Tim Pooley

Social Factors: Bringing Together Class, Gender, Migration, Ideology and Language

We attempt to draw together here the threads of earlier chapters in the light of our depiction of the linguistic situation in the territories under scrutiny, beginning with three of the main aspects of social levelling described in Chapter 3: social class, gender and migration. We evaluate their sociolinguistic effects before moving on to issues of ideology and cultural hegemony. We aim to summarise, firstly what can be argued from documented evidence of vernacular French forms, and secondly cases where social and ideological changes have favoured the maintenance and/or valorisation of a traditional ancestral variety. We begin with social class.

The Links Between Social and Linguistic Change

The principal research theme examined in this book is variation, and to some extent change, in the pronunciation of contemporary European French, considered from the viewpoint of how language change has reflected and continues to reflect social changes in the principal French-speaking countries of Europe. It is of course axiomatic that variation can indicate change, and the study of language variation and change implies consideration of accounts of past linguistic behaviour and the sociolinguistic functions that speakers exercise in their present variable pronunciation. This further connected theme has therefore to do with differences between the processes of social change that have occurred in these countries. We leave detailed consideration of this issue until Chapter 3, but briefly, this latter purpose focusses on whether we can legitimately talk of an ‘exception culturelle’ that sets the francophone countries apart in their linguistic behaviour from the rather notable increase of informality observable in most Western liberal countries, manifested in what is sometimes referred to as social levelling.

Regional Vernacular Varieties and Language Levelling in Belgium and Switzerland

In this chapter we discuss the evolution of vernacular varieties in francophone Belgium and Suisse romande since the 1960s and 1970s. As both territories are administratively federal with different substrate varieties, we propose a presentation based on broad regional divisions. This procedure exposes rather starkly that the available evidence has variable value, whether of fieldwork methodology, recency or geographical coverage. For Belgium, separate sections are devoted to the major territorial divisions of Brussels (with its traditional sociolinguistic divisions) and Wallonia, which can be sub-divided according to either the distribution of the traditional endogenous varieties or more recent perceptual accounts. For Switzerland, the fullest accounts (in geographical coverage) are based on perceptual studies carried out in the 1970s and 1980s, while more recent studies (perceptual and phonological) are heavily concentrated on one canton, the Vaud.

The Levelling of Regional Varieties in France

In this chapter we consider the ongoing levelling of regional pronunciation, using perceptual and behavioural data. The picture of regional variation among speakers born in the first half of the 20th century, built up from the landmark studies of Martinet (1945), Walter (1982) and Carton et al. (1983) is contrasted with what can be gleaned from more recent work. In so doing we contest the widely accepted view expressed by Walter (1982: 52) that regional factors outweighed the social in determining how individuals spoke: Ce qu’il faut reconnaitre, c’est que les differences sur le plan geographique l’emportent pour le moment, dans nos regions, sur les differences sociales.

Social Levelling: Substantive Transformations, Changing Social Practices and Symbolic Representations

In the previous chapter we attempted to characterise the three major French-speaking areas of Europe in a wider sociolinguistic perspective, while at the same time focussing on various aspects of their different histories that seem to contribute significantly to their national identity and its linguistic manifestations. The historical diversity discussed in Chapter 2 contrasts sharply with the relative uniformity of transnational trends that have affected western societies in comparable, but not identical, ways since the 1950s. This chapter, as the sub-title implies, will evoke these trends on three levels, according to a model used by Bassand (2004) to examine the development of large and often somewhat inchoate urban areas as follows: (1) substantive (morphological) transformations (2) changes in social practices (3) changes in symbolic representations.

Standardisation and Language Change in France, Belgium and Switzerland

In the following chapter we give an account of the social changes that have occurred in western European countries from the 1960s, an epoch generally accepted as a key turning-point. The changes, whether substantive like the rise in the numbers of people entering post-compulsory education, the decline in those working in industry and agriculture; or attitudinal like the decline of deference and the corresponding increase of informality, describable as the zeitgeist, appear to have affected western countries in analogous ways in many areas of social practice. It is however undeniable that these changes have occurred in societies possessing very different linguistic traditions.

Accents and Levelling in France, Belgium and Switzerland

In Section 3.9 of the previous chapter we referred to a number of changes in the zeitgeist of the francophone areas and other parts of Europe: in particular, an anti-authoritarian spirit which has led to the questioning of and loss of confidence in many of the major institutions of society; secondly, and no doubt as a consequence, a tendency to informalisation in a number of social practices. At this point we can raise the question whether the institution that is Standard French has been undermined in comparable fashion, or at the very least lost some of its ‘sacred aura’ while undergoing changes commensurate with informalisation, bearing in mind the considerable weight of factors (levels of education, service-sector employment) which favour increased exposure to and mastery of standard or near-standard forms.