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Walloon

Walon

wa

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Walloon (Walon in Walloon) is a Romance language that was spoken as a primary language in large portions (70%) of the Walloon Region of Belgium, in some villages of Northern France and in the northeast part of Wisconsin until the middle of the 20th century. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language. The historical background of its formation was the territorial extension since 980 of the Principality of Liège to the south and west. Despite its rich literature, beginning anonymously in the 16th century and with well-known authors since 1756 (see the paragraph Literature), the use of Walloon has decreased markedly since France's annexation of Wallonia in 1795. This period definitively established French as the language of social promotion, far more than it was before. After World War I, 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. Today it is scarcely spoken among younger people. In 1996, the number of speakers was estimated as 1.0 and 1.3 million people. Numerous associations, especially theatre companies, are working to keep the language alive. On a government level, Walloon is officially recognized as a langue régionale endogène (regional indigenous language) (Décret Valmy Féaux, 14 of December 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 was established, which allowed large-scale publications, such as the Walloon Wikipedia officialy in 2003. In 2004, the 21st book of the famous Tintin series, L'èmerôde d'al Castafiore and in 2007, an album of Gaston Lagaffe were published in Walloon. Walloon is more distinct as a language than Belgian French, which differs from the French spoken in France only in some minor points of vocabulary and pronunciation.
Source : DBpedia

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This page is providing structured data for the language Walloon.
Following BCP 47 the recommended tag for this language is wa.

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