In 2004, the famous magnifying glass at the beginning of Asterix albums was focused for the first time on the Northern plains of Gaul. The scene was set: Astérix i rinte à l'école (Asterix and the Class Act), the first Asterix album translated into Picard, was a "must read" for all lovers of Picard! This language, spoken across a vast region of 6 million inhabitants, including all or parts of Picardie, Nord-Pas-de-Calais (where it is incorrectly referred to as "chti", "chtimi" or the Northern patois) and the Hainaut region in Belgium, truly deserved to have a Asterix album translated. After all, it's the language spoken in large parts of the former Belgian Gaul, whose inhabitants Caesar so dreaded…

Picard, like any "natural" language, varies from village to village: there is no "standard" Picard. As such, how could one go about creating a "Picard" translation which would please people from Amiens to Lille, and from Tournai to Saint Quentin?

Variations aside, the common vocabulary base shared by Picard speakers is stable enough to unite all Picard natives and to understand each other to a large extent.
The Asterix and the Class Act album was particularly well-suited to this exercise, since it comprises 14 stories, and so the translations could alternate between Northern Picard (alias "chtimi") and Southern Picard.

An unexpected bestseller in 2004, Astérix i rinte à l'école was a huge success! Consequently, Editions Albert René published a new Asterix album in Picard in 2007: Ch'Village copè in II. In a similar way, the Asterix and Great Divide album allows several forms of Picard to be used alternately: Asterix and his friends speak a form like that spoken in Ponthieu and Vimeu, Amiens or Santerre; in fact, their village is located near the sea and a Roman camp called "Bedsum" (Baie de Somme)! With its northern location, the village separated in two by the great divide speaks a form like that spoken in Artois and the French Flanders. The Roman soldiers stationed nearby the village have adopted the local accent, but they speak with some "rouchi" twang from Hainaut and Valenciennes. Each group of characters has their own way of speaking, making Ch'Village copè in II the essential Picard album!

As a bonus, each Asterix album in Picard offers a glossary in French so that you can sample the explanations behind the juiciest translations. To sum up, Asterix albums in Picard are a guaranteed good goblet of Picard magic potion!

For more information on Asterix albums in Picard, go to the blog Astérix en Picard.

Asterix in Picard: an analysis of character names by Exlibris

English Picard - Ch'ti Asterix Asterix Obelix Obelix Vitalstatistix Groultoudix Impedimenta Boénemine Getafix Panoramix Unhygienix Pichonnix Caesar César Melodrama et Histrionix Zulmine and Fonsix Translations of the lovers' names in The Great Divide are pay tribute to Alphonse and Zulma, heroes created by the poet Léopold Simons, a famous author writing in Picard Codfix Pichonporix The evil Codfix has been given a particularly "fragrant" name in Picard, in reference to his smoked herring head and his body odour. Cumulonimbus Viendonboirénegoutedjus The Roman centurion takes his name from Edmond Tanière's song, Eune goutte ed jus !