Picard language in the context of "Hauts-de-France"

Francien (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃sjɛ̃]), also anglicized as Francian (/ˈfrænsiən/), is a 19th-century term in linguistics that was applied to the French dialect that was spoken during the Middle Ages in the regions of Île-de-France (with Paris at its centre), Orléanais, as well as Touraine, Berry, and Bourbonnais before the establishment of the French language as a standard language.

According to one theory of the development of French, Francien was chosen out of all the competing oïl languages as an official language (Norman and Picard being the main competitors in the medieval period). The theory currently prevailing, however, is that Francien was one of the dialects in the dialect continuum on top of which an administrative language, untrammeled by perceived regionalisms, was imposed as a compromise means of communication and record to replace Latin.

Old French (franceis, françois, romanz; French: ancien français [ɑ̃sjɛ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛ]) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th and mid-14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a group of Romance dialects, mutually intelligible yet diverse. These dialects came to be collectively known as the langues d'oïl, contrasting with the langues d'oc, the emerging Occitano-Romance languages of Occitania, now Southern France.

The mid-14th century witnessed the emergence of Middle French, the language of the French Renaissance in the Île-de-France region; this dialect was a predecessor to Modern French. Other dialects of Old French evolved themselves into modern forms (Poitevin-Saintongeais, Gallo, Norman, Picard, Walloon, etc.), each with its linguistic features and history.

Norman or Norman French (Normaund, French: Normand [nɔʁmɑ̃] , Guernésiais: Normand, Jèrriais: Nouormand) is a langue d'oïl spoken in the historical and cultural region of Normandy.

The name "Norman French" is sometimes also used to describe the administrative languages of Anglo-Norman and Law French used in England. For the most part, the written forms of Norman and modern French are mutually intelligible. The thirteenth-century philosopher Roger Bacon was the first to distinguish it along with other dialects such as Picard and Bourguignon.

Boulogne-sur-Mer (French: [bulɔɲ syʁ mɛʁ] ; Picard: Boulonne-su-Mér; Dutch: Bonen; Latin: Gesoriacum or Bononia), often called just Boulogne (UK: /bʊˈlɔɪn/, US: /buːˈloʊn, buːˈlɔɪn/), is a port city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the Côte d'Opale, a touristic stretch of French coast on the English Channel between Calais and Normandy, and the most visited location in the region after the Lille conurbation. Boulogne is its department's second-largest city after Calais, and the 183rd-largest in France. It is also the country's largest fishing port, specialising in herring.

Boulogne is an ancient town and was the main Roman port for trade and communication with its Province of Britain. After a period of Germanic presence following the collapse of the Empire, Boulogne was integrated into the County of Boulogne of the Kingdom of France during the Middle Ages. It was occupied by the Kingdom of England numerous times due to conflict between the two nations. In 1805 it was a staging area for Napoleon's troops for several months during his planned invasion of the United Kingdom.

French Flanders (French: Flandre française [flɑ̃dʁ(ə) fʁɑ̃sɛːz]; Dutch: Frans-Vlaanderen; West Flemish: Frans-Vloandern) is a historical and cultural region of France. it was historically part of the historical County of Flanders, now Flanders In Belgium where Flemish—a Low Franconian dialect cluster of Dutch—was (and to some extent, still is) traditionally spoken along with Roman Flemish, typically referred to as a French dialect (also called Ch’ti or, most commonly, Picard). The region lies in the modern-day northern French region of Hauts-de-France, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai and Dunkirk on the northern border with Belgium. Together, with French Hainaut and Cambrésis, it makes up the French Department of Nord.

Lille (/ˈliːl/, LEEL; French: [lil] ; Dutch: Rijsel [ˈrɛisəl] ; Picard: Lile; West Flemish: Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the Nord department, and the main city of the European Metropolis of Lille.

The city of Lille proper had a population of 236,234 in 2020 within its small municipal territory of 35 km (14 sq mi), but together with its French suburbs and exurbs the Lille metropolitan area (French part only), which extends over 1,666 km (643 sq mi), had a population of 1,515,061 that same year (January 2020 census), the fourth most populated in France after Paris, Lyon, and Marseille. The city of Lille and 94 suburban French municipalities have formed since 2015 the European Metropolis of Lille, an indirectly elected metropolitan authority now in charge of wider metropolitan issues, with a population of 1,182,250 at the January 2020 census.

Frameries (French pronunciation: [fʁam(ə)ʁi]; Picard: Framrie; Walloon: Framriye) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

The municipality consists of the following districts: Eugies, Frameries, La Bouverie, Noirchain, and Sars-la-Bruyère.

Soignies (French pronunciation: [swaɲi] ; Dutch: Zinnik, pronounced [ˈzɪnɪk]; Picard: Sougniye; Walloon: Sougniye) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.

It consists of the following districts: Casteau, Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Naast, Neufvilles, Soignies and Thieusies. Casteau is known worldwide because SHAPE, the military headquarters of NATO, has been based at the village since 1967.