- Official language in
- Luxembourg
- Script
- Latin
Where it's spoken
The Law on the Language Regime says that the national language of the Luxembourgers is Luxembourgish. In administrative and judicial matters French, German or Luxembourgish may be used, and legislative acts are drafted in French.
A government page on the same law says that French, German and Luxembourgish were fixed as administrative languages and that the three are treated as equivalent administrative and legal languages, though legal texts must be drafted in French.
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Script & pronunciation
Luxembourgish is written in the Latin alphabet. The Ministry of National Education booklet on the orthography describes the letter ë as the short, stressed ö-sound, as in kënnen; é as the short stressed e before ng, nk, ch, ck and x, as in zéng; and ä as a short open e in words related to a, ä, o or ö, as in Käschten. It writes the long e-sound as ee, as in Reen. This app's cards for Entschëllegt! ("Excuse me") and Ech si fäerdeg ("I'm finished / Done") show ë and ä.
In the dictionary LOD, noun headwords begin with a capital letter and other words do not: the noun Moien and the greeting moien are listed as separate entries. The booklet also says that the apostrophe stands for a letter that has dropped out and is used with the definite article before feminine and neuter nouns and before plurals, as in d'Aarbecht and d'Männer. This app's card for Ass d'Moiesiessen abegraff? ("Is breakfast included?") has d'Moiesiessen.
The app's Luxembourgish cards carry no romanization beside the spelling.
Sources
Grammar essentials
The most useful spelling rule for reading the cards is the n-rule. The booklet says that an n or nn at the end of a word is written only when it is also spoken, that is before a vowel, before n, d, t, z or h, or before a full stop or comma. Before other consonants the final n usually falls away. Its examples include den alen Änder, den Numm and wann ech wëll, da kann ech, where the n stays, against de Virnumm and e Kallef, where it falls.
The same booklet lists exceptions. The n or nn at the end of nouns and names is written and does not fall under the n-rule, as in d'Maschinn and an Ungarn, with a stated exception: where the word ends in -äin or -en, the n-rule applies and the n falls away. Some short adjectives always keep nn, as in blann. Before säin, si, se, sech and seng the n or nn may be written but need not be.
This is why one verb appears in two spellings. The app's card Ech hunn eng Reservatioun ("I have a reservation") keeps the n of hunn because eng starts with a vowel, while Ech hu keng Reservatioun ("I don't have a reservation") drops it before k. In the same way Gudde Moien! ("Good morning") drops the n of Gudden before M, Gudden Owend! ("Good evening") keeps it before the vowel O, and Ech si fäerdeg ("I'm finished / Done") shows sinn becoming si before f. The dictionary LOD records this too: for the greeting moien it gives the n-rule form moie.
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Politeness & etiquette
Luxembourgish has a polite "you" and an informal one. The dictionary LOD lists the capitalised Dir as the politeness form, glossed as Sie in German and vous in French, and lists du, glossed as tu in French, separately. This app's card for Dir ("You (polite)") says it is the polite "you" for strangers and staff, that du is used for friends, and that polite address is written with a capital, Dir, with plural verb forms such as Dir sidd, the object form Iech and the possessive Är.
The cards show it in use. Schwätzt Dir Englesch? ("Do you speak English?") uses the polite Dir with the plural verb form schwätzt, and Wéi geet et Iech? ("How are you? (formal)") uses the capitalised Iech; its note says that to a friend one says Wéi geet et dir?.