“Regional accents discriminated against” – midilibre.fr

This specialist in regional languages, editor-in-chief at L’Express, points to a phenomenon in I’ve an accent and then ?, published with Jean-Michel Aphatie.

Can we speak of real discrimination by accents in France?

Yes, because discrimination consists in treating people differently according to an arbitrary criterion. However, many people with a regional accent do not have access to certain trades while others are penalized during competitions. I’m not inventing anything! Watch TV news and drama, listen to CAC 40 bosses and politicians, and find people who don’t speak with standard accent. Since the representation of the most exposed functions undoubtedly favors only one of the accents existing in France, there is discrimination. There are others, of course, and more serious, but this one has the distinction of not being recognized.

This can be seen in the fictions which obscure the real accent of Napoleon and Joan of Arc. A professor at the Nîmes conservatory confides that he taught the Gardoise Alexandra Lamy to erase his own.

Not only are we not doing anything to change it, but we are claiming it, we are asking people to change their accent in conservatories, preparatory classes, journalism schools. It’s like asking a Jew or a Muslim to become a Catholic to access certain jobs.

You are assessing the phenomenon for the first time: 50% of French people believe they have an accent (*), 27% say they are mocked and 16% are professionally discriminated against.

Yes, incredibly, our survey (Ifop-Michel Lafon-Magcentre) is the first on the subject: it shows how this question is not thought of in France. As you said, the phenomenon is massive. It is in Occitania that we demand the most emphasis and it is more likely to last there, because Montpellier and Toulouse are, like Marseille, cities opposed to the power of the central state. We like to claim our identity there. While Rennes, Strasbourg, Aix-en-Provence, Bordeaux are more cities that accompany Paris and want to be like it.

What are the clichés conveyed by these accents?

They are always the same: “You are not intelligent, you are not cultivated: basically, you are rednecks”. We often believe that the standard accent is that of Paris … It is actually one of the accents of Paris, that of its bourgeoisie, and especially not that of the “titi parigot” à la Arletty.

This choice reflects a double contempt: that, classic, of the capital vis-à-vis the province, but also a social contempt, that of “elites” vis-à-vis the people. This poses a serious problem in the Republic.

There is a graduation in discrimination. Better, for example, to have the Narbonne accent than Picard, explain yourself …

Yes, the accents of the South are associated with the holidays, so to have a drink in a cafe, that’s fine, but if it is a question of entrusting this person with IT security for my company, then no. The accents of the North and the East are judged neither serious nor sympathetic. And the worst-off is the accent of the disadvantaged suburbs, which is likened to delinquency and school failure.

This rejection can sometimes be accompanied by repercussions on health, according to the work of Montpellier doctor Pierre Boquel.

Yes, this doctor is carrying out studies on the psychological damage caused by the repression of the mother tongue. At the beginning of the 20th century, for example, in a school in Marseille, little girls who spoke Provençal were punished and repeat offenders had to lick the toilet, because they were supposed to have “sinned with the tongue”! How do you want your culture of origin not to be associated with shame after this?

Well, the same goes with the rejection of different accents. Some will aggressively claim them. Others will suppress them, which will create in them a conflict between their initial personality and that which they built. Their second way of speaking detaches them from their family and their region of origin, which can create a gap in identity and cause serious problems.

Today, coaching companies specialize in correcting accents …

Yes, rather than having an action that aims to remove this discrimination, we make it an object of profit, it’s absurd! What would we say if companies explained to homosexuals how to become heterosexual?

Can accent be an asset?

Exceptionally, yes. In an advertisement for a Southwestern ham or Auvergne cheese, you will hear a regional accent. On the other hand, to sell a luxury car or a perfume, there is no question. On television, apart from Jean-Michel Aphatie, regional accents are confined to rugby, gastronomy, gardening, but excluded from “noble” matters such as economics, politics, diplomacy or culture. In summary: with regional accents, popular activities; in the standard accent, serious subjects. It’s dramatic because by doing so, we are reinforcing the clichés.

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Montpellier and Toulouse are cities opposed to the power of the central state

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