France, May 17 -- "At school, at university or in the mass media, it's common to consider having an accent a bit of a bad thing. It's not something positive," says Mederic Gasquet-Cyrus, a sociolinguist at the university of Aix-Marseille, who is a specialist on his own accent from Marseille.
"When you try to move into the upper classes, you abandon whatever recalls that you come from a certain place or certain region," he explains.
The standard French accent heard in broadcast media and from politicians has its origins in Paris - although no single Parisian accent actually exists.
"Centralisation is very strong in France, because everything is concentrated around Paris," says Gasquet-Cyrus.
Listen to an interview with Mederic Gasquet-Cy...