The area where Luxembourgish (pale indigo) and other dialects ofMoselle Franconian (medium indigo) are spoken. The internalisogloss for words meaning "on, at", i.e.op andof, is also shown (Standard German:auf).
The language is standardized and officially the national language of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. As such, Luxembourgish is different from theGerman language also used in the Grand Duchy. The German language exists in a national standard variety of Luxembourg, which is slightly different from the standard varieties inGermany,Austria andSwitzerland. Another important language of Luxembourg is French, which had a certain influence on both the national language, Luxembourgish, and the Luxembourg national variety of German. Luxembourgish, German and French are the three official languages(Amtssprachen) of Luxembourg.
Luxembourgish was considered a German dialect like many others until aboutWorld War II but then the language underwentausbau, creating its own standard form in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling and therefore is seen today as an independent language. Luxembourgish managed to gain linguistic autonomy against a vigorousOne Standard German Axiom by being framed as an independent language with a name rather than as a nationalpluricentric standard variety of German.[citation needed]
As Luxembourgish has a maximum of some 285,000[9] native speakers, resources in the language, like books, newspapers, magazines, television, internet, etc., are limited. Since most Luxembourgers also speak Standard German and French, there is strong competition with these languages, which both have large language resources.[citation needed] Because of this, the use of Luxembourgish remains limited.
Sign in Luxembourgish indicating the way to walk through a shop during theCOVID-19 pandemicSign in French and Luxembourgish (initalic) in a supermarket. Items labeled in Standard German and French are displayed.
Luxembourgish is considered thenational language of Luxembourg and also one of the three administrative languages, alongsideGerman andFrench.[13][14]
In Luxembourg, 77% of residents can speak Luxembourgish,[15] and it is the primary language of 48% of the population.[16] It is also spoken in theArelerland region ofBelgium (part of theProvince of Luxembourg) and in small parts ofLorraine inFrance.
In theGermanEifel and Hunsrück regions, similar localMoselle Franconian dialects of German are spoken. The language is also spoken by a few descendants of Luxembourg immigrants in theUnited States andCanada.
Moselle Franconian dialects outside the Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loanwords, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution.
The political party that places the greatest importance on promoting, using and preserving Luxembourgish is theAlternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) and its electoral success in the1999 election pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion fornaturalisation.[17][18] It is currently also the only political party in Luxembourg that wishes to implement written laws also in Luxembourgish and that wants Luxembourgish to be an officially recognizedlanguage of the European Union.[19][20] In this context, in 2005, then-Deputy Prime MinisterJean Asselborn of theLSAP rejected a demand made by the ADR to make Luxembourgish an official language of the EU, citing financial reasons and the sufficiency of officialGerman andFrench.[21] A similar proposal by the ADR was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024.[22]
There are several distinct dialect forms of Luxembourgish including Areler (fromArlon), Eechternoacher (Echternach), Dikrecher (Diekirch), Kliärrwer (Clervaux), Miseler (Moselle), Stater (Luxembourg City), Veiner (Vianden), Minetter (Southwest Luxembourg) and Weelzer (Wiltz). Further small vocabulary differences may be seen even between small villages. These varieties are grouped into North, East, South, and Center dialects which can be automatically categorised with a correctness of about 80%.[23]
Increasing mobility of the population and the dissemination of the language through mass media such as radio and television are leading to a gradual standardisation towards a "Standard Luxembourgish" through the process ofkoineization.[24]
There is no distinct geographic boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects (for example,Lorraine Franconian); it instead forms adialect continuum of gradual change.
Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are generally not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects (or at least otherWest Central German dialects). They can usually read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is relatively easy to understand and speak Luxembourgish as far as the everyday vocabulary is concerned.[24] The large number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics or with certain speakers (those who use many terms taken from French).
A number of proposals for standardising theorthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, going back to the middle of the 19th century. There was no officially recognised system until the adoption of the "OLO" (ofizjel lezebuurjer ortografi) on 5 June 1946.[25] This orthography provided a system for speakers of all varieties of Luxembourgish to transcribe words the way they pronounced them, rather than imposing a single, standard spelling for the words of the language. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography (e.g., the use of⟨ä⟩ and⟨ö⟩,[26] the capitalisation of nouns). Similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords.
This proposed orthography, so different from existing "foreign" standards that people were already familiar with, did not enjoy widespread approval.
A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating theLuxemburger Wörterbuch, published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this decades-long project, set out in Bruch (1955), provided the basis of the standard orthography that became official on 10 October 1975.[27] Modifications to this standard were proposed by thePermanent Council of the Luxembourguish language and adopted officially in the spelling reform of 30 July 1999.[28] A detailed explanation of current practice for Luxembourgish can be found in Schanen & Lulling (2003).
The Luxembourgish alphabet consists of the26 Latin letters plus three letters with diacritics:⟨é⟩,⟨ä⟩, and⟨ë⟩. Inloanwords from French and Standard German, other diacritics are usually preserved:
French:Boîte,Enquête,Piqûre, etc.
German:blöd,Bühn (from GermanBühne), etc.
In German loanwords, the digraphs ⟨eu⟩ and ⟨äu⟩ indicate the diphthong/oɪ/, which does not appear in native words.
Like many other varieties of Western High German, Luxembourgish has a rule of finaln-deletion in certain contexts. The effects of this rule (known as the "Eifel Rule") are indicated in writing, and therefore must be taken into account when spelling words and morphemes ending in⟨n⟩ or⟨nn⟩. For example:
wann ech ginn "when I go", butwa mer ginn "when we go"
/p͡f/ occurs only in loanwords from Standard German.[30] Just as for many native speakers of Standard German, it tends to be simplified to[f] word-initially. For example,Pflicht ('obligation') is realised as[fliɕt] or, in careful speech,[p͡fliɕt].
/v/ is realised as[w] when it occurs after/k,t͡s,ʃ/, e.g.zwee[t͡sweː] ('two').[31]
/d͡z/ appears only in a few words, such asspadséieren/ʃpɑˈd͡zəɪ̯eʀen/ ('to go for a walk').[30]
/χ,ʁ/ have two types of allophones:alveolo-palatal[ɕ,ʑ] and uvular[χ,ʁ]. The latter occur before back vowels, and the former occur in all other positions.[32]
The[ʑ] allophone appears only in a few words, and speakers increasingly fail to distinguish between the alveolo-palatal allophones of/χ,ʁ/ and the postalveolar phonemes/ʃ,ʒ/.[33]
Younger speakers tend to vocalize a word-final/ʀ/ to[ɐ].[32]
The front rounded vowels/y,yː,øː,œ,œː/ appear only in loanwords from French and Standard German. In loanwords from French, nasal/õː,ɛ̃ː,ɑ̃ː/ also occur.[30]
/e/ has two allophones:
Before velars: close-mid front unrounded[e],[34][35] which, for some speakers, may be open-mid[ɛ], especially before/ʀ/. The same variation in height applies to/o/, which may be as open as[ɔ].[34]
All other positions: mid central vowel, more often slightly rounded[ə̹] than unrounded[ə̜].[34]
Phonetically, the long mid vowels/eː,oː/ are raised close-mid (near-close)[e̝ː,o̝ː] and may even overlap with/iː,uː/.[34]
/oɪ/ appears only in loanwords from Standard German.[30]
The first elements of/æːɪ,æːʊ/ may be phonetically short[æ] in fast speech or in unstressed syllables.[36]
The/æːɪ–ɑɪ/ and/æːʊ–ɑʊ/ contrasts arose from the former lexical tone contrast; the shorter/ɑɪ,ɑʊ/ were used in words with Accent 1, and the lengthened/æːɪ,æːʊ/ were used in words with Accent 2.[37]
Luxembourgish has threegenders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and threecases (nominative,accusative, anddative). These are marked morphologically ondeterminers andpronouns. As in German, there is no morphological gender distinction in the plural.
The forms of the articles and of some selected determiners are given below:
nominative/accusative
singular
plural
masculine
neuter
feminine
definite
den
d'
def. emphatic
deen
dat
déi
demonstrative
dësen
dëst
dës
indefinite
en
eng
(eng)
negative
keen
keng
"his/its"
säin
seng
"her/their"
hiren
hiert
hir
dative
singular
plural
masculine
neuter
feminine
definite
dem
der
den
def. emphatic
deem
där
deenen
demonstrative
dësem
dëser
dësen
indefinite
engem
enger
(engen)
negative
kengem
kenger
kengen
"his/its"
sengem
senger
sengen
"her/their"
hirem
hirer
hiren
As seen above, Luxembourgish has plural forms ofen ("a, an"), namelyeng in the nominative/accusative andengen in the dative. They are not used as indefinite articles, which—as in German and English—do not exist in the plural, but they do occur in the compound pronounswéi en ("what, which") andsou en ("such"). For example:wéi eng Saachen ("what things");sou eng Saachen ("such things"). Moreover, they are used before numbers to express an estimation:eng 30.000 Spectateuren ("some 30,000 spectators").
Distinct nominative forms survive in a few nominal phrases such asder Däiwel ("the devil") andeiser Herrgott ("our Lord"). Rare examples of the genitive are also found:Enn des Mounts ("end of the month"),Ufanks der Woch ("at the beginning of the week"). The functions of the genitive are normally expressed using a combination of the dative and a possessive determiner: e.g.dem Mann säi Buch (lit. "to the man his book", i.e. "the man's book"). This is known as aperiphrastic genitive, and is a phenomenon also commonly seen in dialectal and colloquial German, and in Dutch.
The forms of the personal pronouns are given in the following table (unstressed forms appear in parentheses):
nominative
accusative
dative
1sg
ech
mech
mir (mer)
2sg
du (de)
dech
dir (der)
3sgm
hien (en)
him (em)
3sgn
hatt (et)
3sgf
si (se)
hir (er)
1pl
mir (mer)
äis /eis
2pl
dir (der)
iech
3pl
si (se)
hinnen (en)
The 2pl form is also used as a polite singular (like Frenchvous, seeT-V distinction); the forms are capitalised in writing:
Wéi hues 'du' de Concert fonnt? ("How did you [informal sg.] like the concert?")
Wéi huttdir de Concert fonnt? ("How did you [informal pl.] like the concert?")
Wéi huttDir de Concert fonnt? ("How did you [formal sg. or pl.] like the concert?")
Like most varieties of colloquial German, but even more invariably, Luxembourgish uses definite articles with personal names. They are obligatory and not to be translated:
De Serge ass an der Kichen. ("Serge is in the kitchen.")
A feature Luxembourgish shares with only some western dialects of German is that women and girls are most often referred to with forms of theneuter pronounhatt:
Dat ass d'Nathalie.Hatt ass midd, wellet vill asengem Gaart geschafft huet. ("That's Nathalie. She is tired because she has worked a lot in her garden.")
Adjectives show a different morphological behaviour when usedattributively andpredicatively. In predicative use, e.g. when they occur with verbs likesinn ("to be"), adjectives receive no extra ending:
De Mann ass grouss. (masculine, "The man is tall.")
D'Fra ass grouss. (feminine, "The woman is tall.")
D'Meedchen ass grouss. (neuter, "The girl is tall.")
D'Kanner si grouss. (plural, "The children are tall.")
In attributive use, i.e. when placed before the noun they describe, they change their ending according to the grammatical gender, number and case of the noun:
de grousse Mann (masculine)
déi grouss Fra (feminine)
dat grousst Meedchen (neuter)
déi grouss Kanner (plural)
The definite article changes with the use of an attributive adjective: feminined' goes todéi (ordi), neuterd' goes todat, and plurald' changes todéi.
Thecomparative in Luxembourgish is formed analytically, i.e. the adjective itself is not altered (compare the use of -er in German and English;tall →taller,klein →kleiner). Instead it is formed using the adverbméi: e.g.schéin →méi schéin
Lëtzebuerg ass méi schéi wéi Esch. ("Luxembourg is prettier than Esch.")
Thesuperlative involves a synthetic form consisting of the adjective and the suffix-st: e.g.schéin →schéinst (compare Germanschönst, Englishprettiest). Attributive modification requires the emphatic definite article and the inflected superlative adjective:
dee schéinste Mann ("the most handsome man")
déi schéinst Fra ("the prettiest woman")
Predicative modification uses either the same adjectival structure or the adverbial structuream+ -sten: e.g.schéin →am schéinsten:
Lëtzebuerg ass dee schéinsten / deen allerschéinsten / am schéinsten. ("Luxembourg is the most beautiful (of all).")
Some common adjectives have exceptional comparative and superlative forms:
gutt, besser, am beschten ("good, better, best")
vill, méi, am meeschten ("much, more, most")
wéineg, manner, am mannsten ("few, fewer, fewest")
Several other adjectives also have comparative forms, not commonly used as normal comparatives, but in special senses:
al ("old") →eeler Leit ("elderly people"), but:méi al Leit ("older people, people older than X")
fréi ("early") → defréiere President ("the former president"), but: eméi fréien Termin ("an earlier appointment")
laang ("long") → virulängerer Zäit ("some time ago"), but: engméi laang Zäit ("a longer period of time")
Luxembourgish exhibits "verb second" word order in clauses. More specifically, Luxembourgish is aV2-SOV language, like German and Dutch. In other words, we find the following finite clausal structures:
thefinite verb in second position in declarative clauses andwh-questions
Echkafen en Hutt. Muerkafen ech en Hutt. (lit. "I buy a hat. Tomorrow buy I a hat.)
Watkafen ech haut? (lit. "What buy I today?")
the finite verb in first position in yes/no questions and finite imperatives
Bass de midd? ("Are you tired?")
Gëff mer deng Hand! ("Give me your hand!")
the finite verb in final position in subordinate clauses
Du weess, datt ech middsinn. (lit. "You know, that I tired am.")
Non-finite verbs (infinitives and participles) generally appear in final position:
compound past tenses
Ech hunn en Huttkaf. (lit. "I have a hat bought.")
infinitival complements
Du solls net esou vill Kaffidrénken. (lit. "You should not so much coffee drink.")
infinitival clauses (e.g., used as imperatives)
Nëmme Lëtzebuergeschschwätzen! (lit. "Only Luxembourgish speak!")
These rules interact so that in subordinate clauses, the finite verb and any non-finite verbs must all cluster at the end. Luxembourgish allows different word orders in these cases:
Hie freet, ob echkomme kann. (cf. GermanEr fragt, ob ich kommen kann.) (lit. "He asks if I come can.")
Hie freet, ob echka kommen. (cf. DutchHij vraagt of ik kan komen.) (lit. "He asks if I can come.")
This is also the case when two non-finite verb forms occur together:
Ech hunn netkënne kommen. (cf. DutchIk heb niet kunnen komen.) (lit, "I have not be-able to-come")
Ech hunn netkomme kënnen. (cf. GermanIch habe nicht kommen können.) (lit, "I have not to-comebe-able")
Luxembourgish (like Dutch and German) allows prepositional phrases to appear after the verb cluster in subordinate clauses:
alles, wat Der ëmmer wollt wësseniwwer Lëtzebuerg
(lit. "everything what you always wanted know about Luxembourg")
Luxembourgish has borrowed many French words. For example, the word for a bus driver isBuschauffeur (as inDutch andSwiss German), which would beBusfahrer in German andchauffeur de bus in French.
Some words are different from Standard German, but have equivalents in German dialects. An example isGromperen (potatoes – German:Kartoffeln). Other words are exclusive to Luxembourgish.
Neologisms in Luxembourgish include both entirely new words, and the attachment of new meanings to old words in everyday speech. The most recent neologisms come from the English language in the fields oftelecommunications,computer science, and theInternet.
direct loans from English:Browser,Spam,CD,Fitness,Come-back,Terminal,Hip,Cool,Tip-top
also found in German:Sichmaschinn (search engine, German:Suchmaschine),schwaarzt Lach (black hole, German:Schwarzes Loch),Handy (mobile phone),Websäit (webpage, German:Webseite)
native Luxembourgish
déck as an emphatic likeganz andvoll, e.g.Dëse Kuch ass déck gutt! ("This cake is really good!")
recent expressions, used mainly by teenagers:oh mëllen! ("oh crazy"),en décke gelénkt ("you've been tricked") orcassé (French for "(you've been) owned")
Between 2000 and 2002, Luxembourgish linguistJérôme Lulling compiled a lexical database of 125,000-word forms as the basis for the first Luxembourgishspellchecker (Projet C.ORT.IN.A).[39]
The LaF (Lëtzebuergesch als Friemsprooch – Luxembourgish as a Foreign Language) is a set of four language proficiency certifications for Luxembourgish and follows theALTE framework of language examination standards. The tests are administered by the Institut National des Langues Luxembourg.[40]
The "Centre for Luxembourg Studies" at theUniversity of Sheffield was founded in 1995 on the initiative of Professor Gerald Newton. It is supported by the government of Luxembourg which funds anendowed chair in Luxembourg Studies at the university.[41]The first class of students to study the language outside of the country as undergraduate students began their studies at the 'Centre for Luxembourg Studies' at Sheffield in the academic year 2011–2012.
UNESCO declared Luxembourgish to be an endangered language in 2019, adding it to itsAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[42][43]
Additionally, some local media[citation needed] have argued that the Luxembourgish language is at risk of disappearing, and that it should be considered anendangered language.[44] Even though the government claims that more people than ever are able to speak Luxembourgish, these are absolute numbers and often include the manynaturalized citizens who have passed theSproochentest, a language test that certifies the knowledge of merely A.2. in speaking and B.1. in understanding.[45]
Luxembourgish language expert and historianAlain Atten argues that not only the absolute number of Luxembourgish speakers should be considered when defining the status of a language, but also the proportion of speakers in a country. Noting that the proportion of native Luxembourgish speakers has decreased in recent decades, Atten believes that Luxembourgish will inevitably disappear, stating:
It is simple math, if there are about 70% foreigners and about 30% Luxembourgers (which is the case in Luxembourg City), then it cannot possibly be said that Luxembourgish is thriving. That would be very improbable.[46]
Alain Atten also argues that the situation is even more dramatic, since the cited percentages take only the residents of Luxembourg into account, excluding the 200,000 cross-border-workers present in the country on a daily basis.[46] This group plays a major role in the daily use of languages in Luxembourg, thus further lowering the percentage of Luxembourgish speakers present in the country.
The following numbers are based on statistics bySTATEC (those since 2011) and show that the percentage of the population that is able to speak Luxembourgish has been constantly diminishing for years (The 200,000 cross-border workers are not included in this statistic):[46]
It has also been argued[citation needed] that two very similar languages,Alsatian andLorraine Franconian, which were very broadly spoken by the local populations at the beginning of the 20th century inAlsace and inLorraine respectively, have been nearly completely supplanted byFrench, and that a similar fate could also be possible for Luxembourgish.[47][48] Another example of the replacement of Luxembourgish by French occurred inArelerland (historically a part of Luxembourg, today in Belgium), where the vast majority of the local population spoke Luxembourgish as a native language well into the 20th century. Today, Luxembourgish is nearly extinct in this region, having been replaced by French.
According to some Luxembourgish news media[citation needed] and members ofActioun Lëtzebuergesch (an association for the preservation and promotion of the language), the biggest threat to the existence of Luxembourgish is indeed French, since it is the language of most official documents and street signs in Luxembourg; this considerably weakens the possibility for Luxembourgish to be practiced by new speakers and learners.[49] In most cases, this passively forces expats to learn French instead of Luxembourgish.[49]
In 2021 it was announced that public announcements in Luxembourgish (and in German as well) atLuxembourg Airport would cease; it would only be using French and English for future public announcements.[50] This will cause Luxembourgish to go unused at Luxembourg Airport after many decades. Actioun Lëtzebuergesch declared itself to be hugely upset by this new governmental measure, citing that other airports in the world seem to have no problems making public announcements in multiple languages.[51] According to a poll conducted by AL, 92.84% of the Luxembourgish population wished to have public announcements to be made in Luxembourgish at Luxembourg Airport.[51]
ADR politicianFred Keup has claimed that Luxembourgish is already on its way to complete replacement by French.[52]
^The letter⟨é⟩ today represents the same sound as⟨ë⟩ before⟨ch⟩. The ostensibly inconsistent spelling⟨é⟩ is based on the traditional, now widely obsolete pronunciation of the sound represented by⟨ch⟩ as a palatal[ç]. As this consonant is pronounced further back in the mouth, it triggered the use of the front allophone of/e/ (that is[e]) as is the case before the velars (/k,ŋ/). Since the more forward alveolo-palatal[ɕ] has replaced the palatal[ç] for almost all speakers, the allophone[ə] is used as before any non-velar consonant. So the wordmécht ('[he] makes'), which is now pronounced[məɕt], used to be pronounced[meçt]; this is the reason for the spelling. The spelling⟨mëcht⟩, which reflects the contemporary pronunciation, is not standard.
^In the standard orthography,/ɑʊ̯/ and/æːʊ̯/ are not distinguished.
^Moyse, François; Brasseur, Pierre; Scuto, Denis (2004). "Luxembourg". In Bauböck, Rainer; Ersbøll, Eva; Groenendijk, Kees; Waldrauch, Harald (eds.).Acquisition and Loss of Nationality: Policies and Trends in 15 European States – Volume 2: Country Analysis. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. p. 380.ISBN978-90-5356-921-4.
^"Et get kèènä geshriven. [...] Et get kèènö geshriven." (p. 639)
^Mémorial B no. 68 (16 November 1976), pp. 1365–90: "Arrêté ministériel du 10 octobre 1975 portant réforme du système officiel d'orthographe luxembourgeoise".https://www.cpll.lu/pdf/ortho_1975.pdf
Bruch, Robert. (1955)Précis de grammaire luxembourgeoise. Bulletin Linguistique et Ethnologique de l'Institut Grand-Ducal, Luxembourg, Linden. (2nd edition of 1968)
BRAUN, Josy,et al. (en coll. avec Projet Moien),Grammaire de la langue luxembourgeoise. Luxembourg, Ministère de l'Éducation nationale et de la Formation professionnelle 2005.ISBN2-495-00025-8
SCHANEN, François,Parlons Luxembourgeois, Langue et culture linguistique d'un petit pays au coeur de l'Europe. Paris, L'Harmattan 2004,ISBN2-7475-6289-1
SCHANEN, François / ZIMMER, Jacqui,1,2,3 Lëtzebuergesch Grammaire. Band 1:Le groupe verbal. Band 2:Le groupe nominal. Band 3:L'orthographe. Esch-sur-Alzette, éditions Schortgen, 2005 et 2006
SCHANEN, François / ZIMMER, Jacqui,Lëtzebuergesch Grammaire luxembourgeoise. En un volume. Esch-sur-Alzette, éditions Schortgen, 2012.ISBN978-2-87953-146-5
Meyer, Antoine,E' Schrek ob de' lezeburger Parnassus, Lezeburg (Luxembourg), Lamort, 1829
In German
BRUCH, Robert,Grundlegung einer Geschichte des Luxemburgischen, Luxembourg, Publications scientifiques et littéraires du Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, 1953, vol. I;Das Luxemburgische im westfränkischen Kreis, Luxembourg, Publications scientifiques et littéraires du Ministère de l'Éducation nationale, 1954, vol. II
MOULIN, Claudine and Nübling, Damaris (publisher):Perspektiven einer linguistischen Luxemburgistik. Studien zu Diachronie und Synchronie., Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, 2006. This book has been published with the support of theFonds National de la Recherche
GILLES, Peter (1998). "Die Emanzipation des Lëtzebuergeschen aus dem Gefüge der deutschen Mundarten".Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie.117:20–35.
BERG, Guy,Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin: Soziolinguistische und sprachtypologische Betrachtungen zur luxemburgischen Mehrsprachigkeit., Tübingen, 1993 (Reihe Germanistische Linguistik 140).ISBN3-484-31140-1
(phrasebook) REMUS, Joscha,Lëtzebuergesch Wort für Wort. Kauderwelsch Band 104. Bielefeld, Reise Know-How Verlag 1997.ISBN3-89416-310-0
