REGIONALIZMI U FRANCUSKOM JEZIKU: ANALIZA JEZIČKIH POSEBNOSTI REGIJA NA EVROPSKOJ TERITORIJI FRANCUSKE
REGIONALISMS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE: ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES OF REGIONS IN THE EUROPEAN TERRITORY OF FRANCE

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the linguistic situation in France focusing on regionalisms in various areas. Our research is rooted in the study of regional expressions across the thirteen current regions within the European territoryof France which we classified into groups based on their geographical position and the similarity of the linguistic situation, thus dividing the Hexagon into five distinct linguistic areas. Our objective is to determine the origin, find equivalents in standard French and provide an adequate translation of French regionalisms into the Montenegrin language. This study is connected to the European territory of France, yet it is crucial to acknowledge that the French territory includes overseas regions and departments, where regional variations have a somewhat different status compared to those in the Hexagon. The idea of the study is to present the linguistic peculiarities of the French regions by elucidating the most renowned regional expressions of each of them, which are related to one of the five areas on the territory of the Hexagon: western, northern, northeastern, central-eastern and southern. Lexical regionalisms in the French language were analyzed for the purpose of creating specialized dictionaries such as Rézeau's (Rézeau 2001) Dictionnaire des régionalismes de France (DRF) which served as our primary source when considering the origin of regional expressions. It is believed that constraints in human resources and time have restricted the extent of such research. Until recently, there will be no significant efforts in this area, and then Avanzi (2017) will utilize modern technology to initiate research akin to surveys on the vitality of regional words carried out by his predecessors, which will aid in selecting specific regionalisms that will be the focus of our study. The results obtained from the analysis of the presented expressions will, among other outcomes, enable us to compare the linguistic features of different regions within the Hexagon, in order to understand the current linguistic situation in France and introduce readers to different varieties of the French language. When delving into the analysis of regionalisms, our starting point involves acknowledging significant differences in terms of the prevalence of their use. We will demonstrate that certain regionalisms resonate throughout the entire classified area, while others are predominantly confined to the specific region or city, as well as which of them have the possibility of losing their regional character in the future due to the increasing expansion towards the rest of the territory. In tracing the origin of regionalisms, we start from the assumption that most of them originate from old local dialects (even though these regional languages have undergone transformations over time to get their current forms). Furthermore, we recognize the substantial influence of neighboring countries' languages on the linguistic variations observed in French regions. The paper aims to answer the following questions: What expressions characterize the French language in various regions within the Hexagon area? What dialects do they come from, and to what extent do neighboring countries' languages impact regional variations in France? Do regional words find equivalents in standard French? How do we approach translating regionalisms into the Montenegrin language? The answers to these questions will provide a more profound understanding of the linguistic diversity inherent in the French language. In the second chapter, we presented some of the most famous expressions related to the west of France, by which we consider the following regions: Brittany (Bretagne), Pays de la Loire, Normandy (Normandie) and New Aquitaine (Nouvelle-Aquitaine): a-dreuz (a-droezz, à dreuze), bouiner (bouéner), bourrier (bourier), dalle, débaucher, embaucher, loger, être rendu, fale (falle), gueille, ramasse-bourrier and tancarville. The mentioned regionalisms find equivalents in the standard language, and we conclude that half of them (débaucher, embaucher, ça loge, être rendu and dalle) also find homonyms in it, or rather false pairs (faux amis). We can see the diversity of the origins of the mentioned regionalisms: from the Breton language (a-dreuz, which can also be found in the forms a-droezz and à dreuze, characteristic of Brittany), Old French spoken in the Middle Ages (gueille, related to the Gironde region, comes from 17th century, from the Old French word guenipe, which is based on the Gaelic word wádana – water), Latin (bourrier, from burra – étoffe grossière à longs poils, characteristic of the Loire region), as well as the influence of the Norman dialect in the words tancarville (derived from the name of the village of Tancarville in Normandy, in the department of Saint-Maritim), dalle (originates from the 14th century, of Norman origin, borrowed from the Old Scandinavian daela, gutter) and fale (originating from the Old Norse language spoken by the Vikings, denoting a cow, a throat, i.e., the type of pouch that birds have under their throats and in which the food they take first remains for some time before passing into the stomach, std. Fr. jabot). In the third chapter, we covered regionalisms in the language of the Hautsde-France region, which was created in 2016 by the unification of the provinces of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy (Picardie): (aller) à la toilette, astheure, carabistouille, chicon, couque, cru, dracher, ducasse, entrucher (s'), (être) en rue, nareux, -euse (néreux, -euse) and savoir. In most of the mentioned regionalisms in the north of France, we can see a significant influence from Belgium, making the influence of the Dutch and Flemish languages quite understandable. We observe an increasing use of words for which no adequate synonym can be found in the standard language. There is no word in standard French that can describe the phenomenon described by the verb dracher. Instead of être nareux the milder variant délicat can sometimes be used, although it cannot convey the true meaning of the regionalism. S'entrucher, in the sense of avaler de travers(to choke), cannot be fully identified with the verb s'étouffer in the standard language, indicating true suffocation requiring medical intervention. The word ducasse, denoting any country celebration that takes place once or twice a year, cannot be totally replaced with the noun fête, which has a general meaning of holiday or celebration and is not precise enough to explain the meaning of this regionalism. The forth chapter features the most renowned expressions of the Grand Est region, located in the northeast of France that was created by merging the old provinces of Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardennes: attendre sur, avec (sans substantif), brimbelle, clairer, comme dit, drisse, entre midi, être après, foehn, schlappe, schlouck and schnougel. With these regionalisms, we can observe the significant influence of Germanic dialects on the language of the northeastern region of France. This influence is not unexpected, given that the Grand Est encompasses or borders areas where various forms of the Germanic language are present, including Alsace, Lorraine, Moselle, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, and Belgium. On the morphosyntactic level, the construction attendre sur is found among the most common Germanisms, with usage limited to the regions of France where German was spoken (Lower Rhine, Upper Rhine, and Mosel) and to the francophone districts along the border with Germany and Switzerland. Additionally, there is a specific use of the preposition avec after the verb of motion that is not followed by a pronoun (as in the sentence Je vais au cinéma, tu viens avec ?) which is highly stigmatized. When talking about people or animals, standard French tends to add a pronoun after the preposition (tu viens avec moi), while the language of the Grand Est region prefers the absence of a pronoun (tu viens avec). In certain lexical regionalisms from this area, the influence of German is undeniable (foehn, schluck, schnougel, etc.), and most of them are also represented in the French-speaking area of Switzerland. In the fifth chapter, our attention was directed towards the centraleastern area of France, specifically the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and BurgundyFranche-Comté regions. We analyzed the following regionalisms: cayon (caïon), cheni (chenit), darbon (darbou, derbon, derbou, drabon), débarouler, étendage, faire ripaille, gâche, gaugé, -e, mire (mironne) miron, n`avoir personne vu, t’chi and y. The presented regionalisms are approximately spread throughout the entire central-eastern area where Franco-Provençal or Arpitan was once spoken, although we primarily associate the origin of most regionalisms with the area around Lyon, the capital of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (such as gâche, darbon, cayon, débarouler). The majority of regional expressions from this region also find representation in the French-speaking area of Switzerland, such as the substitution of y in the direct object function. According to Rezeau (2001), the regional use of this pronoun was initially observed in 1547 in the Romandy language, and today it is scarcely heard in the same area outside of Geneva. In Switzerland, words like darbon, cayon, or cheni, characteristic of the Franche-Comté region, are also widely used. The sixth chapter covered the expressions that are frequently heard in these regions: Occitanie (former Languedoc-Roussillon and South-Pyrenees), Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and Corsica (Corse): cèbe, dégun, dévarier, escagasser, escaner, escoube, ensuqué, -e, ésquiché, -e, péguer, peuchère, rouméguer, tomber (quelque chose). All the mentioned regionalisms in the south of France trace their origins to the Occitan language, primarily deriving from the Provençal dialect. Some regionalisms characteristic of the south of the Hexagon will first be associated with the local dialect of Marseille (such as dégun, escoube, peuchère, cèbe). It is from this city that several linguistic innovations spread to the rest of the region. However, simultaneously, the Marseille dialect is often perceived as distinct, less refined, and more straightforward. It is estimated that until around the mid-19th century, the French language was relatively unknown in the rural areas spanning from the west to the east of southern France. The people in these areas exclusively expressed themselves in the local idiom, i.e. various dialects of the Occitan language. Decades of coexistence and usage of both French and Occitan in the same region have resulted in the incorporation of a multitude of loanwords in both languages. After analyzing the most represented regionalisms of each of the five regions, we confirm the hypothesis that these forms mostly originate from old varieties of the French language, namely dialects, patois. Additionally, we observe a significant influence from neighboring countries: Belgium in the language of northern France, Switzerland in certain words of the centraleastern region, and notably in the Grand Est region where the influence of German is quite prevalent. While a considerable number of regionalisms have equivalent counterparts in standard French, we also pointed out the absence of complete equivalents when it comes to regionalisms such as être nareux, ducasse, il fait cru, s'entrucher, dracher, être gaugé, péguer. Most lexical regionalisms refer to things, activities or traditions that are dominant in a particular region, as well as the physical characteristics of the region, specific names for animals and unique agricultural practices that have developed in a particular area. Thus, regional words described a reality that does not exist anywhere else, and today these words persist when standard French cannot provide a suitable expression. With that, we can also assume which of them have a high probability of spreading over the entire territory. In translating regionalisms from regional French to Montenegrin, we employed intralingual translation (traduction intralinguale), translating from regional French to standard French, followed by interlingual translation (traduction interlinguale), transferring the text from standard French to standard Montenegrin. Some regionalisms allowed us to continue with intralingual translation into our mother tongue. We managed to apply this when translating certain regionalisms, so in the previous text regional expressions in the Montenegrin language could also be noticed after those in the standard version. That is to say, by looking for the "cultural equivalence" of the French regional word in Montenegrin, we managed to find the Montenegrin regional language system that resembles the French regional expression and creates the same image in our society as the given French regionalism. For example: regional French language (in the south of France): escoube – standard French language: balai – standard Montenegrin language: metla – regional Montenegrin language (in the south of Montenegro): portfiš. Similarly, the translation of the derived verb can be approached: regional French language (in the south of France): escouber – standard French language: balayer – standard Montenegrin language: čistiti pod – regional Montenegrin language (in the north of Montenegro): potirati pod. This translation approach aligns with the idea that translation should reveal the richness of language. This paper, in addition to introducing readers to the variants of the French language present in different areas and the linguistic peculiarities of the regions in the European territory of France, aims to raise awareness that regionalisms are integral to the identity of France, its culture and heritage, and should not be a reason for stigmatization. The analysis of the presented regional expressions has managed to prove that there is no one variation of the language better than the others. Each region has its own authentic French language, and regionalisms reflect the reality that forms an inseparable part of its landscape.

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