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Walloon Language

Walloon language

Walloon (Walon) is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Belgium. It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language, and is sometimes considered a French dialect. Walloon should not be confused with Belgian French, which differs from the French of France only in some minor points of vocabulary and pronunciation.

Geographic distribution

Walloon

Walloon is spoken in Wallonia (in Southern Belgium). It is also spoken in:
- a small part of France: the botte de Givet in northern Ardennes, and several villages in the Nord département, making it one of the regional languages of France
- a small region in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA, owing to fairly large-scale immigration there in the 19th century
- Brussels, by some Walloon residents
- two or three villages in Luxembourg (Doncols, Sonlez), though it is possibly no longer spoken there However, though Walloon was widely spoken till the mid 20th century, only few inhabitants of Wallonia are currently able to use it. Most of the younger generations (born within the 1970s and after) know only a few idiomatic expressions which are often curse words. Nevertheless the Walloon language is still a part of the Walloon heritage and as such is one of the foundations of Walloon ethnicity. However the very existence of the Walloons as an ethnic group is a controversial issue.

Dialects

ethnic group Four dialects are found in Wallonia, in four distinct zones:
- central, with the capital of Wallonia, Nameur (Namur), and the cities of Wåve (Wavre), and Dinant
- eastern, with Lidje (Liège), Mâmdi (Malmedy), Vervî (Verviers), Hu (Huy), and Wareme (Waremme)
- western, with Châlerwè (Charleroi), Nivele (Nivelles), and Flipvile (Philippeville)
- southern, with Bastogne, Måtche (Marche), and Li Tchestea (Neufchâteau), all in the Ardennes region. Despite local phonetic differences, there is a movement towards the adoption of a common spelling, called the "rfondou walon". This orthography is based on diasystems that can be pronounced differently by 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 Wallon until late 19th century) and the language's own phonological logic.

Other regional languages

Other regional languages spoken in Wallonia, outside the Walloon domain, are:
- Picard, in Mons, Ath, and Tournai
- Lorrain (also called Gaumais locally), in Virton
- Champenois, in Bohan
- Luxembourgish, in Arlon and Martelange

Linguistic outline

Language family

Walloon distinguishes itself from other languages in the langue d'oïl family 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: the language has stayed fairly close to the form it took on during the high Middle Ages.

Phonetics and phonology


- Latin [ka] and [g + e, i, a] gave Walloon affricate phonemes spelled "tch" (as in cherry) and "dj" (as in joke): vatche (cow), djambe (leg).
- Latin s subsist: spene (thorn), fistu (wisp of straw).
- Voiced consonants at the end of words are always unvoiced: rodje (red) is pronounced exactly as rotche (rock).
- Nasal vowels may be followed by nasal consonants, as in djonne (young), crinme (cream), mannet (dirty), etc.
- Vowel length has a phonological value. It allows to distinguish e.g. cu (ass) and cû (cooked), i l' hosse (he cradles her) and i l' hôsse (he increases it), messe (mass) and mêsse (master), etc.

Morphology


- The plural feminine adjectives before the noun take an unstressed ending "-ès" (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare li djaene foye (the yellow leaf) and les djaenès foyes (the yellow leaves).
- There is no gender difference in definite articles and possessives (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare Walloon li vweteure (the car, feminine) and li cir (the sky, masculine), with French la voiture but le ciel; Walloon has si coir (his/her body, masculine) and si finiesse (his/her window, feminine) while French has son corps but sa fenêtre.

Lexicon


- Walloon still has a few Latin remnants which have disappeared from neighboring romance languages, e.g. compare Walloon dispierter (to awake) and Spanish despertar (same meaning).
- But the most striking feature is the number of borrowings from Germanic languages (Flemish and German dialects): compare Walloon flåwe to today's Dutch flauw (weak). Other common borrowings, among hundreds of others, are dringuele (tip; Dutch drinkgeld), crole (curl), spiter (to spatter; same root as the English to spit, or German spützen), li sprewe (the starling; Dutch spreeuw).

Syntax


- The adjective is often placed before the noun: compare Walloon on foirt ome (a strong man) with French un homme fort; ene blanke måjhon (a white house) and French une maison blanche.
- A borrowing from Germanic languages: the construction Cwè çki c' est di ça po ene fleur (what is this flower?) can be compared word to word to German Was ist das für eine Blume? or Dutch Wat is dat voor een bloem?.

History

Spanish] It is inappropriate to speak of a "date of birth" for Walloon, partly because languages are not born overnight. 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 the language, even though 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 we find the first occurrence of the word "Walloon" in the same linguistic sense that we use it today. In 1510 or 1511, Jean Lemaire de Belges made 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, Liege, 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 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 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 our linguistic history. The crystallization of a Walloon identity as opposed to that of the thiois (i.e. Flemish) regions of the Low Countries, established "Walloon" as a word for designating its people. Somewhat later, 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. French was established as the academic language and became the object of a political effort at normalization, La Pléiade, which posited the view that when two languages of the same language family coexist, each can define itself 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 the preceding centuries, scripta, was a composite language with some Walloon characteristics but not attempting to be a systematic reproduction of the spoken language.

Walloon society and culture

French writing system] Walloon was the predominant language of the Walloon people until the beginning of the 20th century, even though they had a passive knowledge of French. Since that time, the use of French has spread to the extent that now only 30-40% of 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. Passive knowledge of Walloon is much more widespread: claimed by some 36-58% of the younger age bracket. 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 a dozen Walloon magazines publish regularly, and 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.

Example phrases

See also


- Walloons – the people
- Wallonia – the region
- Belgian French – French as spoken in Belgium
- Dialect – "dialect" or "language"

External links


- [http://users.skynet.be/lorint/croejh/ Comprehensive grammar of Walloon] (in French and under GFDL)
- [http://users.skynet.be/lorint/croejh/node8.html phonetic system of Walloon]
- [http://wa.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Walloon language wiki]
- [http://babel.lexilogos.com/walloon_gastronomy.htm Wallon-English Gastronomy Dictionary]
- [http://www.ucw.be.tf/ Union Culturelle Wallonne]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=wln Ethnologue report for Walloon] Category:Oïl languages Category:Languages of France Category:Languages of Belgium Category:Wallonia ja:ワロン語

Romance language

The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, Catalan Europa llatina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa latină) as Vulgar Latin later evolved in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. Romance language native speakers:
- Western Group:
  - Iberian and Americas: Spanish (300 million native speakers), Portuguese (230 million), Catalan (6.5 million), Galician (4 million)
  - France: French (65 million), Occitan (2 million)
  - Switzerland: Romansh (66,000)
  - Italy: Sardinian (300,000), Northern Italian dialects, Dolomites Ladin, Friulian
- Eastern Group:
  - Italy: Italian (60 million), Central and Southern Italian dialects including Corsican language, Sicilian
  - Romania and Moldova: Romanian (30 million) Many of the differences from the Romance languages in relation to Latin are analytical: articles and prepositions instead of declension, use of auxiliary verbs for the composite verbs, etc. The daughter languages of Latin differ for several reasons: historical isolation, influence of prior languages in territories of Latin Europe that fell under Roman rule, invasions and instability after the fall of Rome, and contact with other cultures in the Renaissance, among others.

History

The term "Romance" comes from the Romance word romance or romanz, from Latin romanice, the adverbial form of romanicus, in expressions like parabolare romanice ("to speak in Roman"). The modern Romance languages differ from Classical Latin in a number of fundamental respects:
- No declensions, that is, they generally no longer alter a noun to indicate its grammatical role, though there may be a few exceptions such as in pronouns. An exception is Romanian, which continues to use declensions.
- Only two grammatical genders, rather than the three of Classical Latin (except Romanian and Italian to a small extent, and except several gender-neutral pronouns in Spanish, Italian, Catalan etc.)
- Introduction of grammatical articles, based on Latin demonstratives
- Latin future tense scrapped, and new future and conditional tenses introduced, based on infinitive + present or imperfect tense of habere (to have), fused to form new inflections.
- Latin synthetic perfect tenses replaced by new compound forms with be or have + past participle (except Portuguese, where the Latin plusquamperfect tense has been retained and Romanian, which has 2 perfect tenses - one synthetic and one compound - that have the same meaning and also has a synthetic plusquamperfect tense in the indicative mood that is formed using the suffix "-se", derived from the suffix used in Latin to form the subjunctive plusquamperfect, "-isse").

Status

The most spoken Romance language is Spanish, followed by Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. Generally, the Romance languages have simplified the complex morphology and grammar of Latin. Italian, Sardinian and Romanian retain more original features than the rest. The Romance variants form a dialect continuum, and nearby languages usually have some mutual intelligibility. Portuguese and French are perhaps the most innovative of the languages, each in different ways. Sardinian is perhaps the most isolated and conservative variant. Languedocian Occitan is considered by some the most "average" western Romance language. In the history of the Romance languages, the first split was between Sardinian and the rest. Then of the rest, the next split was between Romanian in the east, and the others in the west. The third major split was between Italian and the Gallo-Iberian group. This latter then split into a Gallo-Romance group, which became the Oïl languages (including French), Occitan, Francoprovençal and Romansh, and an Iberian Romance group which became Spanish and Portuguese. Catalan is considered by many specialists as a transition language between the Gallic group and the Iberian group, since it shares characteristics from both groups; for example, 'fear' is 'medo' in Portuguese, 'miedo' in Spanish, but 'por' in Catalan — compare with 'peur' in French. There is much dialect diversity, and there is no clear differentiation between a "language" and a "dialect". Some varieties are privileged in that they are the main language of media and education in their countries (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and, recently, Catalan, although it is not as spread on the media as the other cited languages are, particularly in Valencia and the Balearic Islands, where its presence on local newspapers and radio stations is almost minoritary; it is also much neglected in the area of the French state where it is spoken). Others are used as the language of instruction in schools and have some official status, such as Sardinian and Romansh. Many have suffered long periods of official neglect, such as Occitan (or Provençal), the Oïl languages other than French, and Venetian. Some of these possess several competing standards. And some minor variants which might have developed into distinct languages have been reduced to residual areas and restricted usage, like Astur-Leonese, Aragonese or Mirandese.

Typical characteristics

Characteristics typical of Romance languages include:
- General:
  - Romance languages are "verb-framed" rather than "satellite-framed". This means that phrases indicating motion will tend to encode the motion's direction within the verb (e.g. "enter", "insert"), rather than in an external particle (e.g. "go in", "put in"). This is a feature of word formation.
  - Romance languages frequently have two copula verbs (see Romance copula), from the Latin infinitives ESSE and STARE: one for essence and the other for status.
  - Romance languages conjugate verbs in first, second, and third person forms, both singular and plural. The third person forms may also be inflected for gender, but the first- and second-person forms are not (compare with Hebrew, which inflects all three persons for gender and number.)
  - Politeness forms include some form of the T-V distinction in all Romance languages.
  - Romance languages have 2 or 3 genders for all nouns, but usually do not inflect nouns for case, though their parent Latin did.
  - Romance languages include a default stress on the second-last syllable, and have euphony rules that avoid glottal stops, and multiple stop consonants in a row. (The second-last syllable becomes the last in languages like French that habitually drop the final Latin vowel.) The combination of these rules gives spoken Romance languages their characteristic high speed and flow. Compare Polish second-to-last stress.
- Written form only:
  - The letters "W" and "K" are rarely used (except in names or borrowings, for example Kappa, or w in standard Walloon orthography).
  - The letters "C" and "G" are usually "soft" postalveolar consonants before a front vowel, but "hard" velar consonants by default, or before a back vowel.
  - In most Romance languages, proper adjectives (including nationalities, such as American and British), names of days of the week and months of the year are not capitalized. For example, nationalities are capitalized in French only when used as nouns.

Distinguishing features

Evolution compared to Latin

According to the results of the study of M. Pei in 1949, which compares the evolution degree of the languages with respect of their inheritance language (in the case of Romance languages the Latin language), here are the evolution degrees:
- Sardinian: 8 %;
- Italian: 12 %;
- Spanish: 20 %;
- Romanian: 23.5 %;
- Occitan: 25 %;
- Portuguese: 31 %;
- French: 44 %.

Formation of plurals

Some Romance languages form plurals by adding /s/ (derived from the plural of the Latin accusative case), while others form the plural by changing the final vowel (by influence of the Latin nominative ending /i/). See La Spezia-Rimini Line for more information.
- Plural in /s/: Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Occitan, French, Sardinian.
- Vowel change: Italian, Romanian.

Omission of final Latin vowels

Some Romance languages have lost the final unstressed vowels from the Latin roots. For example: Latin lupus, luna become Italian lupo, luna but French loup /lu/), lune (/lyn/).
- Final vowels retained: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Romanian (Southern dialects and old Romanian).
- Final vowels retained in feminine gender only: Catalan, Occitan, Romanian (Daco-Romanian).
- Final vowels dropped: French. Romance languages dropping the final vowel have one less syllable: the usual "penultimate syllable" accent is on the last syllable in these languages.

Words for "more"

Some Romance languages use a version of Latin plus, others a version of magis.
- Plus-derived: French plus /ply/, Italian più /pju/, dialectal Catalan pus /pus/ (this word is exclusively used on negative statements in Mallorcan Catalan)
- Magis-derived: Portuguese (mais), Spanish (más), Catalan (més), Occitan (mai), Romanian (mai), Italian (mai, used only in the construction non...mai, meaning "never")

The number 16

In some languages the word for the number 16 is irregular after the fashion of English "sixteen", as are all the Romance numerals from 11 to 15. In other Romance languages, 16 is literally "ten and six", like the numbers from 17 to 19.
- "Sixteen": Catalan, Occitan, French, Italian, Romanian.
- "Ten and six": Portuguese, Spanish.

To have and to hold

The verbs derived from Latin habere and tenere are used differently for the concepts of "to hold", "to have", "to have" (auxiliary for complex tenses), and existence statements ("there is"). For instance, in French, je tiens, j'ai, j'ai fait, il y a: these are respectively derived from tenere, habere, habere and habere. If we use T for tenere and H for habere, in these four meanings, we can encode the difference as follows:
- TTTT: Some varieties of Brazilian Portuguese.
- TTTH: Portuguese/Galician.
- TTHH: Spanish, Catalan.
- THHH: Occitan, French. There is also essere in Italian and este in Romanian, used for "to be":
- THHE: Romanian, Italian

To have or to be

Some languages use their equivalent of "have" as an auxiliary verb to form the perfect forms (e. g. French passé composé) of all verbs; others use "be" for some verbs and "have" for others.
- "Have" only: Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian.
- "Have" and "be": Occitan, French, Italian. In the latter, the verbs which use "be" as an auxiliary are unaccusative verbs, that is, intransitive verbs that show motion not directly initiated by the subject or changes of state, such as "fall", "come", "become". All other verbs (intransitive unergative verbs and all transitive verbs) use "have". For example, in French, J'ai vu "I have seen" vs. Je suis tombé "I am fallen" ("I have fallen").

Pidgins and creoles

The global spread of colonial Romance languages has given rise to numerous creoles and pidgins. Some of the lesser-spoken languages have also had influences on varieties spoken far from their traditional regions.
- List creoles and pidgins, grouped by source-language.
- Lingua Franca, influenced by the Romance languages of the Western Mediterranean and Arabic.
- French Creoles
  - Haitian Creole is a national language of Haiti
  - Antillean Creole spoken primarily in Dominica and St. Lucia.
  - Kreyol Lwiziyen Louisiana creole
  - Mauritian Creole is the lingua franca in Mauritius
  - Seychellois Creole Also known as Seselwa, Seychellois Creole is an official language, along with English and French, as well as the lingua franca of the Seychelles.
  - Lanc-Patuá Spoken in Brazil, mostly in Amapá state. It has been influenced by Portuguese. It was developed by immigrants from neighboring French Guiana and French territories of the Caribbean Sea.
- Portuguese Creoles
  - Angolar Spoken in coastal areas of São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe.
  - Annobonnese Spoken in the island of Annobón, Equatorial Guinea.
  - Crioulo do Barlavento (Criol) Spoken in Barlavento islands of Cape Verde.
  - Crioulo de São Vicente Spoken in São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. It could not be a, de facto, Creole.
  - Crioulo do Sotavento (Kriolu) Spoken in Sotavento islands of Cape Verde.
  - Daman Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Daman, India. Decreolization process occurred.
  - Diu Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Diu, India. Almost extinct.
  - Forro Spoken in São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe.
  - Kristang Spoken in Malaysia.
  - Kristi Spoken in the village of Korlay, India.
  - Lunguyê Spoken in Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Príncipe. Almost extinct.
  - Macanese Spoken in Macau and Hong Kong. Decreolization process occurred.
  - Papiamento Spoken in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Spanish influenced.
  - Saramaccan Portuguese/English Creole. Spoken in Surinam.
  - Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Coastal cities of Sri Lanka.
  - Upper Guinea Creole (Kriol) lingua franca of Guinea-Bissau, also spoken in Casamance, Senegal.
- Spanish Creoles
  - Chavacano -Spoken in Zamboanga and Cavite , Philippines.
  - Palenquero
  - Papiamento. It is often hard to tell Portuguese influences from Spanish ones.
  - Spanglish, spoken in northern Mexico and southern United States.
  - Yanito While not being pidgins nor creoles, English (see Middle English creole hypothesis) and Basque have a substantial Romance influence in their vocabularies.

Constructed languages

Latin and the Romance languages also give rise to numerous constructed languages, both international auxiliary languages (well-known examples of which are Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua) and languages created for artistic purposes only (such as Brithenig and Wenedyk).

Listing

Here is a more detailed listing of languages and dialects (roughly ordered from west to east):
- Iberian Romance languages
  - Portuguese-Galician
    - Portuguese language
      - European Portuguese
      - Brazilian Portuguese
      - African Portuguese
      -
- Angolan Portuguese
      -
- Capeverdean Portuguese
      -
- Guinean Portuguese
      -
- Mozambican Portuguese
      -
- São Tomean Portuguese
      - Judeo-Portuguese
    - Galician
      - Eonaviegan (a Galician dialect with some traits of Asturian)
    - Fala language (spoken in a a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura in Spain)
  - Astur-Leonese
    - Leonese
    - Asturian (the variant with more vitality)
    - Mirandese (spoken in a tiny corner of Portugal — very archaic)
    - Extremaduran (the south variant, more Castilian like)
  - Spanish (Castilian)
    - Ladino (Judæo-Spanish)
  - Aragonese
  - Mozarabic variants (extinct by the 15th century)
  - Catalan
    - Western Catalan
      - North-Western Catalan
      -
- Ribagorçan (transitional to Aragonese)
      - Valencian
    - Eastern Catalan
      - Central Catalan (includes Barcelona dialect)
      - Northern Catalan (Roussillonese)
      - Balearic
      - Alguerese
- Occitan or langue d'oc
  - Gascon
    - Aranese
  - Lemosin
  - Auvernhat
  - Aupenc
  - Lengadocian
  - Provençal
    - Niçard
- Francoprovençal
- langues d'oïl
  - French
  - Picard language
  - Walloon language
  - Norman language
    - Jèrriais
    - Dgèrnésiais
    - Anglo-Norman language (extinct)
  - Gallo language
  - Franc-Comtois
  - Champenois
  - Poitevin-Saintongeais
  - Bourguignon-Morvandiau
  - Lorrain
- Rhaetian languages
  - Friulian
  - Ladin
  - Romansh
- Italian
  - Gallo-Italian languages
    - Piemontese
    - Ligurian
      - Monegasque
    - Lombard
    - Emilio-Romagnolo
    - Venetian
  - Napoletano-Calabrese
  - Sicilian
  - Corsican (closely related to Tuscan dialects, with Ligurian elements)
  - Gallurese (close to Corsican)
  - Sassarese (transitional to Corsican)
- Sardinian
  - Campidanese
  - Logudorese
- Dalmatian (extinct)
- Istriot
- Eastern Romance languages
  - Romanian (also named Moldovan in Moldova)
  - Aromanian
  - Meglenitic
  - Istro-Romanian (these latter three are sometimes regarded as dialects of the Romanian language).

Ethnologue classification

The classification below is largely based on the analysis provided at ethnologue.com. The ISO-639-2 code roa is applied by the ISO for any Romance language that does not have its own code. The Ethnologue classification (produced by the SIL International) is at one extreme of linguists, who divide into 'splitters' and 'lumpers'. Ethnologue produce a very detailed classification, which is more precise than many other linguists would accept, but it is valuable as a description of varieties. The Southern group
- Sardinian Four versions recognized; all are included in ISO 639-1 code, sc; ISO 639-2 code, srd)
  - Sardinian, Sassarese - (SIL code, SDC)
  - Sardinian, Gallurese - (SIL Code, SDN)
  - Sardinian, Logudorese - (SIL Code, SRD)
  - Sardinian, Campidanese - (SIL Code, SRO)
- Corsican - (SIL Code, COI; ISO 639-1 code, co; ISO 639-2 code, cos) The Italo-Western group
The Western sub-group
. .Gallo-Iberian division
. . .Ibero-Romance sub-division
. . . .West Iberian section
- Asturo-Leonese
  - Asturian - (SIL Code, AUB; ISO 639-2 code, ast)
  - Mirandese - (SIL Code, MWL; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
- Castilian
  - Spanish - (SIL Code, SPN; ISO 639-1 code, es; ISO 639-2 code, spa)
  - Spanish, Loreto-Ucayali - (SIL Code, SPQ; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Ladino (Judæo-Spanish) - (SIL Code, SPJ; ISO 639-2 code, lad)
  - Extremaduran - (SIL Code, EXT; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Caló - (SIL Code, RMR; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
- Portuguese-Galician
  - Portuguese - (SIL Code, POR; ISO 639-1 code, pt; ISO 639-2 code, por)
  - Galician - (SIL Code, GLN; ISO 639-1 code, gl; ISO 639-2 code, glg)
  - Fala - (SIL Code, FAX; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . . . .East Iberian section

- Catalan-Valencian-Balear - (SIL Code, CLN; ISO 639-1 code, ca; ISO 639-2 code, cat) . . . .Oc section

- Occitan (langue d'oc) - Six versions recognized; all are included in ISO 639-1 code, oc; ISO 639-2 code, oci) - all are from France
  - Auvergnat - (SIL Code, AUV)
  - Gascon - (SIL Code, GSC)
  - Limousin - (SIL Code, LMS)
  - Languedocien - (SIL Code, LNC)
  - Provençal - (SIL Code, PRV)
  - Shuadit - (SIL Code, SDT) . . .Gallo-Romance sub-division
. . . .Gallo-Rhaetian section
- Rhaetian
  - Friulian - (SIL Code, FRL; ISO 639-2 code, fur)
  - Ladin - (SIL Code, LLD; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Romansh - (SIL Code, RHE; ISO 639-1 code, rm; ISO 639-2 code, roh)
- Langues d'Oïl
  - French (langue d'oïl)
    - Standard French - (SIL Code, FRN; ISO 639-1 code, fr; ISO 639-2(B) code, fre; ISO 639-2(T) code, fra)
    - Cajun French - (SIL Code, FRC; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
    - Picard - (SIL Code, PCD; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
    - Zarphatic - (SIL Code, ZRP; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - extinct
  - Franco-Provençal - (SIL Code, FRA; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . . . .Gallo-Italian section
  - Emilio-Romagnolo - (SIL Code, EML; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Ligurian - (SIL Code, LIJ; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Lombard - (SIL Code, LMO; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Piemontese - (SIL Code, PMS; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Venetian - (SIL Code, VEC; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . .Pyrenean-Mozarabic division
- Pyrenean
  - Aragonese - (SIL Code, AXX; ISO 639-1 code, an;ISO 639-2 code, arg)
- Mozarabic
  - Mozarabic - (SIL Code, MXI; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - Extinct for common speech The Italo-Dalmatian sub-group
  - Italian - (SIL Code, ITN; ISO 639-1 code, it; ISO 639-2 code, ita)
  - Napoletano-Calabrese - (SIL Code, NPL; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Sicilian - (SIL Code, SCN; ISO 639-2 code, scn)
  - Judeo-Italian - (SIL Code, ITK; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Dalmatian - (SIL Code, DLM; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - extinct in 19th century.
  - Istriot - (SIL Code, IST; ISO 639-2 code, roa) The Eastern group
- Romanian - (SIL Code, RUM; ISO 639-1 code, ro; ISO 639-2(B) code, rum; ISO 639-2(T) code, ron) - Includes Daco-Romanian.
- :Also as Moldovan - (ISO 639-1 code, mo; ISO 639-2 code, mol)
- Macedo Romanian - (SIL Code, RUP; ISO 639-2 code, rup) - known by native speakers as Aromanian
- Megleno Romanian - (SIL Code, RUQ; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - also known as Moglenitic or Meglenitic
- Istro Romanian - (SIL Code, RUO; ISO 639-2 code, roa)

See also


- Latin Union
- Romance copula Romanic
-

External links


- [http://www.orbilat.com/ Orbis Latinus, site on Romance languages] als:Romanische Sprachen ja:ロマンス語 simple:Romance languages zh-min-nan:Romance gí-giân

Belgium

The Kingdom of Belgium (Dutch: Koninkrijk België; French: Royaume de Belgique; German: Königreich Belgien) is a country in northwest Europe bordered by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France. Belgium has a population of over ten million people in an area of thirty thousand square kilometres. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Romance Europe, it is both linguistically and culturally divided. Two major languages are spoken in Belgium: Dutch—sometimes unofficially called Flemish—spoken in Flanders to the north; and French, spoken in Wallonia in the south. The capital, Brussels, is officially bilingual. In addition to the two, an officially recognized minority of German speakers is present in the east. This linguistic diversity often leads to political conflict, and is reflected in Belgium's complex system of government and political history. Belgium derives its name from its first named inhabitants, the Belgae, a group of mostly Celtic tribes, and from the Roman province in northern Gaul, known as Gallia Belgica. Historically, Belgium has been a part of the Low Countries, which also includes the Netherlands and Luxembourg. From the end of the Middle Ages until the seventeenth century, it was a prosperous center of commerce and culture. From the sixteenth century until independence in 1830, Belgium, called at that time the Southern Netherlands, was the site of many battles between the European powers, and has been dubbed "the Cockpit of Europe." More recently, Belgium was a founding member of the European Union, hosting its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organisations, such as NATO.

History

Over the past two millennia, the area that is now known as Belgium has seen significant demographic, political and cultural upheavals. The first well-documented population move was the conquest of the region by the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC, followed in the 5th century by the Germanic Franks. The Franks established the Merovingian kingdom, which became the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century. During the Middle Ages, the Low Countries were split into many small feudal states. Most of them were united in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries by the house of Burgundy as the Burgundian Netherlands. These states gained a degree of autonomy in the 15th century and were thereafter named the Seventeen Provinces. The history of Belgium can be distinguished from that of the Low Countries from the 16th century. A civil war, the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), divided the Seventeen Provinces into the United Provinces in the north and the Southern Netherlands in the south. The southern provinces were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs. Until independence, the Southern Netherlands were sought after by numerous French conquerors and were the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. Following the Campaigns of 1794 in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Low Countries—including territories that were never under Habsburg rule, such the Bishopric of Liège—were overrun by France, ending Spanish-Austrian rule in the region. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the end of the French Empire in 1815. The 1830 Belgian Revolution led to the establishment of an independent, Catholic and neutral Belgium under a provisional government. Since the installation of Leopold I as king in 1831, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Between independence and World War II, the democratic system evolved from an oligarchy characterised by two main parties, the Catholics and the Liberals, to a universal suffrage system that has included a third party, the Belgian Labour Party, and a strong role for the trade unions. Originally, French, which was the adopted language of the nobility and the bourgeoisie was the official language. The country has since developed a bilingual Dutch-French system. The Berlin Conference of 1885 agreed to hand over Congo to King Leopold II as his private possession, called the Congo Free State. In 1908, it was ceded to Belgium as a colony, henceforth called the Belgian Congo. Belgium's neutrality was violated in 1914, when Germany invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. The former German colonies Ruanda-Urundi—now called Rwanda and Burundi—were occupied by the Belgian Congo in 1916. They were mandated in 1924 to Belgium by the League of Nations. Belgium was again invaded by Germany in 1940 during the blitzkrieg offensive. The Belgian Congo gained its independence on 30 July 1960 during the Congo Crisis, and Ruanda-Urundi became independent in 1962. After World War II, Belgium joined NATO and, together with the Netherlands and Luxembourg, formed the Benelux group of nations. Belgium was also one of the founding members of the European Economic Community. Belgium hosts the headquarters of NATO and a major part of the European Union's institutions and administrations, including the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and most of the sessions of the European Parliament. During the 20th century, and in particular since World War II, the history of Belgium has been increasingly dominated by the autonomy of its two main language communities. This period saw a rise in intercommunal tensions, and the unity of the Belgian state has come under scrutiny. Through constitutional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s, regionalisation of the unitary state had led to the establishment of a three-tiered system of federal, linguistic-community and regional governments, a compromise designed to minimise linguistic tensions.

Politics

federal Belgium is a constitutional popular monarchy and parliamentary democracy that evolved after World War II from a unitary state to a federation. The bicameral parliament is composed of a Senate and a Chamber of Representatives. The former is a mix of directly elected senior politicians and representatives of the communities and regions; while the latter represents all Belgians over the age of eighteen in a proportional voting system. Belgium is one of the few countries that has compulsory voting, thus having one of the highest rates of voter turnout in the world. The federal government, formally nominated by the king, must have the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives. It is led by the Prime Minister. The numbers of Dutch- and French-speaking ministers are equal as prescribed by the Constitution. The King or Queen is the head of state, though he has limited prerogatives. Actual power is vested in the Prime Minister and the different governments, who govern the country. The judicial system is based on civil law and originates from the Napoleonic code. The Court of Appeals is one level below the Court of Cassation, an institution based on the French Court of Cassation. Belgium's political institutions are complex; most political power is organised around the need to represent the main language communities. Since around 1970, the significant national Belgian political parties has split into distinct components that mainly represent the interests of these communities. The major parties in each community belong to three main political families: the right-wing Liberals, the centrist Christian Democrats, and the left-wing Social Democrats. Other important younger parties are the Green parties and, especially in Flanders, the nationalist and far-right parties. Politics is strongly influenced by powerful lobby groups, such as trade unions and business interests in the form of the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium, or the Roman Catholic Church and the Freemasonry. Freemasonry The current king, Albert II, succeeded King Baudouin in 1993. In 1999, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from the VLD has led a six-party Liberal-Social Democrat-Greens coalition, often referred to as 'the rainbow government'. This was the first government without the Christian Democrats since 1958. In the 2003 elections, Verhofstadt won a second term in office and has led a Liberal-Social Democrat coalition of four parties. More recently however, the steady rise of the Flemish ultra-right nationalist separatist party Vlaams Belang, has superseded the Vlaams Blok amidst concerns of racism promoted by the party. A significant achievement of the two successive Verhofstadt governments has been the achievement of a balanced budget; Belgium is one of the few member-states of the EU to have done so. This policy was applied by the successive governments during the 1990s under pressure from the European Council. The fall of the previous government was mainly due to the dioxin crisis, a major food intoxication scandal in 1999 that led to the establishment of the Belgian Food Agency. This event resulted in an atypically large representation by the Greens in parliament, and a greater emphasis on environmental politics during the first Verhofstadt government. One Green policy, for example, resulted in nuclear phase-out legislation, which has been modified by the current government. The absence of Christian Democrats from the ranks of the government has enabled Verhofstadt to tackle social issues from a more liberal point of view and to develop new legislation on the use of soft drugs, same-sex marriage and euthanasia. During the two most recent parliaments, the government has promoted active diplomacy in Africa, opposed a military intervention during the Iraq disarmament crisis, and has passed legislation concerning war crimes. Both of Verhofstadt's terms have been marked by disputes between the Belgian communities. The major points of contention are the nocturnal air traffic routes at Brussels Airport and the status of the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

Communities and regions

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (the German-speaking Community is located in the province of Liège along the German border) and the bilingual Capital Region of Brussels. The boundary between these regions is marked in red.]] The country's constitution was revised on 14 July 1993 to create a unique federal state, based on three levels: #The federal government, based in Brussels. #The three language communities: #
- the Flemish (i.e., Dutch-speaking) Community; #
- the French (i.e., French-speaking) Community; and #
- the German-speaking Community. # The three regions (which differ from the language communities with respect to the German-speaking community and the Brussels region): #
- the Flemish Region; #
- the Walloon Region; and #
- the Brussels-Capital Region. Conflicts between the bodies are resolved by the Court of Arbitration. The setup allows a compromise to distinctly different cultures live together peacefully. The Flemish Community absorbed the Flemish Region in 1980 to form the government of Flanders. The overlapping boundaries of the Regions and Communities have created two notable peculiarities: the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region is included in both Flemish and French Communities, and the territory of the German-speaking Community lies wholly within the Walloon Region. Flemish and Walloon regions are furthermore subdivided in administrative entities, the provinces. At the highest level of this three-tiered setup is the federal government which manages foreign affairs, development aid, defence, military, police, economic management, social welfare, social security transport, energy, telecommunications, and scientific research, limited competencies in education and culture, and the supervision of taxation by regional authorities. The federal government controls more than 90 per cent of all taxation. The community governments are responsible for the promotion of language, culture and education in mostly schools, libraries and theatres. The third tier is the Regional governments, who manage mostly land and property based issues such as housing, transportation etc. For example, a school building in Brussels belonging to the public school systemwould be regulated by the regional government of Brussels. However, the school as an institution would fall under the regulations of the Flemish government if the primary language of teaching is Dutch, but under the French Community government if the primary language is French.

Geography

social security, Ghent, Charleroi, Liège, Bruges and Namur are the seven largest cities of Belgium, with populations above 100,000]] Belgium, with an area of 30,528 km², has three main geographical regions: the coastal plain in the north-west, the central plateau, and the Ardennes uplands in the south-east. The coastal plain consists mainly of sand dunes and polders. Polders are areas of land, close to or below sea level that have been reclaimed from the sea, from which they are protected by dikes or, further inland, by fields that have been drained with canals. The second geographical region, the central plateau, lies further inland. This is a smooth, slowly rising area that has many fertile valleys and is irrigated by many waterways. Here one can also find rougher land, including caves and small gorges. gorge The third geographical region, called the Ardennes, is more rugged than the first two. It is a thickly forested plateau, very rocky and not very good for farming, which extends into northern France. This is where much of Belgium's wildlife can be found. Belgium's highest point, the Signal de Botrange is located in this region at only 694 metres. The climate is maritime temperate, with significant precipitation in all seasons (Köppen climate classification: Cfb; the average temperature is 3°C in January, and 18°C in July; the average precipitation is 65 mm in January, and 78 mm in July).

Economy

Densely populated, Belgium is located at the heart of one of the world's most highly industrialised regions. Köppen climate classification, near Liège.]] Belgium was the first continental European country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, in the early 1800s. Liège and Charleroi rapidly developed mining and steelmaking, which flourished until the mid-20th century. However, by the 1840s the textile industry of Flanders was in severe crisis and there was famine in Flanders (1846–50). After World War II, Ghent and Antwerp experienced a fast expansion of the chemical and petroleum industries. The 1973 and 1979 oil crises sent the economy into a prolonged recession. The Belgian steel industry has since experienced serious decline. This has been responsible for inhibiting the economic development of Wallonia. In the 1980s and 90s, the economic centre of the country continued to shift northwards to Flanders. Nowadays, industry is concentrated in the populous Flemish area in the north. By the end of the 1980s, Belgian macroeconomic policies had resulted in a cumulative government debt of about 120% of GDP. Currently, although the government has recently succeeded in balancing its budget, public debt is nearly 100% of GDP. In 2004, the real growth rate of GDP was estimated at 2.7% but is expected to fall to 1.3% in 2005. Belgium has a particularly open economy. It has developed an excellent transportation infrastructure of ports, canals, railways and highways to integrate its industry with that of its neighbours. Antwerp is the second-largest European port. One of the founding members of the European Union, Belgium strongly supports the extension of the powers of EU institutions to integrate the member economies. In 1999, Belgium adopted the euro, the single European currency, which replaced the Belgian franc in 2002. The Belgian economy is strongly oriented towards foreign trade, in particular of high value-added goods. The main imports are food products, machinery, rough diamonds, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, clothing and accessories, and textiles. The main exports are automobiles, food and food products, iron and steel, finished diamonds, textiles, plastics, petroleum products, and nonferrous metals. Since 1922, Belgium and Luxembourg have been a single trade market within a customs and currency union—the Belgian-Luxembourgian Economic Union. Its main trading partners are Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and Spain. Belgium ranks ninth on the 2005 United Nations Human Development Index.

Demographics

The population density (342 per km²) is one of the highest in Europe, after the Netherlands and some smaller countries such as Monaco. The areas with the highest population density are around the Brussels-Antwerp-Ghent-Leuven agglomerations, as well as other important urban centres as Liège, Charleroi, Kortrijk, Bruges, Hasselt and Namur. The Ardennes have the lowest density. As of 2005, the Flemish Region has a population of about 6,043,161, Wallonia 3,395,942 and Brussels 1,006,749. Almost all of the population is urban (97.3% in 1999). The main cities and their populations are Brussels (1,006,749), Antwerp (457,749), Ghent (230,951), Charleroi (201,373), and Liège (185,574). Namur and the Catholic Church.]] About 60% of the country is Dutch-speaking, 40% French-speaking, and 1% German-speaking. However, these figures must be interpreted cautiously, because the most recent linguistic census was taken before 1960, and the mother tongue is not always the same as the language used in public or in official life. Brussels is officially French-Dutch bilingual, but mostly French speaking; it evolved from a Dutch-speaking place to its current dominantly French character when the Belgian state became independent in 1830. Both the Dutch spoken in Belgium and the Belgian French have minor differences in vocabulary and semantic nuances from the varieties spoken in France and the Netherlands. Many people can still speak dialects of Flemish and Walloon. These dialects, along with some other ones like Picard or Limburgish, are not used in public life. The laïque constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. According to the 2001 Survey and Study of Religion, about 47% of the population identify themselves as belonging to the Catholic Church. According to these figures, the Muslim population is the second largest religious community, at 3.5% (see Religion in Belgium). Since independence, Catholicism, counterbalanced by strong freethought movements, has had an important role in Belgium's politics, in particular via the Christian trade union (CSC/ACV) and the Christian Democrat parties (CD&V, CDH). 98% of the adult population is literate. Education is compulsory from the ages of six to 18, but many Belgians continue to study until the age of about 23. Among the OECD countries in 1999, Belgium had the third highest proportion of 18–21-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary education, at 42%. Nevertheless, in recent years, concern is rising over certain forms of illiteracy, such as functional illiteracy. In the period 1994–98, 18.4% of the population lacks functional literacy skills. Mirroring the historical political conflicts between the freethought and Catholic segments of the population, the Belgian educational system in each communities is split into a laïque branch controlled by the communities, the provinces, or the municipalities, and a subsidised religious—mostly Catholic—branch controlled by both the communities and the religious authorities—usually the dioceses.

Culture

Belgian cultural life has tended to concentrate within each community. The shared element is less important, because there are no bilingual universities, except the royal military academy, no common media, and no single, common large cultural or scientific organisation where both main communities are represented. Aside from these differences, Belgium is well-known for its fine art and architecture. The region corresponding to today's Belgium has seen the flourishing of major artistic movements that have had tremendous influence over European art. The Mosan art, the Early Netherlandish, the Flemish Renaissance and Baroque painting, and major examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, and the Renaissance vocal music of the Dutch School developed in the southern part of the Low Countries, are milestones in the history of art. Dutch School. This painting is inspired by the many folk festivals in Belgium.]] This rich artistic production, often referred to as a whole as Flemish art, gradually declined during the second half of the 17th century. However, in the 19th and 20th centuries, many original artists appeared. In music, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone in 1846. Eugène Ysaÿe was a major 19th- and 20th-century Belgian violinist (See also Music of Belgium). In architecture, Victor Horta was a major initiator of the Art Nouveau style. Belgium has produced famous romantic, expressionist and surrealist painters; these include Egide Wappers, James Ensor, Constant Permeke and René Magritte. In literature, Belgium has produced several well-known authors, such as the poets Emile Verhaeren, Jacques Brel and novelists Hendrik Conscience and Georges Simenon. The poet and playwright Maurice Maeterlinck won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1911. The best known Franco-Belgian comics are The Adventures of Tintin by Hergé but many other major authors of comics have been Belgian, including Edgar P. Jacobs and André Franquin. More recently, notable cinema directors have emerged, most of them strongly influenced by French cinema. The absence of a major Belgian cinema company has forced them to emigrate or participate in low-budget productions. Belgian directors include Stijn Coninx, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne; actors include Jan Decleir, Marie Gillain; and films include Man Bites Dog and The Alzheimer Affair. In the 1980s, Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts has produced the important fashion trendsetters, the Antwerp Six. Belgium has also contributed to the development of science and technology. The mathematician Simon Stevin, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius and the cartographer Gerardus Mercator are among the most influential scientists from the beginning of Early Modern in the Low Countries. More recently, at the end of the 19th century, in applied science, the chemist Ernest Solvay and the engineer Zenobe Gramme have given their names to the Solvay process and the Gramme dynamo. Georges Lemaître is a famous Belgian cosmologist credited with proposing the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe in 1927. Three Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to Belgians: Jules Bordet in 1919, Corneille Heymans in 1938, and Albert Claude and Christian De Duve in 1974. Ilya Prigogine was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977. One could not understand Belgian cultural life without considering the folk festivals, which play a major role in the country's cultural life. Examples are the Carnival of Binche, the Ducasse of Ath, the procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges, the 15th-of-August festival in Liège, and the Walloon festival in Namur. A major non-official holiday is the Saint Nicholas Day, which commemorates the festival of the children and, in Liège, of the students. Belgium is well represented in the world of sport—football (soccer) and cycling are especially popular. The national football team is the Red Devils. Among the well known cyclists, Eddy Merckx, won five Tours de France. Belgium also has two current female tennis champions: Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne. Many highly ranked restaurants can be found in the high-impact gastronomic guides, such as the Michelin Guide. Brands of Belgian chocolate, like Neuhaus, are world renowned and widely sold; even the cheapest and most popular brand, Leonidas, has earned a reputation for its quality. Belgium produces over 500 varieties of beer (ales, pils) (see Belgian beer). Belgians have a reputation for loving waffles and French fries, both originally from Belgium; the national food is steak (or mussels) with French fries.

Related topics


- Communications in Belgium
- Education in Belgium
- Football in Belgium
- Foreign relations of Belgium
- List of Belgian municipalities by population
- List of Belgians
- List of Belgium-related topics
- Military of Belgium
- Public holidays in Belgium
- Tourism in Belgium
- Transportation in Belgium

External links


- [http://www.Belgium.be/ Official site of the Belgian federal government]
- [http://www.visitbelgium.com/ Official site of Belgian tourist office in the Americas]
- [http://www.goldenpages.be/ Telephone directory online]
- [http://www.mediatico.com/en/newspapers/europe/belgium Belgian Newspapers]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Belgium Wikitravel guide]
- [http://www.175-25.be/ Belgium is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its independence and the 25th anniversary of the federal state]
- [http://www.bruessel-gui.de/bruessel/bildergalerien.html bruessel-gui.de - Images: Brussels & Belgium]

References


- [http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/lowcountries/xbelgium.html World history at KLMA]
- [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/europe/belgiqueacc.htm L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde] in French by Jacques Leclerc, University of Laval, Canada
- [http://statbel.fgov.be/port/cou_eu_en.asp#BE Portal of the INS to statisical publications about Belgium]
- [http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/be.html CIA World Fact Book]
- [http://www.fed-parl.be/constitution_uk.html Constitution of Belgium]

Notes

1. Nuttall encyclopedia
2. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4545433.stm Language dispute divides Belgium, BBC News, 13 May, 2005]
3. Election turnout in national lower house elections from 1960 to 1995, numbers from Mark N. Franklin's "Electoral Participation."
4. [http://www.fed-parl.be/gwuk0006.htm#E11E6 Constitution of Belgium] Art. 99
5. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/392004.stm Belgium's "rainbow" coalition sworn in, BBC News, 12 July, 1999]
6. [http://www.lachambre.be/kvvcr/pdf_sections/pri/fiche/10F.pdf Composition of the Chamber of Representatives, on the official homepage of the Chamber, in French]
7.[http://jackosheas.com/news/newsstory.cfm?story_no=1124 Court says Vlaams Blok conviction is sound, Expatriate Online, 10 November, 2004]
8.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3994867.stm Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist, BBC News, 9 November, 2004]
9.[http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jun1999/belg-j08.shtml Dioxin contamination scandal hits Belgium: Effects spread through European Union and beyond, World Socialist Web Site, 8 June, 1999]
10.[http://www.favv-afsca.fgov.be/portal/page?_pageid=34,66751&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL History of the Federal Food Agency, at its official homepage]
11.[http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0019846.html The Rwanda article at Tiscali.References] shows an example of Belgium's recent African policies.
12.[http://www.flanders.be/ The official homepage of Flanders (Community and Region)]
13.[http://www.eurometeo.com/english/climate/city_EBBR/id_GT/meteo_brussels_belgium Eurometeo: The meteo at Brussels]
14-15.[http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2874.htm US Department of State's report]
16.[http://www.nbb.be/pub/Home.htm?l=en&t=ho National Bank of Belgium]
17.[http://www.economist.com/countries/Belgium/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Forecast Economic forecast of the Economist, 30 September, 2005]
18,20.[http://statbel.fgov.be/ Official statistics of Belgium]
19,24.[http://www.undp.org/hdr2001/indicator/cty_f_BEL.html United Nation Development Programme]
21-22.[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=BE Ethnologue.com] published by SIL International
23.[http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d03/ch_6.asp Digest of Education Satistics 2003, US National Education Statistics]
25.[http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2004/35444.htm International Religious Freedom Report 2004 at the US Department of State]
Category:Monarchies Category:European Union member states zh-min-nan:Belgien als:Belgien ko:벨기에 ms:Belgium ja:ベルギー simple:Belgium th:ประเทศเบลเยียม fiu-vro:Belgiä

Language family

Most languages are known to belong to language families. An accurately identified family is a phylogenetic unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor. This ancestor is very seldom known to us directly, since most languages have a very short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many of its features by applying the comparative method — a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th-century linguist August Schleicher. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families listed below. Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family, because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. However, the term family is not restricted to any one level of this "tree"; the Germanic family, for example, is a branch of the Indo-European family. Some taxonomists do restrict the term family to a certain level, but there is little consensus in how to do this. Those who do affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, and groups into complexes. They also aggregate families into phyla (also known as stocks, or superfamilies). Phyla are often used to aggregate American Indian language families. One method for doing all of this is called glottochronology. The common ancestor of a family is known as its protolanguage. For example, the reconstructible protolanguage of the well-known Indo-European family is called Proto-Indo-European. This is not known from written records, since it was spoken before the invention of writing, but sometimes a protolanguage can be identified with a historically known language. Thus, provincial dialects of Latin ("Vulgar Latin") gave rise to the modern Romance languages, so the Proto-Romance language is more or less identical with Latin (if not exactly with the literary Latin of the Classical writers), and dialects of Old Norse are the protolanguage to Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Faroese and Icelandic. Languages that cannot be reliably classified into any family are known as language isolates. A language isolated in its own branch within a family, such as Greek within Indo-European, is often also called an isolate, but such cases are usually clarified. For instance, Greek might be referred to as an Indo-European isolate.

Largest families

According to the numbers in Ethnologue[http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp], the largest language families in terms of number of languages are: # Niger-Congo (1514 languages) # Austronesian (1268 languages) # Trans-New Guinea (564 languages) (validity disputed) # Indo-European (449 languages) # Sino-Tibetan (403 languages) # Afro-Asiatic (375 languages) # Nilo-Saharan (204 languages) # Pama-Nyungan (178 languages) # Oto-Manguean (174 languages) (number disputed; Lyle Campbell includes only 27) # Austro-Asiatic (169 languages) # Sepik-Ramu (100 languages) (validity disputed) # Tai-Kadai (76 languages) # Tupi (76 languages) # Dravidian (73 languages) # Mayan (69 languages)

Language families (spoken)

In the following, each "bulleted" item is a known language family. The geographic headings over them are meant solely as a tool for grouping families into collections more comprehensible than an unstructured list of the dozen or two of independent families. Geographic relationship is convenient for that purpose, but these headings are not a suggestion of any "super-families" phylogenetically relating the families named.

Africa and southwest Asia

southwest Asia # Afro-Asiatic languages (formerly Hamito-Semitic) # Niger-Congo languages (sometimes Niger-Kordofanian) # Nilo-Saharan languages # Khoisan languages (or Khoi-San)

Europe, and north, west, and south Asia

# Indo-European languages # Dravidian languages (some include Dravidian languages in a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family.) # the non-genetic class of Caucasian languages which is generally thought to include two not closely related families: ## North Caucasian ## South Caucasian or Kartvelian # Altaic languages (disputed) # Uralic languages # Hurro-Urartian languages (extinct) # Yukaghir languages (Some include Yukaghir in the Uralic family.) # Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages # Yeniseian languages # Andamanese languages (two families)

East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific

# Australian Aboriginal languages (multiple unrelated families) # Austroasiatic languages # Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) languages # Hmong-Mien languages # Japonic languages (or Fuyu languages) # Papuan languages (multiple unrelated families) # Sino-Tibetan languages # Tai-Kadai languages # Shahedul Haque, NSU

North America

North America : See main article, Native American languages # Algic languages (incl. Algonquian languages) (29) # Alsean languages (2) # Caddoan languages (5) # Chimakuan languages (2) # Chinookan languages (3) # Chumashan languages (6) # Comecrudan languages (3) # Coosan languages (2) # Eskimo-Aleut languages (7) # Guacurian languages (a.k.a. Waikurian) (8) # Iroquoian languages (11) # Kalapuyan languages (3) # Kiowa-Tanoan languages (7) # Maiduan languages (4) # Mayan languages (North America & Central America) (31) # Muskogean languages (6) # Na-Dené languages (40) # Oto-Manguean languages (North America & Central America) (27) # Palaihnihan languages (2) # Plateau Penutian languages (a.k.a. Shahapwailutan) (4) # Pomoan languages (7) # Salishan languages (23) # Shastan languages (4) # Siouan languages (16) # Tequistlatecan languages (3) # Totonacan languages (2) # Tsimishian languages (2) # Utian languages (12) # Uto-Aztecan languages (31) # Wakashan languages (6) # Wintuan languages (4) # Yokutsan languages (3) # Yukian languages (2) # Yuman-Cochimí languages (11)

Central America and South America

: See main article, Native American languages # Alacalufan languages (South America) (2) # Algic languages (North American & Central America) (29) # Arauan languages (South America) (8) # Araucanian languages (South America) (2) # Arawakan languages (South America, Caribbean) (60) # Arutani-Sape languages (South America) (2) # Aymaran languages (South America) (3) # Barbacoan languages (South America) (7) # Cahuapanan languages (South America) (2) # Carib languages (South America) (29) # Chapacura-Wanham languages (South America) (5) # Chibchan languages (Central America & South America) (22) # Choco languages (South America) (10) # Chon languages (South America) (2) # Comecrudan languages (North America & Central America) (3) # Guacurian languages (a.k.a. Waikurian) (8) # Harakmbet languages (South America) (2) # Jicaquean languages (Central America) # Jivaroan languages (South America) (4) # Katukinan languages (South America) (3) # Lencan languages (Central America) # Lule-Vilela languages (South America) (1) # Macro-Ge languages (South America) (32) # Maku languages (South America) (6) # Mascoian languages (South America) (5) # Mataco-Guaicuru languages (South America) (11) # Mayan languages (Central America) (31) # Misumalpan languages (Central America) # Mixe-Zoquean languages (Central America) (19) # Mosetenan languages (South America) (1) # Mura languages (South America) (1) # Na-Dené languages (North America & Central America) (40) # Nambiquaran languages (South America) (5) # Oto-Manguean languages (North America & Central America) (27) # Paezan languages (South America) (1) # Panoan languages (South America) (30) # Peba-Yaguan languages (South America) (2) # Quechuan languages (South America) (46) # Salivan languages (South America) (2) # Tacanan languages (South America) (6) # Tequistlatecan languages (Central America) (3) # Totonacan languages (Central America) (2) # Tucanoan languages (South America) (25) # Tupi languages (South America) (70) # Uru-Chipaya languages (South America) (2) # Uto-Aztecan languages (North America & Central America) (31) # Witotoan languages (South America) (6) # Xincan languages (Central America) # Yanomam languages (South America) (4) #