Luxembourgish language
|
|
| Luxembourg (Lëtzebuergesch) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Germany |
| Region: | Europe |
| Total speakers: | 300,000 |
| Ranking: | not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Old High German Luxembourgish |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | Luxembourg. |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ltz |
| ISO 639-2 | lb |
| SIL | LUX |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
Luxembourgish or Luxembourgian (in French, Luxembourgeois; in German, Luxemburgisch; in Luxembourgish Lëtzebuergesch) is a West Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg. It was adopted as an official language in 1984. It is also spoken in small parts of Belgium, France and Germany, as well as by a few of the descendants of Luxembourg immigrants in the United States and emigrants to Transylvania, Romania (Siebenbürgen). There are about 300,000 people who speak Luxembourgish worldwide.
Luxembourgish belongs to the Middle German group of High German languages, like standard German. It is, however, more than just a German dialect. Luxembourgish borrows many French words. For example, the name for a bus driver is Buschauffeur which would be Busfahrer in German and Chauffeur de bus in French. It is relatively easy for German speakers to understand Luxembourgish, but more complicated to speak it properly because of the French influence.
On the other hand, written Luxembourgish often shows a marked influence from High German in syntax and idiom and often strikes the fluent reader of German as essentially pure German disguising as a foreign language. It seems that the idea of how to properly write in Luxembourgish is still heavily dependent on normative German grammar. In this respect, Luxembourgish does come nearer to being merely a German dialect than does, say, Dutch, which is also obviously related to German but markedly more divergent from that language in syntax, word order and idiom.
Some words are different from High German but have equivalents in German dialects. An example would be the word potato, which is Gromper in Luxembourgish, but pomme de terre in French and Kartoffel in High German.
Other words are exclusive to Luxembourgish, for example the word for "Match", which is "Fixfeier".
Standard German is called "Däitsch", or sometimes "Preisësch" (Prussian, which has slightly xenophobic undertones) in Luxembourg. Its most common uses are in Luxembourg's newspapers, and in primary school. The main administrative language in Luxembourg is French.
Some phrases
- Jo. Yes.
- Neen. No.
- Villäicht. Maybe.
- Moien. Hello.
- Äddi. Goodbye.
- Merci. Thank you.
- Watgelift? or Ëntschëllegt? Excuse me?
- Metzleschjong. Butcher's son.
- Schwätzt dier Däitsch/Franséisch/Englesch? Do you speak German/French/English?
- Politeschen Anstand. Political Decency
External links
- RTL.lu Radio-Télé Lëtzebuerg (http://www.rtl.lu/home.rtl)
- Luxembourgish - English Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Luxembourgish-english/)
- Introduction to the Luxembourgish Orthography - Schanen F. (pdf) (http://www.cpll.lu/cpll/schanen_lulling_letz.pdf)
- Luxemburgische Orthographie - Memorial: 1999 (http://www.etat.lu/memorial/memorial/a/1999/a1121108.pdf)
- Eng kleng Hëllef fir Lëtzebuergesch ze schreiwen (http://www.men.lu/edu/fre/publications/CEN/letzebuergesch.pdf)
- Luxdico (http://web6.midworld.luxadmin.org/dict.html)
- UNIVERSAL - DEKLARATIOUN VUN DE MËNSCHERECHTER (http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/lux.htm)
- Gefahr oder Chance für das Luxemburgische? (http://www.land.lu/html/dossiers/dossier_luxemburgensia/mousellulling_201202.html)af:Lëtzebuergesch
cs:Lucemburština de:Luxemburgische Sprache fr:Luxembourgeois he:לוקסמבורגית it:Lussemburghese lb:Lëtzebuergesch li:Luxemburgs nl:Luxemburgs ja:ルクセンブルク語 pl:Język luksemburski ro:Limba luxemburgheză ru:Люксембургский язык sk:Luxemburčina fi:Luxemburgin kieli sv:Luxemburgska wa:Lussimbordjwès zh:卢森堡语