French Accents
A very large subject indeed, and difficult for an English speaker to grasp. Because learning to listen is a matter of accustoming the ear to a wide vocabulary of sounds - rather than the 'picture' of the word on the page - it seems sensible to practice listening to French speakers other than the standard French of television news and discussions.
However, coming to terms with French regional accents is not an easy task, and made all the harder by the fact that the French are much less sensitive to their different accents than are the British, for example. There's Paris, and there's the Midi. And recently, thanks to Dany Boon, the accent of the North has made it's appearance
When Arte Television recently started a series of ten 45 minute programmes taking us round the coast or France, starting from Dunkirk, I decided to extract from each one a couple of interviews with local people, as a way of making a start on this topic.
I have to enter a caveat here. I am a beginner in this area, and it is not impossible that the fisherman from Boulogne whose voice I associate with that region, actually comes from quite another part of France ! If you find I've made a mistake, please do email me.
While I am providing the usual combination of video and text, the object here is not, or not only, to try to transcribe what these people say. In fact - as in the end of the first extract - the voice may become totally incomprehensible. No matter. We're trying here to get our ear used to the sound of the accent.
As always, your comments and suggestions will be most welcome
Update 7 December 2009 Saturday TF1 screened the Miss France competition. Since each of the girls had made a little film introducing herself, I thought I would include these very short extracts here. Obviously, the girls don't all necessarily speak with the accent of their region but quite a few do. Click on the tiaras - video only, no text.
France du Nord
Click the top half of the picture of the speaker to access the video, and the bottom half for the text
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France du Nord ---------- France du Centre ---------- France du Sud ---------- La Corse |
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