Belgian French Totally Explained

Everything about Belgian French totally explained

Belgian French is the variety of French spoken mainly in the French Community of Belgium, alongside related minority regional languages such as Walloon, Picard, Champenois and Gaumais. The French spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, which were formerly Belgian colonies, can also be considered an offshoot of Belgian French. Belgian French and the French of northern France are almost identical, but there are a few distinct phonological and lexical differences.

History

Historically, French-speaking Belgium was never a single political entity until being unified under French rule during the French Revolution and Napoleonic rule. Prior to that, the region had never belonged to France. It was composed of the County of Hainaut (half of which was annexed by France under Louis XIV), the County of Namur, the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, the southern part of the Duchy of Brabant and the western part of the Duchy of Luxembourg.
   With Clovis's capital, Tournai (in modern Wallonia), was an old Roman city, and Latin was thus spoken there more than in other parts of the Low Countries. Two centuries later, the Carolingian dynasty progressively took over the power from the Merovingian kings. They were based in Liege, just at the opposite end of Wallonia. Tournai and Liège still mark the western and eastern limits of French-speaking Belgium. French isn't spoken north of either city.
   The Merovingian and Carolingian courts thus had a vital importance in spreading Latin to the otherwise Germanic Low Countries. Latin naturally evolved into French (or the Walloon dialect) over the centuries, without any need for this part of Europe to ever belong to France.
   Nevertheless, the proximity with northern France, the numerous intermarriages (as attested by the presence of surnames of both origins on either side of the border), the close economic relations, the French occupation between 1792 and 1815, the standarisation of French in education, as well as modern media, have all contributed in making modern Belgian French almost identical to its Gallic counterpart. In fact, the French spoken in the southern half of France is more different from neutral French in both accent and usages than the one spoken in Belgium nowadays.

Influences

Until the beginning of the 20th century, most residents of what is now Wallonia, the French-speaking part Belgium south of the country, spoke Walloon. Many speakers were bilingual in both French and Walloon; Walloon thus had a large influence on the development of Belgian French.
The proximity of Dutch-speaking Flanders and the Netherlands has led to a sizable lexical contribution from various Dutch dialects. To a lesser extent, the proximity of Germany and the inclusion of German speaking communities within Belgium's borders since World War I have led to some borrowings from German.

Pronunciation differences

There are a few consistent phonological differences between the French spoken in France and Belgian French, but usually no more than the differences between regional dialects within France. Not everybody speaks with the same accent in French-speaking Belgium. Regional accents can vary from city to city (for example the famous Liège accent), but on the whole they vary more according to one's social class and education. Stronger accents are more typical of working-class people. On the contrary, many upper-middle-class Belgian Francophones speak with a neutral accent.
Major phonological differences include:

Lack of the approximant /ɥ/: The combination /ɥi/ is replaced by /wi/, and in other situations /ɥ/ becomes a full vowel /y/. Thus for most Belgian speakers, the words enfuir (to run away) and enfouir (to bury) are homophones.
The distinction between the nasal vowels /ɛ̃/ and /œ̃/ is upheld, whereas in many regions of France, these two sounds have merged. Thus, although for many French people, brin (stalk) and brun (brown), are homophones, for Belgians they're not.
A stronger distinction exists between long and short vowels.
The letter "w" is almost always pronounced as /w/, the same as in English, which also approximates Flemish "w". In France, it's often pronounced /v/ as in German. For example, the word wagon (train car) is pronounced /vagɔ̃/ in Standard French, but /wagɔ̃/ in Belgian French.
For some speakers, final stops are devoiced, for example, "d" becomes "t", "b" becomes "p", and "g" becomes "k". Combined with the dropping of consonants in final consonant clusters, this leads to pronunciations like /gʁɑ̃t/ instead of /gʁɑ̃d/ ("grande") and /taːp/ instead of /tabl/ ("table").

Certain accents, such as certain urban accents (notably those of Brussels and Liège), as well as the accents of older speakers, display greater deviation from Standard French pronunciation. For example, in the dialect spoken in and around Liège, particularly among older speakers, the letter "h" is pronounced in certain positions, whereas it's never pronounced in Standard French. That dialect is also known for its slow, slightly singing intonation, a feature that's even stronger further east in the Verviers area.

Vocabulary

Words which are unique to Belgian French are called "Belgicisms" (French: belgicismes). This term is also used for Dutch words used in Belgium and not in the Netherlands. There are too many to try to form any complete list in this article. Some of the better-known usages include:

The use of septante for "seventy" and nonante for "ninety", in contrast to Standard French soixante-dix (literally "sixty-ten") and quatre-vingt-dix ("four-twenty-ten"). These words are also used in Swiss French. Unlike the Swiss, however, Belgians never use huitante in the place of quatre-vingts ("four score"). Although nowadays considered a Belgicism/Helveticism, septante and nonante were common in France as well until around the 16th century, when the current forms began to dominate.

The verb savoir is generally used instead of pouvoir in the sense of ability to do something (in other varieties of French, "savoir" is exclusively used to mean "to know"). Thus in Belgian French: Je ne sais pas dormir means "I am not able to sleep", whereas Je ne peux pas dormir means "I am not allowed to sleep". This usage is often amusing to speakers of other varieties of French, who understand "I don't know how to sleep" in the first sentence.

The words for meals vary, as described in the table below. The usage in Belgian, Swiss, and Quebec French accords with the etymology—déjeuner comes from a verb meaning "to break the fast". In Standard French, however, breakfast is rendered by petit-déjeuner. Souper is instead used in France to refer to a meal taken around midnight, after going to the opera or the theatre. �

Many Walloon words and expressions have crept into Belgian French, especially in eastern regions of Wallonia. Examples include Qu'à torate (a cognate of à bientôt, "see you soon"), pèkèt ("jenever"), barakî (similar to the word chav in British English).

Germanic influences are also visible:

The mayor of a city is called a bourgmestre in Belgium (rather than the Standard French maire), reflecting the influence of Dutch burgemeester.
Crolle ("curl") reflects the Brabantic pronunciation of the Dutch word krul.
S'il vous plaît is used to mean "here" (when handing someone something) as well as "please", whereas in France the meaning is limited to "please" - and "voilà" is used for "here". This is comparable to the use of alstublieft in Dutch.
Sûr (from Dutch zuur) means "sour", while in France, the word acide is used.
Dringuelle, standard French "pourboire", "tip", from the Dutch word drinkgeld. Although this is less commonly used in Brussels

Grammar

Germanic influences are also visible:

Ça me goûte, standard French "ça me plait", "I like it" (only for food), is a calque of Dutch Dat smaakt
Tu viens avec moi?, standard French "Tu m'accompagnes ?", "Are you coming with me?", is a calque of Dutch Kom je mee?
Ca tire ici (mainly said in Brussels), compared to standard French "Il y a un courant d'air", "there is a draught", is a calque of the Belgian Dutch Het trekt hier.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Belgian French'.

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