Hi
What are some French words that have different meanings depending on the region you are in? I don’t mean vulgar words. I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
The terms for meals in different countries - e.g. breakfast/lunch/dinner = déjeuner/dîner/souper in Belgium, Switzerland, and Quebec, but petit déjeuner/déjeuner/dîner in France, although I think souper is used in some regions. I think I have those right.
Not the same thing, but the countries also have different words for the same number, especially 70 and 90. Switzerland also makes 80 different (e.g. eighty vs. four-twenty).
thelurkinghorror mentioned the most potentially confusing.
Other words that cause confusion between French French and Canadian French speakers:
Préservatif: contraceptive in France, food preservative in Canada. “Utiliser un préservatif” vs “ne contient aucun préservatif.”
Chaudière: boiler in France, but also means bucket in Canada. “On est venu réparer la chaudière” vs “une grande chaudière d’eau froide.”
Gosses: kids in France, slang for testicles in Canada. “Embrasser les gosses” vs “un coup de pied dans les gosses.”
Thank you all. But what about within France itself? That’s my real interest.
Well, linguistic boundaries don’t follow political boundaries very closely, generally. Septante and nonante may be thought of as characteristically Swiss/Belgian, but you’ll also come across them in the parts of France near these countries - near Switzerland especially; Savoie, Provence, Lorraine, Franche-Comté. And I suspect something similar would be true of most characteristically Belgian/Swiss expressions.
Provence has a number of words/expression that are influenced by Italian and/or Spanish and/or Catalan, but aren’t used elswhere in France - caminer, to travel by walking; caminaire, a walker; crusadou, a crossroads; estelle a star; parcage, a garage or parking-lot; gardian, a cowboy; and franchimand, someone who speaks standard French. And there are many more.
Strictly speaking, these aren’t words that have a different meaning outside Provence; they are words that aren’t used at all outside Provence, where the same concept is expressed with a different word (e.g. étoile, a star). But, come to think of it, that’s true of septante, etc, as well. Contrary to what the OP asks for, we are not talking here of one word with two different meanings according to where it is used, but of one concept expressed by two different words in different places.
Right away, I can’t think of any, and neither could my coworkers. Everybody think that there surely are some, but none come to mind.
Anyway, it’s probably not very common. Different regions of France had (and sometimes still have) different dialects or languages. So, most of the time, people would have used completely different words, not the same word with a different meaning. People would have learnt French in school, hence would have spoken either their dialect/language or “standart French”.
The only thing that crosses my mind is “adieu”, which means good bye (or even hello) in southern France, while it indicates a permanent separation in standart French (hence is essentially never used outside dramatic scenes in movies or such things).
They aren’t influenced by Spanish or catalan. They’re Occitan words that happen to have survived after people switched to French.
Clairobscur came up with an interesting example I had never known. “Adieu” can mean goodbye or hello in southern France. Very interesting. Surely there are more. Every country I’ve every travelled to has them. France is no exception. I don’t hear too much about Occitan. I come across the word occasionally. Is it a thriving dialect?
As I said, it’s not obvious since the traditional way of speaking wouldn’t have used the same words with a different meaning but plainly a different dialect or even language.
Occitan is considered a language rather than a dialect, and is subdived into several dialects, like for instance Provencal. Very roughly, “Oil languages” were spoken in northern France (and French is one of them) and “Oc languages” or “Occitan” in Southern France. Occitan is close to Catalan rather than to French.
But it’s not thriving. Rather dying. You have to go to the most remote rural areas to hear it, and even there it’s uncommon. For instance, when I was a kid in a village in the middle of nowhere 40 years ago, old people were normally using Occitan at least between themselves, with the odd French word or sentence thrown in. Nowadays it’s the contrary. They speak French, with the odd Occitan word thrown in. I guess the younger people for whom it was a first language are in their 50s, and there are few of them. I sometimes rather high figures for the total number of speakers, but I’m pretty certain they’re widely exaggerated.
There are some other languages that were traditionnally spoken in France : Oil languages, already mentioned but too close to French to have survived, Breton (in a bad shape), Flemish (more or less extinct in France), Franco-Provençal (near the Alps, mostly extinct in France but not in Switzerland), Catalan (doing a bit better than Occitan thanks to Spanish Catalogne), Corsican (alive and well), Alsatian (very commonly spoken, even in cities).
My signature (that I rarely use) is in Occitan, in fact. I used to understand it as a kid but never spoke it.
I thought that the best bet would be the “North” region. Its old dialect was a close parent to French (so shared a lot of vocabulary) and has retained some feeling of regional identity.
So, for instance here’s a list of idioms specific to Picard(or ch’ti).
However, the wide majority are just different words for the same thing (drawn from the Picard dialect) or specific regional expressions. There are some examples, though, of words identical to French words, but with a different meaning. For instance “barrer” for “closing a door” (French : to block), “brouter” for “transporting someone” (French : “to graze”). The first example is probably an example of a divergent evolution of the same word, while the second is probably a word of different origin that randomly happen to have become similar to a completely unrelated French word (both somewhat educated guesses on my part).
Actually languages differ sharply on the extent of regional variation they display. In some places, accents change sharply every twenty miles, whole others are more homogenous. Russian is a great example of a language with very little differentiation even though it is spoken by close to 200 million native speakers over a large area. As a language, French is the poster child for language homogenization as a result of state formation, eg under the influence of conscription or a national education program. This process has swept away regional differences, all but eradicating local languages such as Occitan or Breton. And more so in France than in neighboring European countries - so France isan exception!
One of them is trouvères, the other is troubadours.
Couldn’t remember then, can’t remember now.
Interesting point Švejk. After discussing this topic with a few native French speakers, all in their mid to late 20’s, one from Paris, the others from Toulouse, they couldn’t think of a single example of differentiation in word meaning from region to region. When I compare France to Germany or Italy, then on reflection I have to agree with Švejk that his point about homogenization certainly stands up.
Troubadour is Occitan, trouvere is Oil language. Both from the verb “to find” : trobar and trouver respectively.
Also, troubadours preceded trouveres and of course were better. ;). Seriously more names of troubadours than trouveres are remembered.
Are you sure there are more examples of such different regional uses in countries where regional languages survived better, like Germany, Italy, Spain? Because I wouldn’t expect that. I would expect such differences to appear, at the contrary, when the same language has been used in different areas for a long time, rather than when each region has a different language. For instance French and Canadian French, Castillan and Colombian Spanish, etc…
I think you’re on to something here. Words in related dialects/languages would just be different words. But words that had a certain meaning originally, but have broadened or narrowed or changed in meaning in one region, but changed/stayed the same in another region are what leads to having the same word, but it means a different thing in different places.
So compare British vs American english. We both have the same word “biscuit”, but in British english it means a sweet cookie, in American english it means a savory quickbread. But the only reason this happens is because once upon a time people in both regions used the word “biscuit” to refer to the same sorts of things, and usage changed in different ways in the two regions.
Thanks Lemur866. That’s what I was getting at. Spanish, from what I have gathered, as spoken in Central and South America is an example of how words take on certain region meanings, even though they once had the same meaning in Europe. By he way, the word “Keule” in German means “club” or “cudgel” in German but also has a distinct meaning in Berlin. It’s often used in greeting people “Hey Brother! “Na Keule, wie geht’s?” (Well, brother, how’s it going?” I haven’t heard the usage of Keule in Germany like that anywhere else.
Absolutely, France is definitely a strong case of homogenization. In Spain you have Catalan and Basque, although I can’t speak to regional difference within Castilian Spanish; in German and Italian, regional differences are considerable, and people routinely connect those outcomes with a delayed onset of state formation. Both Italy and Germany came about as political units in the second half of the 19th century. France had a stronger and more centralized state far sooner than its neighbors.
Btw I’m not getting your point about why you don’t expect survival of language heterogeneity in different places in Europe. I agree that languages diverge when spoken in separation, but I don’t see what that has to do with relative rates of homogenization in one place as affected by state formation.
The regional differentiation of Spanish also does not follow political borders; in fact, very often the words or grammar which are different or used differently in different Latin American areas also differ in their corresponding parent dialect’s area in Spain, and we are more likely to have different words for the same meaning than the same word for extremely-different (i.e., not directly deductible) meanings. The biggest exception to this is something which the OP excluded: dirty words. And when words have multiple meanings, they’re generally cumulative: there’s meanings which are general, and others which happen to be region-specific, but people from these regions will still know the general meaning.
Sort of like your Keule: ok, so Keule means “bro” in Berlin and only in Berlin. But it doesn’t mean “bro” in Berlin and club/cudgel everywhere else; it means “bro” in Berlin and club/cudgel everywhere including Berlin.
ETA: Castillian Spanish is a dialect. The language is either Spanish or Castilian.
Yes Nava. I agree with you. No matter which language we’re talking about, there will be standard definitions that everyone will be familiar with. But non-locals will not necessarily be familiar with the local definitions of certain words. I was on a recent visit to China. I found out to my embarrassment that certain expression when calling for service/waiter are not acceptable everywhere. The phrases are understood everywhere as just being “endearments” but perceived differently in different regions. They can sound belittling or endearing depending on where you are. After that I just stuck to saying “fuwuyuan”, standard Mandarin for “waiter” and is understood everywhere as meaning just that.