Redefining Regional French: Koinéization and Dialect Levelling in Northern France

This is the first book-length treatment of français régional, or Regional French (RF). Its importance is twofold. Firstly, it challenges the received view of the concept, which appears to date from the 1920s, according to which Regional French is no more than an ephemeral residue from obsolescent Romance dialects: citing data from northern French, it argues that some RF varieties are healthy and bear a far less direct link to substrate dialects than is generally assumed. Secondly, the book shows how Anglo-American sociolinguistic models can be successfully applied in France, where they have hitherto had little impact, and can yield important new theoretical insights.