Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

1970

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Merrill, Peter C.

Abstract

This thesis is a structural study of a variant of Artesian, the patois spoken by the population in general -- the industrial workers, in particular of the region falling within the boundaries of Lens, Lievin, and Arras, three important cities located in the departement of Pas-de-Calais, in northern France. The Introduction gives the human aspect of the territory under study, the geographical setting, and the historical background. The Phonemic Inventory covers all consonants and vowels which constitute the language, and the Phonological Description treats the linguistic phenomena, that is, palatalization, depalatalization, diphthongization, metathesis, epenthesis, vocalic changes, etc., that take place in translating French words into patois, all of which are examined according to position and environment. Numerous examples are provided. The Morphological Description which is conducted phonetically, since this tongue is not written, treats nearly all parts of speech, and shows that Artesian does not differ much from the French language, that is, morphologically and syntactically. The major differences between the two languages involved are due to phonology. However, there are vocabulary words, adverbs, and verbal forms which belong strictly to the patois spoken in this region. This study has uncovered a good number of interesting facts in comparing the patois to the French language, and it seems that the most important of all is that if the former is grammatically very close to the latter, allowance being made for phonological differences in this domain, by contrast, phonologically, the patois is definitely opposed to French. Among this working population French is almost a foreign language which people understand but which they are reluctant to speak, men especially, because of its seeming elegance which does not match their rugged life.

Extent

157 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1970.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FA00000950

Format

pdf

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