Walloon

Also known as Walloon language

Romance language indigenous to Belgium and France

AI overview

Walloon is a Romance language spoken primarily in the Wallonia region of Belgium and parts of France. It matters as a distinctive linguistic heritage that represents the cultural identity of Walloon-speaking communities in Western Europe.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: modern language
Subclass of: Oïl
Part of: languages of Belgium
Country: United States
Image: Wa andjes d' avår ci.jpg

Show 13 more facts

Wikimedia language code: wa
writing system: Latin script
Commons category: Walloon language
topic's main category: Category:Walloon language
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 600000
linguistic typology: fusional language
native label: walon
described by source: Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
indigenous to: Wisconsin
exact match: publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/WLN
P10369: television
P11012: Blaise Pascal
different from: Picard

Sources (12)

via Wikidata · CC0

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Walloon (/wɒˈluːn/; natively walon; French: wallon, Belgian French pronunciation: [walõ] ) is a Romance language that is spoken in much of Wallonia and, to a very small extent, in Brussels, Belgium; some villages near Givet, northern France; and a clutch of communities in northeastern Wisconsin, United States.

It belongs to the langues d'oïl dialect continuum, the most prominent member of which is French. The historical background of its formation was the territorial extension since 980 of the Principality of Liège to the south and west. Walloon is classified as "definitely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Walloon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.