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42-571: It consists of the following districts: Casteau , Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies , Horrues , Naast , Neufvilles , Soignies and Thieusies . Casteau is known worldwide because SHAPE , the military headquarters of NATO , has been based at the village since 1967. The name of Soignies comes from the Latin word suniacum , which means "on the Senne". The spring of the Senne is near Soignies. After Soignies,

84-484: A dead language . Today it is scarcely spoken among younger people, with the vast majority of its native speakers being the elderly (aged 65 and over). In 2007, the number of people with knowledge of the language was estimated at 600,000. Numerous associations, especially theatre companies, are working to keep the language alive. Formally recognized as a langue régionale endogène (regional indigenous language) of Belgium since 1990, Walloon has also benefited from

126-437: A language . The phonological divisions of regional languages of southern Belgium were studied by the contemporary linguist E.B. Atwood. He defined the precise geographical repartition of the four chief dialects of Walloon. In addition, he defined them against the dialects of Picard , Lorrain and Champenois . Since then, most linguists (among them Louis Remacle ), and gradually also Walloon politicians, regard Walloon as

168-613: A continued corpus planning process. The "Feller system" (1900) regularized transcription of the different accents. Since the 1990s, a common orthography was established (the Rifondou walon  [ wa ; fr ] ), which allowed large-scale publications, such as the Walloon Misplaced Pages officially in 2003. In 2004, a Walloon translation of a Tintin comic was released under the name L'èmerôde d'al Castafiore ; in 2007 an album consisting of Gaston Lagaffe comic strips

210-513: A dozen Walloon magazines publish regularly. The Société de Langue et de Littérature Wallonne , founded in 1856, promotes Walloon literature and the study ( dialectology , etymology , etc.) of the regional Roman languages of Wallonia. There is a difference between the Walloon culture, according to the Manifesto for Walloon culture , and the Walloon language (even if the latter is a part of

252-479: A large collection of literary works in Walloon, quite possibly the largest outside Belgium, and its holdings are representative of the output. Out of nearly a thousand works, twenty-six were published before 1880. Thereafter the numbers rise gradually year by year, reaching a peak of sixty-nine in 1903. After that, publications in Walloon fell markedly, to eleven in 1913. Yves Quairiaux counted 4,800 plays for 1860–1914, published or not. In this period, plays were almost

294-650: A regional language, the first in importance in Wallonia . It is the only one to have originated from that part of Belgium. The eleventh edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica identified Walloon as the "northernmost Romance language". Walloon is spoken in the Wallonia Region in Belgium. In addition, it is spoken in: Although Walloon was widely spoken until the mid-20th century, today only

336-466: A religious life. Both of them founded an abbey, Madelgaire in Soignies and Waltrude in neighbouring Mons . Madelgaire took the religious name of Vincent. Like his wife, he was canonized after his death and later became the patron saint of the city that would eventually grow around the monastery. At that time, a large forest covered the whole area, the remnants of which near Brussels are still called

378-409: A small proportion of the inhabitants of the region are fluent in the language. Those born since the 1970s usually know little more than a few idiomatic expressions , often profanities . The Walloon language is still part of the Walloon heritage; it is one component of Walloon identity. Four dialects of Walloon developed in four distinct zones of Wallonia: Despite local phonetic differences, there

420-508: A village in the Hainaut province of Wallonia , in the French speaking south of Belgium . Casteau has become a district of the municipality of Soignies , centred around Soignies (town), and together with the former villages, now districts: Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies , Horrues , Naast , Neufvilles , and Thieusies . The village is located between the towns of Mons and Soignies on

462-482: Is a Romance language that is spoken in much of Wallonia and, to a very small extent, in Brussels , Belgium; some villages near Givet , northern France; and a clutch of communities in northeastern Wisconsin , United States. It belongs to the langues d'oïl dialect continuum , the most prominent member of which is French . The historical background of its formation was the territorial extension since 980 of

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504-409: Is a regional movement towards the adoption of a common spelling, called the Rifondou walon . This orthography is diasystemic , reflecting different pronunciations for different readers, a concept inspired by the spelling of Breton . The written forms attempt to reconcile current phonetic uses with ancient traditions (notably the reintroduction of xh and oi that were used for writing Walloon until

546-582: The Borinage dialect under the pen-name Bosquètia . In the 20th century, Joseph Houziaux (1946) published a selection of 50 fables in the Condroz dialect. The motive among Walloon speakers in both France and Belgium was to assert regional identity against the growing centralism and encroachment of the language of the capital, on what had until then been predominantly monoglot areas. There are links between French literature and Walloon literature. For instance,

588-537: The Chamber of Representatives . Several of the city streets are named after these past representatives. Today, the cut-stone and glass industries are still active. Soignies is also the center of a vibrant service industry, especially in education and health. Soignies is home to Rugby Union club RC Soignies , winners of the Belgian Cup in 2010. Casteau Casteau ( Walloon : Castea ) originated as

630-592: The Low Countries . One might say that the period which saw the establishment of the unifying supremacy of the Burgundians in the Walloon country was a turning-point in their linguistic history. The crystallization of a Walloon identity, as opposed to that of the thiois (i.e. Dutch-speaking) regions of the Low Countries, established "Walloon" as a word for designating its people. Somewhat later,

672-560: The Mons - Brussels road. The river Obrecheuil flows through the village. In the past, there were some watermills along the river. The name Casteau is the French word for castle , and stems from the Latin castellum . Casteau was already known in neolithic times. A Roman cemetery from the times of Marcus Aurelius has been discovered. The valley of the Obrecheuil is in the east of

714-639: The Principality of Liège to the south and west. Walloon is classified as "definitely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . Despite its rich literature, beginning anonymously in the 16th century and with well-known authors since 1756, the use of Walloon has decreased markedly since France's annexation of Wallonia in 1794 . This period definitively established French as

756-580: The Sonian Forest ( French : Forêt de Soignes , Dutch : Zoniënwoud ) today. The existence of the abbey of Soignies is mentioned for the first time in the Treaty of Meersen , dated August 8, 870, as one of King Charles the Bald 's possessions. At the end of the 9th century, a general decline in religious life led to a chapter of powerful canons – who did not take any vow of poverty – taking

798-461: The Feller system ( sistinme Feller ) and Unified Walloon ( rifondou walon or rfondou walon ). 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:

840-513: The Walloon population speak their ancestral language. Breaking the statistics down by age, 70–80% of the population aged over 60 speak Walloon, while only about 10% of those under 30 do so. Passing knowledge of Walloon is much more widespread: claimed by some 36–58% of the younger age bracket. Laurent Hendschel estimates there are 1,300,000 bilingual people in Wallonia (Walloon-French, Picard-French...). Many French words that pertain to mining and to

882-453: The academic language, French became the object of a political effort at normalization; La Pléiade posited the view that when two languages of the same language family coexist, each can be defined only in opposition to the other. Around the year 1600, the French writing system became dominant in the Wallonia. From this time, too, dates a tradition of texts written in a language marked by traces of spoken Walloon. The written language of

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924-423: The church of Saint Vincent grew in the 13th century, when the bishop of Cambrai granted a 40-day indulgence to every visitor to the church. The settlement grew to urban proportions at around the same time, coinciding with the development of the textile industry and the building of a defensive wall . The first stone quarries mentioned in the archives date from around 1400, but several clues suggest that local stone

966-500: The connection between Rommand to Vualon : Et ceux cy [les habitants de Nivelles] parlent le vieil langage Gallique que nous appellons Vualon ou Rommand (...). Et de ladite ancienne langue Vualonne, ou Rommande, nous usons en nostre Gaule Belgique: Cestadire en Haynau, Cambresis, Artois, Namur, Liège, Lorraine, Ardenne et le Rommanbrabant, et est beaucoup differente du François, lequel est plus moderne, et plus gaillart. And those people [the inhabitants of Nivelles] speak

1008-471: The culture). Walloon-language literature has been printed since the 16th century, or at least since the beginning of the 17th century. It had its "golden age" during the peak of the Flemish immigration to Wallonia in the 19th century: "That period saw an efflorescence of Walloon literature, plays and poems primarily, and the founding of many theaters and periodicals." The New York Public Library holds

1050-479: The language has stayed fairly close to the form it took during the High Middle Ages . From a linguistic point of view, Louis Remacle has shown that a good number of the developments that we now consider typical of Walloon appeared between the 8th and 12th centuries. Walloon "had a clearly defined identity from the beginning of the 13th century". In any case, linguistic texts from the time do not mention

1092-417: 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

1134-400: The language, although they mention others in the langue d'oïl family, such as Picard and Lorrain . During the 15th century, scribes in the region called the language "Roman" when they needed to distinguish it. It is not until the beginning of the 16th century that first occurrence of the word "Walloon" appeared in the current linguistic sense. In 1510 or 1511, Jean Lemaire de Belges made

1176-540: The late 19th century) and the language's own phonological logic. Other regional languages spoken in Wallonia, outside the Walloon domain, are: The Picard, Lorrain and Champenois dialects spoken in Wallonia are sometimes also referred to as "Walloon", which may lead to confusion. The Walloon alphabet generally consists of the basic ISO Latin Alphabet , and six types of diacritic . It also makes frequent use of digraphs. Various orthographies have been used, most notably

1218-515: The old Gallic language which we call Vualon or Rommand (...). And we use the said old Vualon or Rommand language in our Belgian Gaul: That is to say in Hainaut, Cambrai, Artois, Namur, Liège, Lorraine, Ardennes and Rommand Brabant, and it is very different from French, which is more fashionable and courtly. The word "Walloon" thus came closer to its current meaning: the vernacular of the Roman part of

1260-509: The only popular entertainment in Wallonia. The Walloon-language theatre remains popular in the region; theatre is flourishing with more than 200 non-professional companies playing in the cities and villages of Wallonia for an audience of over 200,000 each year. During the 19th-century renaissance of Walloon-language literature, several authors adapted versions of Aesop's Fables to the racy speech (and subject matter) of Liège. They included Charles Duvivier (in 1842); Joseph Lamaye (1845); and

1302-536: The place of the monks. These canons would remain in power for eight centuries, until the French Revolution . By the 10th century, the canons started the construction of the church of Saint Vincent (Madelgaire), which was to be completed during the following century in the prevalent Romanesque style of the period. The first known charter by Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut was granted to Soignies in 1142. The fame of

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1344-405: The preceding centuries, scripta , was a composite language with some Walloon characteristics but it did not attempt to be a systematic reproduction of the spoken language. Walloon was the predominant language of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century, although they had a passing knowledge of French. Since that time, the use of French has spread to the extent that now only 15% of

1386-617: The river flows through Brussels . Soignies is also well known for its blue limestone (from the Carrières du Hainaut ) and its glass industry (Durobor). The known history of the region starts in the 7th century. The Frankish merchant Samo , who founded an empire in Central Europe, may have come from Soignies (Latin: pagus Senonagus ). In the 670s, Madelgaire , a wealthy former governor under King Dagobert I , and his wife Waltrude decided to separate and devote themselves to

1428-474: The source. Jacques Ancion also wanted to develop a regular adult audience. "From the 19th century he included the Walloon play Tati l'Pèriquî by E. Remouchamps and the avant-garde Ubu roi by A. Jarry ." The scholar Jean-Marie Klinkenberg writes, "[T]he dialectal culture is no more a sign of attachment to the past but a way to participate to a new synthesis". Walloon is also being used in popular song. The best-known singer in Walloon in present-day Wallonia

1470-405: The team of Jean-Joseph Dehin (1847, 1851–1852) and François Bailleux (1851–1866), who covered books I-VI. Adaptations into other dialects were made by Charles Letellier (Mons, 1842) and Charles Wérotte (Namur, 1844). Decades later, Léon Bernus published some hundred imitations of La Fontaine in the dialect of Charleroi (1872); he was followed during the 1880s by Joseph Dufrane , writing in

1512-645: The textile trade derive from the Walloon-Picard complex. Legally, Walloon has been recognized since 1990 by the French Community of Belgium , the cultural authority of Wallonia, as an "indigenous regional language" which must be studied in schools and encouraged. The Walloon cultural movement includes the Union Culturelle Wallonne , an organization of over 200 amateur theatre circles, writers' groups, and school councils. About

1554-515: The vernacular of these people became more clearly distinct from central French and other neighbouring langues d'oïl , prompting the abandonment of the vague term "Roman" as a linguistic, ethnic, and political designator for "Walloon". Also at this time, following the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, the French language replaced Latin for all administrative purposes in France. Established as

1596-446: The village, there are several woods (comprising oaks , beeches , chestnuts , and poplars ), fields (growing potatoes , sugar beets , corn , and wheat ), and prairies (for cows and horses). The ground is made of sands and silts. 50°31′N 4°00′E  /  50.517°N 4.000°E  / 50.517; 4.000 Walloon language Walloon ( / w ɒ ˈ l uː n / ; natively walon ; French : wallon )

1638-406: The village. This part of the valley is part of Natura 2000 protected areas. The heart of the village is in the northwest higher part of the valley. The northwestern part of the village is a plain with dispersed houses and farms with typical hedges. The village is the border between the valley of The Haine (Elevation from 20 to 30m) and the plateau of Hainaut (elevation from 80 to 150 m). Around

1680-407: The writer Raymond Queneau set the publication of a Walloon Poets' anthology for Editions Gallimard . Ubu roi was translated into Walloon by André Blavier , an important 'pataphysician of Verviers , and friend of Queneau, for the new and important Puppet theater of Liège of Jacques Ancion. The Al Botroûle theater operated "as the umbilical cord" in Walloon, indicating a desire to return to

1722-610: Was already quarried much earlier. The cut-stone industry, however, started only around 1700. On 1 September 1796, the revolutionary council disbanded the local administration by the canons, dealing a heavy blow to the local economy. In 1812, only 92 people worked in the quarries on a total population of about 4,000 people. The industry rebounded under the Dutch regime, and even more after the Belgian Revolution of 1830. Between 1831 and 1995, Soignies elected its own member of

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1764-560: Was 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 . Linguists had long classified Walloon as a dialect of French, which in turn is a langue d'oïl . Like French, it descended from Vulgar Latin . Arguing that a French-speaking person could not understand Walloon easily, especially in its eastern forms, Jules Feller (1859–1940) insisted that Walloon had an original "superior unity", which made it

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