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On the geographical spread of Oïl French in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2006

TIM POOLEY
Affiliation:
London Metropolitan University, Department of Humanities, Arts and Languages, North Campus, 166–220 Holloway Road, LONDON, N7 8DB e-mail: [email protected]

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.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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