Dr. David Hornsby (University of Kent)
In Hornsby (2006), I argued that as France’s traditional local dialects or patois die out, they are being replaced, in the industrial north, with new urban regional French varieties which are emerging from contact. The book further suggested that what was true for the Nord-Pasde-Calais might also be true for other urban areas, and that the belated emergence of citybased regional accents, comparable to those of the UK, might be a fruitful focus for future research. Since then, a chorus of evidence from Durand, Pooley, Armstrong and others has dashed this optimism, suggesting in fact that regional dialect levelling (RDL) of a very radical kind continues apace, with localized features receding almost everywhere. Even the traditionally conservative phonology of the south appears under threat: one commentator has noted the ‘near perfect Parisian accents’ of young méridionaux. Urban informants in perception tests prove consistently unable to recognize regional accents, even those of their own city.
