Journal of French Language Studies

Table of Contents - 2006 - Volume 16, Issue 03  


On the geographical spread of Oïl French in France

TIM POOLEY a1
a1 London Metropolitan University, Department of Humanities, Arts and Languages, North Campus, 166–220 Holloway Road, LONDON, N7 8DB e-mail: t.pooley@londonmet.ac.uk

Article author query
pooley t   [Google Scholar] 
 

Abstract

This article seeks to assess in detail the extent of levelling of regional varieties in the so-called collateral-language areas (Langue d'Oïl and Franco-Provençal) of France over the course of the 20th century. By comparing the ‘classic’ accounts of regionally marked pronunciation among speakers born in the first half of the century (Martinet, 1945; Walter, 1982; Carton, Rossi, Autesserre and Léon, 1983) with studies based on informants born since 1965, I seek to characterise and remap the varieties that still show divergence from the supra-local or levelled variety, which has been referred to as Oïl French, in the ancestral Langue d'Oïl and Franco-Provençal regions and to define the areas beyond these ancestral collateral-language areas, where speakers of 40 years or under at the time of writing may be fairly characterised as conforming to the supralocal norm.

(Received February 2006)
(Revised July 2006)