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- Title
Dialect and Regional Identification in Belgium: the Case of Wallonia.
- Authors
Lefevre, Jacques
- Abstract
This article discusses the problem of the French-speaking Walloons, specifically the problem of the relationships between the use of dialects and the identification with the Walloon community. The degree of comprehension and use of dialects was investigated. Such variables were then related to subjective identification with Wallonia. The questionnaire illustrates the fact that residents of the southern part of Belgium do not mobilize around the ideal of a French-speaking area but rather Wallonia. It is important to assert that the favorable attitude of the Walloon population toward its dialects has an ideological effect. Dialects are increasingly considered as collective symbols from which springs an emotional and mobilizing identification focusing on the design of a Walloon community. From a sociological point of view it can be stated that Wallonia is a linguistic community in as much as the various dialects do not affect the linguistic identification or the mobilization of the Walloons towards common feeling.
- Subjects
BELGIUM; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; WALLOONS; ETHNOLOGY; LANGUAGE &; culture; LANGUAGE &; languages; LINGUISTICS
- Publication
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1978, Vol 1978, Issue 15, p47
- ISSN
0165-2516
- Publication type
Article