# French dialect / accents



## quehuong

To native and nonnative French speakers:

I wish to have your subjective beliefs concerning standard French and/or your dialect(s) for educational purposes.  

What do you think of standard French?  What do you think of your dialect?  When/Where/Why do you use either or both?  

I probably will use this for future research or essay.

Many(n) thanks in advance!


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## valerie

I can not say I speak a dialect, I do speak standard French from France. Only:
- Most people in my region have 'un accent' (I'm from SW of France)
- Some words are differents, probably from Occitan, the language that was spoken there 50 years ago (and still is by some persons, although I am not very optimitic with its future). Some examples (not related to occitan): I call une poche (en plastique), what in Paris is called un sac (to do your shopping). I call une chocolatine what in Paris is called un pain au chocolat
- I use /do not use some forms without knowing if they are family related or region related or what. For example: I say:Ce plat trouve à champignon (= a le gout de ...). I never say: je me languis de mes parents

Some other time, in another thread, we may speak about Occitan, which is not a dialect of French, even if old people there call it 'le patois'


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## OlivierG

I am from the same region as Valerie, and my answer would be the same.
I speak French ("standard" French?) but sometimes I use regional terms, most of the time without knowing they are not understood outside my area. (e.g. "le vent d'Autan, ça m'ensuque")

Gros poutous,


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## valerie

Olivier,

Tu vas peut-être résoudre ce doute qui me taraude. Est ce que tu dis aussi : 'ça trouve à' pour 'ça a le gout de' ?


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## clavie

I would use an every-day-type-of-French-speaking when I'm talking with a friend or member of the family.  I would use a more "standard" French when I speak to a stranger or if I write a letter, or for school work.


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## OlivierG

valerie said:
			
		

> Olivier,
> 
> Tu vas peut-être résoudre ce doute qui me taraude. Est ce que tu dis aussi : 'ça trouve à' pour 'ça a le gout de' ?


Personnellement, non. Mais je l'ai déjà entendu, et voici une référence :

<<*trouver à* _v._ - _Ce vin, il *trouve à* bouchon. Tu trouves pas?_: ... il a un goût de bouchon. (De l'occ. *trobar a, sentir a*). *Esp: saber a.* Voir _agaoumit, donner à, goût, goûter sel, oeuf couvé, périr._>>

In "A bisto de nas", 
_Dictionnaire des mots et expressions de la langue française parlée dans le Sud-Ouest et de leurs rapprochement avec l'occitan, le catalan, l'espagnol, l'italien et l'argot méridional_
Bernard Vavassori, 
Ed. Loubatières

Je te le conseille !


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## quehuong

Thanks everyone for your contributions!  I'm saving your messages in a file so that I might be able to use them later in my paper.

I have another question.  

How are *les patois* being viewed by native speakers and nonnative speakers?

Thanks!
-----------------

Mme Valerie,

une chocolatine reminds me of the film "Chocolat" with Juliette Binoche.  Thank you for the regionalisms.

M. OlivierG,

Qu'est-ce que les poutous, le vent d'Autan, et ça m'ensuque?

(M/Mme ?) Clavie,

Are there different types of French dialects spoken in Quebec?

I apologize for not knowing whether "Clavie" is a masculine or feminine name (or just a nickname).


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## OlivierG

quehuong said:
			
		

> How are *les patois* being viewed by native speakers and nonnative speakers?


My parents were teachers, and started their career 35 years ago in little villages of the South-West of France.
Some of the children spoke French only a few: they were speaking "patois" (in fact, occitan), and this language was considered negatively. But now it is not anymore spoke daily, except by a very few old people. 
However, many people over 60 here are still bilingual, or at least understand it well.
For my generation (30-40), there are still a bunch of expressions that still come from there. Thanks to the TV, the young people almost don't use them anymore.


> M. OlivierG,
> Qu'est-ce que les poutous, le vent d'Autan, et ça m'ensuque?



"un poutou" is a kiss on cheek
"le vent d'Autan" is a warm south-east gusty wind that blows inmy region. 
"ensuquer"... er... is almost untranslatable, even in French. It is when you are made a litle bit senseless, slightly tired, without strength.


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## joelle

Firstly, ay I suggest you to read this book: "Le français dans tous les sens" , written by a french linguist, Henriette Walter.
It is quite easy to read, funny too, and give a lots of example of "french dialects".

In France as in other counties, you can find regional differences in words and accents but I think the most important differences in spoken language are found in what linguists call "sociolects": the language you can hear in medias (standard french) is very different from the language used in the communication between youngsters in the suburbs!!!


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## joelle

Olivier et Valérie,
vous avez oublié "péguer" !!! 
Moi, je dis "ça a goût à"...


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## valerie

péguer, ça pègue, comment on dirait ça ailleurs en France?

Je vais essayer de trouver 'a bisto de nas'

Dans les villages, effectivement seules les personnes les plus agées parlent l'occitan. Par exemple, ma grand-mère me parlait occitan à moi, mes parents sont capables de le parler avec les frères et soeurs les plus agés, et moi je le comprend, et je l'ai étudié un peu à l'école (comme option au bac). Mes enfants ne l'entendent jamais.

Mais je crois qu'il y a aussi un certain mouvement pour le renouveau de l'occitan, il y a des écoles (privées) tout en occitan (je ne me souviens plus de leur nom), il y a un programme de télévision en occitan (sur FR3 ou télé Toutouse?), bien que je ne sache pas l'impact que tout ça peu avoir sans soutien politique.

Oups, Quehuong, je crois que tu parles Français, non? Sinon, dis-moi, je traduirai ce message.


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## quehuong

valerie said:
			
		

> Oups, Quehuong, je crois que tu parles Français, non? Sinon, dis-moi, je traduirai ce message.



Merci beaucoup, Mme Valerie , mais je comprends votre message.  I'm all right with reading (certain types of text only), but writing French is another matter.  I think it's going to take me at least 10 more years to be able to read and write French with more ease.  I'm looking forward to being 34.



			
				joelle said:
			
		

> Firstly, ay I suggest you to read this book: "Le français dans tous les sens" , written by a french linguist, Henriette Walter.
> It is quite easy to read, funny too, and give a lots of example of "french dialects".



Thank you, Joelle, for the recommendation.  Je vais l'acheter.



			
				OlivierG said:
			
		

> "un poutou" is a kiss on cheek
> "le vent d'Autan" is a warm south-east gusty wind that blows inmy region.
> "ensuquer"... er... is almost untranslatable, even in French. It is when you are made a litle bit senseless, slightly tired, without strength.



Thank you for the translation. 

----------------------------------------

Je voudrais avoir plus de mots et expressions régionaux (s'il vous plai^t).

Merci!


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## OlivierG

Indeed, Joelle, I forgot "péguer". And, as Valerie, I would be in trouble if I had to translate it in "standard" French.
Quehuong, there are many, many regional expression that come from the occitan here.
I don't know which ones I could tell you.
Any idea, Joelle and Valérie ?
The most obvious, maybe : "la malle de la voiture", "mascagner", "s'espatarer", "se faire mouster", "un tchucou", "se faire espoutir", "une veillée au cantou"...

Here it is, I have found the translation for "péguer": "poisser".


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## lymoon

i don't even understand any of these words! it must be real regional expressions!
étrange!!


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## OlivierG

lymoon said:
			
		

> i don't even understand any of these words! it must be real regional expressions!
> étrange!!


I am going to try building a whole sentence that could only be understood by a native of the South-West.
Here is the "translation" of the above:
la malle de la voiture = le coffre de la voiture
mascagner = difficilement traduisible : travailler avec difficulté
s'espatarer= tomber de tout son long, être allongé
se faire mouster= coutume des vendanges: se faire barbouiller de raisin
un tchucou = sucette pour bébé (totoche?)
se faire espoutir= se faire écraser
une veillée au cantou=une veillée au coin du feu. Dans les grandes cheminées du coin, il y a même des bancs de part et d'autre dans la cheminée pour cet usage.


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## lymoon

ah !!! tu vois je comprends mieux!
i would say "une tétine" for tchucou. have you ever heard of this word?


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## OlivierG

lymoon said:
			
		

> ah !!! tu vois je comprends mieux!
> i would say "une tétine" for tchucou. have you ever heard of this word?


Yes, I use it too, but it also means the rubber end of a feeding-bottle (biberon), right? So I prefer to use "tchucou" or "totoche". (I speak about using the word, not the object  )


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## lymoon

true! but we often use it for both! some people would use "totoche" here as well. and also "sucette" crazy isn t it?!!!


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## valerie

Olivier et Joelle,

Un autre doute qu¡ me taraude aussi . Je dis depuis la plus tendre enfance: " De la confiture! Donne-*moi-z-en * "  
Avez-vous déjà entendu ça, est-ce que je peux le classer comme régionalisme, ou c'est simplement une tournure familiale incorrecte?  

Moi aussi j'utilise le tchucou, mais c'est le mot dont on se sert dans mon entourage pour essayer de faire honte aux enfants un peu grands qui ont toujours la sucette (mot standard pour moi). (La tétine est le bout en caoutchouc du biberon).
Tchuquer s'utilise et veut dire sucer. On peut le dire de quelqu'un qui boit (beaucoup d'alcool), d'un voiture qui consomme (beaucoup d'essence),...


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## Addyblue

Et moi, je vis à Toulouse et fréquente des gens du Lot, mais je viens du Poitou-Charente et il y a plein d'expressions qui me font sourire. Ici on dit : 
- "J'échappe le crayon" => chez moi, c'est le crayon qui nous échappe!
- "Je tombe la veste" => chez moi, on ôte/enlève sa veste
- "ça a goût à... " => chez moi, ça a le goût de...
- "Il s'est pris une bouffe" => chez moi, la bouffe, c'est la nourriture, alors qu'ici, c'est une gifle!
- "Je me suis empégué l'arbre" => chez moi, on dit qu'on a percuté l'arbre.
- "Je me sens ensuqué" => chez moi, on se sent endormi
- "Il me téléphone, à moi!, pour me dire que..." => chez moi, quand un objet est direct, on ne peut pas mettre la préposition "à", ici c'est fréquemment usité pour insister
- "ça ouelle ici" => (je ne suis même pas sûre de l'orthographe) chez moi, on dit que ça pue/ça sent mauvais ici.
- "les peuneus" => chez moi, on dit "les pneus"
- "les élèvent aiment tuster" => chez moi on dit qu'ils aiment tricher aux examens
- "prends ton parapluie en cas qu'il pleuve" => chez moi, on dit : "prends ton parapluie au cas où il pleuvrait"
Sans parler de l'accent du sud et de ses "è" qui se prononcent "é" et du fameux "Boudu, con!" (exclamation de surprise ou d'énervement)


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## joelle

Pour Valérie: Moi aussi, je dis donne moi z'en!!! Mais je crois que ca n'est pas régional...
"Tchucou", je ne connaissais pas. On parle plutôt de "suçu" ...

Some more regional expressions from South-West of France:
une castagne => un coup
se castagner => se battre
espanter => étonner (je suis espanté!)
tcharrer => parler
tchaper => manger
...


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## Silvia

J'ai trouvé ça très intéressant! I mean those words coming from the old Occitan language. Mind you, the dialects from Milan and Lombardy have many things in common with what I thought it was French, but after what you all said, I guess they are more related to Occitan rather than "standard" French.

"<<trouver à v. - Ce vin, il trouve à bouchon. Tu trouves pas?: ... il a un goût de bouchon. (De l'occ. trobar a, sentir a). Esp: saber a." Sa di tappo.
"s'espatarer" = spatasciarsi
"un tchucou" = ciuccio
"tchuquer" = ciucciare (sucer ou consommer de voiture), inciuchettarsi (avec de l'alcool)
"cantou" = cantun

And until early 80s I could hear some old ladies pronouncing the French vowels (son nasal de n compris)

I guess I got out of topic, if so I'm sorry, but I couldn't help!


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## Lucas

Addyblue said:
			
		

> - "Il me téléphone, à moi!, pour me dire que..." => chez moi, quand un objet est direct, on ne peut pas mettre la préposition "à", ici c'est fréquemment usité pour insister



Objet direct ? Certainement pas... Cette phrase est tout à fait correcte. Je crois voir de quoi il s'agit, mais ce n'est pas un bon exemple.


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## mickkey

can you tell me what dulce et decorum est means


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## OlivierG

Please post new requests in a new thread. (By the way, I think your sentence is Latin)


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## melusines

mickkey said:
			
		

> can you tell me what dulce et decorum est means



Pompe et douceur, pompe dans le sens la Pompe et les honneurs

Dulce et decorum est une reference aux douceurs de la gloire

effectivement en latin


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## Floralina

I learned French with my husband and he's a Southerner who uses a standard type accent abroad.  He uses Southern terms at home from Provencal however that are part of the Mediterranean vocabulary.  
When I lived in France on two separate occasions, for a total of twelve years, I became very familiar with these terms.

In Marseille I learned the word 'ensuquee' at the photographers for a passport...because I apparently looked as though someone had hit me on the head.   I loved that term, so, I adopted it then, I'd constantly get criticized if I didn't extricate the terms I'd learned from my everyday speech.

When I was in the South, I had an accent from there, but perhaps not as pronounced as a native.  I often fooled people because they weren't used to hearing an American speak with a Southern accent.  

Peguer is quite common in Marseille and around Marseille.  It's when you spill coke on the floor and it sticks to your feet.  

Our friends in Tarbes double their consonants more than elsewhere in Provence.  'annee' is pronounced fully.  

I lived two years in Alsace Lorraine, near Strasbourg in a village.  There were many people from the Vosges and apparently a certain sort of rivalry between them.  My children were with us this time, therefore, they spoke French at home in America, but in the village they began speaking it all the time.  My son's friend pronounced bain with a very strong accent...bah, put nasal accent on this.  Almost like ba of a sheep.
He'd probably heard it with his southern grandparents, whose accents are not terribly pronounced but present...baing, but not too much on that last bit.
He had no idea of what the kid was saying...
After a year, his French was perfect...but he had not gotten a Northern accent. 
We went to the South to live then, for about six years...and neither of my children ever had a very pronounced Southern accent there.  

If you do have a pronounced Parisian accent in the South, you're going to get teased though.

My own slightly Southern accent, I live in the States again, makes French people wonder how I did it...but, it's just my natural accent because I never had a professor from the North, and lived with my husband whose accent is from the South.

The other day, I was interviewed in an office and the young lady's accent was so typical of Toulouse I had to ask...'j'ai entendu l'accent de Toulouse..non?'  She was surprised to have an American figure it out.  
The Southwest has more r in it.

When you work with French speaking expats, you'll find they'll ask each other whether this or that is said in the North, because they have their own expressions.

Do you use 'Courcaran' in the South west as well for someone who is constantly a pain in the neck and complaining?

Oh, one other thing I found hilarious was when my son did the Southern accent for theater...because he did a Pagnol sketch and alternated between Monsieur Brun and the other card players.  None of the others could do a Northern accent!   

Now of course, he doesn't feel much like using his French as we're in the States.  

Another Marseillais term is 'escagasser', to crush or totally squish.  I've heard 'esquicher' as well.
I'd read Claude Duneton for more if you really enjoy this subject as he says that the real words are in regional languages and French is for the aristocrats.  
I often wondered where the words were hiding for some practical objects!


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## mplsray

quehuong said:


> To native and nonnative French speakers:
> 
> I wish to have your subjective beliefs concerning standard French and/or your dialect(s) for educational purposes.
> 
> What do you think of standard French? What do you think of your dialect? When/Where/Why do you use either or both?
> 
> I probably will use this for future research or essay.
> 
> Many(n) thanks in advance!


 
I studied linguistics and still follow the subject, so that basically determines my attitude towards dialects--and leads me to look at them differently than most people do. I'm a native speaker of Standard American English (with a Central Illinois accent, perhaps a bit altered by having lived in the East and in the Upper Midwest). I speak Standard French French, that is, the standard dialect of France--for all standard languages are, from a linguistic point of view, dialects. As for the patois, I agree with the position held by sociolinguists that all dialects and languages are equal, none being in some sense intrinsically superior, but each having evolved to serve its speakers needs. 

There can be advantages, however, for a person who does not speak the standard dialect of his country to learn that dialect (or one of the standard dialects when there are more than one, as is the case with Norway, for example). Studies have shown that the most effective way of getting someone who speaks a nonstandard dialect or a minority language to learn the standard dialect of his country is to encourage him to be diglossic or bidialectal--to "code-switch," to use another term--and so I'm an advocate of that educational practice where it is applicable, including teaching the person to read and write in his own dialect or language while he is learning to read and write in the standard dialect.


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## ducaroussel

quehuong said:


> Thanks everyone for your contributions!  I'm saving your messages in a file so that I might be able to use them later in my paper.
> 
> I have another question.
> 
> How are *les patois* being viewed by native speakers and nonnative speakers?
> 
> Thanks!
> -----------------
> 
> Mme Valerie,
> 
> une chocolatine reminds me of the film "Chocolat" with Juliette Binoche.  Thank you for the regionalisms.
> 
> M. OlivierG,
> 
> Qu'est-ce que les poutous, le vent d'Autan, et ça m'ensuque?
> 
> (M/Mme ?) Clavie,
> 
> Are there different types of French dialects spoken in Quebec?
> 
> I apologize for not knowing whether "Clavie" is a masculine or feminine name (or just a nickname).


--------------------

Are there different types of French dialects spoken in Quebec?

Yes there are, several, in expressions, tone of voice, and "débit" or speed of flow.  Mine is (used to be)  from the Gaspé region (Eastern most tip of the Province).  It is characterized by very old French expressions (17th century).  Unfortunately, modern means of communication tends to uniformize the language.  My grand-father spoke the true "langue de Molière" which seemed so odd that I quickly endeavoured to forget it.  I now speak international modern French and understand general regional expressions.  But I regret having downrated my grand-father's beautiful "dialect".
duCaroussel


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## Ayazid

I would say that the French language or the French language area is currently the most unified and with the least preserved dialects in Europe, due to 200 years lasting opression of virtually all local languages.. Before the French revolution, France was linguistically as diverse region as Italy or Germany still largely are up to these days, but then the situation changed. It´s only ironic when some contemporary French intelectuals and politics complain about Anglicisation of the world and lost of its original language diversity when such diversity already doesn´t exist in France itself.


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## ymc

There are words which differ from one area to the other indeed. But there are also syntax constructions that differ because of the influence of the local dialect. Hence, in the Southern Alps we say "se tomber par terre" rather than "tomber par terre" because in the local dialect tomber is reflexive.

Also, as for the use of dialect, you may be interested to know that children in schools in Nice learn some traditional songs in the local dialect ("nissart"), even if the same children are not taught any of the dialect itself. Most people in Nice would know at least a few words of "Nissa la Bella", a traditional song about Nice.


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## Aryeh

valerie said:


> Olivier et Joelle,
> 
> Un autre doute qu¡ me taraude aussi . Je dis depuis la plus tendre enfance: " De la confiture! Donne-*moi-z-en * "
> Avez-vous déjà entendu ça, est-ce que je peux le classer comme régionalisme, ou c'est simplement une tournure familiale incorrecte?



C'est entendu également dans la rue de Québec, je crois, en Cajun et en Acadien. On dirait fautive mais moi aussi je me trouve en train de le dire de temps en temps...


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