Northern French people vs Southern French people

[Ouistreham]

A Breton friend of mine said that Brittany probably had more Germanic input than Normandy.

Nonsense.
Brittany is anthropologically a part of Southern France[*].
This region has the country's shortest statures and more brown hair than, say, Southern Auvergne or Upper Provence.
BTW the British picked up in Brittany the stereotype of the small, swarthy round-headed Frenchman.
[*] The dividing line is the once famous "Saint-Malo/Genève line" (Granville-Grenoble would be closer to reality), that was once extremely sharp. In the 18th century the North-Eastern half had high literacy rates and agricultural productivity, and underwent early industrial revolution, unlike the South-Western half to which Brittany belongs.

[Ibericus]

Nonsense.
Brittany is anthropologically a part of Southern France[*].
This region has the country's shortest statures and more brown hair than, say, Southern Auvergne or Upper Provence.
BTW the British picked up in Brittany the stereotype of the small, swarthy round-headed Frenchman.
[*] The dividing line is the once famous "Saint-Malo/Genève line" (Granville-Grenoble would be closer to reality), that was once extremely sharp. In the 18th century the North-Eastern half had high literacy rates and agricultural productivity, and underwent early industrial revolution, unlike the South-Western half to which Brittany belongs.

That's because pure Celts were mostly swarthy dark/brown haired, and not the nordic blonde type that some people fantasize about.

[Sikeliot]

I am not reading the entire thread but I'll give my thoughts; northern France has more Germanic and/or Nordic influences, SW France resembles more eastern Iberia and SE France resembles north-central Italy.

[Comte Arnau]

SW France resembles more eastern Iberia

Let's be more accurate with that, because there's a somewhat neat division between Basco-Aquitanian, Iberian and Celtic areas.

As we say here, an image is better than a thousand words. So two will be better than 2000.




One can see how Gascons and Aragonese are upon Basconic substrate, while Catalans are Gallo-Roman Tolosans upon Iberian substrate.

[Osweo]

I'd personally say that the Nordoid input is more evident in the coastal territory west of the Joret line, the one that used to separate linguistically Upper Norman and Picard from French, as well as in Alsatian lands.

It's nice when stupid threads lead to useful and informative posts.






It's also interesting to see how supposed 'dialect' maps often take more account of ethnocultural regional identities than linguistic realia. Compare;

Vikings? bleh, Phoenitians did similar stuff thousands of years before. Only with less violence. Plus they invented Alphabet

Hmmm, and more besides;

" The brazen arms were working more quickly. They paused no longer.
Every time that a child was placed in them the priests of Moloch spread out their hands upon him to burden him with the crimes of the people,
vociferating: "They are not men but oxen!" and the multitude round about repeated: "Oxen! oxen!"
The devout exclaimed: "Lord! eat!"
and the priests of Proserpine, complying through terror with the needs of Carthage, muttered the Eleusinian formula: "Pour out rain! bring forth!"
The victims, when scarcely at the edge of the opening, disappeared like a drop of water on a red-hot plate, and white smoke rose amid the great scarlet colour.
Nevertheless, the appetite of the god was not appeased. He ever wished for more. In order to furnish him with a larger supply,
the victims were piled up on his hands with a big chain above them which kept them in their place.
Some devout persons had at the beginning wished to count them, to see whether their number corresponded with the days of the solar year;
but others were brought, and it was impossible to distinguish them in the giddy motion of the horrible arms.
This lasted for a long, indefinite time until the evening. Then the partitions inside assumed a darker glow, and burning flesh could be seen.
Some even believed that they could descry hair, limbs, and whole bodies. Night fell; clouds accumulated above the Baal.
The funeral-pile, which was flameless now, formed a pyramid of coals up to his knees; completely red like a giant covered with blood,
he looked, with his head thrown back, as though he were staggering beneath the weight of his intoxication. "

- Gustav Flaubert

"First, Moloch, horrid King, besmeared with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears;
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud,
Their children's cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite
Worshiped in Rabba and her watery plain,
In Argob and in Basan, to the stream
Of utmost Arnon. Nor content with such
Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart
Of Solomon he led by fraud to build
His temple right against the temple of God
On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove
The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence
And black Gehenna called, the type of Hell."
- John Milton, Paradise Lost

[Portukalos]

SE France resembles north-central Italy.

In that case Provence has very little to do with Central Italy. They're way closer to other French regions such as lower-Auvergne or east-Languedoc.

[Tel Errant]

Incidentally, this propensity for the "ch" sound to be used by the Northern French was transported quite well over here in French Canada by our Norman and Picard forebears.

More than the Ch'tis, the Auvergnats (southern French) are the best known in France for this propensity.
Former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, was often mocked because of this.

Many of us have the habit of saying "chu" for "je suis" when speaking joual especially.

Here we shorten it in "chui".

[Aviane]

Osweo, nice map stitching put together I feel that Northern-Central are more closer to each other.

[supergiovane]

so what's the deal with south french and their families? do they live with their parents until adulthood like people from south europe or are they off on their own as soon as they hit 18 like north euros?

[Ouistreham]

so what's the deal with south french and their families? do they live with their parents until adulthood like people from south europe or are they off on their own as soon as they hit 18 like north euros?

Good question. There used to be a North/South discrepancy as far as family life is concerned. In the South (and Brittany) cohabitation of more than one married generation under one roof was normal practice while in the North it is a sort of taboo, you are supposed to leave home as soon as you are in age to have a stabilized relationship with someone (even if the home is large enough to accomodate you and her).

Now, I am under the impression that there's no difference anymore, the "Parisian" model had expanded evenly all over the country, it's pretty homogeneous.

An interesting map is this one showing the proportion of births out of marriage in Europe (which gives a hint as for prevailing family morals and young people's degree of independence):



Suprisingly, the phenomenon is even stronger in the mostly rural South-West: