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Explanation: In the case you mention (grande famille marseillaise) I would use "Marseille(s)" adjectivally, in the same way as we say "New Zealand butter": "a fine old Marseilles family".
If you're talking about a PERSON from Marseilles, I think I'd say just that: "the person is from Marseilles" given that I don't think we have a Marseilles equivalent of "New Zealander".
You'd refer to a Londoner, but you would say he was from an old London family, had a London background, went to a London school; a New Yorker of New-York Jewish ancestry, etc.
Drop the S, Bob? You've got to be joking. Consistency, that's what I like, and it's easier to put esses on Lyons and Marseilles than to take them off Rennes, Angers, Tours, Orléans, Nantes, Rennes, Versailles, Avranches, Nevers, R(h)eims, Mantes, Rugles, Limoges, Poitiers, Chartres, Nîmes, Cahors, Moulins, Le Mans, Tarbes, Châlons, Lourdes, St Gaudens, St Girons, Bourges, Amiens, Troyes, not to mention Bordeaux, Meaux and possibly even Dreux and Evreux.
Ah, but without the hyphen how, in a headline, would you distinguish "New-York Jew wins national lottery", in the case of a New Yorker, and "New York Jew wins national lottery" in the case of a citizen of the fine old city of York recently converted to Judaism?
(I taught chess in M for 15 years) So I've been there and played it! Two moves at a time I recall is Marseille chess.
They also have a variant where you play en duo and give the captured pieces to your colleague for reuse. Wild!
This text is from Pagnol's work. Is there no English word for this? Such as "Parisian"? thanks so much for the eye-opening propositions, but I'm not convinced that Massilian is the best in this case...
Yes I agree the term might be a bit old. As I mentioned it is used in an historical context. Just trying to give options to the translator. Since we're talking about an old/great family from Marseilles, it might work in her text, it has a more positive connotation than Marseillais. A great family from Marseilles would work to. All depends on the impression the original text needs to convey. Check out one of the web reference I posted.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
