Sound Evidence documents the range of phonological varieties in use in Aix-en-Provence and investigates the social pressures on convergence towards the standard, such as gender-related speech differences, education, geographical and social mobility, and perhaps most importantly, linguistic and regional identity including bilingualism, the emotional ties of language and relationships of members of a regionally-homogeneous community with the way they speak, exposing language as a rich tapestry through which we reveal, or conceal, ever-changing notions of our social identity.

The Author: Jill Taylor is a Lecturer in French at the University of St. Andrews. She has taught French linguistics at University College London, l'Université de Provence Aix-Marseille I and the University of Exeter. Her forthcoming publications include a survey of regional accents within France and a book on the comparative intonation of English and French. She has also published in a related field, having a strong interest in bilingualism and code-switching which extends to French-speaking Africa and other parts of the francophone world.