Marseille to add Provencal dialect to its public transit announcements

Commuters will be reminded of the local pride that the Mediterranean city holds, as well as its roots

In September, Marseille will be one of the cities that will welcome rugby fans from all over the planet when the 2023 Rugby World Cup begins. However, there’s a surprise awaiting. The southern city will actually show off its regional pride by adding metro announcements in the local Provencal dialect, together with the standard French.

That change might even surprise the locals, as well. For example, when nearing the Chartreux station commuters will hear “Estacien que vèn, Lei Chartrous". The idea of translating all announcements into the regional dialect is done with the mission to add “extra soul and colour”.

At the start of the school year, the eighteen stations on the M1 line and the thirteen on the M2 line will benefit from these announcements. What’s more, the plan is to extend this initiative to also include announcements on the local trams, too.

Apparently, the idea started several years ago with Jean-Michel Turc, who is a teacher and a local district councillor, in whose opinion this is a way to show to the world that Marseille is a multicultural city. And also, that it’s a city that holds something unique about itself within the context of France.

Mr Turc, quoted by La Provence, didn’t miss the opportunity to take a jab at the French capital, given the famous rivalry between the country’s two major cities:

Paris, any metropolitan city that it is, will never have that.”

Toulouse also has metro station announcements in local dialect

Few people might be aware, but France used to be a country of several languages. The nationalizing and centralizing policies that have been the mainstay of any government since the 19^th century, however, have led to the suppression of regional identities at the expense of promoting a solid French identity.

In the Middle Ages, in Southern France or the region broadly known as Occitanie, the main language used to be Occitan. It used to enjoy a brief cultural resurgence in the 19^th century during the Felibrige movement led by famous writer Frederic Mistral, however, it is rarely used these days by anyone.

And even though French media speak about a Provencal dialect that will be heard on the public transit in Marseille, that dialect is by no means a French dialect, but it is rather a dialect of the Occitan language. However, regional languages have no official stature in French law and thus cannot be taught in school.

Marseille, however, is not the first city in France to place regional dialect announcements. The Toulouse Metro has been having those (in the local dialect of the Southwest) since 2009.