Talk:Walloon language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flag of Belgium This page relates to the WikiProject Belgium, a project to create and improve Belgium-related Wikipedia articles. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, all interested editors are welcome!

Flag of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region

Flag of the French Community and the Walloon Region

Flag of the Brussels-Capital Region

Flag of the German-speaking community

Translated following this request:

Contents

[edit] Belgian French vs Walloon

I don't believe that Belgian French should redirect to Walloon, as they aren't exactly the same thing. "Belgian French" is generally a dialect of "French," while Walloon is a separate language in the same langue d'oïl family. At least, that's what fr:Wallon says. Elsewhere on the web I've seen Walloon described as a French dialect, but I decided to stay with the French Wikipedia's info. I think we should restore the Belgian French article (or should it be Belgian French Language ?), add in links and clarifying text to both articles, and also tidy up the Walloon disambiguation page. I'm no expert on this stuff though, I just did my best to bring over the fr article. – Nathan 16:34, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
As I understand it Walloon as a name for Belgian French and Walloon as a name of a seperate language are referring to the same language, much like Flemish refers to what is commonly known as a Dutch (group of) dialect(s), but to some people represents a different language. But I am not a native Walloon speaker, so merging may be wrong. I do know that most linguism sites classify Walloon as a dialect of French, for example http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Belgium — Jor (Talk) 16:40, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
That is not the only case where the Ethnologue is wrong; in fact I learned not to trust it for proper linguistic classification. If Walloon would to be called a dialect of French, then Polish should be called a dialect of Russian, and Portuguese a dialect of Spanish, etc.
Until recently however the knowledge about Walloon language outside of Wallonia was not very widespread (only in Germany there are scholars a bit more knowledgeable; not that a Walloon speaking part of Wallonia was part of Germany until the 1920's (the so called "Prussian Wallonia")). I hope this article helps. Srtxg 02:07, 12 Jun 2004 (UTC)
I've added a note to the article that some see it as a dialect. I do not think we need the duplication in Belgian French, as the two terms refer to the same language. French language policy is to call all Romance languages spoken in France French dialects, which also happens to French Catalan or other langues d'oc, so this position should in my opinion be represented in the article. I hope the current form is acceptable. — Jor (Talk) 16:56, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Jor, I do not speak Walloon and do not claim to be an expert, but I do speak French and would say it is a stretch to call them "very similar." The Walloon language#Example phrases look like gibberish to me. See fr:Wallon for a side-by-side comparison of the same phrases. And whether or not Walloon is a dialect of French (or a dialect of Belgian French), it is not the same thing as Belgian French. Belgian French has comparatively few changes from standard French, some of which are outlined in the excised article below. I'm not sure what this business is about the French language policy... all of my info comes from an article written in French that didn't show any contempt for Walloon as a distinct language. Finally, please look at the Walloon language#Walloon society and culture section. It talks about Belgians converting from Walloon to French, i.e. Belgian French. I don't care if they're separate languages or separate dialects, but they're two separate entities with associated percentages of native speakers.
Allright, thanks for your insight. In that case I'll revert Belgian French as a redirect and just place disambiguation notes. — Jor (Talk) 17:45, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Picard language

Picard language states it is spoken in much the same areas Walloon language is. Is this the same language, or another regional Romance language? — Jor (Talk) 16:59, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Never mind. The article for Picardièn states it is spoken alongside Walloon suggesting it is a seperate language. — Jor (Talk) 17:58, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)
More exactly, Picard and Walloon speaking areas are adjacent; and Picard is spoken on the West of Wallonia (see Image:Detailed_Wallonia_map.jpg for the different native languages of Wallonia) Srtxg 02:07, 12 Jun 2004 (UTC)
The two "languages" Picard and Wallon are virtually identical. I'm going to add a comment below on my reasons for saying this.

[edit] ISO codes

This article stated the ISO codes for Walloon were "wa" and "wln", respectively. However, no source I could find even mentions Walloon, or any of these codes. Could someone cite a source for them? Thanks. — Timwi 23:05, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Never mind, I found it...

[edit] Hmmmm...

I think this paragraph may be wrong:

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?.

For starters, both the Dutch and the German quotes mean something like "What sort of flower is that". And the french (at least Belgian French) has a similar construction: Qu'est-ce que c'est (que ça) comme (un) fleur? So I wouldn't rush to a conclusion that this is a Germanic borrowing. 88.111.151.181 17:18, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

I am Dutch and my German is also quite OK, but I don't know much about Romance languages. The Dutch and German quotes both literally translate in English as: "What is that for a flower?" What I can make out of the Walloon quote, the last three words also mean "for a flower". I don't know what "cwè çki c'" and "di ça" mean, but if "cwè çki c'" means "what" and "di ça" means "that", then the Walloon and Dutch and German quotes have the same construction. Dinsdagskind 09:37, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed move

It has been proposed that Languages of Oïl be renamed and moved to Langues d'Oïl. Comments and votes on Talk:Languages of Oïl, please, if you're interested. Man vyi 09:09, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] French views about Belgian French and dialects; no difference between Picard and Walloon

In France, the language has been made uniform over the last few hundred years. This has been an imposed uniformity around Parisian French, enforced so much in the schools to the extent that all dialects almost died out, surviving pretty much uniquely in family groups or more culturally-isolated or -homogeneous communities. The recent acknowledgement of their existence by the French Government is therefore quite a change in policy.

The principle that all French speakers are part of the same culture (and at a stretch, part of the same nation) is still in the background, and a subject dear to the hearts of many politicians (see Francophonie). This is associated with a superiority complex of the Parisian uniformised French as the language imposed by the French Revolution.

The Picard dialect is for me almost identical to Walloon, the slight differences could be explained by distance and the position of French border since 1830. It seems accepted in Wallonia that Walloon and Picard have one and the same root. Note that the local dialect in Mons ("Borinage") is considered Walloon and not Picard by the inhabitants, thus indicating the equivalency of the two terms. If there is a difference, I would point to the absorption of words from mercantile and settlement contacts with other languages. That not all words which are not Romance in origin are borrowed can be shown by comparing two examples: "rabbit" in Picard and Walloon is robet with or without a voiced T (compare French "lapin" and Romance "coney"); whereas "cat" is cat in both (compare French "chat", Romance "catta"). See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=rabbit&searchmode=none which has "robet" with a voiced T (robète). This must go back to the localised use of a common Frankish or Flemish root. Jeremynicholas 07:58, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dialect distribution with Wallonia

As in most cases of dialect distribution, there are no hard and fast borders between various uses. The official Walloon site, of which this page is a large translation, admits the same. In particular the border in Belgium between Picard and Walloon seems to me to be artificial.

One could also define a more generic "distribution of use of dialects within Wallonia" as the base. In that case you end up with five zones by dividing as follows: Mons - Tournai - Ath (Borin); La Louviere - Nivelles - Soignies - Chimay (Centre); Charleroi - Philippeville - Dinant - Namur (Charleroi); Ardennes; Liège and the rest (Liègeois) (though one could argue that Arlon is not Lorrain in language and that Verviers is somewhat different from Liège. This is based on personal observation.

Against the principle of "lî walon rifondu" there acts the great fragmentation of dialects in Belgium, whose development was probably helped by the hilly terrain and very localised cultures under heavy immigration. The whole exercise is hindered by the attempt to write it using some standardised system of diacritics - the dialect differences have grown up because they were not written down. The official site itself refers to wanting to write "fish" as pexhon for both the Liège area where they say pèhon with a silent H, and elsewhere where they say pèchon with a guttural H. Further, one difference between what I define as "Centre" and "Charleroi" Walloon lies in the use of "W" as a prefix for words beginning with vowels when a liaison is imposed: "upstairs" is in French "en haut", pronounced with the "n" attached to the "haut" ("naut"); in Centre this schema is followed but in Charleroi it becomes "en" pronounced with the nasal "N" and a "W" prefixing the soundless "H" - "en waut". This does not show the absolute correctness of the proposal in the previous paragraph, but these differences show the gradual nature of dialect mutation over physical distance. Jeremynicholas 07:58, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

I am not a linguist, so what follows is based on personal observations as well. Although there are some differences between Picard and Walloon, these languages have also similarities. But I don't think they are really the same. Since I am originating from the area of Malmedy (East of Belgium), I was used to speak Walloon when I was young. Unfortunatelly, now that I am living in Brussels since more than 25 years, I have almost no more opportunities to speak Walloon. Nevertheless, having had opportunitie to read Picard, I have found it quite easy to understand, based on my knowledge of both French and Walloon. However, I am not convinced that someone who speaks Picard and French would understand as easily Walloon of Malmdy or, more generally speaking, Wallon Liègeois. For instance, my wife was originating from South Belgium (area of Bouillon). While I had almost not problem to understand the Walloon that was spoken in that area, she was absolutely unable to understand the Walloon that is spoken in my region.

With respect to the orthograph, the wording "pexhon" is typical from the Liège Walloon and reflects in places like "Xhoris" or "Xhoffrais" (pronounced "Horis" and Hoffraix" with a silent H, or family names like "Xhenceval".

But beside these (minor) differences, you can also find more important variances that allow to make clear difference between East and West Walloon and sometime to locate a boundarie between these two main kinds of Walloon. For instance, the word potatoe is called "canada" in West Walloon while it's called "crompîre" is Est Walloon. And according to some books I have read many years ago, there are a lot of words that would actually allow to make such distinction. --Lebob-BE 00:17, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject France

I am removing the tag, since it was probably added by mistake. Feel free to put it back if I am wrong :) -- lucasbfr talk 13:45, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

As Belgian, I have found weird to find the French tag here, although one could argue that Walloon is indeed a local language spoken in France, mainly in the area known as the "Botte de Givet". But I wonder whether this in enough to include Walloon into the Wikiproject France. Moroever, Walloon is not a French dialect, but a distinct language, which make it difficult to include it into the project France --Lebob-BE 15:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/a/l/Talk%7EWalloon_language_a76d.html"