ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a very brief history of standardization in France, beginning with a reconsideration of the terms dialecte and patois as used in French dialectology. Traditional explanations for dialectalization fell broadly into two camps. ‘Substratum’ theorists such as Brun laid particular emphasis on differences in the substrate varieties spoken before the Roman occupation, while ‘superstratum’ theorists such as Wartburg held that the differential effects of incursions into Gaul after the fall of the Roman Empire were of primary importance. While some histories of French have treated the rise of the ‘superior’ Parisian norm as a historical inevitability, it needs to be remembered that the advantages enjoyed by francien were primarily social and political, not linguistic. It was not until the Revolution that the linguistic unification of France became a political priority. Although the linguistic unification of France is a comparatively recent phenomenon, the prestige of local varieties has been in decline since at least the twelfth century.
