No language census has been made in Belgium for around a century, but it is commonly accepted that 20% of Brussels population is made of Dutch speakers and 80% of French speakers (which do not consider themselves as Walloons by the way!) and people can vote for whoever they want at the elections, Flemish or Francophones.
Yet, in 2014, more than 93% of people from Brussels registered themselves as Francophones for the fiscal year, and around the same number is found for pension requests (source: Belga).
French being a more international language due to former colonies around the world, immigration is a factor of "Frenchifying" the territory, in addition to Walloon immigration.
If you happen to live in Brussels, you will probably hear a lot more of Arabic (there is a huge community of people from Maghreb in the capital), Turkish, Spanish, Romanian... and of course English! As for Dutch speakers, they are a few here and there, who usually speak French fluently, so they probably don't think it's that much of a trouble to pick it up officially in administration...
But Brussels culture seems to be based a lot on Flemish culture. For example, last week, Ommegang, which is Dutch means "walking around", was celebrated with a parade in the centre of Brussels. It tells the story of a Virgin Mary statue carried from Antwerp to Brussels and a series of miraculous events associated to it. For the record, it is always funny to see people dressed as Middle Ages knights who have issue getting into a kebab bars with their swords after the parade!
Ommegang in Brussels, just walking around...
In Brussels, people still like to use Flemish-dialect words as a joke (zinneke, skieve, amai, etc.) but largely speak French and are used to meeting French friends (one hour and a half and you're in Paris). Recently, the commemoration of the battle of Waterloo (which is close to Brussels) was a big event largely covered on TV with reconstitutions as well.
If I could define what it means to be from Brussels (but I can't) I'd say that it is having a double culture and double roots. Brussels picked up French, the language of prestige for a few centuries, before realising that its Germanic roots were important too and that the Dutch-speaking minority should be protected.
People in Brussels know what it means to live in a multicultural and multilingual environment and they're almost blasé of it, by contrast with Walloons, who lift their eyebrows when they hear someone speak English in the street! They know what it means to be in a city by which important people pass and take decisions, and where buying a meal can be expensive. That's what makes them so special, I guess.
"Nonante", "septante"... these are some famous Belgicisms that foreigners learn when they visit the country to speak French. But the difference is also in the accent, or the accents even, because depending on the region you come from, you might get one of the specific local accents. Check out a recent YouTube video to listen to samples of people speaking French in various Belgian accents. Another video will show you the variety of local dialects and languages of Wallonia!
Ten examples of Belgian accents in French
1) Flemish accent (okay the speaker's accent is very slight!)
2) Brussels accent (actually an exagerated drunk version of it!)
3) Brussels-Walloon accent, a sort of "norm" in Francophone Belgium
4) Belgian Picard accent (similar to a Northern French accent)
5) Charleroi accent
6) Namur accent
7) Liège accent (very particular tone)
8) Verviers accent (the one where nasal vowels are not nasal, actually this accent is also heard in Liège)
9) Belgian German-speaker accent
This list is non-exhaustive, because there are as many accents and gradations of them as there are cities and social classes in Belgium (e.g. there is a posh Brussels-Brabant accent!).
Ten languages/dialects spoken in the Walloon region
Romance languages:
1) Eastern Walloon dialect (Liège)
2) Central Walloon dialect (Namur)
3) Walloon-Picard (West): a transition with the neighbouring Picard dialects
4) Walloon-Lorrain (South): also a transition, but with Lorrain this time
5) Lorrain (Gaume): this Lorrain dialect is spoken in the extreme South of Belgium
6) Picard: very similar to Picard or Ch'ti spoken in France
7) Champenois: a very small area in the South-West speaks a dialect similar to that in Champagne
Germanic languages:
1) Moselle Franconian (or Luxembourgish)
2) Ripuarian (similar to what is spoken in Cologne)
3) Platdiets or Limburgish-Ripuarian (a dialect with mixed German-Dutch influences)
Have you ever experienced the feeling of being lost in translation with signs on the highway written in different languages? If you visit Belgium by car, it might happen a lot, because depending on where you are driving in the country, the signs can be in Dutch and French (sometimes in German as well). The problem is that cities names are also translated and can REALLY confuse foreigners! A little guide to help you cope with it...
If you happen to visit the Brussels region, you will notice that every commune and street name is bilingual Dutch-French. Due to the Flemish origin of most of the place names, a peculiar phenomenon occurs with French versions of these names. A lot of them are written with strange combinations of letters that are not part of French spelling and you often have to ask locals how to pronounce them. For example, the commune name "Schaerbeek" is pronounced in French as if it was written "Scarbéque". And... this spelling is not even the same in Dutch, "Schaarbeek"! Why then?
The reason of this is the fact that an Flemish dialects used to be spelled in a different way in the old times, sometimes with rules that were not really fixed, so that one sound could be written in different ways. In Modern Dutch language, these place names were progressively changed to correspond to the spelling standards, but French speakers didn't really care about the new spelling and they kept it with the older one. Yet, you will still find the same spelling in Flemish family names, but it matters less...
If you know how to pronounce Dutch, you can quickly learn the following changes occurring in the spelling and you'll know how to pronounce the names of the city in French... oh wait, take a French accent of course(!):
- ae = aa /a:/ (a long "ah")
- au = ou /ɑu/ (normally English "ow" but French speakers say "oh")
- uy = ui /œi/ (more or less "uh-ee")
- ue = uu /y:/ (long French "u")
- ey = ei
/ɛi/ (English "ay")
- y or ÿ = ij /ɛi/ (normally also English "ay" but French speakers say "ee")
- gh = g /x/ (normally like the Scottish pronunciation of ch in "loch" but French speakers say "g")
- sch = sch /sx/ (in French, just say "sk") or s /s/ (in word final)
- c, ck = k or kk /k/
So, now you can read French versions of city names in Brussels, but also in the whole of Belgium:
Coxyde (Koksijde), Welkenraedt (Welkenraad), Crainhem (Kraainem), Knocke (Knokke), Blanckenberghe (Blankenberge), Auderghem (Oudergem), Schaerbeek (Schaarbeek)...
Unfortunately, it is not always that easy to understand that a city name means another one, especially if you compare what you see on your map or GPS and what you read on the signs! For some reason, you can find city names that are super different from their translation in French or Dutch. In some places, Flemish independentists have sprayed paint on street signs to hide the French names and only have Dutch names displayed...
Here is a selection of the biggest dissimilarities between French and Dutch names of the same city: Mons - Bergen*, Braine-l'Alleud - Eigenbrakel, Braine-le-Comte - s'-Gravenbrakel, Soignies - Zinnik, Tournai - Doornik, Ixelles - Elsene, Amblève - Amel, Tirlemont - Tienen, Fourons - Voeren, Anvers - Antwerpen, Termonde - Dendermonde, Courtrai - Kortrijk, Namur - Namen, Bouillon - Boolen... Feeling dizzy, huh?
* The meaning of the city name in both languages is in fact "mountains"
As you probably know it, Belgium also has a German-speaking community, so that there are also cities with names in German. Fortunately, the German name is usually super similar to the Dutch one (add umlauts here and there and you get them). That way, some Belgian cities have distinct translations in the three national languages: Bruxelles - Brüssel - Brussel, Liège - Lüttich - Luik, Arlon - Arel - Aarlen, Louvain - Löwen - Leuven, Malines - Mecheln - Mecheln...
The territory of Belgium has not always been as static and clear as it is now... In Roman times, Gallia Belgica was a pretty big territory comprising Belgium, the Netherlands, a Northern part of France and some other territories... And still, there are territories around Belgium that share a common history, culture and/or local languages with it, including Walloon Flanders, a territory in France! I've decided to give you a list of these territories, with no intention of reuniting them, but simply because they are part of our history as well.
French territories
If there's a part of France that is the closest to Belgian culture, it's the Nord department (Lille, Dunkirk, Douai...). It mainly shares with Belgium the tradition of the friterie, friture or frietkot, which is a place, often a sort of van, where someone distributes fries in boxes or paper cones. It is the only place in France where fries are a real tradition, but I insist, "French" fries are mostly Belgian!... Anyway, Nord was made famous in 2008 with the French blockbuster Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which featured local comedian Danny Boon speaking a Picard dialect called Ch'ti(mi). As a matter of fact, similar dialects are spoken in the Belgian area of Mons and Tournai!
Yet, Picard is not the only local language in Nord! Once upon a time, West Flemish was the main language in Maritime Flanders (coastal part of Nord), an area that includes Dunkerque, and, strangely enough, the village where the film took place (an error which a lot have criticised after it was released). This area was part of the ancient County of Flanders, which also included cities such as Lille or Douai. Actually the later cities are in another area called, this is not a joke, Walloon Flanders, and yet now part of France! Both areas became French after the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678-9 and West Flemish is now only known to very few people.
In the same department, we find cities including Valenciennes, Maubeuge or Le Quesnoy, which are part of what could be called French Hainaut, and were included in the County of Hainaut. Later on, French king Louis 14th conquered them in 1659-78, so that they became French, while the Northern part of the former county became later on the Belgian province of Hainaut.
Borders of French Flanders before 1789
Another part of France which is very close to Belgium and, especially Wallonia, is the city of Givet in the French department of Ardennes. It is, as far as I know, the only place in France where Walloon was/is spoken, which makes it... a "French Wallonia"! Givet used to belong to the Liège bishops in the Middle Ages, but much later on it was given to Louis 14th also after the Treaties of Nijmegen.
Dutch territories
The neighbouring Netherlands, with which Belgium used to form a bigger country, has nowadays two provinces that could be considered as sisters to Belgian provinces: Limburg and North Brabant.
The Belgian province of Limburg is the Western part of a former Limburg, from which an Eastern part was given up for the Netherlands in 1839, and which belonged in great part to the Principalty of Liège and the dukes of Brabant. The current Dutch province of Limburg actually comprises only a small part of the former Limburg, mostly the area of Maastricht. Ultimately, Gelder was part of Limburg as well and it even came to be included in the United Belgian States, but it came back later on to the Netherlands.
In a recent blog post I talked about the possible name change for the province of Antwerp to "Central Brabant" (Midden-Brabant) to favour its Brabantian past. In the Netherlands, the North Brabant also used to be part of the Duchy of Brabant, but it
was given to the Netherlands after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. According to the politicians that want the name change of the province of Antwerp, the two territories still have a lot of cultural exchanges nowadays, in addition to similar dialects.
And Luxembourg
As a matter of fact, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was officially Belgian from 1830 to 1839! Then the Southern part made a country on its own and the Northern one remained Belgian, becoming the province of Luxembourg. Nevertheless, Luxembourg is still very close to Belgium, not only because both are small countries with three official languages. A lot of Belgians, especially those from the Belgian province of Luxembourg, (try to) find a job in the Grand Duchy. Another element was the currency, now replaced with the euro: the Luxembourgish franc had an equivalent value to the Belgian franc, so that nobody really cared about their difference, a bit like Scottish pounds and English pounds (except that it seems to be problematic to use Scottish pounds in London...). Finally, the main private television channel in Belgium, RTL-TVI, was primarily a Luxembourgish channel. And currently, it is still possible to watch a news broadcast in Luxembourgish language at 6am every day on Club RTL... I don't really know why, to be honest!
In a future blog post, I will also talk about Belgian settlers in the USA, who founded cities such Namur, Brussels or Belgium in Wisconsin, so keep posted!
If you're Belgian, you're probably enjoying your summer holiday trying to get a tan on the beach of Knokke or camping in shorts in the Ardennes... and maybe you're playing crosswords or scrabbles. Here is a list of words that you will probably never use in these games but that are entirely part of our culture!
Zinneke
People living in Brussels like to call themselves zinneke, which in the local dialect means "mongrel, crossbred dog". Brussels being the place in Belgium with the most diversified population (Arabs, Turks, Congolese, Chinese...) and where people often don't identify to either Walloons or Flemish, this nickname is often used to designate the inhabitants in a cute way. Apparently, it comes from the name of a river in Brussels, the Senne/Zenne and its old tributaries called zennekes/zinnekes. Some crossbred dogs (or cats, it's not very clear...) used to wander around these little tributaries, so that the name was given to them, and later, as a generalisation, to people with multiple origins. This word is probably the best one to describe Brussels' identity and its people are very proud of it. This year on 10th May, the city of Brussels organised its annual Zinneke Parade, with people wearing strange (surrealist?) disguises and a competition of the best crossbred dogs!
Peculiar characters from the Zinneke Parade
Kot
This word you will see on a lot of windows with the mention TE HUUR / À LOUER "to hire". Kot is an original Flemish word referring to a small, rudimentary space. For example, a small place in which fries are sold is called a frietkot. The word was adopted in the student slang to designate constricted attic rooms for students (basically the place where Harry Potter lives!). But don't worry if you're looking for a room, nowadays, it doesn't have a pejorative meaning and it simply means a student room or flat share... Little tip for anyone using the word: the plural form in French is "kots" but not in Flemish, in which they say "koten". Keep that in mind, because if you say "kots" to a Flemish, they will understand "vomit!" (kotsen = "to vomit").
Nond*dju
Please try not to use this swear word too often, as people can feel offended if you use it (especially religious ones). The word "nondidju" (or "nondidjo") is actually three words "non di Dju" that were agglutinated, meaning "name of God" (nom de Dieu in French). It is often cited by Walloons as one of the most Walloon words ever. It can be used to show anger or surprise. I've recently discovered that the word was also used by Flemish (and some Dutch people as well) in dialects, so that if you use it anywhere in Belgium, people will understand that you're whether angry or surprised!...
Amai
This exclamation is used both by Flemish people and by French-speakers living in Brussels. In general, it also means some sort of surprise and could be translated in English by "oh my god". A lot of theories have been given to explain where this expression comes from. Some say that it's an old form of "ah mij" (oh me) that has developped in a weird way, other say it's Portuguese "ah, Mãe de Deus" (oh Mother of God), introduced by Portuguese Jews fleeing from their country after the Reconquista and the later Spanish occupation of it. Or it might simply be English "oh my"... Anyway, although it is understood in the whole country, this expression is not really used in Wallonia, where the Walloon word oufti (literally: "phew you") is used.
Crapaude
This strange word is the name given to a girlfriend in the Liège dialect of Walloon. It is not largely used by people anymore, because it sounds a bit too funny and girlfriends probably wouldn't like it. Its meaning in French is "female toad" (crapaud = toad)! Now you get it... By the way, I think the male version of it is labrador, certainly cuter than a toad!
There are plenty of crapaudes in the pond!
Do you know any other surprising word from Belgium? Leave it in a comment!
Belgium is and is becoming more and more multilingual, with the three communities officially recognized and the thousands of ethnicities living there and practicising their own language, especially in Brussels. This is why Belgium has developed a "thing" with languages... So if you can't give the priority to "one" language in the country, why not invent one that would be more neutral?
When it comes to the Eurovision Song Contest, only Sandra Kim, a woman from Liège, won the competition in the 80s and was actually too young to compete so that she had to lie on her age. No artist won since then, but Urban Trad went to the second place in 2003 by singing in... an imaginary language! The band was pretty "Belgian" in that it was a collection of folk artists from both Flemish and French-speaking communities (and a Galician singer). What better way to make everyone agree on a song than singing their songs "Sanomi" in a language that has actually no meaning (!) Apparently, the gestures invented for the song were meaningful (I think they meant something like "it's a small world, let's all share our differences"). Later on, Flemish folk band Ishtar tried to do the same thing with "O Julissi" but didn't get a nice score.
Urban Trad - "Sanomi"
Another interesting fact about Belgium is that it has a small territory which could have be the only place in which international auxiliary language Esperanto would have been official. Moresnet, as it is called, was a village connecting the Netherlands, Belgium (which was included in the Netherlands) and Germany (former Prussia) from 1816 to 1920, in what is now known as the "Three Country Point". An agreement was made on that Prussia would get a part of the village, the Netherlands another one and the center would become a "neutral" territory (Neutral Moresnet) administrated by both countries. In 1908, Dr. Molly gave the idea to make Esperanto the official language of the territory (that he wanted to call "Amikejo", which could be translated as "Friendland"), because it had been invented recently and got famous in whole Europe at that time. People in that place learned Esperanto and the place was elected world capital of the Esperanto community, although this idea never got official. Today, the territory is part of Belgium.
Moresnet flag
The author of comic book Tintin, Hergé, imagined two fictive Eastern European nations in conflict: Borduria and Syldavia. To make them look more realistic, he made up words in languages called Bordurian and Syldavian. On closer scrutiny of the latter language, it is clearly inspired of Marols (also called Brusseleer), a dialect spoken in Brussels, but the author chose to make them look like a Slavic language (e.g. Eih bennek, eih blavek, the national motto, seems to be close to Dutch Hier ben ik, hier blijf ik, lit. "Here I am, here I stay"). In a parallel universe, Marols could be the perfect interlanguage of Belgium, because it has features of both languages of the community. It is actually based on Brabant dialect (which seems to become a prestige form in Flanders nowadays) and includes many French words, due to the "mixed" origins of the population that used it in Marollen, a district of Brussels that is worth a visit! People in this area like to call themselves "zinneke", a word that means "mixed-breed", and compare their culture to a melting pot.
A last idea of made up language that could be used in Belgium is called Europanto. It is a mixture of languages of the European Union that was invented by Diego Marani, a translator for the Council. His idea was that instead of using English as a lingua franca in the UE (especially in Brussels headquarters), you should rather use bits and pieces of all languages spoken in there. He called his language Euro- (Europe) -panto (Greek for "all"), which resembles the word Esperanto.
Alors glaubst ti that Europa sarebbe besser así? (So do you believe that Europe would be better this way?)
Which language should be used in Belgium? Share your opinion!
Let's get back to stereotypes and focus this time on how Wallonia and Brussels see themselves and the rest of the world...
A lot of people have taken for granted the fact that Wallonia and Brussels largely speak French, so that they should simply become a region of France. Actually, France and Belgium have a separate history. Wallonia used to be a mosaic of small realms and principalties. Later on, as both Flanders and Wallonia were part of the Netherlands, they decided to separate from it because they had a different religion (they were catholic and the Netherlands was protestant). A whole lot of Romance and Germanic dialects were spoken in the two areas. At some period, the whole country was a part of France, which made French the language of educated people. It was adopted by rich educated families of both sides, although in Wallonia most people spoke their dialect (in general, a Walloon dialect, but there are also Picard and Lorrain dialects). Later, Walloon kids were educated in French and it was forbidden to speak a dialect at school. This happened in all parts of France as well, but in Belgium, French was really a foreign language at first!
Oufti, quéne biesse! /oohf-TEA kayn be-YES/
"Damn, what an idiot!" in Walloon
A relevant cultural difference is the national beverage. In France, wine is the national alcohol, while in Belgium, people largely drink beers. Many beers
(Orval, Chimay, Stella-Artois...) are brewed in Wallonia and famous worldwide. Some of them are made by trappist monks!
In general, Belgian French-speakers
appear as more genuine and heartwarming to French people. Also, they recognize a Belgian humour, which distinguishes from the French humour in that Belgians like to joke about themselves and their accents, while French people like to make fun of other people and make themselves appear smart in doing that. This Belgian humility is probably due to the small size of the country and the obligation to share it with another community, while France is a big country, internationally known, which only has one official language (some people in France believe Belgians speak a language called... Belgian!). As a consequence, Belgians consider the French to be more arrogant and nervous, and they can't stand their chauvinism.
There has always been contact between French and Belgian people, like when labours were invited to work in both places. Also, a lot of French
students come to study in Wallonia (to become speech therapists or
vets), because French universities allow less students to register and
universities are better considered in Belgium than in France. Many jokes were invented by French people to make fun of these foreign people who spoke French in a different accent, but the relationship between them has always been peaceful. The "Belgian jokes" (as they are called by French people) are basically about Belgian people being stupid (they are exactly the same ones as anti-blonde jokes). Also, the common cliché is that Belgians eat fries every day, because it's their national dish. By the way, a common mistake of English language is to say "French fries". Many Belgians and French people consider fries as being a purely Belgian dish, although a small part of France (called the "North") also has fries as a local dish. This is why Belgians are often pictured as fat people as well. The jokes are usually pronounced in an exagerated Brussels accent. As a reaction, some anti-French jokes also circulate in Belgium, depicting French people as arrogant. Here are examples of both:
Anti-Belgian jokes Why did Belgians stop hunting ducks? Because they didn't manage to throw their dogs high enough. What does a Belgian do when the bathtub is too hot? He wears oven mittens. How do you make a Belgian go mad? Put him in a circular room and tell him you put fries in the corner.
Anti-French jokes What is a Belgian? A French who studied. How do you kill a French? Aim way higher than his head to shoot his superiority complex. Why are most French highways not lighted at night? Because French people think they are brilliant.
Finally, some people in France and Belgium, including the RWF (a marginal policital party in Belgium), would like Wallonia to be a French region. Yet, most people from both sides don't feel the need for this change and like Belgium as it stands.
I encourage you to post all of your favourite jokes below!
Although
a lot is said in the media about Flemish people hating on the
French-speaking community and feeling the need for autonomy, a lot of
Flemish people will tell you that they still want to be part of Belgium
and that they have French-speaking friends. A lot of them also speak a
very good French and works in Brussels. Also, Flemish dialects are full of French influences, even in every day conversations. The opposite is also true, because French-speakers tend to use Flemish words as well.
Some common Belgian lexicon (be-fr, be-nl, be-fr/nl):
Voilà : Here it is, there you go...
Salut - Salu(utjes): Goodbye (or hi)
Allez: 1) Okay, like, kind of... 2) Come on!
Ça va?: Are you okay? How are you?
Kot: Student accommodation
Busé - Gebuisd: Getting low results at school
À volonté: As much as you want (in a restaurant)
Merci(kes): Thank you
Bon: Well...
Bourgmestre - Burgemeester: Mayor
Friture - Frituur: Shop where Belgian (!) fries are sold
However, the last
century saw a lot of big changes in the countries that altered the
perceptions of the different communities. First of all, Belgium used to
be officially monolingual in French. The reason was that most of the
rich families in Wallonia and Flanders spoke French, although the rest
of them spoke dialects of Flemish and Walloon (a cousin-language of
French). Also, Wallonia was the wealthiest part of Belgium at first,
due to a massive industrialization and mining (that's why you will find a
lot of Italian miners' offspring in Wallonia, including Prime Minister
Elio di Rupo!). Afterwards, this industry faded away and unemployment
rose up in Wallonia, while Flanders was becoming more and more wealthy.
Nowadays, Dutch is officially used and mastered by (almost) all Flemish
people and their area is much richer than Wallonia. Therefore, a lot
of them want more autonomy to have their own tax system, so that they
won't pay for the poor... I also have to mention that Brussels was
populated by a lot of rich families from Flanders and Wallonia who
spoke French only and a lot of Walloons found a job there and were there
to stay. This is why Brussels is stuck in the middle of Flanders but
most people only speak French.
This
odd history has left a lot of stereotypes in the country. In caricatures,
the Walloons are seen by Flemish people are stupid, lazy workers, who
like to go on strike and who are socialist, just to make Flemish people
pay for them. The other stereotype is that Walloons can't speak a
foreign language properly (which is often true, unfortunately, except
when you get educated in Linguistics haha). The Flemish may see
Brussels as a place full of Walloons and foreign immigrants, and not as enjoyable as, say, Ghent or Bruges...
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