Summary
Overview
STANDARD modern French derives from francien, the name now given to the langue d'oïl dialects spoken around Paris after the disappearance of Latin. France is usually divided into three main linguistic regions: the North, where these langue d'oïl dialects are grouped; the South, where langue d'oc or Occitan dialects are spoken; and the franco-provençal area. In addition to Occitan, six other ‘indigenous’ languages, only two of them deriving from Latin, are spoken around the geographical periphery of France, while a number of ‘immigrant’ languages such as Arabic or Portuguese are now spoken over the whole country.
The northern langue d'oïl dialects of French can be thought of as lying in three zones: zone 1, closest to Paris, including the dialects of francien, zone 2 in a circle from angevin, normand, picard, champenois, bourguignon, berrichon to poitevin, and zone 3, farthest from Paris including gallo, lorrain, and wallon. Such a labelling represents the Paris-dominated world of linguistic research, but is convenient in examining linguistic characteristics by contrast with standard French.
In the South, dialects of north Occitan include limousin, north and south auvergnat, and alpine provençal. South Occitan dialects are languedocien and provençal, and the dialects of gascon are situated in the south-west of France.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French , pp. 18 - 36Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990