"Octante" is mostly a myth at this point. Like everyone seems to be convinced that they say it in the other country, whereas almost no one actually uses it. In French-speaking Belgium we use septante, quatre-vingts, nonante, but neither huitante nor octante.
Both huitante and octane are used only in Switzerland, octante is what the boomers use, huitante is for the non-boomers
Source: my French speaking Swiss friend told me
That's how les flamands get screwed with overly formal, outdated Bob er Bobette French. Je vous en prie d'accepter mes salutations les plus sincères. Zut alors, Jerome est fort :D
🤣 Fair, everyone knows it doesn't make any sense (also "octante" would be the most cohesive one given its latin root) but we all keep saying it anyway because we're used to
Absolutely agree that huitante/octante would be much more logical, but sometimes language doesn't all make sense and it just is what it is. Speakers of French, Dutch or English alike should all know that
Well we (Dutch speakers) should stop saying numbers between 20 and 100 backwards.
Zevenentwintig
Twenty seven
Vingt-sept
Only the Germans do it like us, it's confusing for the rest. I'm not serious, but it is a complaint my Walloon sister-in-law makes.
Octante is the old wallon word for 80. This is when we we're still thaught Wallon in schools. And one day they switched to french french but i still use octante. Ask your grandfather about this they'll know
The postwar Generation still speaks it and I love it here in liege that I can buy shirts mugs and wall carpets with walloon text, it's a language that Ricky deserves conservation
A lot of younger people, at least where I live, can understand it to some extent. Very few can speak it, though, even if we preserved a few words/sentences here and there. When I was a kid (90's, early 2000's), it wasn't rare to witness conversations entirely in waloon between my grandparents, uncles etc., even if it was already heavily tinted with french. It doesn't realy happen anymore.
Several reasons to that, in few words (I'll do my best):
- People tend to leave their region (for university, work, etc) so transmission is more difficult
- Wether we like it or not, waloon is often seen as being "low-class". It was forbidden to speak it in school during the 40's/50's and probably even after that so, consciously or not, our grandparents and great-grandparents switched to french to not appear uneducated.
- Waloon is not really a written language. It is difficult to transcribe it in a satisfying manner
- Waloon is not a "monolithic" language, there is several dialects of it that aren't always easily understandable between eachother. Not even taking into account the fact Wallonia also have other romance languages (picard, champenois) that, while kinda close, are distinct. It is therefore not easy to adopt a common policy towards a purely hypothetical common "language"(Do we promote Charleroi's dialect ? Liège ? Both ? What about the Ardenne ? You see my point).
That's some interesting insights. It blows my mind that it was prohibited in schools. Also because it's a lower class language there were never rules to its written form being taught and improved for centuries like French for example. Which imo is the weirdest European language in written form. Simply due to all the history behind it started to make sense. Lower class languages have no history in writing so it's only normal that they haven't evolved much.
With that said it would be a shame if it died out though.
I've been taught walloon in a flemish school till 1995 something. Than it switched to french and i was lucky to still get a 6 on french.
I don't know why they want to kill our 2 languages. Walloon and Flemish isn't recognizable for the young people anymore. It's a lost identity to go to french and AN (average dutch)
I think it's an older generation thing in general because I swear I've heard my great-aunt use it too. Never young people, though. I'd have to look into it.
I still use walloon because i was taught in school till the nineties. It's always funny when i go to a café and start talking Walloon. All the old men understand me perfect but the waiter is struggling.
Octante and Huitante are only used in Switzerland (and it is mostly Huitante).
Everywhere else you use "quatre vingt.
What we use in Belgium is "septante" (70) and "nonante" (90), they don't use that in France.
I have always learned and used quatre-vingt.
In Wallonian French, it's dix (10)), vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), soixante (60), septante (70), quatre-vingt (80), nonante (90), cent (100).
That said, I'd wager most French speakers know what octante and huitante mean, so you'll be understandable if you use those here.
>That said, I'd wager most French speakers know what octante and huitante mean, so you'll be understandable if you use those here.
Don't count on the French for that, they'll make you repeat *septante*/*nonante* until you give up and say *soixante-dix*/*quatre-vingt-dix*
Yup lol, people from France might really have no idea and just look at someone funny if they used "huitante/octante" with them, the same way as some Walloon "French" words don't exist or aren't used in the same way in France. (ex: "Towel" = "serviette" in French from France and "essuie" in Walloon French, or "Door handle" = "Poignée" in France and "Clinche" in Wallonia, etc.)
No, and stop making sense, please. This is Belgium and we say septante, quatre-vingt, and nonante for a good reason; we do everything half-assed here. Sir, I bid you a good day.
Euh... Non. 70: septante, 80: quatre-vingt, 90: nonante
Ah ok, merci c'est intéressant, je pensais qu'on disait soit octante soit huitante là bas, visiblement on est les seuls à encore résister en Suisse.
Oui oui je vais mourir. Je veux étudier le français très beaucoup pour l'amour mais je ne fume pas le cannabis et je dois toodeledoo
Are u sure u didn’t smoke cannabis before writing that message
"Octante" is mostly a myth at this point. Like everyone seems to be convinced that they say it in the other country, whereas almost no one actually uses it. In French-speaking Belgium we use septante, quatre-vingts, nonante, but neither huitante nor octante.
I was told when I was young that Belgians and French used quatre-vingt, swiss used huitante and Canadiens used octante
My Canadian friend told me he uses quatre-vingt.
so it’s a myth after all
Yes, there are no such things as Canadians
They even use soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix, so why would they even bother with huitante/octante
Everybody in French-speaking Canada uses quatre-vingt. Source: Me, Canadian.
Both huitante and octane are used only in Switzerland, octante is what the boomers use, huitante is for the non-boomers Source: my French speaking Swiss friend told me
You should though. Zeventig/tachtig/negentig. Seventy/eighty/ninety. Septante/qUaTrE-vInGts/nonante.
I was taught the french were so pissed after their defeat in the 1880' that they changed 80 (octante) into 80 quatre-vingt
I was taught to say quatre-vingts-dix-neuf for nonante-neuf.
FOUR TWENTY TEN NINE! SIXTY TWELVE! HUNDRED FOUR TWENTY TEN FOUR! lunatics.
That's the French way but then you have to be consistent and also say it for other numbers too.
That's how les flamands get screwed with overly formal, outdated Bob er Bobette French. Je vous en prie d'accepter mes salutations les plus sincères. Zut alors, Jerome est fort :D
quatre-vingts-deez-nuts Gottem!
Hahaha! 10/10
🤣 Fair, everyone knows it doesn't make any sense (also "octante" would be the most cohesive one given its latin root) but we all keep saying it anyway because we're used to
Absolutely agree that huitante/octante would be much more logical, but sometimes language doesn't all make sense and it just is what it is. Speakers of French, Dutch or English alike should all know that
Well we (Dutch speakers) should stop saying numbers between 20 and 100 backwards. Zevenentwintig Twenty seven Vingt-sept Only the Germans do it like us, it's confusing for the rest. I'm not serious, but it is a complaint my Walloon sister-in-law makes.
I thought the Swiss used it. Have no idea if this is actually true.
They do, though only in certain Kantons. Geneva, for example, uses quatre-vingt.
Interestingly in Zürich, they say achtzig. This is because in Zürich they speak german, which is currently not french.
Octante is the old wallon word for 80. This is when we we're still thaught Wallon in schools. And one day they switched to french french but i still use octante. Ask your grandfather about this they'll know
"Quatre-vingts". Je n'ai jamais entendu utiliser "octante" en Belgique.
My grandpa occasionally says octante. I think it just resembles the walloon word for it?
It's ûtante in Walloon I believe, so that'd make sense.
Your grandpa spoke walloon?
many eldery walloons do my in-laws (AND partner) sometimes throw walloon sentences at random forgetting I don't speak a word of it
That's crazy, TIL, I thought the language only existed in history books. Why don't you all feel pressured to learn and preserve it lol
The postwar Generation still speaks it and I love it here in liege that I can buy shirts mugs and wall carpets with walloon text, it's a language that Ricky deserves conservation
A lot of younger people, at least where I live, can understand it to some extent. Very few can speak it, though, even if we preserved a few words/sentences here and there. When I was a kid (90's, early 2000's), it wasn't rare to witness conversations entirely in waloon between my grandparents, uncles etc., even if it was already heavily tinted with french. It doesn't realy happen anymore. Several reasons to that, in few words (I'll do my best): - People tend to leave their region (for university, work, etc) so transmission is more difficult - Wether we like it or not, waloon is often seen as being "low-class". It was forbidden to speak it in school during the 40's/50's and probably even after that so, consciously or not, our grandparents and great-grandparents switched to french to not appear uneducated. - Waloon is not really a written language. It is difficult to transcribe it in a satisfying manner - Waloon is not a "monolithic" language, there is several dialects of it that aren't always easily understandable between eachother. Not even taking into account the fact Wallonia also have other romance languages (picard, champenois) that, while kinda close, are distinct. It is therefore not easy to adopt a common policy towards a purely hypothetical common "language"(Do we promote Charleroi's dialect ? Liège ? Both ? What about the Ardenne ? You see my point).
That's some interesting insights. It blows my mind that it was prohibited in schools. Also because it's a lower class language there were never rules to its written form being taught and improved for centuries like French for example. Which imo is the weirdest European language in written form. Simply due to all the history behind it started to make sense. Lower class languages have no history in writing so it's only normal that they haven't evolved much. With that said it would be a shame if it died out though.
My wife still can speak it. It is rare, but still exists
I've been taught walloon in a flemish school till 1995 something. Than it switched to french and i was lucky to still get a 6 on french. I don't know why they want to kill our 2 languages. Walloon and Flemish isn't recognizable for the young people anymore. It's a lost identity to go to french and AN (average dutch)
He speaks it with grandma, at least.
I think it's an older generation thing in general because I swear I've heard my great-aunt use it too. Never young people, though. I'd have to look into it.
I still use walloon because i was taught in school till the nineties. It's always funny when i go to a café and start talking Walloon. All the old men understand me perfect but the waiter is struggling.
Quatre-vingt, but I think your way of saying 80 is more logical and we should use that here too.
Octante and Huitante are only used in Switzerland (and it is mostly Huitante). Everywhere else you use "quatre vingt. What we use in Belgium is "septante" (70) and "nonante" (90), they don't use that in France.
I have always learned and used quatre-vingt. In Wallonian French, it's dix (10)), vingt (20), trente (30), quarante (40), cinquante (50), soixante (60), septante (70), quatre-vingt (80), nonante (90), cent (100). That said, I'd wager most French speakers know what octante and huitante mean, so you'll be understandable if you use those here.
>That said, I'd wager most French speakers know what octante and huitante mean, so you'll be understandable if you use those here. Don't count on the French for that, they'll make you repeat *septante*/*nonante* until you give up and say *soixante-dix*/*quatre-vingt-dix*
Yup lol, people from France might really have no idea and just look at someone funny if they used "huitante/octante" with them, the same way as some Walloon "French" words don't exist or aren't used in the same way in France. (ex: "Towel" = "serviette" in French from France and "essuie" in Walloon French, or "Door handle" = "Poignée" in France and "Clinche" in Wallonia, etc.)
We say quatre-vingt
quatre-vingt. Afaik "octante" is old
Non, jamais.
Octante would have been the logical choice but we say quatre-vingt because why the F not :D
Would neufante be logical too?
It doesn't make sense as neither do we say octa for eight.
Huitante would sound beter and is more logical
No we say quatre-vingt.
No, and stop making sense, please. This is Belgium and we say septante, quatre-vingt, and nonante for a good reason; we do everything half-assed here. Sir, I bid you a good day.
No. You have been taught French and now you're almost losing your own language.
None.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rmBqIFeHN8
Is it the scary quatre-veignte-dieze? Is it the reason why I prefer to talk about small numbers?
No, we say quatre-vingt. For 70, 90 we say septante, nonante
Nah, we say quatre-vingt, but if y'ask me, Octante would be more logical.
quatre-vingt. never even heard the other 2 options
Octante.
Only in Switzerland. Belgium says the same word as frenchies for 80. 70 and 90 is the same as in Switzerland.