The Walloon Language of Belgium

Today, Walloon is a language fighting for its future. Let’s journey into the heart of this unique tongue, exploring what makes it so special and why its preservation matters.

What is Walloon? More Than Just Belgian French

The first and most crucial point to understand is the distinction between Walloon and the French spoken in Belgium. The French you hear in Brussels or Liège is best described as Belgian French—a regional variant of Standard French, much like Québécois French or Swiss French. It has its own vocabulary (like using septante for 70 and nonante for 90) and a distinct accent, but its grammar and core structure are fundamentally the same as the French of Paris.

Walloon (Walon) is a different beast altogether. It is a langue d’oïl, a group of Romance languages that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the northern half of Roman Gaul. This makes it a sister language to French, not a daughter. Other members of this family include Picard, Norman, and Gallo. Think of them as siblings who grew up in the same house (Vulgar Latin) but moved to different towns and developed their own unique ways of speaking over a thousand years.

A Glimpse into History: From Roman Gaul to Near Obscurity

The story of Walloon begins with the fall of the Roman Empire. As Germanic tribes, particularly the Franks, pushed south, they established a linguistic frontier that still roughly corresponds to the modern-day border between Flanders and Wallonia. North of this line, Germanic dialects took hold, eventually evolving into Dutch. South of it, the local populations continued to speak their forms of late Vulgar Latin, which slowly morphed into the various langues d’oïl.

For centuries, Walloon flourished. It was the language of daily life, of commerce, and of a burgeoning literary tradition. However, its fate began to shift with the rising prestige of its sibling, Francien—the dialect of the Paris region. As France consolidated its power, Parisian French became the language of the court, administration, and high culture.

This process accelerated dramatically after the Belgian Revolution in 1830. The new nation of Belgium, seeking to unify its people and distance itself from the Dutch, adopted French as its sole official language. In Wallonia, French became the language of education, social mobility, and the government. Walloon was relegated to the home and the countryside, increasingly stigmatized as a “patois”—a coarse, uneducated dialect. Speaking Walloon became a marker of low social status, and generations of parents encouraged their children to speak “proper” French instead.

The Sounds and Words of Wallonia: What Makes It Different?

The long, separate development of Walloon, with significant contact with its Germanic neighbors, has given it a distinct character. Even a casual listener can tell it’s not French. Here are a few key differences:

Phonology (The Sounds)

Walloon retains many older sounds that French has since lost, often showing a strong Germanic influence.

• Preservation of /k/ and /g/: Latin words starting with ‘ca-‘ or ‘ga-‘ often softened in French (a process called palatalization). Walloon kept the hard sound.
  • French chanter (to sing) is canter in Walloon.
  • French jardin (garden) is djårdén in Walloon.
• Germanic ‘sk’ and ‘sp’ sounds: Where French simplified initial ‘s’ + consonant clusters, Walloon often kept them.
  • French école (school) is scole.
  • French épine (thorn) is spene.
• The ‘H’ Sound: Walloon, especially in the east, has a pronounced ‘h’ sound derived from Germanic influence, which is absent in Standard French. A famous example is the word for ‘to fish’: French pêcher vs. Liège Walloon pèxhî (the ‘xh’ representing a sound similar to the ‘ch’ in Scottish ‘loch’).

Vocabulary and Grammar

The lexicon is filled with words that either fell out of use in French or were borrowed from neighboring languages.

A classic example is the number system. While Belgian French uses septante (70) and nonante (90), Walloon goes a step further. Eighty is not the cumbersome quatre-vingts (“four-twenties”) of France, but ûtante or hûtante.

You also find delightful archaisms and unique words:

• To wake up: French se réveiller vs. Walloon si dispierter.
• A girl: French une fille vs. Walloon ene djonne feye.
• To kiss: French embrasser or baiser vs. Walloon potchî.

Grammatically, Walloon has its own quirks, such as a different system for definite articles and a more frequent use of the simple past tense in spoken language compared to conversational French, which heavily favors the compound past (passé composé).

An Endangered Heritage: The Decline and Revival

Today, UNESCO classifies Walloon as a “definitely endangered” language. The number of fluent native speakers has plummeted, and most are elderly. For decades, the language was not transmitted to younger generations, breaking a chain of communication that had lasted for over a millennium.

But the story doesn’t end there. In recent decades, there has been a growing awareness of this cultural loss and a concerted effort to preserve and revitalize Walloon. This revival takes many forms:

• Education: Some schools now offer Walloon language classes as an extracurricular option.
• Culture: Theater troupes perform plays in Walloon, and contemporary musicians and bands are choosing to sing in their ancestral tongue, giving it a modern, vibrant voice.
• Official Recognition: In 1990, the French Community of Belgium officially recognized Walloon as an “indigenous regional language”. This has opened the door for modest funding and support.
• Public Visibility: You can now see bilingual French-Walloon street signs in many towns and villages across Wallonia, a powerful symbol of linguistic pride.

Preserving Walloon is more than a linguistic exercise. It is about safeguarding a unique identity. A language is a repository of history, humor, and a particular way of seeing the world. To lose Walloon would be to lose a direct connection to the deep past of Northern Europe, erasing a cultural perspective forged at the very meeting point of the Romance and Germanic worlds. It’s a fight for diversity against the homogenizing pressures of modernity, and a reminder that even within well-known countries, linguistic treasures are still waiting to be discovered and cherished.