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This paper shows how chain shifts in the development of the French language can be accounted for by employing Optimality Theory (McCarthy & Prince 1995) in conjunction with Dispersion Theory (Flemming 1995). To this end, I will present a major diachronic chain shift of French vowels which does not obey one of the general principles of chain shifts shown in Labov (1994). To be more specific, I will argue that the initial cause of the overall shift can be found in a non-phonetic factor, e.g., socio-geological contacts with neighboring languages. I will then show how this chain shift can be accounted for in terms of the phonetic naturalness and the functional role of the distinctiveness of contrasts. Furthermore, as the well-formedness of the vowel system cannot be evaluated in isolation, the overall result is obtained by the pattern evaluation of the adjacent vowels (Flemming 1995, 2001a, b, Ahn 2002a, b, 2004). The OT account will then be extended to the allophonic variation in Parigot, the Parisian dialect of contemporary French. Here I will claim that the raising and fronting of the back vowels can be accounted for in a similar trend, i.e., with respect to phonetic and functional factors. Therefore, both diachronic and synchronic changes are accounted for in a uniform way as both changes may have been triggered by a drag chain, rather than by a push chain as claimed earlier by Martinet (1952, 1955). The only difference between the two chain shifts is in their triggers: the diachronic changes were initiated by the socio-linguistic factor, i.e., contacts with other languages, while a functional/phonetic factor triggered the fronting of the mid lax vowel responsible for the subsequent changes in Parigot. Nevertheless, both changes can be accounted for in a functional way, based on a pattern evaluation within Dispersion Theory.

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