Why French change old fashioned "r" to the "French R". Why nasalizing come about?

Question

Why French change old fashioned "r" to the "French R". Why nasalizing come about?

Answer 1

You mean why older rural people roll the R as in Spanish or Italian whereas younger and urban people don't?

I have no idea why the language evolved this way (drifting away from the Latin root, at least in terms of pronunciation). The same thing happened in Germany, they have the same R sound as in France but in rural regions and certain parts of Austria people roll it the old-fashioned way. As for nasal, I don't know either but it exists in English too (think of the British pronunciation of "I can't").You should ask your question in the language section, maybe a linguist could answer it.

Answer 2

Because throughout the last centuries proper French pronunciation came from Paris. First from the king, then from the republican government, and the Ile de France French did not roll R but spoke 'sharp' (parler pointu).

Every region had its own language and thus its own accent and pronunciation born out of that language, but the higher you climbed the social ladder the less accented your French would become to copy the accent of the Ile de France French. TV and radio only finished the job, though you still find many people in the countryside with an oldtime pronunciation.