LL-L: "Walloon" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 29.JUN.1999 (06)

[Lowlands-L Administrator]

 =========================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 29.JUN.1999 (06) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/~sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 =========================================================================
 A=Afrikaans, Ap=Appalachean, D=Dutch, E=English, F=Frisian, L=Limburgish
 LS=Low Saxon (Low German), S=Scots, Sh=Shetlandic
 =========================================================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 =========================================================================

From: matthias e. storme [matthias.e.storme at vlaanderen.org]
Subject: Walloon

this message from  "Kim Potier" <kpotier at itol.com> on
<BELGIUM-ROOTS-L at rootsweb.com>
may interest some of you.

>Following is a story that just came out today in the Green Bay
>Press-Gazette, June 27, 1999.
>
>WALLOON BELGIANS CREATE "ETHNIC ISLAND", prof says
>by Stephanie Kuenn
>Press-Gazette
>
>The well manicured farms and votive chapels of Southern Belgium aren't too
>far away from Northeastern Wisconsin, a University of Wisconsin Green Bay
>professor says.
>
>Southern Belgians usually speak a French dialect known as Walloon, geography
>professor William Laatsch told the State Historical Society, which met
>Saturday at the Holiday Inn-City Centre in Green Bay.
>
>Several Walloon Belgians settled in Brown, Door and Kewaunee counties,
>creating the largest Walloon Belgian population center in the country.
>
>Walloon is a quickly diminishing dialect in the United States because few
>can speak it and even fewer can write it. Laatsch said Wisconsin's Belgian
>settlers were largely uneducated and probably could not write the language.
>
>What separates Northeastern Wisconsin's Belgian community from others,
>besides its density, is a persistent, rarely changing culture.
>
>"As families grew in this area, that coincided with the growth of industry
>(in the area)," Laatsch said. "Young people left the farm, but they didn't
>leave the area."
>
>Because of the "ethnic island" the Walloon Belgians created here,
>Northeastern Wisconsin is dotted with ethnic-named towns - such as Brussels
>in Door County - summer kitchens and votive chapels.
>
>The strong ethnicity in Northeastern Wisconsin is something unseen in other
>areas of the country, Laatsch said. Eighty percent of the areas'a
>agricultural population is Walloon Belgian, based on an ethnicity map
>Laatsch made in the 1970s.
>
>"This is an incredible density of one ethnic group," he siad. "Nowhere else
>did I find this kind of density."
>
>He noted that only American Indian reservations and religious-based communes
>had higher ethnic densities.
>
>The Walloons first settled in Milwaukee and Sheboygan, but they moved north
>because a Walloon-speaking priest lived in the area. Walloons were
>encouraged to settle in Wisconsin from 1853 to 1857, through unrelenting
>promotion.
>
>Kim Potier
>Sturgeon Bay, WI

--
prof. Matthias E. Storme
matthias.e.storme at vlaanderen.org
fax +32-9-329 51 06
http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/index.html
recht : http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/legal.html
genealogie : http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/genealogy.html
spelling : http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/spelling.html
verbond van vlaamse academici : http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/vva.html
opiniepagina "diskriminatie" : http://www.ufsia.ac.be/~estorme/discrim.html

==================================END=======================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are
   to be sent to <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
 ==========================================================================