The ‘aclot’
dialect is a Walloon dialect spoken in the neigbourhood of the Walloon
cities of Nivelles, Charleroi and Philippeville (in the western region
of Belgium).
It is one of the forgotten languages, spoken today by at 35-45% of a
total population of 3,200,000. In younger people (20-30), surveys suggest
that about 10% say they are active speakers and 40-60% say they have
a passive knowledge.
Frenchifying began in the beginning of the 20th century, in the higher
strata of the population. All parents began raising their children in
French (or often in a dialectal form of French more or less inspired
by Walloon).
Nowadays the proportion of those who can read and write ‘aclot’
is very small. Walloon is not taught, except in a few voluntary and
successful evening classes.
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