A Geolinguistic Analysis of "Oie" and "Jars" - Evidence from the Atlas Linguistique de la France -

In standard French, goose as a generic term and a female goose is “une oie,” and a gander is “un jars.” “Oie” is derived from Latin AUCA, and “jars,” according to Dauzat (1921: 9-16), from pre-Latin GARR-. In this research, by employing Map 936 “oie” (goose) from the Atlas Linguistique de la France (ALF), we investigated the following four research questions: I. What is the distribution of the forms of “oie” as a generic term for ‘goose’? II. Where did the phonetic change [ɔ] > [ɔi] occur, according to Frantext? III. Is the word “jars” the oldest word for ‘gander’ in France? IV. What is the distribution of the forms of “jars”?

Our finding, concerning “oie,” indicated that older forms, such as [auka], [ɔə] and [oj], remained in the periphery and the standard form [wa] might have moved from central to southeastern France by following the Rhône and its tributaries’ basins. We, however, could not clarify the origin of the phonetic change [ɔ] > [ɔi] in “oie.” First, we found that forms of “jars” were observed at only 253 of the 638 ALF survey points. Furthermore, we indicated that “jars” might be derived from the old Frankish *gard rather than pre-Latin GARR-. Additionally, from the distribution of the forms and regional dictionaries, we suggested “jars” could be from a newer language layer than “auc” whose etymology is Latin AUCA. We concluded that the presence of forms of “jars” in ALF was likely related to the breeding of geese.