ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with discussion of the nature of phonological variation in French in general terms and presents evidence of the loss of regiolectal variation. It considers geolinguistic patterning in a socio-stylistically significant variable and deals with a consideration of what kind of variation persists and to what extent it is unusual. Metropolitan French has been subject to processes of directional, or 'top-down', standardization as well as non-directional dedialectalization and levelling, especially since the later decades of the twentieth century, to the extent that it is widely considered to be quite highly uniformized. The chapter also considers the large-scale convergence with supralocal French and concomitant loss of distinctiveness at the more local level. K. Pipe is investigating the extent of levelling in an area of France that is frequently perceived as having a markedly divergent way of speaking.
