Meridional French
Meridional French (), also referred to as Francitan, is a regional variant of the French language. It is widely spoken in Marseille, Avignon and Toulouse and is influenced by the Occitan language. There are speakers of Meridional French in all generations, but the accent is most marked among the elderly, who often speak Occitan as their first language. Characteristics. The phonology, morphology, syntax and lexicon of Occitan have all influenced Meridional French, but the phonological effects are perhaps the most salient by producing the characteristic accent, which is used by speakers of Meridional French. Those effects include the following : Meridional French is also subject to a phonological law known as the Law of Position in which mid-vowels are subject to allophonic variation based on the shape of their syllables; they are realised as mid-open in closed syllables (those ending in a consonant) and as mid-close in open syllables (those ending in a vowel). The phenomenon has been shown to be somewhat more complex, however, by Durand (1995), Eychenne (2006), and Chabot (2008). The principle is strictly adhered to by speakers of Meridional French, in contrast to those of other varieties of French. Vocabulary. A number of  words are peculiar to Meridional French. For example, "péguer" (Occitan "pegar"), "to be sticky" (Standard French "poisser"), "chocolatine" (Southwest), "pain au chocolat", "cagade" (Occitan "cagat") or "flûte" (a larger baguette), known as a "pain parisien" (Parisian loaf) in Paris. Some phrases are used with meanings that differ from those of Standard French. For example, "s'il faut", literally meaning "if necessary", is used to mean "perhaps", which would be rendered in Standard French as "peut-être". That is a calque of the Occitan "se cal".