Walloon (Walon) is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonia (Belgium). It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language, and is sometimes considered a French dialect. Walloon should not be confused with Belgian French, which differs from the French spoken in France only in some minor points of vocabulary and pronunciation. Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ... The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Italo-Western is the largest sub-group of Romance languages. ... Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italian languages Lombard Piedmontese Emilian-Romagnol Venetian Ligurian Gallo-Rhaetian languages Oïl languages(including French) Burgundian Champenois Franc-Comtois French Gallo Lorrain Norman Anglo-Norman Channel Island Norman Auregnais Dgèrnésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Picard Poitevin-Saintongeais Walloon Rhaetian languages Friulian Ladin Romansh *Franco... The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Oïl languages, Catalan, and Occitan, among other languages. ... The langue doïl language family in linguistics comprises Romance languages originating in territories now occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonien, Walloon: Walonreye, Dutch: Wallonië) or the Walloon Region (French: Région Wallonne, Dutch: Waals Gewest) is the predominantly French-speaking region that constitutes one of the three federal regions of Belgium, with its capital at Namur. ... The langue doïl language family in linguistics comprises Romance languages originating in territories now occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ... Belgian French is primarily spoken in the French Community of Belgium, highlighted in red. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Geographic distribution

Walloon

Walloon is spoken in Belgium. It is also spoken in:

• a small part of France: the botte de Givet in northern Ardennes, and several villages in the Nord département, making it one of the regional languages of France
• a small region in Door County, Wisconsin, USA, owing to fairly large-scale immigration there in the 19th century
• two or three villages in Luxembourg (Doncols, Sonlez), though it is possibly no longer spoken there

However, though Walloon was widely spoken till the mid 20th century, only few inhabitants of Wallonia are currently able to use it. Most of the younger generations (born within the 1970s and after) know only a few idiomatic expressions which are often curse words. Nevertheless the Walloon language is still a part of the Walloon heritage and as such is one of the foundations of Walloon ethnicity, though the very existence of the Walloons as an ethnic group is a controversial issue. What is certain is that Walloon people are descended mostly from the Frankish people, who gave their name to France and the French language. Ardennes is a département in the northeast of France named after the Ardennes area. ... Extent of Flemish in the Arrondissement of Dunkirk, 1874 and 1972 Nord (French: North) is a département in the north of France. ... There are a number of languages of France. ... Door County is a county located in the state of Wisconsin. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ... An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not compositional — that is, whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of the individual words of which it is composed. ... Look up Profanity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ... The term Walloons (French: Wallons, Walloon: Walons) refers, in daily speech, to French-speaking Belgians from Wallonia. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

Dialects

Linguistic map of Wallonia

Four dialects are found in Wallonia, in four distinct zones: Image File history File links Linguistic map of Wallonia, showing where the different native languages (Walloon, Picard, Champenois, Lorrain and Luxemburguish) are spoken. ... Image File history File links Linguistic map of Wallonia, showing where the different native languages (Walloon, Picard, Champenois, Lorrain and Luxemburguish) are spoken. ...

• central, with the capital of Wallonia, Nameur (Namur), and the cities of Åve (Wavre), and Dinant
• eastern, with Lidje (Liège), Vervî (Verviers), Måmdi (Malmedy), Hu (Huy), and Wareme (Waremme), in many respects the most conservative and idiosyncratic dialect
• western, with Tchårlerwè (Charleroi), Nivele (Nivelles), and Flipvile (Philippeville), with a strong Picard influence, the dialect closest to French proper
• southern, with Bastogne, Måtche (Marche), and Li Tchestea (Neufchâteau), all in the Ardennes region, close to Lorrain and to a lesser extent Champenois.

Despite local phonetic differences, there is a movement towards the adoption of a common spelling, called the "rfondou walon". This orthography is based on diasystems that can be pronounced differently by different readers, a concept inspired by the spelling of Breton. The written forms attempt to reconcile current phonetic uses with ancient traditions (notably the reintroduction of xh and oi that were used for writing Wallon until late 19th century) and the language's own phonological logic. Namur (Nameûr in Walloon, Namen in Dutch) is a city and municipality, capital of the province of Namur and of the region of Wallonia in southern Belgium. ... Wavre is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, of which it is the capital. ... Liège (Dutch: Luik, German: Lüttich; before 1946, the citys name was written Liége, with the acute accent) is a major city located in the Belgian province of Liège, of which it is the capital. ... Center of Verviers Verviers is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. ... Malmedy Cathedral, built in 1777 Malmedy is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. ... Charleroi (Walloon: Tchålerwè) is the first city and municipality of Wallonia in population. ... Nivelles (Dutch: Nijvel) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. ... The Ardennes (pronounced ar-DEN) (Dutch: Ardennen) is a region of extensive forests and rolling hill country, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France (lending its name to the Ardennes département and the Champagne-Ardenne région). ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS... The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... In linguistics, a diasystem is a term used in structural dialectology, to refer to a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. ... Breton (Breton: Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh) in France. ... Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ...

Other regional languages

Other regional languages spoken in Wallonia, outside the Walloon domain, are:

• Picard, in Mons, Ath, and Tournai
• Lorrain (also called Gaumais locally), in Virton
• Champenois, in Bohan
• Luxembourgish, in Arlon and Martelange

The Picard, Lorrain and Champenois dialects spoken in Wallonia are sometimes also referred to as "Walloon", which may lead to confusion. Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. ... Geography Country Belgium Region Walloon Region Community French Community Province Hainaut Arrondissement Mons Coordinates Area 146. ... This article is about the Belgian municipality. ... Tournai (in Dutch: Doornik in Latin: Tornacum) is a municipality located 85 kilometres southwest of Brussels, on the river Scheldt (in French: Escaut, in Dutch: Schelde), in the Belgian province of Hainaut. ... Lorrain is a language spoken by a minority of people in Lorraine in France and in Gaume in Belgium. ... Virton: St Lawrences church Virton is the most southerly town in Belgium and the administrative centre of a municipality (commune) and district (arrondissement) of the same name, located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. ... Champenois is a language spoken by a minority of people in France and in Belgium. ... Luxembourgish (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuergesch, French: , German: , Walloon: ), also spelled Luxemburgish, is a West Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg. ... St Martin church, Arlon Arlon (Dutch: Aarlen, German: Arel) is a Belgian municipality located in the Walloon province of Luxembourg, of which it is the capital. ... Martelange is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. ...

Linguistic outline

Language family

Walloon distinguishes itself from other languages in the langue d'oïl family both by archaism coming from Latin and by its significant borrowing from Germanic languages as expressed in its phonetics, its lexicon, and its grammar. At the same time, Walloon phonetics are singularly conservative: the language has stayed fairly close to the form it took on during the high Middle Ages. The langue doïl language family in linguistics comprises Romance languages originating in territories now occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the surname, see Grammer. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...

Phonetics and phonology

• Latin [ka] and [g + e, i, a] gave Walloon affricate phonemes spelled "tch" (as in cherry) and "dj" (as in joke): vatche (cow), djambe (leg).
• Latin [s] subsisted: spene (thorn), fistu (wisp of straw), mwaîsse (master), fiesse (party), chaestea (castle),...
• Voiced consonants at the end of words are always unvoiced: rodje (red) is pronounced exactly as rotche (rock).
• Nasal vowels may be followed by nasal consonants, as in djonne (young), crinme (cream), mannet (dirty), etc.
• Vowel length has a phonological value. It allows to distinguish e.g. cu (ass) and cû (cooked), i l' hosse (he cradles her) and i l' hôsse (he increases it), messe (mass) and mêsse (master), etc.

A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through the mouth and the nose. ... In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. ...

Morphology

• The plural feminine adjectives before the noun take an unstressed ending "-ès" (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare li djaene foye (the yellow leaf) and les djaenès foyes (the yellow leaves).
• There is no gender difference in definite articles and possessives (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare Walloon li vweteure (the car, feminine) and li cir (the sky, masculine), with French la voiture but le ciel; Walloon has si coir (his/her body, masculine) and si finiesse (his/her window, feminine) while French has son corps but sa fenêtre.

Lexicon

• Walloon still has a few Latin remnants which have disappeared from neighboring romance languages, e.g. compare Walloon dispierter (to awake) to Spanish despertar (same meaning) or Romanian destepta (same meaning).
• But the most striking feature is the number of borrowings from Germanic languages (Dutch and German dialects): compare Walloon flåwe to today's Dutch flauw (weak). Other common borrowings, among hundreds of others, are dringuele (tip; Dutch drinkgeld), crole (curl), spiter (to spatter; same root as the English to spit, or German spützen), li sprewe (the starling; Dutch spreeuw).

Genera Aplonis Mino Basilornis Sarcops Streptocitta Enodes Scissirostrum Sarroglossa Ampeliceps Gracula Acridotheres Leucopsar Sturnia Sturnus Creatophora Fregilupus (extinct) Necropsar (extinct) Coccycolius Lamprotornis Cinnyricinclus Spreo Cosmoparus Onychognathus Poeoptera Grafisia Speculipastor Neochicla Buphagus See also: Myna, Oxpecker Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. ...

Syntax

• The adjective is often placed before the noun: compare Walloon on foirt ome (a strong man) with French un homme fort; ene blanke måjhon (a white house) and French une maison blanche.
• A borrowing from Germanic languages: the construction Cwè çki c'est di ça po ene fleur? (what is this flower?) can be compared word to word to German Was ist das für eine Blume? or Dutch Wat is dat voor een bloem?.

History

Shop sign in Crupet

It is inappropriate to speak of a "date of birth" for Walloon, partly because languages are not born overnight. From a linguistic point of view, Louis Remacle has shown that a good number of the developments that we now consider typical of Walloon appeared between the 8th and 12th centuries. Walloon "had a clearly defined identity from the beginning of the 13th century". In any case, linguistic texts from the time do not mention the language, even though they mention others in the langue d'oïl family, such as Picard and Lorrain. During the 15th century, scribes in the region called the language "Roman" when they needed to distinguish it. It is not until the beginning of the 16th century that we find the first occurrence of the word "Walloon" in the same linguistic sense that we use it today. In 1510 or 1511, Jean Lemaire de Belges made the connection between "Rommand" to "Vualon": Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 461 KB) Description:Crupet (Belgique/Belgium), enseigne écrite en wallon. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2272x1704, 461 KB) Description:Crupet (Belgique/Belgium), enseigne écrite en wallon. ... Crupet is a village in Wallonia, Belgium. ... Louis Remacle (Gleize, 30 September 1910- 1999 ), was a professor at the University of Liege. ... (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... The langue doïl language family in linguistics comprises Romance languages originating in territories now occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands. ... Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. ... Lorrain is a language spoken by a minority of people in Lorraine in France and in Gaume in Belgium. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Year 1510 (MDX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... 1511 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jean Lemaire de Belges (ca 1473 – ca 1525) was a Walloon poet and historian who lived primarily in France. ...

Et ceux cy [les habitants de Nivelles] parlent le vieil langage Gallique que nous appellons Vualon ou Rommand (...). Et de ladite ancienne langue Vualonne, ou Rommande, nous usons en nostre Gaule Belgique: Cestadire en Haynau, Cambresis, Artois, Namur, Liege, Lorraine, Ardenne et le Rommanbrabant, et est beaucoup differente du François, lequel est plus moderne, et plus gaillart.

And those people [the inhabitants of Nivelles] speak the old Gallic language which we call Vualon or Rommand (...). And we use the said old Vualon or Rommand language in our Belgian Gaul: That is to say in Hainaut, Cambrai, Artois, Namur, Liège, Lorraine, Ardennes and Rommand Brabant, and it is very different from French, which is more fashionable and courtly.

The word "Walloon" thus came closer to its current meaning: the vernacular of the Roman part of the Low Countries. One might say that the period which saw the establishment of the unifying supremacy of the Burgundians in the Walloon country was a turning-point in our linguistic history. The crystallization of a Walloon identity as opposed to that of the thiois (i.e. Dutch speaking) regions of the Low Countries, established "Walloon" as a word for designating its people. Somewhat later, the vernacular of these people became more clearly distinct from central French and other neighbouring langues d'oïl, prompting the abandonment of the vague term "Roman" as a linguistic, ethnic, and political designator for "Walloon". Look up Vernacular in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries (see Country) on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse (Maas) rivers. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ...

Also at this time, following the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, the French language replaced Latin for all administrative purposes in France. French was established as the academic language and became the object of a political effort at normalization, La Pléiade, which posited the view that when two languages of the same language family coexist, each can define itself only in opposition to the other. Around the year 1600, the French writing system became dominant in the Wallonia. From this time, too, dates a tradition of texts written in a language marked by traces of spoken Walloon. The written language of the preceding centuries, scripta, was a composite language with some Walloon characteristics but not attempting to be a systematic reproduction of the spoken language. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts expanded the central control of the French state The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts is an extensive piece of reform legislation signed into law by François I of France on August 10, 1539 in the city of Villers-Cotterêts. ... The Pléiade was a group of 16th-century French poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... 1600 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

Walloon society and culture

Bilingual street sign in Fosses-la-Ville

Walloon was the predominant language of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century, even though they had a passive knowledge of French. Since that time, the use of French has spread to the extent that now only 15% of the Walloon population speak their ancestral language. Breaking the statistics down by age, 70-80% of the population aged over 60 speak Walloon, while only about 10% of those under 30 do so. Passive knowledge of Walloon is much more widespread: claimed by some 36-58% of the younger age bracket. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2100x1590, 454 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Walloon language ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2100x1590, 454 KB) File links The following pages link to this file: Walloon language ... Fosses-la-Ville is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Namur. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999...

Legally, Walloon has been recognized since 1990 by the French Community of Belgium, the cultural authority of Wallonia, as an "indigenous regional language" which must be studied in schools and encouraged. The Walloon cultural movement includes the Union Culturelle Wallonne, an organization of over 200 amateur theatre circles, writers' groups, and school councils. About a dozen Walloon magazines publish regularly, and the Société de Langue et de Littérature Wallonne, founded in 1856, promotes Walloon literature and the study (dialectology, etymology, etc.) of the regional Roman languages of Wallonia. The French Community area of Belgium The French Community of Belgium (French: , Dutch: , German: ) is one of the three official communities in Belgium along with the Flemish Community and the German speaking Community. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Dialectology is the study of dialects of a language, their evolution, differentiation, inter-intelligibity, grammar, phonetics etc. ... Not to be confused with Entomology, the study of insects. ...

Example phrases

See also

• Walloons – the people
• Wallonia – the region
• Belgian French – French as spoken in Belgium
• Dialect – "dialect" or "language"

The term Walloons (French: Wallons, Walloon: Walons) refers, in daily speech, to French-speaking Belgians from Wallonia. ... Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonien, Walloon: Walonreye, Dutch: Wallonië) or the Walloon Region (French: Région Wallonne, Dutch: Waals Gewest) is the predominantly French-speaking region that constitutes one of the three federal regions of Belgium, with its capital at Namur. ... Belgian French is primarily spoken in the French Community of Belgium, highlighted in red. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

External links

Walloon language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Web page of Common Written Walloon
• Comprehensive grammar of Walloon (in French and under GFDL)
• phonetic system of Walloon
• Walloon language wiki
• Wallon-English Gastronomy Dictionary
• Union Culturelle Wallonne
• Ethnologue report for Walloon
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