(l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal

Kasstan, J. and Müller, D. 2018. (l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 249, pp. 99-118. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2017-0039

Title(l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal
TypeJournal article
AuthorsKasstan, J. and Müller, D.
Abstract

This article argues for (l) as a sociolinguistic variable in Francoprovençal: (l) refers to variable palatalisation of /l/ in obstruent + lateral onset clusters (/kl, ɡl, pl, bl, fl/), a feature that has long been the subject of metalinguistic commentary, but no systematic analysis. Our data, which come from a larger study of Francoprovençal (FP), show significant intraspeaker variation. Sociolinguistic interviews were carried out in the Lyonnais region of France among 21 FP speakers with different acquisition routes. /l/-palatalisation is far from categorical in our sample, with increased rates of the French variant [l] over the traditional [j] variant. We interpret these data as contact-induced change: phonological leveling is underway, with convergence towards French. These findings are consistent with the language death literature, and are now widely reported in the context of other minority varieties spoken in the Hexagon. Conversely, some new speakers show different patterns with a greater range of palatalised variants. These findings add to a growing body of evidence that suggest laterals to be a locus for socio-indexical cues cross-linguistically.

KeywordsFrancoprovençal
Variation and change
Language obsolescence
Palatalisation
New speakers
JournalInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language
Journal citation249, pp. 99-118
ISSN0165-2516
Year2018
PublisherDe Grutyer
Publisher's version
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2017-0039
Web address (URL)https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/ijsl.2018.2018.issue-249/ijsl-2017-0039/ijsl-2017-0039.xml
Publication dates
Published online21 Nov 2017
Published in print2018

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