Wallonia

Wallonia (French: Wallonie) or Walloon Region (French: Région Wallonne) is the predominantly French-speaking region that constitutes one of the three federal regions of Belgium, with its capital at Namur. Its official languages are French and German.

Demographics and language

The Walloon Region occupies the southern part of Belgium.

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It has a surface area of 16844 km² (55.18% of Belgium) and comprises the following provinces:

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• Hainaut
• Liege
• Luxembourg
• Namur
• Walloon Brabant

Its major cities and towns include Liege, Namur, Charleroi, Mons, Tournai, Arlon, Bastogne, Wavre, Verviers, Dinant and Eupen.

Related Topics:
Cities - Town - Liege - Namur - Charleroi - Mons - Tournai - Arlon - Bastogne - Wavre - Verviers - Dinant - Eupen

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French is the official language in most municipalities. German (with French facilities) is the official language in nine eastern municipalities which belonged to Germany until 1918 and now form the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Several French-speaking municipalities have facilities in Dutch or German (or both).

Related Topics:
French - German - Facilities - Germany - German-speaking Community of Belgium - Dutch

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The variety of French spoken in Wallonia is Belgian French, which differs from the standard French of France to various degrees depending on the speaker. The French language used in the administration and in the media is very similar in Belgium and in France. One notable difference is the use of use of the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France.

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In 1990, Belgium also officially recognised Champenois, Gaumais, Picard, and Walloon as regional languages.

Related Topics:
1990 - Champenois - Gaumais - Picard - Walloon

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Walloon and Picard dialects used to be the predominant languages of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century; French was the language of the upper class. With the development of education in French, these dialects have been in constant regression. There is currently an effort to revive Walloon dialects: some schools offer language courses in Walloon, which is also spoken in some radio programmes, but this effort remains very limited.

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Some 70,000 people live in the German-speaking community of Belgium, which has been presented as the best-protected minority in Europe. Nevertheless, there is a drive in the German-speaking community towards gaining more autonomy from the Walloon Region. The current president of the executive of the German-speaking community, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, wants his community to obtain regional autonomy, thus cutting it completely off from Wallonia.

Related Topics:
German-speaking community of Belgium - Karl-Heinz Lambertz

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