Talk:Walloons

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I'm confused ... if the Walloons are French-speaking, as this article says, then who speaks the Walloon language? — 84.248.81.201 24 Nov2005 19:22 (UTC)
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The Walloon language is a language which is neither used in the administration or the common television. The Walloon language is divided in several quite different dialects and is therefore only very locally understandable. Many educated walloons born after the 1970s do not even know more than some simple words or idioms and are not fluent at all in this language. As the common people language before WWII, the Walloon language is nevertheless an important part of the Walloon cultural identity (if there exists any). — 131.220.68.177 8 Aug2005 09:05 (UTC)
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Walloon language is spoken mainly by Walloons (from Wallonia, and from "French Wallonia", the French region around Givet), and some descendents of Walloons immigrants in Wisconsin, USA.

However, not all Walloons speak Walloon language; first, Walloon language doesn't cover all of Wallonia (look at the Walloon language for a linguistic map, see also how the French area around Givet (Djivet in Walloon) is part of the Walloon linguist area); there are people in Wallonia that speak German as official language (regional language is Ripuarian) in the East (in white in the map, with Deutsch. Gemeinschaft across it), and also in Luxembourgish language (cyan), Lorrain (brown), Champenois (orange) and Picard language (green)

On top of that, with the exception of the small region in the East where German is the official language, for the rest of Wallonia French is the only official language; and harsh policies against regional languages were carried in the past (including physical punishments for childrens speaking Walloon in school, and firing employees and civil servants speaking it with the public) which lead to a fading of its use. Despite all that, there still is a sizeable amount of people that speak Walloon, particularly in rural areas.

I put the map here, in full size:

In Sweden there was (16-17th century) a big immigration from Walloons, that created and develloped there the iron industry (in which Walloons where already very good at the time), several of them gained very high rankings in Swedish society; for some time they lived in their own villages and continued to speak Walloon language; but nowadays they all speak Swedish as they integrated fully in Swedish society (they just proudly remember their ancestry)

Probably the most known of them is Louis de Geer (en: wikipedia has an article on that name but featuring probably one of his descendants), known as "the father of swedish industry".

Peter Minuit, of Manhattan fame, was also a Walloon.

Srtxg 19:46, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Actually, Walloon integration in Sweden is so total that there's no longer any emotional value at all associated with it (pride or otherwise). This makes it a useful tool for anti-racism lectures:

1. Lecturer asks "Which of you have Walloon ancestors?"
2. Half of the audience members raise their hands.
3. Lecturer says "So, does this make you less Swedish?"
4. Audience laughs at the absurdity of the concept.

Bo Lindbergh (whose great-great-grandmother was named "Hubinette", which in turn is utterly irrelevant to daily life) 14:47, 30 May 2006 (UTC)