Regional variation and the commodification of language in southwest France

在那些发展严格的语言等级制度的社会（如法国），从属的语言种类可能受到威胁。语言和文化多样性的生存可能取决于一个社区在特定的意识形态制度下将其传统做法商品化的能力。本研究旨在探讨法国南部两个地区（波尔多和图卢兹）的法语地区语言是如何以不同的方式被商品化的。该项目将语言实践和语言变化作为了解更广泛的地方政治和经济动态的窗口。在法国，强大的规范主义传统导致了地区法语的高度标准化，以及有利于统一超地方规范的方言水平化（Amstrong & Pooley，2010; Blanchet & Armstrong，2006;Pooley，2000）。然而，一些区域主义依然存在。这个项目的重点是如何将这些地区主义作为地方的象征在波尔多和图卢兹。选择这两个地点是因为虽然它们都位于相似的地理区域（法国西南部），并共享某些文化和行政特征（例如南方美食，当地行政区的首府），但它们也在重要方面有所不同。一个主要的区别是他们的物理和象征接近巴黎。波尔多市理事会有一个明确的目标，即区别于其他南部城市，并与首都建立更紧密的联系，图卢兹没有这样的目标。这两个城市都有庞大的旅游业，尽管波尔多倾向于吸引富有的客户到附近的海滨和葡萄酒产区，但图卢兹却依赖于商务旅游（它是欧洲航空业的中心）。因此，这些特征对法语（以及图卢兹的地方语言）的地方变体的商品化和与地方的联系方式产生了不同的影响。在这两个城市，地方美食都是地区身份和真实性的象征，但消费者目标不同，商品化策略也不同。例如，当美食在波尔多被视为一种奢侈品和社会声望的依赖时，图卢兹的美食促进了风土美食。通过这种方式，当销售/推广当地农产品时，波尔多的说话者可能希望消除他们的西南口音-被巴黎人认为是有趣和荒谬的（Pustka，2011）-而图卢兹的人则会强调他们的地区特色。最后，尽管波尔多和图卢兹都是奥克语（分别是Gascon和Eschedocien）的发源地，但Gascon在波尔多已经完全消失了，而图卢兹则保持着一种明确的语言政策，促进Eschedocien的可识别性和使用。因此，波尔多和图卢兹在社会态度和语言方面存在分歧，波尔多向巴黎的语言规范靠拢，而图卢兹则与之保持距离。这些差异引发了关于语言、地点和身份之间关系的一些问题。鉴于波尔多和图卢兹之间的差异，在什么时候和什么条件下，生活在这些地方的人依靠语言的地方主义来增加他们是谁和/或他们卖什么的价值？此外，由于这些地区的城市和农村地区不以相同的方式显示真实性（例如，在农村周边地区生产当地食品并在城市地区销售），城市居民和农村居民利用哪些不同的战略来传播和销售他们自己的区域遗产？

In societies that develop strict hierarchies of linguisticprestige (like France), subordinate language varieties can bethreatened. The survival of linguistic and cultural diversitycan come to depend on a community's capacity tocommodify their traditional practices within a particularregime of ideologies. This project examines how Frenchregional language becomes commodified as emblems ofplace in different ways in two southern French regions:Bordeaux and Toulouse. The project uses language practicesand language change as a window into the wider political andeconomic dynamics of place.In France, a strong prescriptivist tradition has led to a highdegree of standardisation of regional French as well asdialect levelling in favour of uniform supralocal norms(Amstrong & Pooley, 2010; Blanchet & Armstrong, 2006;Pooley, 2000). Nevertheless, some regionalisms remain. Thisproject focuses on how such regionalisms becomecommodified as emblems of place in Bordeaux andToulouse. The two sites are chosen because while they areboth located in a similar geographical area (southwest10 / 14France) and share certain cultural and administrativefeatures (e.g. southern gastronomy, capitals of their localadministrative districts), they also differ in important ways. Amajor difference is their physical and symbolic proximity toParis. The Bordeaux city council has a stated goal ofdistinguishing itself from other southern cities and drawingcloser links to the capital, goals that Toulouse does notshare. Both have large tourist industries, though whileBordeaux tends to attract a wealthy clientele to its nearbyseaside and wine-growing region, Toulouse relies instead onbusiness tourism (it is a European centre for the aeronauticindustry). Thus, these characteristics impact differently onthe ways regional varieties of French (and regional languagein Toulouse) are commodified and linked to place. In bothcities local gastronomy is a symbol of regional identity andauthenticity, however consumer targets are different and soare the commodification strategies. For instance, whilegastronomy in Bordeaux is presented as a luxury and relieson social prestige, Toulouse gastronomy promotes terroircuisine. In this way, when selling/promoting local produce,speakers in Bordeaux may want to erase their southwesternaccent - perceived as funny and ridiculous by Parisians(Pustka, 2011) - while those in Toulouse would emphasisetheir regional features. Finally, although Bordeaux andToulouse are both historic homes to varieties of Occitan(Gascon and Languedocien, respectively), Gascon hasdisappeared entirely in Bordeaux, whereas Toulousemaintains an explicit language policy promoting the visibilityand use of Languedocien. Bordeaux and Toulouse thusdiverge in terms of their social attitudes and languagenorms, with Bordeaux converging towards Parisian prestigenorms, whereas Toulouse distances itself from them.These differences raise a number of questions about therelationship between language, place and identity. Given thedifferences between Bordeaux and Toulouse, when andunder what conditions do people living in these locations relyon linguistic regionalisms to add value to who they are and/orwhat they sell? In addition, since urban and rural areas ofthese regions do not display authenticity in the same ways(e.g., production of local food in rural peripheries and theirsale in urban areas), what different strategies do urban vsrural dwellers draw upon to convey and sell their own regionalheritage?