The Picard Language (aka Ch'ti) is an endangered language spoken in the northernmost of France and parts of Hainaut province in Belgium by about 700,000 people. The language is referred to by different names, as residents of Picardy call it simply Picard, but in the more populated region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais it is called Ch'ti or Ch'timi (sometimes written as Chti or Chtimi).

Picard has a number of closely related dialects which are all more or less mutually intelligible. They differ to some extent in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar, and some have separate literary traditions.

Picard is not taught in French schools (apart from a few one-off and isolated courses) and is generally only spoken among friends or family members. In its daily use, Picard is tending to lose its distinctive features and may be confused with regional French. At the same time, even though most Northerners can understand Picard today, fewer and fewer are able to speak it, and people who speak Picard as their first language are increasingly rare, particularly under 50.

Picard is officially recognized in Belgium as a indigenous regional language. It is also recognized by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages. In France it has no offical recognition.

Picard was widely used as a literary language during the medieval period. There is also some modern literature in Picard, however there is no written standard and writers tend to transcribe how they speak the language. In the universities where Picard is studied, the favoured orthography is known as Feller-Carton, which is based on Jules Feller's spelling system for Walloon, and adapted for Picard by Professor Fernand Carton.

Sources: Wikipedia
Omniglot