I am a Belgian American, and Walloon is a language that is deeply woven into my family's history. My immediate ancestors spoke Walloon fluently, and it's heartbreaking to see that there are now less than 25 speakers in Wisconsin. This beautiful language, rich in culture and history, is endangered and needs our support to survive.  The situation isn't much better in Belgium itself.  

Despite the ongoing efforts of many communities to keep Walloon alive, we face a significant challenge: Google's infrastructure doesn't even recognize Walloon as a subtitle language on platforms like YouTube. This omission severely hampers educational and preservation efforts. In a world dominated by technology, this language deserves a chance to thrive online as much as any other.  

What I am doing is creating content in spoken Walloon so you start absorbing it naturally — almost like how you learned your first language.  It's the immersion through media, subtitles approach.  I manually create the subtitles.  I am not asking for translation support.  Just to be able to label them as Walloon.   Right now I am selecting French (Belgian).... which doesn't even seem like a real classification. Walloon has its own ISO language code, but they do not acknowledge it..  Perhaps they should stop using Belgium's top level domain .be as part of their Youtube URL shortener if they they cannot support this language.

Incorporating Walloon subtitles on Google platforms will not only aid in its preservation but also revive interest among younger generations. By recognizing Walloon formally, Google can provide a crucial platform for educators, creators, and enthusiasts to develop and share content in this language.

It's imperative that Google acknowledges its global influence and responsibility to support the preservation of endangered languages. We call on Google to take a stand and give Walloon its rightful place among language options.

I am not requesting transcription or translation help.   Just the ability to label the subtitles I manually create the language that they are.  There is no "other".. I have to intentionally mislabel it by selecting one of the other language choices, and that doesn't sit well with me. 

It appears Google supports 123 languages as subtitle options on Youtube. There are 183 registered under ISO-639-1.

What is disturbingly strange is that for example; Haitian Creole (ht) was registered (February 26, 2003) after Walloon (January 29, 2002) and is supported.  Limburgish (li) is another that is unrepresented (August 2, 2002), yet it even is supported in their translate tool.

Going the google feedback route hasn't worked so far.  Please sign my petition if supporting endangered languages is important to you. Maybe this will get their attention.

--Update Nov 12, 2005-

I had reached out to Kelly Biers, Associate Professor of French, who has been working on Wisconsin Walloon language preservation.  Also to endangeredlanguages.com, who put me in touch with Craig Cornelius, on Google's Internationalization team.  In addition, the service for indigenous regional languages in Belgium.  I made several social media posts, one lead to contact from Andreas Simons a researcher at Maastricht University.  A special thanks to him as I believe it was he who was the largest advocate to get this changed and resolved.  Thank you.

My youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WI-Walloon-Immersion/playlists