Southern French state established in the first place (9)
I believe the answer is:
provencal
'southern french' is the definition.
'Provencal' can be an answer for 'french' (Provencal is an example). I'm not certain of the 'southern' bit.
'state established in the first place' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'state' could be 'cal' (short for California) and 'cal' is found within the answer.
'established' could be 'proven' (similar in meaning) and 'proven' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for provencal that I've seen before include "of southern France" , "Language in France" , "French citizen" , "French region" , "dialect" .)