This volume consists of eight articles from a number of leading French and British researchers in the field of French sociolinguistics. They present an overview of current research in sociolinguistic variation and change in French. They concentrate on phonological as well as grammatical variation in the French language.
Zoë Boughton opens the volume with an investigation that traces the development of standard and non-standard pronunciation in some varieties. She examines the notion of social value applied specifically to variable phonology in French. While the norm of the most highly standardised language in the world has loosened up in recent decades, some derivations generally associated with rural or urban working-class speech remain stigmatised. Mikaël Jamin examines the return of [ɑ] in Parisian French in the speech of adolescents and young adults. This study reveals that the emergence of this non-standard form is affected by gender, with the phonological variant back [ɑ] being predominantly used by young males. The author concludes that this phenomenon could be prompted by a desire to mark local identity on the part of young working-class speakers of immigration origins.
Tim Pooley looks at the question of dialect levelling in southern France and finds that the Dominant Southern Pattern of pronunciation is still highly valued by southern working-class speakers. He also finds evidence that working-class incomers are assimilating to southern norms. David Hornsby compares regional dialect levelling in British and French urban settings, namely northern France and south-eastern England respectively. He argues that both countries are moving towards similar outcomes via different routes, and argues that variation in France is more class-based than regional, contrary to a common perception.
Marie Vernet and Cyril Trimaille examine palatalisation and affrication of stop consonants among adolescent female speakers in Grenoble. They find patterns of stylistic variation consistent with marker variables, and conclude that the variant of affricates could become a strong indicator of identity. Aidan Coveney explores the problems of accounting for grammatical variation within variationist sociolinguistics. He argues that communicative function helps to determine the choice of variants on a given occasion.
Zsuzsanna Faygal looks at rhythm and pronunciation (such as word-shortening) in speech and song in the French of rap and hip-hop culture. She argues that although popular music may be a vector for change, it is unlikely that these innovations represent any significant changes in the community that they originate from, and where they are used. Finally Nigel Armstrong closes the volume with his attempt to determine what kind of variable French mute-e is in terms of the indicator-marker categorisation. Based on his Dieuze data, he concludes that mute-e appears to be a ‘hyper-style’ variable when scripted elicitation occurs.
This collection gives a clear overview of the key areas of sociolinguistic variation currently under analysis by well-known and respected researchers. Together, they have identified some of the major subfields of research in this dynamic field. This volume also shows how similar issues now provide a focus for work in both the anglophone and francophone contexts. Linguists and learners of French will benefit strongly from this collection of empirically based and scholarly accounts of some very important aspects of sociolinguistic variation and change in French. This volume is generally well presented and very pleasant to read.
