Walloon (language)
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Walloon (; natively ; ) is a
Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
that is spoken in much of
Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
and, to a very small extent, in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, Belgium; some villages near
Givet Givet () (; ) is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France surrounded on three sides by the Belgian border. It lies on the river Meuse where Emperor Charles V built the fortress of Charlemont. It borders the French municipali ...
, northern France; and a clutch of communities in northeastern
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, United States.Université du Wisconsin : collection de documents sur l'immigration wallonne au Wisconsin, enregistrements de témoignages oraux en anglais et wallon, 1976
University of Wisconsin Digital Collection : Belgian-American Research Collection
/ref> It belongs to the ''
langues d'oïl The ''langues d'oïl'' are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest relatives historically spoken in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands. They belong to the larger category of Gallo- ...
''
dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
, the most prominent member of which is
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
. The historical background of its formation was the territorial extension since 980 of the
Principality of Liège A principality (or sometimes princedom) is a type of monarchical state or feudal territory ruled by a prince or princess. It can be either a sovereign state or a constituent part of a larger political entity. The term "principality" is often ...
to the south and west. Walloon is classified as "definitely endangered" by the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
''
Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' was an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after ...
''. Despite its rich literature, beginning anonymously in the 16th century and with well-known authors since 1756, the use of Walloon has decreased markedly since France's annexation of Wallonia in 1794. This period definitively established French as the language of social promotion, far more than it was before. After
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, public schools provided French-speaking education to all children, inducing a denigration of Walloon, especially when accompanied by official orders in 1952 to punish its use in schools. Subsequently, since the middle of the 20th century, generational transmission of the language has decreased, resulting in Walloon almost becoming a
dead language An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of re ...
. Today it is scarcely spoken among younger people, with the vast majority of its native speakers being the
elderly Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...
(aged 65 and over). In 2007, the number of people with knowledge of the language was estimated at 600,000."Europe and North Asia" (211-282) . Tapani Salminen (2007), C. Moseley · London & New York: Routledge Numerous associations, especially theatre companies, are working to keep the language alive. Formally recognized as a ' (regional indigenous language) of Belgium since 1990, Walloon has also benefited from a continued corpus planning process. The "Feller system" (1900) regularized transcription of the different accents. Since the 1990s, a common
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
was established (the ), which allowed large-scale publications, such as the ''Walloon Wikipedia'' officially in 2003. In 2004, a Walloon translation of a ''
Tintin Tintin usually refers to: * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), the protagonist and titular character of the series Tintin or Tin Tin may also refer to: Material related to ''The A ...
'' comic was released under the name '' L'èmerôde d'al Castafiore''; in 2007 an album consisting of
Gaston Lagaffe ''Gaston'' is a Belgian gag-a-day comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine '' Spirou''. The series, serving as a spin-off of the magazine's primary series ''Spirou et Fantasio ...
comic strips was published in Walloon. Walloon is more distinct as a language than
Belgian French Belgian French () is the variety of French spoken mainly among the French Community of Belgium, alongside related Oïl languages of the region such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Lorrain (Gaumais). The French language spoken in Belgi ...
, which differs from the French spoken in France only in some minor points of
vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...
and
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. To This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or si ...
.


Disputed nature of Walloon

Linguists had long classified Walloon as a
dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
of French, which in turn is a '. Like French, it descended from
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
. Arguing that a French-speaking person could not understand Walloon easily, especially in its eastern forms,
Jules Feller Jules Feller (4 November 1859 – 29 April 1940) was a Belgian academician and Walloon militant. Biography Jules Feller created the Feller system of spelling for the Walloon language. This is also used for writing the Picard language sin ...
(1859–1940) insisted that Walloon had an original "superior unity", which made it a
language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
. The phonological divisions of regional languages of southern Belgium were studied by the contemporary linguist E.B. Atwood. He defined the precise geographical repartition of the four chief dialects of Walloon. In addition, he defined them against the dialects of
Picard Picard may refer to: Places * Picard, Quebec, Canada * Picard, California, United States * Picard (crater), a lunar impact crater in Mare Crisium People and fictional characters * Picard (name), a list of people and fictional characters with th ...
,
Lorrain Lorrain or Le Lorrain may refer to: People * Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), French Baroque painter, draughtsman and etcher born Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain in French * Dessamae Lorrain (1927–2011), American archaeologist * James Herbert Lo ...
and
Champenois Champenois (''lou champaignat'') is a Romance language among the ''langues d'oïl'' spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and Île-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium (chiefly the municipalit ...
. Since then, most linguists (among them Louis Remacle), and gradually also Walloon politicians, regard Walloon as a regional language, the first in importance in
Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
. It is the only one to have originated from that part of Belgium. The eleventh edition of the ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' identified Walloon as the "northernmost Romance language".


Geographic distribution


Walloon

Walloon is spoken in the
Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
Region in Belgium. In addition, it is spoken in: * a small part of France: the '' Pointe de Givet'' in northern
Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...
, and several villages in the Nord ''département'', making it one of the regional
languages of France French is the sole official language in France according to the second article of the French Constitution. French, a Gallo-Romance language, is spoken by nearly the entire population of France. In addition to French, several regional langua ...
; * a small district of
Door County, Wisconsin Door County is the easternmost county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, its population was 30,066. Its seat of government is Sturgeon Bay. It is named after the strait between the Door Peninsula and Washington Island. ...
, US, owing to fairly large-scale immigration there in the 19th century; as well as portions of
Kewaunee County, Wisconsin Kewaunee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,563. Its county seat is Kewaunee. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1859. Its Menominee name is ''Kewāneh'', an ar ...
, US, and
Brown County, Wisconsin Brown County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 268,740, making it the fourth-most populous county in Wisconsin. The county seat is Green Bay ...
, US; and *
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, by some Walloon residents. Although Walloon was widely spoken until the mid-20th century, today only a small proportion of the inhabitants of the region are fluent in the language. Those born since the 1970s usually know little more than a few
idiomatic expression An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the lite ...
s, often
profanities Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such as anger, ex ...
. The Walloon language is still part of the Walloon heritage; it is one component of Walloon identity.


Dialects

Four dialects of Walloon developed in four distinct zones of Wallonia: * Central, spoken in
Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...
('), the Wallon capital, and the cities of
Wavre Wavre (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium. Wavre is in the Dijle, Dyle valley. Most inhabitants sp ...
(') and
Dinant Dinant () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Namur Province, province of Namur, Belgium. On the shores of river Meuse, in the Ardennes, it lies south-east of Brussels, south ...
; * Eastern – in many respects the most conservative and idiosyncratic of the dialects, spoken in
Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...
('),
Verviers Verviers (; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the cent ...
('),
Malmedy Malmedy (; , historically also ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Malmedy had a total population of 12,654. The total area is 99.96 km2 which gives a population dens ...
('),
Huy Huy ( ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the '' sillon industriel'', the former industrial backbone of Wall ...
('), and
Waremme Waremme (; ; ) is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Liège Province, province of Liège, in Belgium. The city is located on the River Jeker, Geer (), in the loessic Haspengouw region. The economy i ...
('); * Western – the dialect closest to French proper and with a strong
Picard Picard may refer to: Places * Picard, Quebec, Canada * Picard, California, United States * Picard (crater), a lunar impact crater in Mare Crisium People and fictional characters * Picard (name), a list of people and fictional characters with th ...
influence, spoken in
Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...
('),
Nivelles Nivelles (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the former municipalities of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux. The Nivelles arrondissement ...
('), and
Philippeville Philippeville (; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. The Philippeville municipality includes the former municipalities of Fagnolle, Franchimont, Jamagne, Jamiolle, Merlemont, Neuville, Om ...
('); and * Southern – close to the
Lorrain Lorrain or Le Lorrain may refer to: People * Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), French Baroque painter, draughtsman and etcher born Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain in French * Dessamae Lorrain (1927–2011), American archaeologist * James Herbert Lo ...
and to a lesser extent
Champenois Champenois (''lou champaignat'') is a Romance language among the ''langues d'oïl'' spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and Île-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium (chiefly the municipalit ...
languages, spoken in
Bastogne Bastogne (; ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Bastogne, Longvilly, Noville, Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and Wardi ...
,
Marche-en-Famenne Marche-en-Famenne (; ; literally "Marche in Famenne") is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Luxembourg. The municipality consists of the following districts: Aye, Hargimont, Humain, Marche-en-Famenne, ...
('), and Neufchâteau ('), all in the
Ardennes The Ardennes ( ; ; ; ; ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France. Geological ...
region. Despite local
phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds or, in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians ...
differences, there is a regional movement towards the adoption of a common spelling, called the Rifondou walon. This
orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...
is
diasystem In the field of dialectology, a diasystem or polylectal grammar is a linguistic analysis set up to encode or represent a range of related varieties in a way that displays their structural differences. The term ''diasystem'' was coined by linguis ...
ic, reflecting different pronunciations for different readers, a concept inspired by the spelling of
Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...
. The written forms attempt to reconcile current phonetic uses with ancient traditions (notably the reintroduction of ''xh'' and ''oi'' that were used for writing Walloon until the late 19th century) and the language's own
phonological Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...
logic.


Other regional languages

Other regional languages spoken in Wallonia, outside the Walloon domain, are: *
Picard Picard may refer to: Places * Picard, Quebec, Canada * Picard, California, United States * Picard (crater), a lunar impact crater in Mare Crisium People and fictional characters * Picard (name), a list of people and fictional characters with th ...
, in
Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...
,
Ath Ath (; , ; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Arbre, Ath, Bouvignies, Ghislenghien, Gibecq, Houtaing, Irchonwelz, Isières ...
, and
Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...
; *
Lorrain Lorrain or Le Lorrain may refer to: People * Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), French Baroque painter, draughtsman and etcher born Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain in French * Dessamae Lorrain (1927–2011), American archaeologist * James Herbert Lo ...
(also called ''Gaumais'' locally), in
Virton Virton (; Gaumais: ''Viertån''; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. It is also the administrative centre of the district (''arrondissement'') of the same name, as well as the principal town ...
; *
Champenois Champenois (''lou champaignat'') is a Romance language among the ''langues d'oïl'' spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and Île-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium (chiefly the municipalit ...
, in Bohan; and *
Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officiall ...
, in
Arlon Arlon (; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Luxembourg (Belgium), province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it ...
and
Martelange Martelange (; ; ; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. On 1 January 2007 the municipality, which covers 29.67 km2, had 1,584 inhabitants, giving a population density of 53.4 inhabitants per km2. ...
. The Picard, Lorrain and Champenois dialects spoken in Wallonia are sometimes also referred to as "Walloon", which may lead to confusion.


Phonetics and phonology

* may also be heard as or in word-final positions. * may also be pronounced as an alveolar trill among speakers. * can have an allophone of . * Latin before and before , , or gave Walloon affricate phonemes spelled ''tch'' and ''dj'' : (vs. French "cow"), ( "leg"). * Latin persisted in clusters: (Fr. "thorn, spine"), "wisp of straw", (Fr. "master"), (Fr. "party, feast"), (Fr. "castle"), and so on. *
Final obstruent devoicing Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Quebec French, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced ...
: "red" is pronounced exactly as "rock". *
Nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...
s may be followed by nasal consonants, as in "young", "cream", "dirty", etc. * Vowel length has a phonological value. It allows distinguishing "arse" and "cooked", "he cradles her" and "he increases it", "mass" and "master", etc.


Orthography

The Walloon alphabet generally consists of the basic
ISO Latin Alphabet The ISO basic Latin alphabet is an international standard (beginning with ISO/IEC 646) for a Latin-script alphabet that consists of two sets (uppercase and lowercase) of 26 letters, codified in various national and international standards and us ...
, and six types of
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
. It also makes frequent use of digraphs. Various orthographies have been used, most notably the Feller system () and Unified Walloon ( or ).


Characteristics


Language family

Walloon is distinguished from other languages in the ''
langue d'oïl Langue is a municipality in the Valle Department, Honduras. The town is located near the border of El Salvador and is a regional Hammock making center. Most of the town is made up of sharecroppers and day laborers. There are usually Mormon mis ...
'' family both by archaism coming from Latin and by its significant borrowing from Germanic languages, as expressed in its phonetics, its
lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
, and its
grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
. At the same time, Walloon phonetics are singularly conservative: the language has stayed fairly close to the form it took during the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...
.


Morphology

* The plural feminine adjectives before the noun take an unstressed ending (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare "the yellow leaf" and "the yellow leaves". * There is no gender difference in definite articles and possessives (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare Walloon ("the car", feminine) and ("the sky", masculine), with French and ; Walloon has ("his/her body", masculine) and ("his/her window", feminine) with French and .


Lexicon

* Walloon has a few Latin remnants that have disappeared from neighboring Romance languages: compare Walloon to
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
and
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
(all with the same meaning: "to awaken"). * The most distinctive feature is its number of borrowings from Germanic languages (Dutch and German dialects): compare Walloon to today's Dutch "weak" (cognate of English ''flaw''). Other common borrowings, among hundreds of others, are ("tip"; Dutch ), ("curl"; Dutch ), ("to spatter"; same root as the English ''to spit'', and ''to spew'', or German ; Dutch ), (the
starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine (perching) birds known for the often dark, glossy iridescent sheen of their plumage; their complex vocalizations including mimicking; and their distinctive, often elaborate swarming behavior, know ...
; Dutch , or German ).


Syntax

* The adjective is often placed before the noun: compare Walloon with French , "a strong man"; and French , "a white house". * Borrowing from Germanic languages, the construction "What kind of flower is this?" can be compared word for word to German and Dutch , as opposed to Standard French or (colloquially) .


History

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, although they mention others in the ''
langue d'oïl Langue is a municipality in the Valle Department, Honduras. The town is located near the border of El Salvador and is a regional Hammock making center. Most of the town is made up of sharecroppers and day laborers. There are usually Mormon mis ...
'' family, such as
Picard Picard may refer to: Places * Picard, Quebec, Canada * Picard, California, United States * Picard (crater), a lunar impact crater in Mare Crisium People and fictional characters * Picard (name), a list of people and fictional characters with th ...
and
Lorrain Lorrain or Le Lorrain may refer to: People * Claude Lorrain (1600–1682), French Baroque painter, draughtsman and etcher born Claude Gellée, called le Lorrain in French * Dessamae Lorrain (1927–2011), American archaeologist * James Herbert Lo ...
. 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 first occurrence of the word "Walloon" appeared in the current linguistic sense. In 1510 or 1511,
Jean Lemaire de Belges Jean Lemaire de Belges (c. 1473c. 1525) was a Walloon poet, historian, and pamphleteer who, writing in French, was the last and one of the best of the school of poetic 'rhétoriqueurs' (“rhetoricians”) and the chief forerunner, both in style a ...
made the connection between ' to ': The word "Walloon" thus came closer to its current meaning: the
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
of the Roman part of the
Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...
. One might say that the period which saw the establishment of the unifying supremacy of the
Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...
in the Walloon country was a turning-point in their linguistic history. The crystallization of a Walloon identity, as opposed to that of the ' (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". Also at this time, following the
Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (, ) is an extensive piece of reform legislation signed into law by Francis I of France on August 10, 1539, in the city of Villers-Cotterêts and the oldest French legislation still used partly by French court ...
in 1539, the French language replaced Latin for all administrative purposes in France. Established as the academic language, French became the object of a political effort at normalization; ' posited the view that when two languages of the same
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
coexist, each can be defined 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 it did not attempt to be a systematic reproduction of the spoken language.


Walloon society and culture

Walloon was the predominant language of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century, although they had a passing 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. Passing knowledge of Walloon is much more widespread: claimed by some 36–58% of the younger age bracket. Laurent Hendschel estimates there are 1,300,000 bilingual people in Wallonia (Walloon-French, Picard-French...). Many French words that pertain to mining and to the textile trade derive from the Walloon-Picard complex. Legally, Walloon has been recognized since 1990 by the
French Community of Belgium In Belgium, the French Community (, , CFB) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (, , FWB), which is controversial because ...
, 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. The ', founded in 1856, promotes Walloon literature and the study (
dialectology Dialectology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , ''-logy, -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now c ...
,
etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...
, etc.) of the regional Roman languages of Wallonia. There is a difference between the Walloon culture, according to the
Manifesto for Walloon culture The Manifesto for Walloon Culture (French: Manifeste pour la culture wallonne) was a document published on September 15, 1983, in Liège, Belgium. Signed by 75 prominent figures from the artistic, journalistic, and academic communities of Wallo ...
, and the Walloon language (even if the latter is a part of the culture).


Literature

Walloon-language literature has been printed since the 16th century, or at least since the beginning of the 17th century. It had its "golden age" during the peak of the Flemish immigration to Wallonia in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals."''Switching Languages, Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft,'' Ed. y Steven G. Kellman, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2003, p. 153. The
New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
holds a large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holdings are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand works, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903. After that, publications in Walloon fell markedly, to eleven in 1913. Yves Quairiaux counted 4,800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period, plays were almost the only popular entertainment in Wallonia. The Walloon-language theatre remains popular in the region; theatre is flourishing with more than 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. During the 19th-century renaissance of Walloon-language literature, several authors adapted versions of ''
Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...
'' to the racy speech (and subject matter) of Liège. They included Charles Duvivier (in 1842); Joseph Lamaye (1845); and the team of Jean-Joseph Dehin (1847, 1851–1852) and
François Bailleux François Bailleux was born in Liège on 23 August 1817, and died there of heart failure on 24 January 1866. A lawyer by profession, he played a leading part in the revival of Walloon language, Walloon literature after Belgium gained its independe ...
(1851–1866), who covered books I-VI. Adaptations into other dialects were made by Charles Letellier (Mons, 1842) and Charles Wérotte (Namur, 1844). Decades later, Léon Bernus published some hundred imitations of
La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...
in the dialect of ''Charleroi'' (1872); he was followed during the 1880s by Joseph Dufrane, writing in the ''Borinage'' dialect under the pen-name ''Bosquètia''. In the 20th century, Joseph Houziaux (1946) published a selection of 50 fables in the ''Condroz'' dialect. The motive among Walloon speakers in both France and Belgium was to assert regional identity against the growing centralism and encroachment of the language of the capital, on what had until then been predominantly monoglot areas. There are links between French literature and Walloon literature. For instance, the writer
Raymond Queneau Raymond Auguste Queneau (; ; 21 February 1903 – 25 October 1976) was a French novelist, poet, critic, editor and co-founder and president of Oulipo (), notable for his wit and cynical humour. Biography Queneau, the only child of Auguste Que ...
set the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology for
Editions Gallimard Edition may refer to: * Edition (book), a bibliographical term for a substantially similar set of copies * Edition (printmaking), a publishing term for a set print run * Edition (textual criticism), a particular version of a text * Edition Records ...
. ''
Ubu roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de ...
'' was translated into Walloon by
André Blavier André Blavier (23 October 1922 – 12 June 2001) was a Belgian poet. From 1961 he was a member of the literary group Oulipo and served as their foreign correspondent.Elkin, Lauren, & Esposito, Scott (2012). The End of Oulipo?: An Attempt to E ...
, an important 'pataphysician of
Verviers Verviers (; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the cent ...
, and friend of Queneau, for the new and important
Puppet theater A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in ancient Greece. There ...
of Liège of Jacques Ancion. The Al Botroûle theater operated "as the umbilical cord" in Walloon, indicating a desire to return to the source. Jacques Ancion also wanted to develop a regular adult audience. "From the 19th century he included the Walloon play ''Tati l'Pèriquî'' by E. Remouchamps and the avant-garde ''
Ubu roi ''Ubu Roi'' (; "Ubu the King" or "King Ubu") is a play by French writer Alfred Jarry, then 23 years old. It was first performed in Paris in 1896, by Aurélien Lugné-Poe's Théâtre de l'Œuvre at the Nouveau-Théâtre (today, the Théâtre de ...
'' by A. Jarry."Joan Gross, ''Speaking in Other Voices: An Ethnography of Walloon Puppet Theaters.'' Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Press, 2001, The scholar Jean-Marie Klinkenberg writes, " e dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis".Benoît Denis et Jean-Marie Klinkenberg, "Littérature : entre insularité et activisme" (Literature: between insularity and activism), in ''Le Tournant des années 1970. Liège en effervescence'', Bruxelles, Les Impressions nouvelles, 2010, pp. 237–253, p. 252. French : ''Ancion monte l'Ubu rwè en 1975 (...) la culture dialectalisante cesse d'être une marque de passéisme pour participer à une nouvelle synthèse...'' Walloon is also being used in popular song. The best-known singer in Walloon in present-day Wallonia is William Dunker ( 15 March 1959).


Phrases


See also

*
Languages of Belgium As a result of being in between Latin and Germanic Europe, and historically being split between different principalities, the nation has multiple official languages. The Kingdom of Belgium has three official languages: Dutch, French, and ...
*
Walloons Walloons ( ; ; ) are a Gallo-Romance languages, Gallo-Romance ethnic group native to Wallonia and the immediate adjacent regions of Flanders, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Walloons primarily speak ''langues d'oïl'' such as B ...
– the people *
Belgian French Belgian French () is the variety of French spoken mainly among the French Community of Belgium, alongside related Oïl languages of the region such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Lorrain (Gaumais). The French language spoken in Belgi ...
– French as spoken in Belgium *
Doncols Doncols (, ) is a village in the commune of Winseler, in north-western Luxembourg. Population , the village has a population of 469. Historical and linguistic backgrounds Doncols is known as an historically Walloon-speaking village, similar ...
&
Sonlez Sonlez (, ) is a village in Luxembourg. Location and population It is situated in the commune of Winseler, in north-western Luxembourg. , the village has a population of 90. It is situated between Tarchamps (West) and Doncols (East) Linguist ...
: formerly Walloon-speaking villages in the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
. *
Manifesto for Walloon culture The Manifesto for Walloon Culture (French: Manifeste pour la culture wallonne) was a document published on September 15, 1983, in Liège, Belgium. Signed by 75 prominent figures from the artistic, journalistic, and academic communities of Wallo ...
*
Flemish dialects Flemish ( ) is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it is spo ...
*
History of the term Wallon The history of the term ''Wallon'' and its derivatives begins with the ancient Germanic languages, Germanic word ''*Walhaz, walh'', which generally referred to Celtic languages, Celtic- or Romance languages, Romance-speaking populations with whom ...


References


Footnotes


Citations

* Maurice Piron, ''Anthologie de la littérature wallonne'', Mardaga, Liège, 1978 (661 pages) . *de Reuse, Willem J. ''La phonologie du français de la région de Charleroi (Belgique) et ses rapports avec le wallon.'' La Linguistique Vol. 23, Fasc. 2. 1987. *Hendschel, Lorint. ''Li Croejhete Walone Contribution à une grammaire de la langue wallonne''. 2001, 2012.


External links


Web page of Common Written Walloon
*Walloon, a living language in the 22nd century? by Lucien Mahin at the meeting "Promoting or demoting: the transmission of minority languages from past to present", University of Poitiers, France, 6 and 7 April 2018


Synthetic presentationComprehensive grammar of Walloon
(in French and under GFDL)
Walloon Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh list appendix



Union Culturelle Wallonne
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walloon Language Oïl languages Languages of France Languages of Belgium Wallonia Culture of Wallonia Hainaut (province) Liège Province Luxembourg (Belgium) Namur (province) Walloon Brabant Ardennes (department)