Regional Vernacular Varieties and Language Levelling in Belgium and Switzerland

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss the evolution of vernacular varieties in francophone Belgium and Suisse romande since the 1960s and 1970s. As both territories are administratively federal with different substrate varieties, we propose a presentation based on broad regional divisions. This procedure exposes rather starkly that the available evidence has variable value, whether of fieldwork methodology, recency or geographical coverage. For Belgium, separate sections are devoted to the major territorial divisions of Brussels (with its traditional sociolinguistic divisions) and Wallonia, which can be sub-divided according to either the distribution of the traditional endogenous varieties or more recent perceptual accounts. For Switzerland, the fullest accounts (in geographical coverage) are based on perceptual studies carried out in the 1970s and 1980s, while more recent studies (perceptual and phonological) are heavily concentrated on one canton, the Vaud.