In our paper we examine the vitality of Rhenish Franconian interface spoken Merlebach in the center of the coal basin of Lorraine. interface We are particularly interested in the reasons for the decline of the regional language of France, and in order to answer our research questions, we combined quantitative and qualitative methods. interface The results show that the decline in the coal basin Frankish Lorrain is particularly marked, the mother tongue of the younger generations in most cases today being French. This is the language policy of the French State which played a decisive role in this decline in Lorraine Franconian German. Limiting ourselves to the period after the war, we have seen that the general conditions were favorable for the French language and the interventions were particularly effective in the field of education.
This paper examined the issue Regarding the vitality of Rhenish Franconian, spoken in Merlebach, at the heart of the coal fields in Lorraine, France. We are interested interface in PARTICULARLY The Reasons behind the decline of this French regional language, and in order to find answers to our research questions, We had recourse to quantitative and qualitative interface Both methods. The results show a marked decline of Franconian in the above-MENTIONED area. Furthermore, They Reveal That the mother tongue of today's young generation, is in MOST cases, interface French. The language policy of the French state played a major role in this language shift in the German-speaking area of Lorraine. interface Limiting our inquiry to the period partner after the Second World War, we Discovered That The general conditions for Imposing French Were not only Favourable, PARTICULARLY successful goal in the educational field. Top of page
Results of the quantitative survey
1 The German said Lorraine is a region where French is spoken for over 1000 years the Frankish dialect (or language, interface the sociolinguistic) means German. Our research interface on the German-speaking Lorraine are part of a doctoral thesis at the University of Vienna (Austria), University who participated in the European project LINEE (Languages in a Network of European Excellence 2006-2010). This network of scientific excellence was to study the linguistic diversity in Europe a coherent and interdisciplinary way. Our research focuses on the Rhine Franconian spoken Merlebach. This town of about 14,500 inhabitants in the center of Lorraine coal basin where, until 2003, operated coal. Merlebach still keeps its aspect mining interface town marked by shoring and cities. interface We wanted, in this research, know better the dynamic Frankish, thinking that this micro study could be worth generalizing to the Frankish area of French nationality. interface Research questions, implementation of the study and methods
2 On the linguistic situation in German Lorraine, our research focuses on two questions: we want to know what is the vitality of the Frankish and what are the reasons for its survival or decline. In order to answer these questions, we decided to combine quantitative and qualitative methods. In July 2007, we conducted a quantitative interface survey using a questionnaire sent to 700 Freyming-Merlebachois who were randomly selected using the directory: 200 questionnaires were received. The data recorded were statistically analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). A second research trip in February 2008, was used to collect qualitative interface data within 11 narrative interviews, the content has been classified into categories according to qualitative criteria. In this article we will focus on results of the analysis of the profile of the community and the questionnaire.
3 The establishment of a profile of the community, interface as scientific method was first used to analyze the use of language and attitudes and subjective reactions to different languages (Wölck 2004: 169) . In the 1970s and 1980s, we began to use this method to select a representative sample of a given population (Wölck 1976, 1985). In addition, the profile of the community also facilitates the formulation of hypotheses and the development of questionnaires (Labrie and Vandermeeren 1996: 765). Establish the profile of a community through literature searches, by observation, but also uses "privileged witnesses" and this results in the description of factors - geographic, demographic, political, cultural, economic, etc.. - Which influence or determine linguistic behavior but also the context of language contact is
