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Wallonia (French: Wallonie, German: Wallonien, Dutch: Wallonië, Walloon: Waloneye) is the meridional part of Belgium belonging to the Romance linguistic field, in opposition to the Germanic linguistic field in the north. Since around 1886, this «romance land» is at the root of the Walloon Movement that attaches to it a society project based on the ideals of the French political tradition. Wallonia is concretized politically by the creation of the French-speaking language area and the Walloon region in 1970, which by metonymy can be also named by the term “Wallonia”.
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Etymology
The french word Wallonie comes from the term Wallon, itself coming from Walh. Walh is a very old germanic word used to refer to a speaker of Celtic or Latin.[1]
The first apparition recognized of the word Wallonia dates from 1842[2] in the Essai d'étymologie philosophique of the philologue and anthropologist Honoré Chavée who use it to refer to the romance word in opposition to Germany. Its «true» meaning, according to Albert Henry[3], happens two years later under the quill of François-Charles-Joseph Grandgagnage who by this name refers «this time, more and less neatly, the romance part of the young unitary State Belgium.»[4] It is in 1886, with the writer and walloon militant Albert Mockel, that the word takes «its political meaning of cultural and regional affirmation»[5], in opposition with the word Flanders used by the Flemish Movement.
Symbols
The emergence of an idea Walloon identity and a Walloon Movement organized has produced different symbols representing Wallonia and events celebrating it. The main symbol is the coq hardi (bold rooster, also named coq wallon) which is widely used, particularly for flags. He was chosen by the Walloon Assembly on April 20, 1913 and formalized the same year by the painter Pierre Paulus. A hymn, Le Chant des Wallons [The Song of the Walloons], composed in 1900, was also adopted. On September 21, 1913 first took place in Verviers the feast of Wallonia, the date is to commemorate the participation of Walloons during the Belgian revolution of 1830. There is also a motto of Wallonia, which is "Always Walloon ("Walon todi" in Walloon).
Except the motto, those symbols chosen by the Walloon Movement were set by the Walloon Parliament as official emblems and events of the Walloon Region in 1998. The French Community of Belgium chose the coq hardi for its flag in 1991.
Geography
Romance land
According to the Walloon Mouvement, Wallonia has always been a romance land since Gallic Wars and constitutes a Latin avant-garde in the Germanic Europe. Félix Rousseau's book La Wallonie, Terre Romane [The Wallonia, Romance Land] begins like :
For centuries, the land of the Walloons has been and has never stopped to be a romance land. That's the capital fact of the history of the Walloons that explains their way to think, to feel, to believe.
Moreover, in the whole romance world, the land of Walloons, stuk between germanic territories, occupies a special position, a position of avant-garde. Indeed, the 300km long border separate those extremi Latini of the Flemish at the North, of the Germans at the East.[6].
The main language used in Wallonia is French, the Belgian French variety 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 the words septante (70) and nonante (90) in Belgium, as opposed to soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix in France. The other romance languages used are langue d'oïl regional languages : Walloon, Picard, Champenois, and Gaumais (a variety of Lorrain language).
The most important language for the wallingants are the French, not the dialects of Romance Belgium :
The concepts of francité ou romanité are largely spread in the Walloon Movement today. They aime a romance linguistic community to which Walloon have always belong, that is to say since the Gallo-roman period. It strikes in this context that the wallingants have never fought for the recognition of the Walloon language as a standard language. Indeed, certainly since the 19th century the nations should have at it's disposal its own territory but also a language unified and prestigious. A dialect labelled as a linguistic variant is not enough. The prestige of French language presented a certain advantage in the fight against the Flemish Movement.[7]
Champenois, Gaumais, Picard and Walloon (and also the germanic dialects present in Brussel and the French linguistic area) have only been officially recognized as regional languages since 24 December 1990 by a decree of the French Community of Belgium.
Walloon and Picard dialects were 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 continual decline. 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.
Linguistic purity
Wallingants consider Wallonia as linguistically pure and want to keep that linguistic purity. For example, the liberal and wallingant François Bovesse in 1929 said in one of his speeches :
Walloons, we should pay attention to that aspect of the problem. The prolific Flanders is invading us slowly; if those who come to us and that we welcome fraternally isolate themselves in flemish linguistic groups, if some fanatisms help them to not being absorbed, if an administrative legislation unclear about languages favors this non-absorption, Walloons, beware, in fifty years your land will not be yours anymore.
It is hard, it is bitter to "drop" the Frenchmen (sic) of Flanders. It would be much harder and more dangerous to sacrifice our linguistic unity.[8]
Voeren
Some wallingants, as the Chairmain of the Walloon Parliament José Happart, claim that the municipality of Voeren should belong to Wallonia.
Culture
Mosan culture
Cinema
Walloon films are often characterized by social realism, like those of the Dardenne brothers or Benoît Mariage, and the social documentaries of Patric Jean. On the other hand, films such as Thierry Zéno's "Vase de noces" (1974), "Mireille in the life of the others" by Jean-Marie Buchet (1979), "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (English title: Man bites dog) by Rémy Belvaux and André Bonzel (1992) and the works of Noël Godin and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are influenced by surrealism, absurdism and black comedy. Wallonia does not have an Anthology Film Archive Museum. No theater projects pointed cinema (experimental cinema, underground, or simply different, unusual test in the content or the form.) There is however the network of the theater known as "Art and essai" but, in practice, they diffuse only cinema subsidized "general public".
References
- ^ John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, English and Welsch in Angles and Britons: O'Donnell Lectures, University of Cardiff Press, 1963. read online
- ^ recognized by Albert Henry and actual studies. For your information, there is also a mention of Wallonie in 1825 : (French) « les Germains, au contraire, réservant pour eux seuls le noble nom de Franks, s'obstinaient, dès le onzième siècle, à ne plus voir de Franks dans la Gaule, qu'ils nommaient dédaigneusement Wallonie, terre des Wallons ou des Welsches » Augustin Thierry, Histoire de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands, Éd. Firmin Didot, Paris, 1825, tome 1, p. 155. read online
- ^ (French) Albert Henry, Histoire des mots Wallons et Wallonie, Institut Jules Destrée, Coll. «Notre histoire», Mont-sur-Marchienne, 1990, 3rd ed. (1st ed. 1965), p. 12.
- ^ Albert Henry, ibidem, p. 13.
- ^ (French) «C'est cette année-là [1886] que naît le mot Wallonie, dans son sens politique d'affirmation culturelle régionale, lorsque le Liégeois Albert Mockel crée une revue littéraire sous ce nom» Philippe Destatte, L'identité wallonne, ibid., p. 32.
- ^ (French) Depuis des siècles, la terre des Wallons est une terre romane et n'a cessé de l'être. Voilà le fait capital de l'histoire des Wallons qui explique leur façon de penser, de sentir, de croire. D'autre part, dans l'ensemble du monde roman, la terre des Wallons, coincée entre des territoires germaniques, occupe une position spéciale, une position d'avant-garde. En effet, une frontière de près de trois cents kilomètres sépare ces extremi Latini des Flamands au Nord, des Allemands à l'Est. Félix Rousseau, La Wallonie, Terre romane, Institut Jules Destrée, Charleroi, 1962, 3rd ed., p. 9.
- ^ (Dutch) «De concepten van de Francité of Romanité, een Romaanse taalgemeenschap waartoe de Walen sinds de Gallo-Romeinse periode, behoord zouden hebben, zijn wijdverspreid in de WB [Waalse Beweging] van vandaag. In deze context is het opvallend dat Waalsgezinden nooit hebben gestreden voor de erkenning van het Waals als standaardtaal. Zeker vanaf de 19de eeuw moesten naties immers niet alleen een eigen grondgebied hebben, maar ook een eigen prestigieuze standaardtaal. Een als dialect bestempelde taalvariant volstond niet. Het aanzien van het Frans was een belangrijk concurrentievoordeel in de strijd tegen de VB. » Maarten Van Ginderachter, Het kraaien van de haan - Natie en nationalisme in Wallonië sinds 1880, Academia Press, coll. Jan Dhondt-Cahiers, Ghent, october 2005, p. 45. read online
- ^ (French) «Wallons, prenons garde à cet aspect du problème. La Flandre prolifique nous envahit lentement; si ceux qui viennent vers nous et que nous accueillons fraternellement s'isolent en des groupements flamands linguistiques, si certains fanatismes les aident à ne pas être absorbés, si une législation administrative peu nette en matière linguistique favorise cette non-absorption, Wallons, prenez garde, dans cinquante ans votre terre ne sera plus à vous.
C'est dur, c'est amer de "lâcher" les français de Flandre, ce serait bien plus dur et plus dangereux de sacrifier notre unité linguistique.» La Province de Namur Journal, 5-6 october 1929, p. 1 cited in Pour la défense intégrale de la Wallonie - François Bovesse, Institut Jules Destrée, Collection Écrits politiques wallons, Mont-sur-Marchienne, vol. 4, p. 165.
See also
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