aiwe/ ADDENDA: brittonic celtic afon /avon/, aven << abona = river (I-E root akw-, ap- ?)
There are two words:
1. "aiwe", from Latin "aqua";
2. the P-Celtic word.
spitter : to spatter, to splatter, to splash
From "ex"+"pede(m)". Several words of the same family: "piter", "copiter". The first meaning of "spiter" is "to kick".
There are, indeed, LOTS of Germanic words in Walloon. And the fact that the adjective is normally before the noun. One of the 3 types of Genitive is also common with English and Flemish. The "viebes ? spitron" are like in Flemish, German, and Lombard. Also the use of the present continuous, like in English. Some notions are to be translated word for word from the Germanic languages, ex.: "dji vs voe volt?" = "'k zie u gaarne". From all the Romance laguages, Walloon is indeed the one where the Germanic adstrate is the largest.
Actually, Walloon is a very uneven language. I was born near Mons and our dialect there is clearly Picard-related. I have also spent some time in Liege and found it very difficult to understand their dialect, sometimes it was chinese to me.
First, Picard is NOT Walloon. Now, as for the Lidjeu dialect, once you know for what stands each /h/, it's easy. In fact, "h", "sch", "xh", and "jh" are all pronounced the same there. Sometimes they create homophones ("schaper", to save VS "haper", to steal/grab). Now half of their /?:/ are Latin "-osus" and "-orem"; the other half are "e".
There are Walloon features that can be found in other Romance languages, such as:
- the coordination conjunctions "si" & "?yet", meaning "and", both also in Romanian;
- double present perfect, also in Breton and Romanian;
- no concording of the tenses ("si dj' ?reu sepou, dji n' ?reu n?n mnou");
- verb "to have" for the present perfect, always, like is Spanish ("dji m' a lav?, il a morou");
- a substantivation of the infinitive, similar to the one in Romanian;
- indefinite pronouns like in Romansh ("sacw?, sak?, sawou...");
- a combination of the singural and plural ("dj' avans rcin?, dj' ans rcin?");
- short forms: avans=ans, avoz=oz, like in Catalan;
- plural feminine adjectives ending in "-?s": "des spess?s covietes" etc.
There are also some of the consonants mutations of the Celtic, which are also found in some Italian dialects.
There are still grammar features in Walloon that puzzle me as to their origins:
1. The use of the infinitive in a sentence, after coordination. Ex.: "Vaici on c?ze et mougn? walon" ("Here we eat Walloon, and we speak Walloon"); "Dji tchante et esse bea" ("I sing and am beautiful").
2. The use of the Semitic genitive ("li live li Dj?r, l'Evandj?le Sint-Djhan").
