Edgewaters

Mine too! I was hoping you'd be able to clarify.

From what I can tell this is actually a fairly complicated issue:

Walloon is a Langue d'oil speech, which developed between the 8th and the 12th centuries from the Gallo-Romance language. It preserved its linguistic peculiarities throughout the periods of Burgundian,
Spanish, Austrian, French, and Dutch domination that preceded the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium in 1830.

As a matter of fact Walloon is closely related to French and is usually considered by the linguists to be one of its dialects. There is, anyway, a local view about Walloon as a separate language. According to it there are to be distinguished three language levels in Wallonia: standard French, Walloon in its different dialects, and local colloquial variant of French (i.e. a dialect of French) which is colored by Walloon influences.

The nature of the Medieval Walloon is sometimes subject of disputes between modern scholars. The main question that arise is whether it was French decreasingly smacking of Walloon or Walloon increasingly smacking of French. The fact that we study the linguistic developments of this remote period by the means of written documents only prevent us of giving a definite answer.

http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Walloon/Walloon.htm

Zeno

Well, simple: you were right, but it's just a matter of time until i am right!

edit:after reading your addendum to your last post i guess it is under debate...

masrur

Actually, modern ethnic French are mixed descendants of Romans, Gauls and Franks. I think, French got 90% Roman blood in their vein. Don't forget, French language derived from Latin, not from Gallic or Frankish language.

masrur

Actually ethnic French are mixed descendants of Romans, Gauls and Franks. I think, they got 80% Roman blood. Don't forget, French language derived from Latin, not from Gaulish or Frankish.

Duguesclin

Celts spread in different areas of Europe including France where they settled everywhere, even though you can find rests of their civilization essentially in Brittany.

Roughly speaking Gauls were the heirs of the french Celtic population, before being "romanized". Just before Ceasar's conquest of Gaul, you can consider the territory of France as being entirely celtic. Franks will only come later on from over the Rhine, while the biggest part of the celtic people living in France have become gallo-roman people.

betgo

Are Egyptians primarily Arabic in ancestory? How about Romanians? Are they mostly Roman? Are Haitians mostly French? Are the Welsh mostly English?

Large parts of Europe were originally Celtic, but became linguistically Roman or Germanic.

beorna

Yes, the main population remained gaulic. there are some regions who were populated by Italians and of course was there a migration from all parts of the Roman empire, too, but in lower number. We have several germanic, Hunnic and Alanic settlements, but as well spotty and in low number. Ethnic Franks, whatever this may be are mostly in the Northeast, mainly belgium.

authun

Caesar's famous opening line describes Gaul as being divided into three parts, each differing in laws, language and customs. Caesar wrote in the 1st cent. BC, and therefore he does not include Narbonensis as part of Gaul as it was already part of Rome. Massalia, modern Marseille, was a greek port. The language of the Belgae has never been determined and the language of the Aquitani was Vasconic, ie an ancestor of Basque.

Caesar's Gaul

Iolo

'Celtic' is a linguistic term. Like the population of Britain (and most populations since the establishment of agriculture), the population of modern France is likely to be descended mainly from the earliest settlers if they adopted agriculture, and the majority of their ancestors at one time spoke a Celtic language, but so what? Even the label 'French' seems pretty debatable, without our getting into racist notions.

Mosquito

The French may be considered as Gallo-Romano-Germans but there is no such things like "Roman blood".....