Nord (French depairtment)

Location o Nord in Fraunce

Nord (French pronunciation: [nɔʁ]; Inglis: North) is a depairtment in the far north o Fraunce. It wis creatit frae the wastren halves o the historical coonties o Flanders an Hainaut (the eastren halves being in Belgium), an the Bishopric o Cambrai. The modren coat o airms wis inheritit frae the Coonty o Flanders. Nord is the anerlie French département in which a Dutch dialect (French Flemish) is spoken alang wi French as a native leid. It is the kintra's maist muckle depairtment.

History

Nord wis ane o the oreeginal 83 depairtments that wur creatit durin the French Revolution on 4 Mairch 1790. It wis made up o three regions: the Coonties o Flanders an Hainaut, an the Bishopric o Cambrai, which wur cedit tae Fraunce in successive treaties (1659, 1668, an 1678).

Extent o Dutch spoken in the arrondissement o Dunkirk, 1874 an 1972

Durin the 4t an 5t centuries, the Roman practice o cooptin Germanic tribes tae provide military an defense services alang the route frae Boulogne tae Cologne creatit a Germanic-Romance linguistic border in the region that persistit till the 8t century. Saxon colonization intae the region frae the 5t tae the 8t centuries likely extendit the linguistic border somewha sooth so that bi the 9t century maist inhabitants north o Lille spoke a dialect o Middle Dutch, while the inhabitants tae the sooth spoke a variety o Romance dialects. This linguistic border is still evident the day in the place names o the region. Efter the 9t century, the linguistic border began tae shift north an east, a process acceleratit bi modren govrenment policies that recognize French as the kintra's offeecial leid. There are currently 20,000 speakers o a subset o the Dutch dialect Wast Flemish in the arrondissement o Dunkirk an this pairticular subset is in danger o extinction athin decades.

Geography

Nord is pairt o the current Nord-Pas-de-Calais region an is surroondit bi the French depairtments o Pas-de-Calais an Aisne, as well as bi Belgium an the North Sea.

Situatit in the north o the kintra alang the wastren hauf o the Belgian frontier, the depairtment is unuisually lang an narrae. Its principal ceety is Lille, which wi nearbi Roubaix, Tourcoing an Villeneuve d'Ascq constitutes the center o a cluster o industrial an umwhile minin touns totalling slichtly ower a million inhabitants. Ither important ceeties are Valenciennes, Douai, an Dunkirk. The principal rivers are the follaein:

• Yser
• Lys
• Escaut
• Scarpe
• Sambre

Economy

At the forefront o Fraunce's 19t century industrialisation, the aurie suffered severely durin Warld War I an nou faces the economic, social an environmental problems associatit wi the decline o coal minin wi its neighbours follaein the earlier decline o the Lille-Roubaix textile industry.

Till recently, the depairtment wis dominatit economically bi coal minin, which extendit through the hert o the depairtment frae neighbourin Artois intae central Belgium.

Demographics

Nord is the maist hivily populatit depairtment, wi a population o 2,583,493 an an aurie o 5,743 km².

Politics

The Preses o the General Cooncil is the Socialist Bernard Derosier.

See an aw

• Cantons o the Nord depairtment
• Communes o the Nord depairtment
• Arrondissements o the Nord depairtment (Fraunce)
• French Flemish
• Université Lille Nord de France

References

• INSEE

Freemit airtins

• (French) Prefectur wabsteid
• (French) General Cooncil wabsteid
• (Inglis) Nord (French depairtment) at the Open Directory Project