Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; 1 Introduction: Methodological issues; 2 Spoken and written French; 3 Social and stylistic variation; 4 Women's language; 5 Age, variation and change; 6 Conclusion; Appendix; References; Index of concepts; Index of names
Summary
The first systematic study of sociolinguistic variation in seventeenth-century France. Drawing on a range of case studies, it makes available new data about linguistic variation in this period, showing the wealth and variety of language usage at a time considered to be the most 'standardizing' in the history of French
