Language family[]
Walloon is distinguished from other languages in the langue d'oïl family both by archaism coming from Latin and by its significant borrowing from Germanic languages, as expressed in its phonetics, its lexicon, and its grammar. At the same time, Walloon phonetics are singularly conservative: the language has stayed fairly close to the form it took during the High Middle Ages.
Phonetics and phonology[]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Trill | ʙ | r | ʀ | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ʃ | ç | x | χ | h |
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ʝ | ɣ | ʁ | ||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Approximant | plain/central | ʋ | ɹ | j | ɰ | |||
| rounded | ɥ | w | ||||||
| lateral | l | ʎ | ʟ | |||||
| Front | Central | Back | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||||||||||
| oral | long | nasal | oral | long | nasal | oral | long | nasal | oral | long | nasal | oral | long | nasal | |
| Close | ɪ i | ɪː iː | ɪ̃ ĩ | ʏ y | yː | ɨ | ɨː | ɯ | ʊ u | ʊː uː | ʊ̃ ũ | ||||
| Close-mid | e | eː | ẽ | ø | øː | ə | əː | ə̃ | ɤ | o | oː | õ | |||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | ɛ̃ | œ | œ̃ | ɜ | ʌ | ɔ | ɔː | ɔ̃ | |||||
| Open | æ a | æː aː | æ̃ ã | ɶ | ɑ | ɑː | ɑ̃ | ɒ | |||||||
- Latin /k/ before /a/ and /ɡ/ before /e/, /i/, or /a/ gave Walloon affricate phonemes spelled tch (as in cherry) and dj (as in joke): vatche (vs. French vache "cow"), djambe (Fr. jambe "leg").
- Latin [s] persisted in clusters: spene (Fr. épine "thorn, spine"), fistu "wisp of straw", mwaîsse (Fr. maître "master"), fiesse (Fr. fête "party, feast"), tchestea (Fr. château "castle"), and so on.
- Final obstruent devoicing: rodje "red" is pronounced exactly as rotche "rock".
- Nasal vowels may be followed by nasal consonants, as in djonne "young", crinme "cream", mannet "dirty", etc.
- Vowel length has a phonological value. It allows distinguishing cu "arse" and cû "cooked", i l' hosse "he cradles her" and i l' hôsse "he increases it", messe "mass" and mêsse "master", etc.
Morphology[]
- The plural feminine adjectives before the noun take an unstressed ending -ès (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare li djaene foye "the yellow leaf" and les djaenès foyes "the yellow leaves".
- There is no gender difference in definite articles and possessives (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare Walloon li vweteure ("the car", feminine) and li cir ("the sky", masculine), with French la voiture but le ciel; Walloon has si coir ("his/her body", masculine) and si finiesse ("his/her window", feminine) while French has son corps but sa fenêtre.
Lexicon[]
- Walloon has a few Latin remnants that have disappeared from neighboring Romance languages: compare Walloon dispierter to Spanish despertar and Romanian deștepta (all with the same meaning: "to awaken").
- The most distinctive feature is its number of borrowings from Germanic languages (Dutch and German dialects): compare Walloon flåwe to today's Dutch flauw "weak". Other common borrowings, among hundreds of others, are dringuele ("tip"; Dutch drinkgeld), crole ("curl"; Dutch krul), spiter ("to spatter"; same root as the English to spit, and to spew, or German spützen; Dutch spuwen), li sprewe (the starling; Dutch spreeuw, or German Sperling).
Syntax[]
- The adjective is often placed before the noun: compare Walloon on foirt ome "a strong man" with French un homme fort; ene blanke måjhon "a white house" and French une maison blanche.
- Borrowing from Germanic languages: the construction Cwè çki c'est di ça po ene fleur? "What kind of flower is this?" can be compared word for word to German Was ist das für eine Blume? and Dutch Wat is dat voor een bloem?, as opposed to Standard French Quelle sorte de fleur est-ce? or (colloquially) Quelle sorte de fleur est-ce que c'est?.