WALLOONS (Wallons, from a

See also:

• COMMON

common Teut. word meaning "

See also:

• FOREIGN

foreign," cf. Ger. Welsch, Du. waalsch, Eng. Welsh)  , a people akin to the French, but forming a separate branch of the Romance race, inhabiting the Belgian provinces of Hainaut, Namur, Liege, parts of Luxemburg and southern Brabant, parts of the French departments of Nord and Ardennes, and a few villages in the neighbourhood of Malmedy in Rhenish Prussia . The Walloons are descended from the ancient Gallic Belgi, with an admixture of Roman elements . They are in general characterized by greater vivacity and adaptability than their Flemish neighbours, while they excel their French neighbours in en-durance and industry . Their numbers are reckoned in Belgium at between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 . The Walloon dialect is a distinct branch of the Romance languages, with some ad-mixture of Flemish and Low German . It was used as a literary language until the 15th century, when it began to be assimilated to French, by which it was ultimately superseded . Grandgagnage, De l'origine des Wallons (Liege, 1852), Vocabulaire des noms wallons, &c . (2nd ed., 1857), and Diet. etymol. de la langue wallonne (t. i. and ii., 1845—1851; t. iii., byScheler,1880) ; J . Dejardin, Diet. des " spots " ou proverbes wallons (1863) ; Van der Kindere, Recherches sur l' ethnologic de la Belgique (Brussels, 1872) ; Demarteau, Le Flamand, le Walton, (Liege . 1889) ; M . Wilmotte, Le Walton, Histoire et litlerature (Brussels, 1893) ; Monseur, Le Folklore wallop (Brussels, 1892) .