The influence of Brussels on the French spoken in Belgium
Vocabulary of Flemish and Dutch origin
Notes de la rédaction
This is the press release related to the article from Michel Francard, published December the 13th, 2010. Read the article.
Ostracisme! Ostracisme! Ouille, moi je n’aime pas ce garçon!’ (‘Ostracism! Ostracism! I don’t like this boy!’) This sentence from the Mariage de Mademoiselle Beulemans illustrates the difficult relationship to the French language experienced by the inhabitants of Brussels. Mr Beulemans – who is so clumsy with words – has a hard time with the linguistic ease of his employee. Far from this caricature, one may wonder whether Brussels – as a bilingual city which brings together Germanic and Latin languages – may be considered as a true source of richness for the French spoken in Belgium.
In the 45th issue of Brussels Studies, Michel Francard asks this question, not only with respect to the lexical features of the French spoken in Brussels, but also to its contributions to the vocabulary of the French spoken in Belgium.
What are the Belgian-French words which are specific to Brussels and what is the extent of their use in Wallonia? These are the two main questions discussed in this text. The author provides a detailed answer, illustrating how it is difficult to define the source language for a series of expressions. The uses of French in Brussels and Wallonia indeed appear to be closely linked.
Furthermore, Brussels is an area of contact between Dutch and French, but it is also home to many other languages, whose impact has not yet been studied. The lexical richness of the Brussels ‘melting pot’ remains altogether unexplored. It is time to consider the linguistic wealth of our city.
References
Francard, Michel, “The influence of Brussels on the French spoken in Belgium
Vocabulary of Flemish and Dutch origin”, Brussels Studies [Online], General collection, No 45, December the 13th, 2010. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/brussels/829
Contact
Benjamin Wayens, Senior Editor: bwayens[at]brusselsstudies.be