Since Willow Street Bakery closed in Oct 2017, there really hasn't been a lot of places to get a Belgian Pie if you live in the city.
Austin's Grocery Store in Allouez (on Webster) more times than not, has Belgian Pie's that they bring in from Don's Bakery in Luxemburg.
If you live on the East side of Green Bay / Bellevue area, then your closest place might be the C-Mart Gas Station/Convenience Store at Hwy 29 & P (Denmark).
There might be other places in town. And if learn of them, I'll update this.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Monday, December 16, 2019
Humor in Walloon and French
This just got posted to the Peninsula Belgian American Club.
Its from the Li walon po tertos group.
Translated: I’m sending a message to my mama to let her know I am finished.
And from the latest Belgian Heritage Center newsletter here is how to spell Merry Christmas:
Joyeux Noel (French)
Djoyeus Noye (Walloon)
Vrolijk Kerstfeest (Flemish)
Sunday, November 10, 2019
Samples of the Walloon language
A couple years ago (2015) WFRV TV Channel 5 had a bit about preserving the Walloon language.
In that clip its mentioned that UW-Eau Claire professor Kelly D. Biers, was getting involved.
It would be great if someone had enough info to create a Rosetta Stone Walloon Course. But I really don't know if something that grand of nature is part of the plan. At a local level I hear that Margaret Rueckl leads meetings in the Luxemburg area to learn about the language.
*Update, sadly it appears that Kelly Biers is no longer at UW Eau Claire. He is now at the University of North Carolina. However I did email him and he says their plan is to begin working on a book that describes the history, vocabulary, and grammar of the language. Come the new year he said he plans to pick up the progress.
Speaking Walloon on a regular basis historically meant living in the Door / Kewaunee areas so that you would have someone to talk to, to be able to keep with the language. The women that speak it well that stand out to me are the ones that owned bars and had frequent opportunities to talk to people.
Its possible that in the future one could keep up the language with a virtual assistant like Alexa. Where you would speak in Walloon and she would answer in Walloon. This would interest me enough to actually embrace that type of technology.
Having been exposed to the language in my younger years when my grandfather was alive I still turn to the internet to try and figure out what I heard. I am middle aged now, and having been looking at old plat maps to first recognize Belgian last names. Turns out after talking to some of my friends that I didn't realize were Belgian (or had forgot), they too heard some simple phrases and would also like to know more.
This seems to be a good place to start:
Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of written systems and languages - it has some useful phrases in Walloon. But it lacks the recorded spoken samples!
What is nice about that site is you can click on the English translation and then listen to the same phrase in French and other languages.
I made a post about sites with recorded Walloon on the Belgian Heritage Center's Facebook page, and a nice gentleman from Belgium provided this link:
http://www.ecoledewallon.be/apprentissage_du_wallon.html
There is also;
https://app.memrise.com/course/1289923/walloon-1-namur/
Then there is always a the 1976 recordings of relative of mine, Leonard Lampereur. He speaks in Walloon several times in the oral history.
And there is the 2014 Youtube video: Disappearing Language: Walloon (Ali Maden and Ege Gedikli)
It turns out in the early 1980's Josephine LeGrave Wautlet created a Phonetic Walloon course, complete with recordings. I am checking with UWGB's research center to see if I can get my hands on a fully copy of this. I did manage to rescue some of the first lessons, but I don't have the full thing.
In that clip its mentioned that UW-Eau Claire professor Kelly D. Biers, was getting involved.
"They are recording conversations between speakers of Walloon, so they can study the language. The goal to create a written version of the Wisconsin dialect. Then create teaching materials for grade school children within the Southern Door school district. Making sure even that even if nobody is going to be speaking it on a regular basis, that we have some sort of record of it."You can read more about the Walloon Preservation Project here. And the research team attempting to document the language here. It was a joint effort between Kelly Biers, and Ellen Osterhaus.
Kelly plans to create a Wisconsin Walloon primer that will be easily accessible to the Wisconsin Belgian community. The primer will include basic information about the language and essential words and phrases which will allow current and future community members to understand, practice and thereby preserve a record of their language. The project involves the development of an orthography and content for the primer, involving native speakers in the creation and editing of materials, and dissemination online and in print. Much of this process is already underway and has received enthusiastic support from community members and organizations.
It would be great if someone had enough info to create a Rosetta Stone Walloon Course. But I really don't know if something that grand of nature is part of the plan. At a local level I hear that Margaret Rueckl leads meetings in the Luxemburg area to learn about the language.
*Update, sadly it appears that Kelly Biers is no longer at UW Eau Claire. He is now at the University of North Carolina. However I did email him and he says their plan is to begin working on a book that describes the history, vocabulary, and grammar of the language. Come the new year he said he plans to pick up the progress.
Speaking Walloon on a regular basis historically meant living in the Door / Kewaunee areas so that you would have someone to talk to, to be able to keep with the language. The women that speak it well that stand out to me are the ones that owned bars and had frequent opportunities to talk to people.
Its possible that in the future one could keep up the language with a virtual assistant like Alexa. Where you would speak in Walloon and she would answer in Walloon. This would interest me enough to actually embrace that type of technology.
Having been exposed to the language in my younger years when my grandfather was alive I still turn to the internet to try and figure out what I heard. I am middle aged now, and having been looking at old plat maps to first recognize Belgian last names. Turns out after talking to some of my friends that I didn't realize were Belgian (or had forgot), they too heard some simple phrases and would also like to know more.
This seems to be a good place to start:
Omniglot - the online encyclopedia of written systems and languages - it has some useful phrases in Walloon. But it lacks the recorded spoken samples!
What is nice about that site is you can click on the English translation and then listen to the same phrase in French and other languages.
I made a post about sites with recorded Walloon on the Belgian Heritage Center's Facebook page, and a nice gentleman from Belgium provided this link:
http://www.ecoledewallon.be/apprentissage_du_wallon.html
There is also;
https://app.memrise.com/course/1289923/walloon-1-namur/
Then there is always a the 1976 recordings of relative of mine, Leonard Lampereur. He speaks in Walloon several times in the oral history.
And there is the 2014 Youtube video: Disappearing Language: Walloon (Ali Maden and Ege Gedikli)
It turns out in the early 1980's Josephine LeGrave Wautlet created a Phonetic Walloon course, complete with recordings. I am checking with UWGB's research center to see if I can get my hands on a fully copy of this. I did manage to rescue some of the first lessons, but I don't have the full thing.
Friday, May 17, 2019
The differences between French and Walloon?
I almost took French as a foreign language back in my high school days, and ever since I have often wondered how and how the Walloon language differs from French.
---
“The written language of the Walloon is French. The Walloon language is better preserved in this country than in Belgium because in Belgium it has too much French mixed in it”
A Young Look At Old Green Bay 1970 Inverview with Louis Ropson Pg 109
-
I stumbled into this written by a French guy (Bruno Gremez):
"It took time but succeeded in Wallonia, at the expense of Walloon dialects. Nowadays, Walloon dialects belong to the folklore and the past. Only insignificant numbers of Walloons still understand and speak some dialects. One should note - by the way - that Walloon dialects are not so close to French, contrary to what man people believe, and they are hard to understand even for native French speakers. I am French-speaking, and I do not understand more than 5 to 10% of what elderly people say if they - still - speak in their dialects."
The official Languages of Belgium today are French and Dutch. It's my personal belief that the language morphed in Belgium to slowly become more like French.
I say this really only based on logic and that now that I look into what I heard, some of it was more French than Walloon?
"How are you" I recall hearing the French way. But then again that was 25+ years ago, and I really don't know things would sound based on the text below (excerpts taken from one of the attached Belgian newsletters)
> How are you?
> French: Comment allez vous?
> Walloon: Comint va-t-I l’ome?
---
“The written language of the Walloon is French. The Walloon language is better preserved in this country than in Belgium because in Belgium it has too much French mixed in it”
A Young Look At Old Green Bay 1970 Inverview with Louis Ropson Pg 109
-
I stumbled into this written by a French guy (Bruno Gremez):
"It took time but succeeded in Wallonia, at the expense of Walloon dialects. Nowadays, Walloon dialects belong to the folklore and the past. Only insignificant numbers of Walloons still understand and speak some dialects. One should note - by the way - that Walloon dialects are not so close to French, contrary to what man people believe, and they are hard to understand even for native French speakers. I am French-speaking, and I do not understand more than 5 to 10% of what elderly people say if they - still - speak in their dialects."
The official Languages of Belgium today are French and Dutch. It's my personal belief that the language morphed in Belgium to slowly become more like French.
I say this really only based on logic and that now that I look into what I heard, some of it was more French than Walloon?
"How are you" I recall hearing the French way. But then again that was 25+ years ago, and I really don't know things would sound based on the text below (excerpts taken from one of the attached Belgian newsletters)
> How are you?
> French: Comment allez vous?
> Walloon: Comint va-t-I l’ome?
> I don't know
> French: je ne sais pas
> Walloon: dji n' sé nén (Rifondou spelling )
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Welcome
First some background. In the 80's and 90's my family would make many weekend trips to Door and Kewaunee County to visit my grandfather. And even after he passed away in the later 80's, we'd continued to visit other relatives in the area.
My father is the youngest of his siblings, so he really has less Walloon under his belt compared to his older siblings. Never the less, in these weekend trips and visits to the Pines Tavern, Chaudoirs Dock, Chris & Jack's Belgian Bar, I heard some Walloon.
For many years I assumed some of what I heard in Walloon was things the grown-up's didn't want us kids to understand. So the name of this blog is sort of a spoof on that. It turns out now (at age 40), I am finally starting to look into what I heard, my parents and relatives aren't as vile as I would have guessed back then.
But the "Pardon My Walloon" title is catchy, so it will stick. In future entries I will explore some of the more common Walloon phrases that I can remember hearing. The problem of course is trying to figure out how to spell them.
There is a professor from UW-Eau Claire, Kelly Biers working on documenting the language, but so far I haven't seen much shared, online at least. So that is where this blog comes in. To try and share the very little I do know, or can find out to help the next person. To me that is what life is about, and is what great about the internet.
My father is the youngest of his siblings, so he really has less Walloon under his belt compared to his older siblings. Never the less, in these weekend trips and visits to the Pines Tavern, Chaudoirs Dock, Chris & Jack's Belgian Bar, I heard some Walloon.
For many years I assumed some of what I heard in Walloon was things the grown-up's didn't want us kids to understand. So the name of this blog is sort of a spoof on that. It turns out now (at age 40), I am finally starting to look into what I heard, my parents and relatives aren't as vile as I would have guessed back then.
But the "Pardon My Walloon" title is catchy, so it will stick. In future entries I will explore some of the more common Walloon phrases that I can remember hearing. The problem of course is trying to figure out how to spell them.
There is a professor from UW-Eau Claire, Kelly Biers working on documenting the language, but so far I haven't seen much shared, online at least. So that is where this blog comes in. To try and share the very little I do know, or can find out to help the next person. To me that is what life is about, and is what great about the internet.
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