This book offers a sociolinguistic investigation of new speaker linguistic practices in the revitalisation of Gascon, a dialect of the Occitan language, within the urban context of Pau, France. Combining phonetic analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and an analysis of how transferred features are used to take stylistic stances, it investigates how new speakers of Gascon draw on French-influenced phonetic forms to take stylistic stances in order to align with, resist, or reconfigure prevailing language ideologies.The book includes three sub-studies: a phonetic analysis of transfer from French, focusing on three linguistic variables; a thematic/discourse analysis of ideological tensions surrounding authenticity, standardisation, and speaker legitimacy; and a contextual analysis of how phonetic transfer from French is operationalised to take stylistic stances. The author presents the concept of ‘new speakerness’ as a socially and phonetically complex phenomenon, ultimately contributing to broader debates in variationist sociolinguistics and the politics of language revitalisation. By offering a model for understanding how minoritised languages are reshaped by new speakers, the book provides a nuanced, empirically rich, and theoretically engaged account of how language contact, social meaning, and revitalisation intersect.
