No, no — not that Picard! Not Jean-Luc. I’m talking about the language called Picard, not the Star Trek character. You say you’ve never heard of that language? Well, read on…

First, take a good look at the map below. You see Bergues near the top, and Wikipedia’s “helpful hint” near the bottom. If the hint hadn’t told you that Bergues is in France, would you have been absolutely sure by examining the map, or would you think it’s in Belgium? Second, would you expect Bergues to have a nice warm Mediterranean climate? The answer to both questions, of course, is “no.”

Now what does all that have to do with a French movie from 2008 that you’ve probably never heard of, just as you haven’t heard of Picard? And what does it have to do with linguistics? In particular, what does Bergues have to do with this mysterious language called Picard?

In this case all three answers are “everything.”

The movie is Welcome to the Sticks, or Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis in the original French. But the thing is that most of the movie is not in French! Nor is it in English, but helpful subtitles in English are provided. OK, you’re way ahead of me now: you’ve figured out that although a lot of the movie is in French, even more is in… you guessed it… Picard! And of course the parts in Picard take place in… yes… Bergues. The reason that all this is of particular interest to linguists is that the prejudice of the locals is that Picard is just a substandard dialect of French. Even the Picardophones buy into this myth (both in the movie and in real life). For more info, take a look at the Wikipedia article on Picard, which includes this pairing of a Picard proverb and its French translation:

• I n’faut pas qu’ches glaines is cantent pus fort que ch’co.
• Il ne faut pas que les poules chantent plus fort que le coq.

As a bonus, you can figure out the typical social attitudes of the locals. (If you can’t read French, remember that Google Translate is your friend.) Less controversially, consider how to say I do not speak Picard in both Picard and French:

• Éj n’pérle poin picard.
• Je ne parle pas picard.

I think you can see why some people think Picard is a dialect of French and others think it’s a separate language.

Categories: Linguistics, Movies & (occasionally) TV, Travel