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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1346

Part of Session 157: Dialect Perceptions in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

The accents of Marseilles: perceptions and linguistic change

Authors: Gasquet-Cyrus, Mederic
Submitted by: Gasquet-Cyrus, Mederic (Universite d'Aix-Marseille, France)

Although it is still known for its strong monolingual ideology (Spolsky 2004), France begins to discover its own linguistic diversity: regional or immigrant languages, accents and dialects constitute contemporary objects of research. Urban sociolinguistics, which have been considerably developed in the last decade (Bulot 2011), have generated the construction of a theoretical framework for the study of variations, emerging norms, discriminations but also perception of language in France’s large cities. The present proposal, devoted to the perceptions of accents in Marseilles, is part of this field, and from the perspective of both ethnographic methods and discourse analysis, a synthesis of the sociolinguistic landscape of Marseilles will be drawn.
France’s second largest town and European Capital of Culture in 2013, Marseilles is well-known for what is considered as the most famous accent of the country, the so-called Marseilles accent, often described stereotypically. But the social complexity of this town, its strong identity, a long history resulting from the presence of immigrants, and the configuration of its legendary “111” districts has had an impact on the sociolinguistic landscape. There is not one single “accent of Marseilles”, but some varieties existing in a continuum, with many differences as to how they are perceived in the population. Previous inquiries have outlined the existence of at least three accents associated with specific areas of the town (Binisti & Gasquet-Cyrus 2003), which are not objective places, but social areas functioning as territories. The variable delimitation of these territories reflects strong social tensions and can explain some recent linguistic changes, as it has been shown through the study of the imitation and diffusion among people of various social classes of the “North-accent” (Jamin & al. 2006; Gasquet-Cyrus 2009), primarily considered negatively as a “foreign” accent. The changes are so acute that the study of a new category of immigrants, the “neo-Marseillais”, has shed light on new processes of perception and linguistic change through gentrification (Trimaille & Gasquet-Cyrus, forthcoming).
Arguing for the combination of urban sociolinguistics, perceptual dialectology and ethnographic approaches, this paper will analyze how the perceptions of city dwellers are shaping both the sociolinguistic landscape and the ongoing linguistic change in this major Euromediterranean town.

References
Binisti, Nathalie, Gasquet-Cyrus, Nathalie. 2003. Les accents de Marseille. In Cahiers du français contemporain 8 : 127-129.
Bulot, Thierry (ed.). 2011. Sociolinguistique urbaine et Linguistic Landscape Studies, Cahiers de Linguistique 37, EME, Cortil-Wodon.
Gasquet-Cyrus, Médéric. 2009. Territorialisation, stigmatisation et diffusion. L’accent “quartiers Nord” à Marseille. In T. Bulot (ed.), Formes & normes sociolinguistiques. Ségrégations et discriminations urbaines, Paris: L’Harmattan: 209-222.
Jamin, Mikaël, Trimaille, Cyril, Gasquet-Cyrus, Médéric. 2006. De la convergence dans la divergence: le cas des quartiers pluri-ethniques en France. Journal of French Language Studies 16 (3), Cambridge University Press: 335-356.
Trimaille, Cyril, Gasquet-Cyrus, Médéric (forthcoming). Urban changes, gentrification, and their effects on language variation and change. In M. Jones & D. Hornsby (eds), Language and Social Structure in Urban France, Oxford: Legenda.
Spolsky, Bernard. 2004. Language Policy, Cambridge University Press.