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An original configuration: the French-Flemish-Picard linguistic triangle in Roubaix at the start of the 20th century At the end of the 19th century, Roubaix, a mainly Picard speaking town, experienced a massive influx of Flemish workers coming to work in the textile plants. The assimilation of their Dutch dialects into French could only take place through the medium of Picard. It is precisely this phenomenon that twenty or so 'Roubaignos', who lived or witnessed it personally, describe here. The document allows us to unravel the imbroglio of the linguistic terminology of the time ('belge', 'flamand', 'wallon'), to grasp the present Flemish elements remaining, and to comprehend the dynamics of the process of 'Frenchization' in situ. Two phenomena, that oppose the commonly accepted dogma, are to be noted: the considerable vitality of Picard even after the First World War, and the minor but subtle role played by the State school.