Walloon Letters

Walloon Vowel Letters

The Walloon alphabet has 6 basic vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u, y. The letter y can function as both a vowel and consonant depending on its position in the word.

Walloon Accented Vowel Letters

Walloon has 13 accented vowel letters: à, â, é, è, ê, ë, î, ï, ô, ù, û, ü, ÿ (and their uppercase forms). These accents are crucial for correct pronunciation and often change the meaning of words entirely.

Walloon Cedilla (ç)

The cedilla (ç, Ç) is used with the letter c to produce the soft /s/ sound before a, o, or u. Examples include "walon" (Walloon), "garçon" (boy), and "leçon" (lesson).

Without the cedilla, the c would be pronounced as /k/ in these contexts.

Walloon Ligatures

Walloon uses ligatures œ and æ (and their uppercase forms Œ and Æ). The œ appears in words like "cœur" (heart) and "sœur" (sister). The æ is less common in modern Walloon.

These ligatures represent the historical combination of two vowels.

Walloon Consonant Letters

Walloon has 20 consonant letters. Many Walloon consonants have pronunciation rules that differ from English, such as silent final consonants and the Walloon "r" sound.

Understanding Walloon consonant pronunciation is key to speaking Walloon correctly.

Special Characters in Walloon

Walloon writing uses punctuation marks and symbols including period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation (!), and Walloon-specific quotation marks (« ») and (" ").

Walloon typography also uses non-breaking spaces before certain punctuation marks.

Digits in Walloon

Walloon uses the standard Arabic numerals 0–9, with Walloon number names: zéro, un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf.

Like German, Walloon uses comma (,) as the decimal separator.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)