Identifier et décrire l’hétérogénéité du français aux 17e et 18e siècles : le projet MACINTOSH (Missing hAlf the picture, ClassIcal NoT sO claSsical FrencH)

Abstract

Abstract This article presents a project focusing on French private letters written during the 17th and 18th centuries. As the first French initiative to ever investigate this collection, the project aims to show how the alternative data provided by these letters can broaden the scope by filling the gaps left by traditional historical linguistics, focusing on one of French’s greatest periods of expansion and shedding new light on the dynamics and mechanisms that led to the existing French and creole varieties in America and in the Indian Ocean.