ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates one area whose study has been revolutionized by the Labovian method, namely the question of linguistic change with special reference to phonology. It focuses on southern varieties of French, since they are the most distant from the norm in question. The chapter assesses the existence of other features which may run counter to the hypothesis and examines the complementary thesis that the pace of such linguistic change in French is faster than in other comparable European countries. It outlines the Phonologie du Francais Contemporain (PFC) methodology and presents evidence in favour of levelling. By comparison with the study of French in North America, the description of European French has suffered from a comparative lack of qualitative and quantitative studies based on sociolinguistically controlled corpora. PFC programme has focused on geographical variation and more than 600 speakers have been recorded from as many different locations as possible within the French-speaking world.
