Languages of Belgium
In addition to the three official languages, others are spoken in Belgium, like in Wallonia, where French became dominant only relatively recently. Sometimes seen as dialects, the varieties related to French have been recognized by the French Community as separate languages ("", ‘regional native languages’) since 1990, without, however, taking any further significant measures to support those varieties.
Belgium in &quot;the long nineteenth century&quot;
In Brussels, situated in a predominantly Dutch-speaking area, 38 percent spoke French in 1842 while 61 percent spoke Dutch; many residents spoke dialects such as Marols instead of the standard languages. By the end of the period, social change and internal immigration from Wallonia contributed to the growing importance of French in Brussels.