This is the fourth of five planned volumes of the Atlas Linguistique et Ethnographique Normand (ALN), containing the last 331 maps for lexical items. (The planned fifth volume will cover morphological and grammatical data.) Each map-page (51cm × 33cm, landscape orientation) contains a map of approximately A4 size (30cm × 21cm) relating to one word or set of words, and one or more text columns of ancillary data.
The aim of the whole ALN is succinctly summarised in the introduction to Vol. IV: ‘l’ALN permet de mieux percevoir les parlers normands dans leurs usages réels des années 1970’. It is therefore clear that this atlas surveys Norman, the autochthonous Romance variety of Normandy, and not local varieties of French. The atlas covers the whole Norman domain: Jersey, Guernsey, Sark and the whole of modern Normandy minus the Perche, where Norman has never been spoken.
FRONT MATTER
The useful Introduction to Vol. IV sets the ALN in its linguistic context, making the whole atlas more easily interpretable for people who are interested in French but not necessarily specialists on Normandy or Norman. It contains short paragraphs on ‘the notion of dialect’ and how to separate it from French (if at all); the selection of survey-sites; the selection of informants; the presentation of the data; and the ordering, titles, cross-references and interpretation of the maps.
The rest of the front matter of ALN Vol. IV is only slightly different from that of preceding volumes. Vol. IV adds one character to the Rousselot and Gilliéron phonetic notation used in the Atlas Linguistique de France (Gilliéron and Edmont Reference Gilliéron and Edmont1902–12; Brun-Trigaud et al Reference Brun-Trigaud, Le Berre and Le Dû2005: 27) and all the Atlas Linguistiques de la France par régions: unaccented <e> for ‘e moyen, entre é et è’. Unfortunately, in my copy of ALN Vol. IV at least, this addition coincides with a misprint, so that <e> is listed both for ‘e moyen’ and for schwa (‘e dit muet de Grenoble et le’). Maps (e.g. ‘bedeau’, ‘repu’) show that the actual symbol for schwa in the body of Vol. IV (as elsewhere where Rousselot-Gilliéron is used) is <e> with a superposed dot, <ė>.
ALN Vol. IV also introduces a minor – but appropriate – change in the stated meaning of two consonant symbols placed one on top of the other. Previously this was defined as ‘une consonne intermédiaire’ (between those of the two symbols); in Vol. IV, it is ‘une consonne perçue comme intermédiaire’. This acknowledgement of the role of perception in an atlas constructed from transcriptions (not recordings) made by a trained and experienced fieldworker is welcome.
The front matter of Vol. III contained demographic details of the Atlas’ interviewees, but the author has decided not to include them in Vol. IV, in order to avoid possible ethical difficulties not foreseen in the 1970s when the data was collected.
DATA
The maps in this volume follow the common ALF par régions style: they are two-colour (orange for borders and black for isoglosses, text and transcriptions – whether in the maps or surrounding them), and they include no other geographical information. Vol. IV's maps were produced by software, however, which is possibly an innovation in the series.
As previously, maps are ordered here by approximate semantic fields. The Introduction states that these are often fairly arbitrary, as they were created after the aggregation of the data and do not reflect the order or priorities of the questionnaire. There is therefore no real unifying theme to Vol. IV (though there is no reason why there should have been one). Thematic grouping also means that there is no separation between linguistic and ethnographic maps: thus, for example, Map 1303 ‘Les Rameaux’ (‘Palm Sunday’), a map of pronunciations of Rameaux, is followed by 1304 ‘Buis et/ou laurier bénits’, a map of the plants used in Palm Sunday processions, and 1305 ‘Faire la collecte de Pâques’, a map of names for that tradition. The linguistic data here is often also covered in the ALF and/or in neighbouring series of the ALF par régions; where this is the case, cross-references are provided.
As also previously, some maps in Vol. IV contain isoglosses and others do not. Where isoglosses are drawn, the author states that they are meant as aids to comprehension, not analyses (so users could draw other, equally-valid ones). For example, phoneticians and phonologists might want to do this in maps like 1113 ‘Couches’ (‘nappies’), which charts Norman forms based on two distinct roots, /dʁa-/ and /kuʃ-/. Isoglosses are drawn to separate these roots, but there are no isoglosses between forms of /kuʃ-/ with a monophthong in the stem ([kuʃɛt] etc) and forms with a diphthong ([kwɔʃɛt] etc).
Finally on the data, Vol. IV also contains a list of supplements to Vols I-III: data which should have been included in previous maps but was overlooked.
EVALUATION
As this is the latest volume in a series begun in the 1970s and continued (for consistency) with the original methodology, this is not the appropriate place for a detailed methodological breakdown. Nevertheless, a few remarks can be made. The author's Introduction states that the lexical data here could be used more easily if it were able to be published as electronic data-files: the same could be said of the abundant phonetic and phonological information. As this is principally a linguistic atlas, an alphabetical index of the four volumes would also be very useful; at present, there is no way of investigating whether a given word or concept is mapped, or of searching for a given map, other than by browsing the tables of contents of the four volumes.
ALN Volume IV is a welcome addition to the literature for all the reasons stated above, and also because it is a valuable record of a culture and a linguistic variety which is now extremely threatened. We should applaud its publication, and welcome it as a major addition to our knowledge of the lexicon, phonetics, phonology and ethnography of Normandy and of France.
