Regional Accents in French

Guest   Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:49 pm GMT
"Télématin garden expert and author. I can understand him, but his accent seems "different" to me."
JLK   Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:22 am GMT
<<Dear Interested,

Having an accent when you live in Paris is very bad, you look like a farmer! I had to work hard to loose my accent when i came in Paris in 1997! Now i have a typical parisian accent!

What do you mean by "Northern French Standard Accent?">>

What do the Parisians think of the French spoken around Tours? The widely accepted belief is that the people of Tours and surrounding area speak the purest, most standard French. Apparently, it is completely void of a regional accent, unlike Paris for example.
Parisien   Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:27 am GMT
"The widely accepted belief is that the people of Tours and surrounding area speak the purest, most standard French. "

This is some kind of a politically correct urban legend born in the 19th century. The central part of France was found eligible to represent the purest French because the North and South are supposed to meet there. And since Bourgogne, in the Centre-East, had too strong an accent, the optimal location was spotted in the Centre-West...

Actually, the purest French is spoken by all middle-to-upper classes anywhere in the central an northern part of the country — Orléans, Cherbourg, Bourges, Nancy, Rennes, Amiens, Dijon, Rouen or Tours... absolutely no difference whatsoever. Large urban areas like Paris, Lille or Lyon sometimes maintain special habits in vocabulary, local slangs, and prosody, but the differences are very scarce.

On 3/4 of its territory (i.e. North of the Bordeaux-Briançon line), France is an area of linguistic homogeneity that is unparalleled in Europe, except for Russia perhaps. BUT remember that in this area, accents are class-markers (like in England). Farmers and working class people stick to their regional accents, also in Tours.

On the other hand, in the South, accents aren't class-conditioned. In the North, a mayor, a senator, a doctor, or a lawyer etc. wouldn't be taken seriously if he/she speaks like common people. In the South, he has to do!
Guest   Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:01 pm GMT
In the South he HAS to do this.
JLK   Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:10 pm GMT
Thank you for that informative post, Parisian.
Guest   Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:29 pm GMT
<<On the other hand, in the South, accents aren't class-conditioned. In the North, a mayor, a senator, a doctor, or a lawyer etc. wouldn't be taken seriously if he/she speaks like common people. In the South, he has to do!>>

What do you mean, that people in the south of France speak accented naturally and those who speak like the Parisien are seen as pretentious?.
Guest   Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:44 pm GMT
What about Mr. Collignon? Noone watches French TV?
Guest   Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:47 am GMT
<<What do you mean, that people in the south of France speak accented naturally and those who speak like the Parisien are seen as pretentious?>>

They would be seen as pretentious and treasonous if ever. No one among the locals dares to speak like the TV. There is a heavy social pressure to prevent that!
Guest   Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:55 am GMT
Yes, the guillotine... (that's a joke, I hope you know that.)

So, do you KNOW about Mr. Collignon?