is the variety of French spoken by the French speakers of Belgium , alongside related minority Regional Language s like Walloon , Picard , Champenois and Gaumais . Belgian French and the French of France are almost identical and hence mutually intelligible, but there are distinct phonological and lexical differences.
Until the beginning of the 20th Century , Walloon was widely spoken by residents of Wallonia, the mostly French-speaking region in the south of Belgium. Many speakers were bilingual in both French and Walloon; Walloon thus had a large influence on the development of Belgian French. Dutch and to a lesser extent German have also contributed words and turns of phrase.
In addition, the fact that Belgium has been politically separate from France for several centuries (except during a short period of time under Napoleon ic rule) has allowed the French of Belgium and that of France to diverge; this is particularly evident in fields such as food and public administration.
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. Major phonological differences include:
- Lack of the approximant : The combination is replaced by , and in other situations becomes a full vowel . Thus for most Belgian speakers, the words ''enfuir'' (to run away) and ''enfouir'' (to bury) are homonyms.
- The distinction between the nasal vowels and 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 homonyms, for Belgians they are not.
- A stronger distinction exists between long and short vowels.
- The letter "w" is almost always pronounced as , the same as in English, which also approximates Flemish "w". In France, it is usually pronounced as in German. For example, the word ''wagon'' (train car) is pronounced in Standard French, but in Belgian French.
- For some speakers, final stops are devoiced, i.e., "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 instead of ("grande") and instead of ("table").
Certain accents, however, such as 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 is never pronounced in Standard French.
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 Score and 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").
- 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 do not 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''. The change is supposedly due to the practices of Louis XIV , who rose at noon to take his first meal of the day, which he called ''déjeuner''. Since the king's servants still had to get up early, they had a small breakfast, which they called ''petit déjeuner''. The French court soon adopted the changes, spreading the new use of the word ''déjeuner'' throughout France, but Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada kept the old terms. ''Souper'' is instead used in France to refer to the 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 ''Ka torat'' (a cognate of ''à bientôt'', "see you soon"), ''peket'' (" Jenever "), ''crole'' ("curl"), ''barakî'' (a vulgar, trashy person).
- Germanic influences are also visible. Take for example the construction ''Ça me goûte bien'', a Calque of Germanic patterns such as ''Das schmeckt mir gut'',''Het smaakt me (goed)'' in Dutch, or ''Tu viens avec?'', comparable to ''Kom je mee?'' in Dutch. The mayor of a city is called ''bourgmestre'' in Belgium (rather than the Standard French ''maire''), reflecting Dutch influence.
- There are also some words that exist only in Belgian French and that are not of Walloon or Flemish origin, like ''guindaille'' (a party, particularly among students), ''syllabus'' ("course book"), and the use of ''s'il vous plaît'' to mean ''voici''.
- Walloon , a separate Romance Language , similar to French, spoken in Belgium
- Dutch , the major language in Belgium, and one of three official languages, along with French and German
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