Languages · Romance languages

Oïl languages

01. Data about the language

Language group

Indo-European / Romance

Area

*Picard is spoken in the administrative regions of Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais
*Norman in Haute- and Basse Normandy
*Gallo in the Eastern parts of Brittany
*Poitevin-Saintongese in the administrative regions of Poitou-Charentes and in the Vendée 'Département' and in Northern Gironde (Aquitaine region)
*Champenois in the administrative region of Champagne-Ardennes
*Morvandiau throughout the Morvan region (in parts of the Nière, Yonne, Côte-d'Or and Saône-et-Loire Departments)

Even though it is referred as Oil languages, this is no clear linguistic definition. Linguists from Renaissance just realized that on some northern parts of the French kingdom the word "yes" was pronounced "Oil". This came from an antique spelling, the word indeed should be pronounced "oui". In the southern parts of the kingdom, it was pronounced "oc".

The difference between oil and oc languages, is still valid, even if it was originally based upon such an approximate criteria.1 Oil languages are actually part of the same linguistic family. One of this Oil language, French from Ile de France (Paris and surrounding area) became the written standard, and then slowly the oral standard for the whole concerned area.

The other Oil languages were then marginalized by this standard French ; Picard, Walloon, Gallo, languages from Poitou, from Champagne... Some had previously known an intensive cultural activity (Picard was the written standard of Oil, before French) and were pushed back as a spoken language

There has been a sort of renewal for these languages for the last 20 years : creations in literature and theatre . They are now strongly dialectalised in their own area, and therefore the challenge of their survival comes from the creation of a written standard.

1 After all "oui" (yes) is said "ya" in Breton (Celtic language) and "ja" in German (Germanic language)

Updated, sourced data, checked on 14 October 2026 · scope : France (picard, Hauts-de-France) ; Belgique (wallon, picard, gaumais, champenois en Wallonie)

Status

France: the Constitution states that "the language of the Republic is French" (Art. 2) and that "regional languages belong to the heritage of France" (Art. 75-1)⁵. France signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages on 7 May 1999, but the Constitutional Council ruled that it contained clauses contrary to the Constitution⁸. Law no. 2021-641 of 21 May 2021 includes regional languages in the linguistic heritage protected by the Heritage Code⁶; the Constitutional Council struck down two of its articles, on immersion teaching and on diacritical signs in civil registers⁷.

Picard: the Picardie Region supported Picard from the 1990s; the Hauts-de-France Region, created by the 2016 merger, has continued this policy and funds the Agence régionale de la langue picarde¹. The language pact signed in 2020 with the Ministry of Culture commits the Region to supporting an initiative for Picard equivalent to the public office planned for West Flemish². In popular perception, the former boundary between Picardie and Nord-Pas-de-Calais separates the "Picard language" from "ch'ti", seen rather as an accent¹.

Belgium: the French Community decree of 24 December 1990 recognises the linguistic and cultural specificity of speakers of the endogenous regional languages; these languages belong to the Community's cultural heritage, which must foster their scientific study and use³. Belgium has not signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; the Wallonia-Brussels Federation has supported it since 1992⁴.

Public services

France: the 2021 law allows public services to display translations into the regional language on public buildings, roads, transport infrastructure and their main communication materials⁶; however, the Constitutional Council held that a provision granting individuals a right to use a language other than French in their dealings with the administration was contrary to Article 2 of the Constitution⁷.

Belgium: on the initiative of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, municipalities join the label "My municipality says yes to regional languages", with a charter of commitments; on 14 June 2022 Fosses-la-Ville and thirteen other municipalities joined, and every office of its administration now displays a sentence in Walloon⁴.

Education

France: the 2021 law provides that, under agreements between the State and the regions, the regional language is a subject taught within normal school hours, so that it can be offered to all pupils⁶. Following this law, a Ministry of Education circular has allowed Picard to be taught at school since 2021, with the support of associations¹.

Sources

N. Caput, « La région, une échelle de valorisation des langues minoritaires ? La cause du picard et du flamand occidental en Hauts-de-France » (thèse de géographie, avis de soutenance et résumé), Université d'Artois, 2025.
Signature d'un pacte linguistique dans les Hauts-de-France, Ministère de la Culture, DRAC Hauts-de-France, 2020.
Communauté française de Belgique – Décret relatif aux langues régionales endogènes du 24 décembre 1990 (texte), L'aménagement linguistique dans le monde, CEFAN – Université Laval, consulté en 2026.
« Ma commune dit oyi » (brochure communale sur le label « Ma commune dit oui aux langues régionales »), Ville de Fosses-la-Ville, 2022.
Constitution du 4 octobre 1958 (texte intégral en vigueur), Conseil constitutionnel, consulté en 2026.
Loi n° 2021-641 du 21 mai 2021 relative à la protection patrimoniale des langues régionales et à leur promotion (texte publié au JO n° 119 du 23 mai 2021, reproduit dans le recueil des travaux préparatoires), Légifrance ; ministère de la Culture, 2021.
Décision n° 2021-818 DC du 21 mai 2021, Conseil constitutionnel, 2021.
Décision n° 99-412 DC du 15 juin 1999 — Charte européenne des langues régionales ou minoritaires, Conseil constitutionnel, 1999.

02. Poem

Listen to the poem

Restored version (background noise reduced, level evened out) · 2:02 · Download · unprocessed original (MP3 44,100 kHz, mono)

Original Translation

Lèy èt mi

She and me (Walloon)

Ène niût, ô mitan d's-ôtes. Li cène qui drouve li lindi 'yèt qui sère li dimègne. A djidjipe su deûs samwènes, dji n' saveu pus dins l' quéle dj'èsteu d'dja ou bén dins l' quéle dj'èsteu co, dji routeu sins djoke. Riglatichant stwèlî, diskurè, firlokes di mwénres takons. Come toudi, dji fyeu 'ne riséye di sèrdjant ôs clotchîs qu'èstît su mès voyes, avou 'ne fèrme èt pèrfonde ôsse di skètér dès « Nom di Dieu », di fé dès crombès djèsses. Çoula, pou qu' tèrtous m’ vèye mô èvi 'yèt qu' tèrtous m’ con'chîje.

A night among others, the one which opens Monday and which closes Sunday. Sitting astride over two weeks, I didn’t know in which I was yet or in which I still was, I walked on continually. Dazzling sky, cleaned, scraps of black clouds. As usual, I gave a shifty smile to the church towers which were on my path, with a firm and deep desire of swearing some " Bloody Hell ! God damn it ! ", to do crude gestures. So that I could be hated by everybody and known by everyone.

Nâwe, dj'é muchi dins l' rûwe G. Li vîye abitude (quéqu'fîye quénze ou dîs coûtès-anéyes) m'a fét achîr sul pîre d'in-uch di fiêr. Dj'é sokî ètou. Man.nèt rève, sondje di sôléye, du sang tous costès, mwéjès-ârguèdènes qui vos chûv'nut sins rat'na, èmacralès fôs visâdjes, crôsse tchô, tinre suweû qui disgouline èyèt qui spite. Ô plin mitan du r'nôd, dèl tchamagne. Lèy, sès clérs-ouys èyèt pa t't-avô tout, li lûjante pia da l' cène qui m'aveut fé nawêre pèyî di l' ratinde sul pîre d'in-uch di fiêr (i-gn-a quéqu’fîye dîj ou quénze ans). Ci djoû la, èle n'èst nén v'nûwe. Adon, dj'é vikî come in diâle, sins feume, télcôp come in pouvèrteû, come in bribeû, noyi dins l' vén, sintant toufêr li mwés toubac'.

Weary, I entered the street G. An old habit (from perhaps fifteen or ten short years) made me sit on the threshold of an iron gate. I doze too. Filthy dreams, reverie of a drunkard, blood everywhere, gloomy old songs that follow you unceasingly, hypocritical and bewitched faces, fatty flesh, tender sweat which trickles and splashes. Surrounded by the vomit, the mould. She, her clear eyes and everywhere, the gleaming skin of the one which had formerly caused me so many desires to wait on the threshold of an iron gate (perhaps ten or fifteen years ago). That very day, she didn’t come. So, I lived like a devil, without a woman, sometimes like a poor, like a beggar, embedded in the wine, always smelling of bad tobacco.

Qué pléji ! Grandiveûse vîye qui l' mène !

What a pleasure! How proud is my life !

Dji m'é rèwèyi, prusti pô freud vint (dji wadje qu'i v'leut m' fé 'ne sésine). Al coupète du stwèlî, nén 'ne sitwèle... Dji m'é astampè, dj'é apici sès triyanantès mwins, dj'é bètchi sès flôwes dwèts a crèkias.

I awoke, soaked by a cold wind (I bet he wanted to give me a surprise). Not a star in the high sky,... I got up, I seized her trembling hands, I kissed her pale wrinkled fingers.

Nos-avons bagui, moyas, sins côp d'ouy yin pou l'ôte. Dji choûteu l' brût dès-èwîyes di sès solés qui bouchît sul voye a pavès. Ele mi chûveut, li rève aveut 'nn' alè.

We moved, dumb, without a glance one at the other. I heard the noise of her shoes’ needles that struck the road’s cobblestones. She followed me, the dream had gone.

C'èsteut lindi.

It was Monday.

Stéphane QUERTINMONT

03. Linguistic description

The Oïl languages, such as Walloon, Picard or Gallo, belong, like French, to the Oïl group of Romance languages¹. In Walloon, the coining of new words has been divisive for decades: dialectologists attached to traditional forms are opposed to supporters of a common spelling, the rifondou walon, who notably created a computing vocabulary².

Sources

The 2003 CD had no description of this language: this text was written for the site from the sources below.

Glottolog 5.3 – Walloon, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 2025.
M. Francard, « La création néologique dans les parlers romans de la Wallonie. Une nécessité controversée », Neologica 17, Classiques Garnier, 2023.

04. Cartoon

Galo: Le Ptit Cousou, conte.
Story read over pictures (no cartoon found) · 5 min 10 s · channel: gallo toucourt · YouTube

Video hosted on YouTube and published by the channel shown; its author may remove it at any time.