Companion Site to

Boojoo! An Introduction to Wisconsin Walloon

Here you will find audio examples of Wisconsin Walloon vocabulary, as described in Boojoo! An Introduction to Wisconsin Walloon by Kelly Biers. This set of vocabulary was chosen by Belgian American community members in Wisconsin as important to describing daily life on the peninsula. The words are illustrated by two volunteer speakers: Theresa Alexander and Arlene Jadin. Sometimes, you will hear two different pronunciations for the same word, which reflects the fact that there was never just one way to speak Walloon in Wisconsin. The spelling system was designed through a collaborative effort between community members and language researchers, creating a system that is more intuitive to read for an American audience than the system used in Belgium (which is based on French spelling conventions). You can learn more about this process in the book, or by visiting the Belgian Heritage Center.

To order the book, visit here: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/Books/B/Boojoo