Retention of Regional French Vocabulary: The Example of Southeastern French

Authors

  • Anne Violin-Wigent Michigan State University

Abstract

With the development of mass media and compulsory state education, standard
French has extended its scope, at the detriment of regional languages and dialects. In this study, I investigate the extent to which regional vocabulary is retained in Brianc;on, a town in the southeast of France. To discuss the loss and retention of regional vocabulary, it is important to briefly situate this town. Briançon is the second largest town in the administrative unit of Hautes-Alpes with 10,737 inhabitants according to the 1999 !nstitut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques census. Brian<;on boasts of being the highest town in Europe at 1326 meters above sea level. Needless to say, the landscape is mountainous and the few roads leading in and out of this town are high in elevation, winding, and often challenging in the winter. This explains why this region has remained quite isolated for a long time. I refer the reader to Routier (1997) for additional detail on the history of the town. Let us simply say that the area around Brianc;on remained independent from larger political powers (both France and Italy) for many centuries, until the French Revolution. The idea of being away from everything and everywhere is deeply entrenched in the minds of the inhabitants. In fact, one of the buzzwords of the last 10-15 years has been desenclavement (roughly translated as 'de-isolation'). 

After providing a short explanation of regional languages in France and of regional French, I will explain the methodology. This will be followed by the analysis of the retention or loss of regional vocabulary according to linguistic criteria.

Author Biography

Anne Violin-Wigent, Michigan State University

Anne Violin-Wigent is an Associate professor of French. Her research focuses on regional variations of the French language in France and the leveling effect of Standard French on the preservation of regional accents, vocabulary, and grammatical features. She is currently working on a manuscript analyzing the linguistic situation in her hometown, Briancon (France). She has served as the Language Director and Assistant to the Language Director for many years and has taught a wide variety of classes, including History of the French language, Teaching methods, and French linguistics and phonetics to name but a few. Her research in sociolinguistics and her interest in pedagogy have informed the textbook she has co-authored (with Jessica Miller and Frederique Grim): Sons et Sens, La prononciation du francais en contexte, published by Georgetown University Press (2013). She is also actively involved with the Michigan World Language Association (President in 2011), in mentoring graduate students, and in developing online classes.

Downloads

Published

2014-09-30

How to Cite

Violin-Wigent, A. (2014). Retention of Regional French Vocabulary: The Example of Southeastern French. Linguistica Atlantica, 27, 135–140. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/la/article/view/22635

Issue

Vol. 27/28 (2006/07)

Section

Articles