Origins

Deriving from the West-German languages, Luxembourgish is a language of declining usage trend. It inherited most of the German features as to syntax (word order, etc.) while French influenced it most in terms of vocabulary. The spoken language developed quite quicker than the written one, resulting today in a language that can be easily understood by Germans in its written form and almost impossible to understand when spoken.

Official Language

Luxembourgish is official only in the state of Luxembourg, along with French and German. It is also spoken in some areas of France, Belgium and Germany. Small emigrant communities also use it (including a small community in Transylvania, Romania), though it is declining and used mainly by the older generations.

Varieties

Few distinct dialects of Luxembourgish can be defined, all of them tending gradually to transit to dialects of German. These are defined basing on geographical criteria: Areler (spoken in Arlon), Eechternoacher (Eechternach), Kliärrwer (in Clervaux), Minetter, Miseler (in Moselle), Stater (in Luxembourg city), Veiner (in Vianden) and Weelzer (in Wiltz). An overall trend marks the standardization of the language and its unification to the official Luxembourgish known as koine.

Brief History

The history of Luxembourgish is traced back to a dialect of German. During its development, it suffered a strong influence from French, mostly in terms of vocabulary. Today’s Luxembourgish has retained its astonishing similarity to German, mainly in its written form.

Did you know?

Luxembourgish uses the 26-letter Latin alphabet, adding three letters - é, ä and ë. In borrowings it usually keeps the orthography unchanged (example – boîte – box, from French), thus using other graphic symbols.

Luxembourgish is spoken by less people than Icelandic, and ranks together with Maltese at the position of 300th among world languages.