Regional French accents?

Question

Salut !

I was wondering which French accent is the easiest to understand, or perhaps closest to "standard" French. I speak French, and I've heard various French accents from the singsong-y speech of southwestern France to the lightning-fast speech of Paris. Out of the several different accents of France (not including DOM-TOMs), which is the most difficult to comprehend? Which is the easiest? What do you like/dislike about certain accents?

Answer 1

I'm in Alsace and this accent here is very difficult to understand. It took me awhile. They also have the bad habit of sliding between French and the dialect. It's a nightmare for an American because native Alsatian speakers make many of the same mistakes as English speakers. On the good side, I have a much easier time with the pronunciation of the place names since again, phonetically, they're closer to English (both are Germanic languages). Very funny when I'm asked directions from "interior" French tourists here (how Alsatians refer to they're countrymen outside of Alsace) and end up giving them a little lesson on how to say the names...

They also throw in phrases translated directly from Alsatian like "Ça tire" if they feel a draft. It means litteraly "it pulls" but doesn't make sense in French.

The south is easy. To me, they sound like Italians who learned French. I just hear a lot of endings...

I originally was a student in Angers so that was standard French. It's beautiful and smooth but I sounded like a textbook when I arrived in Paris, where they sounded like they had marbles in their mouths. I'm now used to that too after also living in Paris for 2 1/2 years.

I was just in the Basque country a couple of weeks ago, the extreme southwest near Spain. Now that one was tricky for me. Again, it's a non-native accent (as opposed to a purely regional one, but the difference gets blurred). I had to concentrate on what they were saying.

Answer 2

I don't know which accent is the easiest, probably there is none.

But some accents are really difficult to understand: if you try to speak with old people from Marseille, or Alsace, you would have some difficulties! For me, I am french, I speak french, and understand it. But sometimes, I can't understand any word when this kind of persons talk to me...

Answer 3

There is no standard answer to your question. The easiest accent to understand is the one you are used to. Those you are less exposed to are more difficult (this is true in any language).

I am a French native speaker and when I lived in England I had a hard time understanding American accents. Now that I live in the US, I am not so comfortable with the British accents any more.

But if you are asking which accent is considered standard French, then the person above gave the right answer.

Answer 4

They usually say that the French in the Loire valley is standard.  Cities like Angers, Nantes, and Tours.