A Sociolinguistic Study of the Regional French of Normandy

This dissertation is the first investigation of the Regional French of Normandy using

provides a partial characterisation of the regional variety of French spoken in Normandy,

La Bonneville (rural Lower Normandy) and Darnétal (urban Upper Normandy). This is

instrumental measurements for the investigation of phonological variables (the vowels in

been noted in the literature as characteristic of the Regional French of Normandy, are

of Normandy according to where they thought people spoke differently. They were then

whether they could give any examples of the accent and whether they thought the accent

compared with the phonological results speaker-by-speaker, to determine in particular

'goodness' of the accent and their own phonological results (whether or not they actually

Regional French of Normandy is limited at best, and that, in linguistic terms, Normandy

terms, Normandy is arguably not a single speech-community, since there is little shared

investigated here.

Reference

Labov, William. 2001. Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 2: Social Factors.

Oxford, UK and Malden, MA, USA: Blackwell.