Walloons (/wɑːˈluːnz/; French: Wallons, IPA: [walɔ̃]; Walloon: Walons) are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive ethnic community within Belgium. Important historical and anthropological criteria (religion, language, traditions, folklore) bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon Region. They speak regional languages such as Walloon (with Picard in the West and Lorrain in the South). Walloons are the descendants of Gallo-Romans with Germanic Frankish admixture.

Etymology

The term Walloon is derived from *walha, a Proto-Germanic term used to refer to Celtic and Latin speakers.

Walloon originated in Romance languages alongside other related terms, but it supplanted them. Its oldest written trace is found in Jean de Haynin's Mémoires de Jean, sire de Haynin et de Louvignies in 1465, where it refers to Roman populations of the Burgundian Netherlands. Its meaning narrowed yet again during the French and Dutch periods and, at Belgian independence, the term designated only Belgians speaking a Romance language (French, Walloon, Picard, etc.) The linguistic cleavage in the politics of Belgium adds a political content to "the emotional cultural, and linguistic concept". The words Walloon and Wallons can be seen in the book of Charles White, The Belgic Revolution (1835): "The restless Wallons, with that adventurous daring which is their historical characteristic, abandoned their occupations, and eagerly seizing the pike and the musket marched towards the centre of the commotion.". The Spanish terms of Walon and Walona from the 17th century referred to a Royal Guard Corps recruited in the Spanish Flanders. They were involved in many of the most significant battles of the Spanish Empire. The French word Wallons in English is also used in the Encyclopædia Britannica.