Meridional French


Meridional French, also referred to as Francitan, is a regional variant of the French language. Widely spoken in Occitania, it is strongly influenced by Occitan.
There are speakers of Meridional French in all generations; however, the accent is most marked among the elderly, who often speak Occitan as their first language.

Characteristics

The phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon of the Occitan language have all influenced Meridional French, but it is perhaps the phonological effects which are the most salient and have produced the characteristic accent heard from Meridional French speakers. These effects have been summarized as consisting in part of:
Meridional French is also subject to a phonological law known as the Law of Position, in which mid vowels are subject to allophonic variation based on the shape of their syllables, being realized as mid-open in closed syllables and as mid-close in open syllables. The phenomenon has been shown to be somewhat more complex, however, by Durand, Eychenne, and Chabot. The principle is strictly adhered to by speakers of Meridional French, in contrast to speakers of other varieties of French.

Phonology

A number of vocabulary items are peculiar to Meridional French: for example, péguer, "to be sticky", chocolatine, "pain au chocolat", or flute.
Some phrases are used with meanings which differ from those they have in Standard French. For example, s'il faut, literally meaning "if necessary", is used to mean "perhaps". This is a calque of the Occitan se cal.