Urban youth accents in France

Abstract

Our contribution begins with a critical review of the research on a type of accent commonly known in France as accent de banlieue ("suburban accent"). The first section discusses a set of features perceived as components of the pronunciation style of young urban speakers in metropolitan France. The second section focuses on a pronunciation variant that has been described in research as emblematic of the French "banlieue accent" [suburban youth accent]: the palatalization of /t/ and /d/. On the basis of previous studies on the production and perception of this pronunciation (Vernet & Trimaille 2007, Devilla & Trimaille 2010, Trimaille, Candea & Lehka-Lemarchand 2012, we will show that this feature is not specific to young urban people, as it has also been spotted among other linguistic communities, with whom it is associated in different ways according to their social profile. We will also examine how caricatural uses in media productions (e.g. skits, cartoons) display this feature and contribute to its iconization (Irvine & Gal 2000). The complex dynamics of a potential phonetic change in progress requires mixed methods which provides partially contradictory results and address complex methodological issues for the sociophonetic field. We develop a pragmatic and critical perspective about indexical relations linking social and linguistic categories ; we show how an unstable linguistic category, the "banlieue accent" without a solid empirical basis can provide an illusion of stability because of its reliance on stable social categorization, defending therefore a stylistic approach to the social accent.