen carefully. (Someone has kindly posted the lyrics in the comments.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeXqow3z5nc

And if you're into opera, Don José from Carmen sings “un baiser de ma mère” (a kiss from my mother) with the final “e” quite pronounced.

Bonjour à vous deux,

Janet33 you are correct; this is done because the speaker is annoyed and dragging the sentence out. 

Generally speaking these vowels should not be pronounced or voiced. In France however, if we want to emphasise something or are expressing strong emotions such as annoyance, we tend to slow down our sentence, raise our voice and prnounce everything including vowels which are normally left unaspirated. 

I think this is somewhat similar to English where people tend to again slow down and raise their voice, however we usually hold on to the consonant instead of a normally silent vowel. 

As for Peter--252's comment, this phenomenon can also occur during songs and poems in order to fit better with the melody or cadence of the piece. It's completely stylistic.

I hope this helps,

   -   Mitchell

Merci ! One thing about language learning - you have to recognize the exceptions as well as the general rules. I appreciate your help!

Mais de rien,

That is very true and on that note, French is well-known as having more exceptions to the rule. This is one of the biggest frustrations I see with people learning French.

Having said that, I don't want to scare anyone off and French does have a relatively clear and logical structure.

Bonne chance,

   -   Mitchell