ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to describe linguistic change through a special kind of socio-spatial phenomenon involving relationships between space, mobility and language. It focuses on gentrification, a global trend that affects an increasing number of urban centres all over the world, including France. Linguistics and sociolinguistics, has long been concerned with space and place. Space and place, which initially formed no more than a backdrop to linguistic surveys, have gradually become real objects of sociolinguistic investigation, with a focus on the interface between social mobility and identity. The chapter aims to provide a comprehensive and critical trend in sociolinguistic studies that examines the interface between language, space and place, highlighting the way in which social agents experience the place they inhabit. Thus, gentrification has links with the inner city or neighbourhoods near the centre which are, in practice, often former industrial areas. Less conspicuous are the trajectories of the lower-class 'old-timers' affected by gentrification.
