Walloon alphabet
The Walloon language has employed various alphabets over its history, most notably the Feller system (sistinme Feller) and Unified Walloon (rifondou walon or rfondou walon). The Feller system was developed to transcribe Walloon dialects by Jules Feller and was first published in 1900.[1] The same word can be spelled differently depending on dialect, so the word "fish" would be spelled <pèchon> by a speaker who pronounces the word as [pɛʃɔ̃] (with an 'sh' sound), but would be spelled <pèhon> by a speaker who pronounces the word as [pɛhɔ̃] (with an 'h' sound). In Unified Walloon, however, the same word "fish" is always spelled <pexhon>, regardless of the speaker's pronunciation. The Unified Walloon alphabet, developed through the 1980s and 90s, attempts to unify spellings across dialects, and revives some older digraphs (such as <xh>) which were abandoned by Feller in favor of spellings which resembled standard French.[2][3]
| Letter | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | a | bé | cé | dé | e | effe | gé | ache | i | ji | ka | elle | emme | enne | o | pé | qu | erre | esse | té | u | vé | wé | icse | î gréc / yod | zéde |
Graphemes
The table below shows letters, digraphs, and trigraphs (collectively referred to as graphemes) used by the Feller system and Unified Walloon. The second and third columns show the sounds which are represented, transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Note that certain graphemes represent many different sounds in the Unified Walloon alphabet, while in the Feller system most graphemes correspond to a single sound.
| Grapheme | Feller System | Unified Walloon | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A a | [a] | gade [gat] (goat) | ||
| Â â | [a:] | diâle [dja:l] (devil) | In Unified ⟨å⟩ or ⟨a⟩ | |
| Å å | [ɔ:] | [ɔ:/o:/ɑ:] | djåzer [d͡ʒɔ:.'ze/d͡ʒa:.'ze] (to speak) | The pronunciation [d͡ʒa:.'ze] would be written djâzer in Feller |
| AE ae | [a/ɛ] | glaece [glas/glɛs] (ice) | In Feller glace ou glèce | |
| AI ai | [e:/ɛ:] | mwaisse [mwɛ:s/mɛ:s/me:s] (master) | In Feller ⟨ê⟩ is used for [ɛ:] and ⟨é⟩ for [e:], producing possible spellings: mêsse, mwêsse, mésse, maisse, maîsse | |
| AN an | [ɑ̃] | [ɑ̃/ɔ̃] | blanc [blã] (white) | |
| B b | [b] | bén [bẽ] (well, good) | ||
| C c | [k/s] | crole [kʀɔl] (curl of hair) | ||
| Ç ç | [s] | çoula [su.'la] (that) | ||
| CH ch | [ʃ] | [ʃ] (rare) | chal [ʃal] (here) | In Unified ⟨ci⟩, ⟨cy⟩, ⟨xh⟩, ⟨sch⟩, or ⟨sh⟩. The example word would be written cial [ʃal] or [sjal] |
| D d | [d] | wårder [wɔ:ʀ.'de/wa:ʀ.'de] (to keep) | The pronunciation [wa:ʀ.'de] would be written wârder in Feller | |
| DJ dj | [dʒ] | djin [d͡ʒɛ̃] (person) | ||
| E e | silent letter | [ɛ] | efant [ɛ.'fã] (child) | |
| É é | [e] | [e/i:] | pés [pe] (cow's udder) | In Unified, syllable-final é can also be pronounced [i:]; thus the Unified ceréjhe (cherry) could be written cèréhe, cèrîhe, cèlîhe, cèrîje,... in Feller |
| EA ea | [ja/e:/ɛ:] | bea [bja/be:/bɛ:] (beautiful) | In Feller bia, bé, bê | |
| ÉN én | [ẽ] | [ẽ/ɛ̃] | tchén [tʃẽ/tʃɛ̃] (dog) | In Feller tchén, tchîⁿ, tchin |
| EU eu | [ø/œ/ə] | [ø:/œ:/ø/œ/ə] | djeu [d͡ʒø/d͡ʒø:] (game) | In Feller the vowel length is noted, see ⟨eû⟩ below |
| EÛ eû | [ø:/œ:] | djeû [d͡ʒø:] (game) | In Unified ⟨eu⟩ | |
| EY ey | [ɛj/ɛ:j/i:j/i:] | åjhey [ɔ:'ʒɛj] (easy) | In Feller ⟨èy⟩ or ⟨îy⟩: åhèy, âhèy, åhêye, åhî, âhî, auji, aujîye, aujîle,... | |
| F f | [f] | filozofe [fi.lɔ.'zɔf] (philosopher) | ||
| G g | [g] | gueuye [gø:j] (face) | In Feller gueûye | |
| GN gn | [ɲ] | agnon [a.'ɲõ] (onion) | ||
| H h | [h] | [h] or silent | hoye [hɔj] (coal) | In Feller hoye, oye, ouye |
| HY hy | [ç] | pèhyon [pɛ.çɔ̃] (fish) | In Unified ⟨jh⟩, ⟨sch⟩, or ⟨xh⟩ | |
| I i | [i/ɪ] | [i:/i/ɪ] | pitit [pi.ti] (little) | Indicates the elidable weak vowel in Unified, which has a wide variety of realizations depending on region; pitit, li ptit (little, the little) in Feller could be written pitit, putit, pëtit, pètit, peutit,...; li/lu/lë/èl/... p’tit |
| Î î | [i:] | pî [pi:] (foot) | In Unified the circumflex is not used unless the ⟨i⟩ is before a voiceless consonant, otherwise it is automatically long: Lidje [li:t͡ʃ] (Liège), in Feller Lîdje | |
| IN in | [ɛ̃] | rinde [ʀɛ̃t] (to return) | ||
| J j | [ʒ] | jate [ʒat] (cup) | Very rare in Unified as this sound is either written ⟨jh⟩ or is from a foreign borrowing, in which case it is usually written ⟨dj⟩ (for example in djate [dʒat]) | |
| JH jh | [h/ʒ/ç] | prijhon (prison) | In Feller prîjon, prîhon, prîhyon | |
| K k | [k] | stoumak [stu.'mak] (stomach) | ||
| L l | [l] | lére [le:ʀ/li:ʀ] (to read) | The pronunciation [li:ʀ] would be written lîre in Feller | |
| M m | [m] | mwin [mwɛ̃/mɛ̃] (hand) | The pronunciation [mɛ̃] would be written min in Feller | |
| N n | [n] | nawe [naw] (lazy) | ||
| O o | [ɔ] | soris [sɔʀi] (mouse) | ||
| Ô ô | [o:] | [o:/õ/ɔ̃/ʊ:] | rôze [ʀo:s/ʀõs] | In Feller the nasalization is noted as rôⁿze or ronze |
| OE oe | [wɛ/ø/ɛ/œ] | moes [mwɛ/mø:] (month) | In Feller mwès, meûs | |
| OI oi | [wa/wɛ/oː/ʊː] | moirt [mwɛʀ/mwa:ʀ/moːʀ] (dead) | In Feller mwért, mwèrt, mwârt, mwart, môrt, moûrt | |
| ON on | [ɔ̃] | djondou [d͡ʒõ.'du] (touched) | ||
| OU ou | [u] | atouwer [a.tu.'we] (to tutoie, to address someone informally) | ||
| OÛ oû | [u:] | noû [nu:] (new) | ||
| P p | [p] | aprinde [a.'pʀɛ̃t] (to learn) | ||
| Q q | qwè [kwɛ] (what) | Non-standard [k], the example word is more often written cwè | ||
| R r | [ʀ] | arester [a.ʀɛs.'te] (to stop) | In Feller arèster | |
| S s | [s] | sûner [sy:.ne] (to ooze) | ||
| SS ss | [s] | dissu [di.'sy] (on top of) | ||
| SCH sch | [h/ʃ/ç/sk] | scheter [skɛ.te/ʃɛ.te/hɛ.te/çɛ.te] (to break) | In Feller (è)skèter, chèter, hèter, hyèter | |
| SH sh | [ʃ/s] | shijh [si:h/ʃiːʒ] (six) | In Feller sîh, chîj | |
| T t | [t] | tins [tɛ̃] (time) | Even though the pronunciation is the same everywhere, in Feller there are variants: tins, timp, timps | |
| TCH tch | [tʃ] | tchant [tʃã] (song) | ||
| U u | [y] | pus [py] (more) | ||
| Û û | [y:] | ût [y:t] (eight) | ||
| Un un | [œ̃] | djun [d͡ʒœ̃] (June) | Very rare sound in Walloon; djun and brun are basically the only words which use it | |
| V v | [v] | vint [vɛ̃] (wind) | ||
| W w | [w] | walon [wa.lõ] (Walloon) | ||
| X x | [ks/gz] | taxi [tak.si] (taxi) | Not used in Unified (the example word is written tacsi), rare in Feller | |
| XH xh | [h/ʃ/ç/x] | pexhon [pɛ.ʃɔ̃/pɛ.hɔ̃/pɛ.çɔ̃] (fish) | In Feller pèchon/pèhon/pèhyon | |
| Y y | [j] | yebe [jɛp] (grass) | In Feller the palatalization is sometimes noted, giving Feller spellings such as yèbe, jèbe, êrb | |
| Z z | [z] | zûner [zy:ne] (to buzz) | ||
References
- ^ "Aprinde le wallon liegeois" (PDF). Centre de Recherche et d'Information du Wallon à l'École. Centre de Recherche et d'Information du Wallon à l'École. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ "Les betchfessîs scrijhas". Li Ranteule. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ Saratxaga, Pablo. "Introduction". Grammaire wallonne en ligne. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- ^ http://www.omniglot.com/writing/walloon.htm2014 January 11 Archived 2013-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
