Hauts-de-France ( French pronunciation: [o də fʁɑ̃s] ; lit. ' Heights of France ' , Upper France , Picard : Heuts d'Franche ) is the northernmost region of France , created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy . Its prefecture is Lille . The new region came into existence on 1 January 2016, after regional elections in December 2015. The Conseil d'État approved Hauts-de-France as the name of the region on 28 September 2016, effective the following 30 September.
28-483: Château-Thierry ( French: [ʃɑto tjeʁi] ; Picard : Catieu-Thierry ) is a French commune situated in the department of the Aisne , in the administrative region of Hauts-de-France , and in the historic Province of Champagne . The origin of the name of the town is unknown. The local tradition attributes it to Theuderic IV , the penultimate Merovingian king, who was imprisoned by Charles Martel , without
56-722: A population density of 189 inhabitants per km , it is the third most populous region in France and the second-most densely populated in metropolitan France after its southern neighbour Île-de-France . It is bordered by Belgium to the north and by the United Kingdom to the northwest through the Channel Tunnel , a railway tunnel crossing the English Channel . The region is a blend mixture of French and (southern-) Dutch cultures. The region's interim name Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie
84-455: A distinctive literary tradition. The Ch'ti language was re-popularised by the 2008 French comedy film Welcome to the Sticks ( French : Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis ; French pronunciation: [bjɛ̃vny ʃe le ʃti] ) which broke nearly every box office record in France and earned over $ 245,000,000 worldwide on an 11 million euro budget. The first person plural often appears in spoken Picard in
112-586: A language distinct from French. A 1999 report by Bernard Cerquiglini, the director of the Institut national de la langue française (National Institute of the French Language) stated: The gap has continued to widen between French and the varieties of langues d'oïl , which today we would call "French dialects"; Franc-comtois , Walloon , Picard, Norman , Gallo , Poitevin , Saintongeais , Bourguignon-morvandiau , Lorrain must be accepted among
140-515: A large number are unique to Picard—principally terms relating to mining or farming . Here are several typical phrases in Picard, accompanied by French and English translations: Cardinal numbers in Picard from 1 to 20 are as follows: Picard is not taught in French schools (apart from a few one-off and isolated courses) and is generally only spoken among friends or family members. It has nevertheless been
168-762: A regional railway line starting from the Gare de l'Est in Paris. Furthermore, it has rail connections to Châlons-en-Champagne, Nancy and Strasbourg. It is also one of the exits of the A4 autoroute that links Paris with the east part of France. Transval operates the local bus routes. Château-Thierry was the birthplace of: Château-Thierry is twinned with: [REDACTED] Media related to Château-Thierry at Wikimedia Commons Picard language Picard ( / ˈ p ɪ k ɑːr d / , also US : / p ɪ ˈ k ɑːr d , ˈ p ɪ k ər d / , French: [pikaʁ] )
196-491: A regional language along with Walloon , Gaumais ( Lorraine ), Champenois ( Champagne ) and Lorraine German in its 1990 decree. The French government has not followed suit and has not recognized Picard as an official regional language (in line with its policy of linguistic unity, which allows for only one official language in France, as per the French Constitution ), but some reports have recognized Picard as
224-562: A reliable source. Château-Thierry is the birthplace of Jean de La Fontaine and was the location of the First Battle of the Marne and Second Battle of the Marne . The arrondissement of Château-Thierry is called the country of Omois . Château-Thierry is one of 64 French towns to have received the Legion of Honour . In the late years of the western Roman empire, a small town called Otmus was settled on
252-558: A site where the Soissons - Troyes road crossed the Marne river. During the 8th century, Charles Martel kept king Theuderic IV prisoner in the castle of Otmus. At this time, the town took the name of Castrum Theodorici, later transformed in Château-Thierry ( Castle of Thierry , Thierry is the French or early Roman language translation of Theuderic). In 946, the castle of Château-Thierry was
280-620: A variety of very closely related dialects. It is difficult to list them all accurately in the absence of specific studies on the dialectal variations, but these varieties can probably provisionally be distinguished: Amiénois, Vimeu-Ponthieu, Vermandois, Thiérache, Beauvaisis, "chtimi" (Bassin Minier, Lille ), dialects in other regions near Lille (Roubaix, Tourcoing, Mouscron, Comines), "rouchi" ( Valenciennois ) and Tournaisis, Borain, Artésien rural, Boulonnais. The varieties are defined by specific phonetic, morphological and lexical traits and sometimes by
308-629: Is a langue d'oïl of the Romance language family spoken in the northernmost of France and parts of Hainaut province in Belgium. Administratively, this area is divided between the French Hauts-de-France region and the Belgian Wallonia along the border between both countries due to its traditional core being the districts of Tournai and Mons ( Walloon Picardy ). The language or dialect
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#1733085423829336-610: Is one of the langues d'oïl and belongs to the Gallo - Roman family of languages. It consists of all the varieties used for writing ( Latin : scriptae ) in the north of France from before 1000 (in the south of France at that time the Occitan language was used). Often, the langues d'oïl are referred to simply as Old French . Picard is phonetically quite different from the North-central langues d'oïl , which evolved into modern French. Among
364-590: Is referred to by different names, as residents of Picardy call it simply Picard , but in the more populated region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais it is called Ch'ti or Ch'timi (sometimes written as Chti or Chtimi ). This is the area that makes up Romance Flanders , around the metropolis of Lille and Douai , and northeast Artois around Béthune and Lens . Picard is also named Rouchi around Valenciennes , Roubaignot around Roubaix , or simply patois in general French. In 1998, Picard native speakers amounted to 700,000 individuals,
392-441: Is similar to that of French. It is undoubtedly the easiest for French speakers to understand but can also contribute the stereotype that Picard is only a corruption of French rather than a language in its own right. Various spelling methods have been proposed since the 1960s to offset the disadvantage and to give Picard a visual identity that is distinct from French. There is now a consensus, at least between universities, in favor of
420-611: The Battle of Château-Thierry (1918) in World War I between the United States and Germany. In 1918, a mounting for the Paris Gun was found near the castle, though the cannon itself had apparently been moved prior to the emplacement's discovery. Château-Thierry is situated on the river Marne , at 90 kilometres (56 mi) from Paris . Château-Thierry station is the terminus station of
448-405: The Sticks , starring comedian Dany Boon , deals with Ch'ti language and culture and the perceptions of the region by outsiders, and it was the highest-grossing French film of all time at the box office in France until it was surpassed by The Intouchables . Today Picard is primarily a spoken language, but in the medieval period, there is a wealth of literary texts in Picard. However, Picard
476-509: The form of the neutral third person in ; however, the written form prioritizes os (as in French, where on is used for nous ). On the other hand, the spelling of conjugated verbs will depend on the pronunciation, which varies within the Picard domain. For instance southern Picard would read il étoait / étoét while northern Picard would read il étot . This is noted as variants in the following: The majority of Picard words derive from Vulgar Latin . Many words are very similar to French, but
504-590: The home of Herbert le-Vieux, Count of Omois of the House of Vermandois and Soissons. Formerly the capital of the district of Brie Pouilleuse, Château-Thierry was captured by the English in 1421; by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor , in 1544; and by the duke of Mayenne in 1591. Château-Thierry was the site of two important battles: the Battle of Château-Thierry (1814) in the Napoleonic Wars between France and Prussia, and
532-710: The modern French form of chasser . Because of the proximity of Paris to the northernmost regions of France, French (that is, the languages that were spoken in and around Paris) greatly influenced Picard and vice versa. The closeness between Picard and French causes the former to not always be recognised as a language in its own right, but rather a "distortion of French" as it is often viewed. Despite being geographically and syntactically affiliated according to some linguists due to their inter-comprehensible morphosyntactic features, Picard in Picardy, Ch'timi and Rouchi still intrinsically maintain conspicuous discrepancies. Picard includes
560-586: The most notable traits, the evolution in Picard towards palatalization is less marked than in the central langues d'oïl in which it is particularly striking; /k/ or /ɡ/ before /j/ , tonic /i/ and /e/ , as well as in front of tonic /a/ and /ɔ/ (from earlier *au ; the open /o/ of the French p o rte ) in central Old French but not in Picard: The effects of palatalization can be summarised as this: There are striking differences, such as Picard cachier ('to hunt') ~ Old French chacier , which later took
588-485: The northeast, the North Sea to the north, the English Channel to the west, as well as the French regions of Grand Est to the east-southeast, Île-de-France to the south, and Normandy to the west-southwest. It is connected to the United Kingdom ( England ) via the Channel Tunnel . Hauts-de-France comprises five departments: Aisne , Nord , Oise , Pas-de-Calais , and Somme . The gross domestic product (GDP) of
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#1733085423829616-672: The object of scholarly research at universities in Lille and Amiens , as well as at Indiana University . Since people are now able to move around France more easily than in past centuries, the different varieties of Picard are converging and becoming more similar. In its daily use, Picard is tending to lose its distinctive features and may be confused with regional French. At the same time, even though most Northerners can understand Picard today, fewer and fewer are able to speak it, and people who speak Picard as their first language are increasingly rare, particularly under 50. The 2008 film Welcome to
644-557: The regional languages of France ; by placing them on the list [of French regional languages], they will be known from then on as langues d'oïl . Even if it has no official status as a language in France, Picard, along with all the other languages spoken in France, benefits from actions led by the Culture Minister's General Delegation for the French language and the languages of France ( la Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France ). Picard, like French,
672-476: The vast majority of whom were elderly people (aged 65 and over). Since its daily use had drastically declined, Picard was declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) a "severely endangered language ". However, as of 2023, the Picard language was listed as “vulnerable” by UNESCO. The word ch'ti , chtimi or ch'timi to designate the Picard language
700-533: The written form known as Feller-Carton (based on the Walloon spelling system, which was developed by Jules Feller , and adapted for Picard by Professor Fernand Carton ). Picard, although primarily a spoken language, has a body of written literature: poetry, songs (" P'tit quinquin " for example), comic books, etc. A number of dictionaries and patois guides also exist (for French speakers): Hauts-de-France With 6,009,976 inhabitants as of 1 January 2015 and
728-551: Was a hyphenated placename , created by hyphenating the merged regions' names— Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardie —in alphabetical order. On 14 March 2016, well ahead of the 1 July deadline, the regional council decided on Hauts-de-France as the region's permanent name. The provisional name of the region was retired on 30 September 2016, when the new name of the region, Hauts-de-France, took effect. The region covers an area of more than 31,813 km (12,283 sq mi). It borders Belgium ( Flanders and Wallonia ) to
756-597: Was invented during the First World War by Poilus from non-Picard speaking areas to refer to their brothers in arms from Picardy and Nord-Pas-de-Calais . It is an onomatopoeia created based on the frequent use of the /ʃ/ ( ch- ) phoneme and of the /ʃti/ ( chti ) sound in Picard: " ch'ti " means the one, as in the sentence " ch'est chti qui a fait cha" ( he is the one who has done that), for instance. Belgium's French Community gave full official recognition to Picard as
784-458: Was not able to compete with French and was slowly reduced to the status of a regional language. A more recent body of Picard literature, written during the last two centuries, also exists. Modern written Picard is generally a transcription of the spoken language. For that reason, words are often spelled in a variety of different ways (in the same way that English and French were before they were standardized). One system of spelling for Picard words
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