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. A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... This is a list of languages by number of first-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. ... Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... Old High German is the earliest recorded form of the modern German language, and was spoken from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, Christian, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Transylvania (Romanian: Transilvania or Ardeal, Hungarian: Erdély, German: Siebenbürgen, Serbian: Transilvanija, Turkish: Erdel, Slovak: Sedmohradsko or Transylvánia, Polish: Siedmiogród) forms the western and central parts of Romania. ...

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. Central German (in German: Mitteldeutsch) is a group of German dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and north of Upper German. ... Subdivisions Central German Upper German High German (in German, Hochdeutsch) is any of several German dialects spoken in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg (as well as in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace), Italy, Poland, and Romania (Transylvania) and in some areas of former colonial settlement, for example in... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

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". Household safety matches burning match A match is a simple and convenient means of producing fire under controlled circumstances and on demand. ...

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. The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... Xenophobia denotes fear of strangers or of the unknown and comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning foreigner, stranger, and φόβος (phobos), meaning fear.The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners, but racism in general is sometimes described as a form of xenophobia. ...

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

Luxembourgish language edition of Wikipedia

• RTL.lu Radio-Télé Lëtzebuerg
• Luxembourgish - English Dictionary
• Introduction to the Luxembourgish Orthography - Schanen F. (pdf)
• Luxemburgische Orthographie - Memorial: 1999
• Eng kleng Hëllef fir Lëtzebuergesch ze schreiwen
• Luxdico
• UNIVERSAL - DEKLARATIOUN VUN DE MËNSCHERECHTER
• Gefahr oder Chance für das Luxemburgische?
• Centre for Luxembourg Studies (University of Sheffield, UK)