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Do you remember the way your ancestors spoke? Those words with accents as rich as their countries? These cultural treasures make the history of France's regions.
Words, accents, expressions… A sonic and cultural richness that is lost through the generations.
This map is the work of three researchers from the Laboratory of Computer Science for Mechanics and Engineering Sciences (LIMSI), who have traveled France listening to the diverse and varied sounds of the French of our regions.
These scientists asked 126 residents from 126 different communes to read Aesop's fable, The North Wind and the Sun, in their regional language, of course. And the result is surprising!
To hear the text read in French, click on Paris. Then, click on the different communes to hear the same text in the local language.
These scientists went further, as they also provide us with a map of Overseas France, non-territorial languages (Sign Language), and Europe to discover the dialects of Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the Iberian Peninsula, and Germany.
💡 Did you know?
It was the Oaths of Strasbourg in 842 (the division of Charlemagne's empire) that first highlighted two new languages of the Carolingian empire: French and German.
Before, the Franks in Roman Gaul did not speak French but Franconian. A Germanic language that helped shape, like many other languages (Latin, Gaulish, Arabic), our current French.
For more information, take a look at this list of examples of foreign-origin words established by the Académie française.
Many departmental archives centers highlight their audio and/or audiovisual archives.
These archival sources are a true cultural wealth for a region and allow you to hear regional languages (and those of immigration), traditional musics and popular songs, or even life stories directly told by our ancestors.
For example, the archives of Sarthe have put online the sound dictionary of the hommédaire speech in 1920 - the archives of Haute-Loire allow you to listen to the radio show Le patois vous parle (1984-1990) - the archives of Mayenne have a collection dedicated to traditional songs and music - the archives of Saône-et-Loire have a large collection of videos including some on the patois and heritage… In short, consult the websites of departmental archives to discover their audio and video archives!
💡 Good to know:
To understand the written archives in the old French language or its dialects, consult our list of over 110 dictionaries and lexicons of ancient French and regional patois accessible in one click.
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