Berrichon ( or ) is an Oïl language very closely related to French or a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of it traditionally spoken in the historical area of the French province of Berry. The word is also used as a demonym and as an adjective meaning "pertaining to Berry".

History

The dialect evolved out of the langues d'oïl which evolved during the Middle Ages out of the

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...

spoken in northern

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

. Its general use in the Berry region began to decline in the sixteenth century as the local aristocracy and bourgeoisie began to adopt

standard French Standard French (in French: ''le français standard'', ''le français normé'', ''le français neutre'' eutral Frenchor ''le français international'' nternational French is an unofficial term for a standard variety of the French language. It ...

, leaving Berrichon as a "

patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...

" used by the peasantry in the countryside. Subsequent developments, such as the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...

, which created a sense of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

, and the establishment of free, mandatory, primary education under the Minister of Public Instruction,

Jules Ferry Jules François Camille Ferry (; 5 April 183217 March 1893) was a French statesman and republican philosopher. He was one of the leaders of the Moderate Republicans and served as Prime Minister of France from 1880 to 1881 and 1883 to 1885. He ...

, which greatly expanded the teaching of French, further undermined the position of Berrichon.

Current status

The decline of Berrichon has virtually led to it being regarded as a sub-standard dialect of French rather than a separate language. Additionally, as most speakers in its region now speak standard French, it is no longer possible to say that a Berrichon "patois" exists, but rather that a regional version of French does. Nevertheless, traces of Berrichon and its regional varieties remain today. This is exemplified in the continued use of Berrichon terms in spoken French among speakers in the region.

Phonology and lexicon

Although Berrichon does not have an official grammar or pronunciation, there are general rules as to how it differs from French. Berrichon differentiates between closed and open ''a''. ''R''s are

rolled Rolling is a Motion (physics)#Types of motion, type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an Axial symmetry, axially symmetric object) and Translation (geometry), translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the ot ...

and emphatic. Words which have the '' o'' sound in standard French are pronounced with a close back rounded vowel, resulting in, for example, ''un houmme'' (man), ''une poumme'' (apple). The ''oi'' asound becomes ''oé'' e The suffix -''eur'' becomes -''eux'' in Berrichon, and -''eau'' becomes -''iau''; therefore, ''leurs'' (theirs) is ''ieux'' and ''un seau d'eau'' (a bucket of water) is ''un siau d'iau''. Conjugation is also different. The

present indicative The present tense (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to locate a situation or event in the present time. The present tense is used for actions which are happening now. In order to explain and understand present t ...

of the first-

person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

singular, the third-person singular and the third-person plural are all conjugated in the same manner, which results in phrases of the type, "''j'menons les oies''" ("I lead the

geese A goose ( : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera '' Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the she ...

"). There is also frequent truncation: "''i m'nons les oies''" ("they lead the geese"). Tense endings are also different from standard French, as in the third person plural

imperfect The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to ...

ending ''-aient'' is replaced by ''-aint'', e.g., "''i's étaint''" instead of "''ils étaient''" ("They used to be"). In Berry, it is customary to precede given names with

article Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

s: ''la'' for women's names and ''eul'' for men's names. When referring to weather terms, the pronoun ''ça'' is used in place of the French ''il''. For example, "Il pleut" (''It is raining.'') would be "Ça pleut" in Berrichon. Examples of Berrichon vocabulary being used instead of their French counterparts include:

References

{{Authority control Languages of France French dialects Oïl languages Demonyms

History

Current status

Phonology and lexicon

See also

References