{{Short description|Traditional dialect spoken in Brussels, Belgium}} {{redirect|Marols|the town in France|Marols, Loire}} {{Use British English|date=March 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox language | name = Marollian | nativename = {{unbulleted list|{{native name|fr|Marollien}}|{{native name|nl|Marols}}}} | states = Belgium, specifically Brussels | speakers = ? | familycolor = Indo-European | fam2 = French and Dutch | fam3 = Belgian French, Picard and Flemish Brusselian | fam4 = | fam5 = | fam6 = | fam7 = | fam8 = | fam9 = | ietf = | glotto = | glottoname = | iso3 = none | script = Latin script | minority = Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium<ref name=":3" /> | agency = | coordinates = {{coord|50|50|48.05|N|4|21|9|E}} | pushpin_map = Belgium Brussels | lingua = }}
'''Marollian''' ({{langx|fr|Marollien}}; {{langx|nl|Marols}}) is a traditional dialect native to Brussels, Belgium, sometimes considered by some speakers and linguists as a distinct variety of Brusselian.<ref name="Jeanine Treffers-Daller 1994"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=De Vriendt |first=Sera |last2=de Keyser |first2=Jef |last3=Doms |first3=Raymond |last4=Depoorter |first4=Raymond |last5=de Schrijver |first5=Marcel |date= |title=Brussels |url=https://www.dbnl.org/titels/titel.php?id=vrie005brus01 |access-date=2026-02-27 |publisher=Lannoo |language=nl |isbn=90-209-5857-7|via=Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren|trans-title=Brusselian|editor-last=van der Sijs|editor-first=Nicoline|year=2004|editor-link=Nicoline van der Sijs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260228135423/https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vrie005brus01_01/|archive-date=2026-02-28|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Aron|first=Paul|title=L'invention du marollien littéraire|language=fr|journal=Le Carnet et les Instants|volume=186|date=June 2015|url=https://www.revues.be/le-carnet-et-les-instants/89-le-carnet-et-les-instants-186/167-l-invention-du-marollien-litteraire}}</ref> A mixture of French, Picard and Flemish Brusselian,<ref name=":3" /> it was widely spoken in the Marolles/Marollen neighbourhood of the City of Brussels, from which it takes its name, until the 20th century.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=71}} It still survives among a small minority of inhabitants called ''Brusseleers''{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=71}} (or ''Brusseleirs''), many of them quite bi- and multilingual in French and Dutch.<ref name="winkler">{{cite web |url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/wink007alge02/wink007alge02_067.htm |title=De stad Brussel |author=Johan Winkler |year=1874 |work=Algemeen Nederduitsch en Friesch Dialecticon |pages=264–272 |publisher=Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren |access-date=2009-01-16 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050107203912/http://dbnl.org/tekst/wink007alge02/wink007alge02_067.htm |archive-date = January 7, 2005|language=nl}}</ref><ref name="treffers">{{Cite book |last=Treffers-Daller |first=Jeanine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o6ikOOwhKR4C |title=Mixing Two Languages: French-Dutch Contact in a Comparative Perspective |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=1994 |isbn=3110138379 |pages=300 |access-date=2013-04-26}}</ref>
==Toponymy== The toponyms ''{{lang|nl-BE|Marols}}'' in Dutch or ''{{lang|nl-BE|Marollien}}'' in French refer to the Marolles/Marollen, a neighbourhood of the City of Brussels, near the Palace of Justice, which itself takes its name from the former abbey of the Apostoline sisters, a religious group based in this area during the Middle Ages (from {{lang|la|Mariam Colentes}} in Latin ("those who honour the Virgin Mary"), later contracted to {{lang|fr|Maricolles}}/{{lang|nl|Marikollen}}, and finally {{lang|fr|Marolles}}/{{lang|nl|Marollen}}). Historically a working class neighbourhood, it has subsequently become a fashionable part of the city.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=71}}
==Description== [[File:1939 les Marolles derrière le Palais de Justice dessin par Léon van Dievoet 13 juillet 1939.JPG|thumb|Sketch of the Marolles/Marollen in 1939 by Léon van Dievoet]]
There is a dispute and confusion about the meaning of Marollian, which many consider to be a neighbourhood jargon distinct from a larger Brusselian dialect, while others use the term as an overarching substitute for that citywide dialect.<ref name="Jeanine Treffers-Daller 1994">Jeanine Treffers-Daller, ''Mixing Two Languages: French-Dutch Contact in a Comparative Perspective'' (Walter de Gruyter, 1994), 25.</ref> It is a triple language based on a mixture of French and Picard, incorporating vocabulary and expressions from Flemish Brusselian.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Les parlers bruxellois — Patrimoine - Erfgoed |url=https://patrimoine.brussels/fr/decouvrir/inventaires-du-patrimoine-bruxellois/inventaire-du-patrimoine-culturel-immateriel/les-parlers-bruxellois?set_language=fr |access-date=2026-03-02 |website=patrimoine.brussels}}</ref> According to Jeanine Treffers-Daller, "the dialect has a tremendous prestige and a lot of myths are doing the rounds."<ref name="Jeanine Treffers-Daller 1994"/>
{{Quotation|If you ask ten Brusselers what "Marollien" is, you get ten different answers. For some people it is French contaminated by Flemish and spoken in the neighborhood of the rue Haute and the rue Blaes, whereas for others it is Frenchified Flemish. Still others say that it is a vernacular variety of French, spoken in the whole city, etc., etc. Marollien, however, is exceptional if not unique, because it is a double language. In fact it is not between the germanic and romance languages, it is both.|Jacques Pohl, 1953|<ref>Quoted Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Mixing Two Languages: French-Dutch Contact in a Comparative Perspective (Walter de Gruyter, 1994), 25.</ref>}}
Marollian is described as "totally indecipherable to the foreigner (which covers everyone not born in the Marolles), which is probably a good thing as it is richly abusive."{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=71}}
==References==
===Citations=== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== * {{cite journal|last=Baerten|first=Jean|title=Le français à Bruxelles au Moyen-Âge. Une mise en garde|journal=Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire|volume=60|number=4|location=Brussels|language=fr|year=1982|pages=887–897 |doi=10.3406/rbph.1982.3399 }} * {{cite book|last=De Vriendt|first=Sera|title=Grammatica van het Brussels|location=Ghent|language=nl|publisher=Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde|year=2003|isbn=978-90-72474-51-3}} * {{cite book|last=Evans|first=Mary Anne|title=Frommer's Brussels and Bruges Day by Day. First Edition|location=Hoboken|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2008|isbn=978-0-470-72321-0}} * {{cite encyclopedia|last=State|first=Paul F.|title=Historical dictionary of Brussels|volume=14|series=Historical dictionaries of cities of the world|location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-8108-5075-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LErne3-05qoC}}
Category:French-language dialects Category:Culture in Brussels Category:Languages of Belgium Category:City colloquials Category:Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Brussels