Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T02:45:57.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Word-final consonant devoicing in a variety of working-class French – a case of language contact?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 October 2008

Timothy Pooley
Affiliation:
Department of Language Studies, London Guildhall University, Old Castle Street, London El 7NT.

Abstract

The article examines the variable distribution of word-final consonant devoicing (=WFCD) among working-class speakers in the Roubaix district, with respect to phonological conditioning and speaker characteristics. WFCD is shown to affect coronals, labials and velars in that order, and to be favoured by pre-pausal position. Among speakers over forty-five WFCD is primarily associated with female speakers, and to a lesser degree with male speakers under thirty. This sociolinguistically unusual distribution of a strongly vernacular variant may plausibly be attributed to language/dialect contact consequent on the immigration of Flemish-speaking textile workers. Such language contact would have tended to reinforce an already existing characteristic of Picard patois rather than introducing a totally new feature as the brief review of other Picard varie-ties would suggest.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baetens-Beardsmore, H. (1971). Le Français régional de Bruxelles. Brussels: Presses Universitaires de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Bodart-Timal, . (1960). Evocations roubaisiennes. Roubaix: Les Amis de Roubaix.Google Scholar
Carton, F. (1981). Les parlers ruraux de la région Nord-Picardie. International Journal ofthe Sociology ofLanguage, 29: 1528.Google Scholar
Carton, F., Rossi, M., Autesserre, D. and Léon, P. (1983). Les Accents des Français. Paris: Hachette.Google Scholar
Cochet, E. (1933). Le Patois de Gondecourt. Paris: Droz.Google Scholar
Debrie, R. (1981). Problèmes posés par la présence de l'assimilation régressive dans le sud-ouest du domaine picard. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 45: 421464.Google Scholar
Debrie, R. (1983). L'alternance phonétique ch/s en vermandois et Picardie septentrionale. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 47: 103120.Google Scholar
Debrie, R. (1985). Réflexions sur le comportement du 1 en phonétique picarde. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 49: 167181.Google Scholar
Debrie, R. (1986). Destin de l'imparfait du subjonctif en picard. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 51: 157175.Google Scholar
Debrie, R. (1988). Les substituts de dont en picard. Revue de Linguistique Romane, 50: 355363.Google Scholar
Desrousseaux, A. (1970). Florilège des chansons en patois de Lille, 30 chansons choisies et présentées par Simons. Lille: A. Maurizi.Google Scholar
Donaldson, B. (1983). Dutch - a Linguistic History ofHolland and Belgium. Leiden: Martinus Nyhoff.Google Scholar
Dorian, N. (1981). Language Death. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flutre, L. (1955). Le Parler picard de Mesnil-Martinsart. Paris: E. Droz.Google Scholar
Foley, J. (1977). Foundations qf Theoretical Phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gilliéron, J. & Edmont, E. (19021910). Atlas linguistique de la France. Paris: Honoré Champion.Google Scholar
Gueunier, N., Genouvrier, E. & Khomsi, A. (1978). Les Français devant la norme. Paris: Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Guillaume, F. (1975). Julie ch'est mi. Articles published in Nord-Eclair.Google Scholar
Hilaire, Y.-M. (ed.). (1984). Histoire de Roubaix. Dunkerque: Editions des Beffrois.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistk Pattems. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lateur, M. (1951). Lexique du parler populaire d'Artois. Paris: Ricour et Chevillet.Google Scholar
Lefèbvre, A. (1991). Le Français de la région lilloise. Paris: Sorbonne.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milroy, L. (1980). Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pooley, T. (1988). Grammatical and phonological variation in the working-class French of Roubaix. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Pooley, T. (1991). Le recul du patois roubaisien. Revue Romane, 26: 5468.Google Scholar
Pooley, T. (1992). Le parler populaire de Roubaix: perte d'un patois ou émergence d'un nouveau vernaculaire urbain. Revue Romane, 27: 207223.Google Scholar
Poulet, D. (1987). Au Contact du picard et du flamand. Lille: Atelier National, reproduction de thèses.Google Scholar
Simons, P. (1972). L'gampe à Ugène. Lille: Les Amis de Lille.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Temple, R. (1992). Variation in French voicing patterns. Paper read at AFLS Conference: York.Google Scholar
Thomas, B. (1989). Differences of sex and sects: linguistic variation and social networks in a Welsh mining village. In Coates, J. and Cameron, D. (eds.), Women in their Speech Communities. London: Longman, pp. 5160.Google Scholar
Trénard, L. (ed.) (1972). Histoire des Pays-Bas français. Toulouse: Privat.Google Scholar
Trénard, L. (ed.) (1977). Histoire d'une métrople - Lille-Roubaix-Tourcoing. Toulouse: Privat.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1983). Sociolinguistics, 2nd edn.Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1986). Dialects in Contact. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Vasseur, G. (1950). Lexique serrurier du Vimeu. Paris: Droz.Google Scholar
Viez, H. (1910). Le Parler populaire de Roubaix. Marseille: Lafitte Reprints (1978).Google Scholar
Walter, H. (1977). La Phonologie du français. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Watteeuw, J. (1973). Pasquilles et chansons du broutteux, preface by Fernand Carton. Tourcoing: Georges Frère.Google Scholar
Weinreich, U. (1953). Languages in Contact. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York (reprinted The Hague: Mouton, 1970).Google Scholar