Luxembourgish - A Dialect of German? Or Separate Language?

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This video is all about Luxembourgish and its features, in comparison with Standard German. I also talk about Luxembourg as a rich multilingual environment and try to give a bit of an idea of what life must be like there. Luxembourg is officially trilingual, having Luxembourgish, French, and German as its official languages. Most people speak more than one language and switch between them depending on the setting and the person they are interacting with. The historical native language of Luxembourg is a Moselle Franconian High German dialect, which became Luxembourgish as it was standardized and made the national language of the country.
Special thanks to Tom Weber for his Luxembourgish audio samples and helpful advice, and to Markus Doehr for his Standard German samples and helpful advice.
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27 май 2024

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Комментарии : 1,6 тыс.

@Langfocus 2 года назад

Hi, everyone! I hope you like the video. If you're learning a new language, try the world-famous *Pimsleur method* in its new-and-improved subscription format: ► imp.i271380.net/langfocus ► *Free trial - Use my link to gain access* (Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link, so Langfocus gets a small referral fee - at no extra cost to you)

@GEOfocusChannel 2 года назад

►►► Yes, I agree! Check me out: ru-vid.com

@bourbon2242 2 года назад

Hello Paul. I really like your videos. Keep making them.

@just1frosty516 2 года назад

this just made my day❤️

@apexgoblin 2 года назад

Hey mate! Nice video

@modmaker7617 2 года назад

Got an idea; Monégasque 🇲🇨 vs Indonesian 🇮🇩 vs Polish 🇵🇱 vs Greenlandic 🇬🇱

@arnehessenbruch 2 года назад

I use all the languages pretty much every day. One issue not mentioned in the video is that different domains are dominated by different languages: government (Luxembourgish), retail (French), newspapers (German), finance and academia (English), building sites (Portuguese).

@ricardj02 2 года назад

Estou-te muito obrigado por mostrar as línguas mais faladas em Luxemburgo! Saudações desde a beira mediterrânea, Valência.

@sinsemilia70 2 года назад

🙂he mentioned it at 1:15 min - “depending on context” he says

@cister4708 2 года назад

@@ricardj02 Xe, un valencià per ací

@diosnoexiste898 2 года назад

Derauch in diesem Jahre wieder von den Toten auferstandene Osterhase wünscht allen Menschen(und ebenso natürlich auch den aus der Rippe des Menschen erschaffenen Wesen)ein fröhliches Hasenfest und viele bunte Eier.

@norajohnson2841 2 года назад

Very interesting! Thank you for that information.

@desanipt 2 года назад

5:08 Well, fun fact, the German word "tschüss" also comes from French "adieu" through Dutch "adjuus".

@ccg8803 2 года назад

Nobody would have said that

@Frahamen 2 года назад

Yeah a couple of things do strike me as "Dutchy", or even more "Limburgishy"

@ElysiaBrenner 2 года назад

@@Frahamen I speak Dutch, and when I was in Luxembourg I kept feeling like I could allllmost understand the conversations around me. Like I forgot for a moment that I was in another country, and then had the disorientating sensation of not being able to understand something my brain wanted to fit into the "Dutch" box.

@Shadowkainine 2 года назад

@@ElysiaBrenner As a nowegian I experienced the same thing with feroese! It's really strange to listen to languages which are so similar, yet so different.

@nolongerlistless 2 года назад

Glad you made this comment. It is what I was taught at uni.

@granzert1711 2 года назад

Luxembourgish is my mother tongue, the language I speak the most, especially with my family, but also with people I meet in daily life, if they speak it. Most local friends speak it and at the places I used to work it was the most common language. I don't watch much TV anymore, but if I do, I mostly watch programmes in Luxembourgish. Although French is also very important in my daily life: First, because most of the workers from Luxembourg's neighbouring areas are French, many of them work in retail. Unfortunately those of them who still speak their local Moselle Franconian dialect have become extremely rare. Also most of the foreigners living in the country come from Romance language countries (mainly Portuguese, French, Italian and Cape Verdian people). It's usually the kids of immigrants who learn Luxembourgish, not the parents, the latter with whom I usually end up speaking French. Second, because it's the lingua franca here when it comes to written language. As an example: Although laws are discussed in Luxembourgish in Parliament, they are recorded on paper in French. Most street signs are also in French. (On a diplomatic level Luxembourg speaks French officially, like when engaging with the European Union or the United Nations.) Third, my favourite Discord channel is a French one. Then I use also quite a lot of standard German. I have German friends, some of them living in Germany some here in Luxembourg and I'm registered in several German speaking internet forums. And yes, there's also a good chunk of workers coming from neighbouring German areas. Since many of them still know their local dialects, they often understand me if I just speak Luxembourgish with them. It's usually Germans from further away who have difficulties to understand my mother tongue. Even though those still mastering a dialect have more ease understanding my idiom, especially those who speak a central German dialect. But speaking of internet, in that area English is definitely the most important language to me. Add to this friends I have from parts of the world not belonging to the French and German language bubble. Finally I also speak a bit of Italian. I learned it in school, unfortunately with time I forgot a lot of it. My girlfriend is an Italian immigrants' kid, but she speaks a southern Italian language, not the standard version, and she speaks perfect Luxembourgish anyway. (She even has a stronger Luxembourgish accent when speaking German, French and English than I.) Thank you Paul, I was waiting for this video. 👍

@helilebon2383 2 года назад

Danke für den Insider-Blick. Sehr interessant.

@campolindo18 2 года назад

@@helilebon2383 Ja geht mir genauso. Merci!

@muhammadisaac07 2 года назад

Thanks for sharing... Multilingual community is really interesting!!! 😊🤘

@stillgotyourmom 2 года назад

,,Granzert" 😂😂

@jacksons8446 2 года назад

im a bit jelous luxembourgish ppl learn so many languages ''by default'' :D

@clarencewildes1747 2 года назад

My wife and I went to Luxembourg once. She sent me out to get her a drink, so I went a short way from the hotel to a kiosk attended by one woman. Several men were ahead of me. To the first she spoke French. The second spoke German. The third spoke something else, I assume it was Dutch. My turn. I hadn’t said a word, but she looked me right in the eye and said, “What’ll you have, Hon?”

@robertmcdonnell3117 2 года назад

Oh wow this is perfect timing as I'm on the train from Brussels to Luxembourg right now! Great video as always Paul. :)

@Langfocus 2 года назад

Thanks, Robert! Enjoy your time in Luxembourg!

@chadbailey7038 2 года назад

What languages do you speak Robert? Are you prepared enough?

@robertmcdonnell3117 2 года назад

@@chadbailey7038 English, Irish, French and some German, you? :)

@danielcowan87 2 года назад

@@robertmcdonnell3117 a fellow Gaeilgeoir

@robertmcdonnell3117 2 года назад

@@danielcowan87 ☘️

@shivambakhshi4859 2 года назад

Wow, looks like Luxembourg is the real polyglot’s paradise! Kids growing up there are exposed to 5 languages and my understanding is that they are fluent in at least 4. What an amazing country!

@ArwedMett 2 года назад

Man, I moved here and feel bad by only being able to speak 3 languages. I know so many people who speak more than 4.

@klaudiam8735 2 года назад

Well I mean I don't think the kids enjoy it that much. I certainly didn't enjoy being forced to study french. And learning all those languages does have its disadvantages. Studying 3 languages takes away time from other subjects like Geography, history or even sciences. Especially in science classes, it felt like until you could finally choose your own specialisation you didn't see anything in detail. Up until 10th grade you learn everything mostly in German (Geography, History, Biology). However in the 10th grade, all those subjects suddenly are in french. So it is kinda hard to just transition to french. Most of my friends had also a strong dislike for french. I don't think the kids particularly feel blessed knowing all of those languages.

@pitreichert 2 года назад

for me it was the opposite, i was so happy when i didn't have to study german anymore. And i am a native luxembourgish speaker

@klaudiam8735 2 года назад

@@pitreichert I was happy when in 2B I could finally drop french. Never really liked the language.

@fiehdorb5460 2 года назад

It´s crazy when you think about it. The kids of immigrants often speak the 4 common languages and their mothertongue, sometimes switching to luxembourgish to keep secrets from their parents🤫. But most people have have a tendency to either speak german or french. Which one it is depends on your mothertongue, romance language more towards french an germanic and balkan languages more towards german, at least in my experience. And often people donˋt get the possibility to learn or experience luxembourgish, because luxembourgish people tend to switch to the more comfortable language of their speaking partner.

@timvlaar 2 года назад

One small historical inaccuracy, while it's true that Luxembourg lost territory, after gaining independence from France, Luxembourg's biggest loss of territory came much later, in 1839, to Belgium. Belgium wasn't a country yet when Luxembourg gained independence from France.

@kenster8270 2 года назад

Another minor inaccuracy is the description of languages traditionally spoken in the region across Luxembourg's modern borders. Various German dialects were historically spoken in nearly all the bordering areas, and today modern standard German is still spoken in the part of Belgium that lies immediately to the north of Luxembourg.

@jayxi5021 2 года назад

I'm from Luxembourg and I'd like to note a few things that people may not be aware of. Luxembourgish is *not* taught in school. Not the spelling, not the grammar, or anything really. It is something you pick up in kindergarten by playing with other kids, or that you know as mother language. Every person that grew up in Luxembourg and attended Luxembourgish schools, speak French, German, English and Luxembourgish, more or less fluently. When two Luxembourgish people speak together, it is more than normal to use the other languages we know to communicate. Switching to french, german and english and back to Luxembourgish in the same sentence is very, very common.This is why we like to use words of other language if the word we think of comes faster in our mind in that specific language. If you ever want to visit Luxembourg, don't worry a single bit about language barriers :D

@alexiosblake9804 2 года назад

Sorry but in my school it was taught.

@Enpointe4 2 года назад

So which language(s) are used in school? :)

@alexiosblake9804 2 года назад

@@Enpointe4 depends in the school, but french, german, luxemburgish are the usual.

@dewei4279 2 года назад

It is taught now in school and mandatory. A lot has changed in the last few years ;)

@Blubking1 2 года назад

Luxembourgish is taught nowadays. Didn’t used to be like that back in the days

@BrunoAlexLUX 2 года назад

I was born in Portugal, went to Luxembourg in 2008 and came back to Portugal in 2020. I'm so thankful that I could learn such a rare and unique language! 🇵🇹🇱🇺

@tonijelecevic9238 2 года назад

Rare and unique? It is one several western Germanic languages

@BrunoAlexLUX 2 года назад

@@tonijelecevic9238 and how many do speak the language? Yeah right

@danielsanabria6770 2 года назад

I'm interested in knowing why many people from Portugal (and not from Spain for example) go to Luxembourg exactly?

@DarthGriphin Год назад

@@danielsanabria6770 The reason is that the portuguese are looking for a better quality of life, and in spain they don't have it as bad as we do in Portugal, and luxemburg has a much higher salary than Portugal and i think it has the highest average salary out of any european country.

@dschaydschee Год назад

Not very useful though

@luxcrafters 2 года назад

Hi there, As a Luxemburger I can tell you this video is probably the most accurate you can find on RU-vid and I am really thankful that someone took the time to analyze our language. As for the question asked at the end of the video, I speak Luxembourgish every day but not at home as my wife only speaks English. At work I'm lucky to have lots of Luxembourgish colleagues but French nearly comes second, if there wasn't English which grew so much in the past years. Since Luxembourg opened up to the technology sector as well as startups, English became quite a normal language to speak between colleagues and in bars. It also makes things easier for German and French people to communicate, but the French are sometimes to proud to speak anything else than English 😉 Villmools Merci fir de flotten Video. Léif Gréiss aus Lëtzebuerg 😀

@actual_garbage Год назад

so glad to meet a Luxem**burger**

@luxcrafters Год назад

@@actual_garbage the pleasure is mine good sir :)

@mgpich Год назад

Letzebuergesch ist eine sehr faszinierende Sprache (für mich als Österreicher). Seid stolz darauf, dass ihr damit die moselfränkischen Dialekte rettet, die in Deutschland ja leider aussterben :)

@Shj4223 Год назад

Charly, so you guys usually preffer to hear luxembourgish than the other languages? You said you're lucky to have colleagues that speak it, etc.

@UnshavenStatue 9 месяцев назад

french gonna french, even when they're not in france lol

@Catbb250 2 года назад

I’m Belgian. My native language is Dutch, but I also speak French, English and German. A couple of weeks ago I traveled to Luxembourg and I fell in love with Luxembourgish. It’s so weird to understand certain words and expressions, but never understand it to the full extent. The overlap of European languages, especially at the borders, will also never cease to amaze me.

@TheLanngillap 2 года назад

Beeing a native luxemburgish speaker, I have the same feelings the other way around. We travel to De Haan quit a lot (it's a three hour drive if the gods of the Brussles Ring have mercy). I do understand about 70% of flemish if it's not spoken to fast. When it's written, and i have time, i can get up to 80% of comprehension - but there are a lot of "false friends" - words that look and sound familiar but have a different meaning. But with every trip i do learn a bit more.

@ingriddurden3929 2 года назад

I was in Luxemburg a few times and always got frustrated, speaking both German and French and not being able to follow the conversation. In the film I notice that some structures are even more like my native Dutch than either of the other ones. Good memories! Thanks!

@roderic3261 2 года назад

That's because of the influence of Dutch during the 19th century, when there was a personal union with the Netherlands' Crown. The word for "please" is wann ech gelift (abbreviated w.e.g) which comes from the formula ‘als u gelieft' (now, alstublieft)

@weetikissa 2 года назад

@@roderic3261 That's French in origin, though. S'il vous plaît = if it pleases you.

@stillgotyourmom 2 года назад

@@weetikissa where is "wann ech gelift" French origin when yoou spell it completely otherwise? He just explained they way it evolved.

@douchebagdave3813 2 года назад

@@roderic3261 In German there is also "Wenn's euch beliebt", which is a little bit more ancient, but probably the more likely root.

@Ultrajuiced 2 года назад

Yes, it is weird as a German to understand much of it but it is still pretty hard and when people talk really fast, you get lost while it is actually a German dialect.

@FuckingMushroom93 2 года назад

I'm from Saarland, about 20 Minutes away from the border. I have some luxembourgish friends and when we meet I can speak my local dialect and they can speak luxembourgish. Even though we technically speak different languages we can understand each other with relative ease.

@idraote 2 года назад

A few weeks ago I was watching a video with a famous journalist, Philip Crowther, reporting on the war in Ukraine (without knowing he was from Luxembourg) and I was telling to myself: "Dear me, I barely understand him, his German is quite bad!" Then I realised someone had actually edited together his reporting in six different languages, Luxembourgish included. His German was quite flawless, just like his French, of course.

@hechendorfvideo 2 года назад

…and his Spanish 👍🏻

@arioso1525 2 года назад

Yeah, I watched the vid too and was quite amazed by his fluency. Would like to speak at the same level, I suppose being a journalist isn't a must for that 😁

@LitoLevenbach 2 года назад

Always a joy to hear Luxembourgish radio while driving through the area!

@mpforeverunlimited 2 года назад

Do you speak it though?

@LitoLevenbach 2 года назад

@@mpforeverunlimited No, but it's fun trying to figure it out knowing a bit of German and French

@ArwedMett 2 года назад

The best is when they play luxembourgish rap. It just sounds like torturing the german language :)

@LitoLevenbach 2 года назад

@@ArwedMett Oh I have to check that out now!

@nolongerlistless 2 года назад

Shout out to Sheffield University for being among the first to teach Luxembourgish to undergraduates.

@jinengi 2 года назад

Having Moselle Franconian / Luxembourgish being considered a language in Luxembourg but considered a dialect as soon as you cross the border with Germany truly shows how politics aftect linguistics

@keithkannenberg7414 2 года назад

You know the old adage: a language is a dialect with an army and navy. Though the 1000 people in the Luxembourg military service barely constitute an "army". :-)

@HotelPapa100 2 года назад

@@keithkannenberg7414 Switzerland, being landlocked, does not have a navy. So you're saying that our language is not considered a language because of that? The real reason is that we never bothered to standardize it and get a written form; Standard German is used in writing, and there's a plethora of differing dialects. By the touchstone of mutual intelligibility it's clearly a different language from Standard German, though.

@mateozanone7216 2 года назад

@@HotelPapa100 bro, the "army and navy" is symbolic...

@HotelPapa100 2 года назад

@@mateozanone7216 I get that. What I mean to say is that statehood is not sufficient for a dialect to be considered a language.

@keithkannenberg7414 2 года назад

@@HotelPapa100 And I was just agreeing that politics and military power have often influenced the language/dialect distinction.

@Marius-mn8jv 2 года назад

5:12 In south-western Germany we also use "Ade" for goodbye, it probably also derived from French, but the Luxembourgish "Äddi" reminded me of this

@poznaniak8349 2 года назад

Also "mir" instead of "wir". Mir gehn dann hoim, ade!

@leftaroundabout 2 года назад

This has to be the only language I find more difficult to understand when reading it than hearing. The written form looks outright bizarre to me as a German, but it _sounds_ quite similar to some German dialects.

@atlantisia 2 года назад

maybe it's written different on purpose, to look distinct from german

@leftaroundabout 2 года назад

@@atlantisia I think it just tries to give a consistent and accurate representation of the actual phonetics, and frankly it does a rather better job at it than how written standard German represents spoken Hochdeutsch. Only, we Germans are used to the discrepancies in a way that makes in jarring when what you read is actually what you'd hear. (In English it's of course even more extreme, _how it's written_ and _how it's pronounced_ are almost completely separate.)

@pitreichert 2 года назад

after WW2, luxembourgish was written in a way to make it look much more german than previously, for obvious reasons. it didn't work though, ot became too hard and unnatural to read and write

@christianullrich2923 2 года назад

Honestly, whenever I read Luxembourgish (happens quite a lot; I‘m one of those commuters), I have the irresistible urge to giggle while I make sense of it. Understanding the spoken language is easier, but I cannot speak it at all.

@Carbonideus 2 года назад

@@atlantisia It is written that way because there are sound that don't exist in german, e.g. 'éi' pronounced like 'ey' in english and not 'i', like 'ei' in german. Also the ë doesn't exist as a sound in the german language. 'Jh' is another example (pronounced like a soft g). So it all makes sense, and your explanation, unfounded by any knowledge, is absurd.

@brucemcpherlain1903 2 года назад

As a German, might I add, that the German word "Tschüss" (the phrase came originally from Hamburg) also comes from "Adieu". Sailors from Hamburg picked the French word up and changed it to "Atschüss", which then later became "Tschüss" and found its way to the whole of Germany.

@alfonsmelenhorst9672 2 года назад

Like in some Dutch dialects the same word is used in the form: "Ajuus" [ayüs].

@patolt1628 2 года назад

Wow! As a Frenchman I have learnt something here.

@jean6872 2 года назад

I thought the German for goodbye was auf Wiedersehen not Tschüss.

@Shexe. 2 года назад

@@jean6872 "Tschüss" is unformal whereas "auf Wiedersehen" is formal

@jean6872 2 года назад

@@Shexe. OK Thanks, Sho.

@zsomki 2 года назад

Im only 12 , i live in Luxembourg and i already speak 5 languages

@akumayoxiruma 2 года назад

16:00 As a French and Standard German speaker without exposure to Luxembourgish nor living in the Western area, I could understand virtually everything in this video. The only words that sounded distinctly different from German and its dialects which I wouldn't understand are 'géif' [would] and 'hatt' [she, clq.]. Other than that, it just sounds like a South Western German dialect with French words randomly added - which out of all German dialects isn't even the hardest to understand. (Saxonian and Bavarian are quaking.)

@jesperrasmussen2633 2 года назад

I love your language videos paul you are the best

@Langfocus 2 года назад

Thank you, Jesper.

@ronin667 2 года назад

I can understand Luxembourgish quite well, though I don't speak it. My grandmother was originally from Trier, and though living in Bavaria for most of her life, she retained her Moselle Franconian dialect, which is quite similar to Luxembourgish.

@Pikflowerdude 2 года назад

I am in shock!!! I didn't expect you to speak about my home country, but after watching your video about Belgium it should be expected Well answering your question to Luxembourgish citizen: As a second gen immigrant I mostly speak Luxembourgish with my friends, family and colleges but especially around younger people Other languages I use very often are German, English (both my go-to languages for medias) and Cape Verdean Creole (due to my family)

@christopherhollowell6926 2 года назад

It's nice to hear that Luxembourgish is being kept alive and used by young people

@eduardocajias5626 2 года назад

Cape Verdean Creole? In Luxembourg? Wow! Sounds interesting to me. Is Cape Verdean Creole inteligible to portuguese? But to a Brazilian portuguese speaker like me?

@Pikflowerdude 2 года назад

Yes! The Cape Verdean Creole community is quite big here, believe it or not haha Well Portuguese friends told me that they find it quite odd, but they do understand a good bunch of the words CV Creole does take the vowel shortening to another extreme like chegar becomes tch'ga or dinheiro becomes d'nher and so on, plus combined with a couple different words and pronouns (em, bô, el, bzot, es for eu, tu, ele/ela, vocês, eles/elas respectively) it can be quite tricky epecially for BR PT speakers

@eduardocajias5626 2 года назад

@@Pikflowerdude 😊 Thank you for your answer and for being so gentle with me. Yes, if it is tricky for people from Portugal... I think it would be harder for most of Brazilians as we are not used to non BR portuguese sounds. Only when I was a kid I could listen a lot on streets to accents from Portugal. Anyway... Muitíssimo OBRIGADO, amigo cabo verdiano-luxemburgues!

@Pikflowerdude 2 года назад

@@eduardocajias5626 Com prazer, irmão brasileiro 😊

@SphereBoxCube 2 года назад

A Germanic language with a strong French substrate... It's like English if it developed much later.

@Triumph263 2 года назад

Wait till you hear about Dutch.

@troelspeterroland6998 2 года назад

To be quite precise, it's a superstrate. I'm sorry to get technical but it's the Langfocus channel after all. 🙂

@the-human-being 2 года назад

@@troelspeterroland6998 might even be considered an adstratum…

@troelspeterroland6998 2 года назад

@@the-human-being Yes, indeed.

@galier2 2 года назад

Wrong way around, the substrate is Germanic, the vocabulary is full of French word.

@BlackHappyDragon 2 года назад

I'm Dutch and it is interesting to notice how similar the words and sentence structures of Luxembourgish are to Dutch.

@Kyle-ys8ot 2 года назад

Luxembourgish Imo is a combination of nederlands, french and german

@cvbattum 2 года назад

Historically it makes some sense too, as the dutch kingdom once stretched all the way to Luxembourg. Didn't influence language much at all but I can hardly imagine it didn't at all.

@timurermolenko2013 2 года назад

I listened to LUX rap and it sounded to me like Dutch with an ugly Frenchy accent

@berndfreudinger8754 2 года назад

@@Kyle-ys8ot eben eine Art plattdeutsch

@pseudomino3 2 года назад

I believe that Luxembourgish is mutually intelligible with Hunsrückisch, which is the most spoken German dialect in Brazil, which is also a Moselle Franconian dialect, but heavily influenced by Brazilian Portuguese instead of French.

@ericcarlson3746 2 года назад

i love all the info in the comments!

@danr1852 Год назад

@Langfocus, Hi. I grew up in Transylvania as part of a German minority. While visiting Luxembourg, we noticed that we could understand locals speaking Luxembourgish. On several occasions we just spoke our dialect (for example when asking for directions) and not only were we understood but we could understand very well what was being said. Since my dialect is mostly a spoken language with no standard written form (I am aware of), it was am interesting experience to read Luxembourgish and discover that many words sound similar in my dialect. To take an example from your video, in my dialect you would say: 'Ech hun geschlofen.' or 'Host tea gead geschlofen?' for 'Have you slept well?' or 'Denj videos gefollen mer gead.' :)

@claudepetit4645 5 месяцев назад

The ancestors of the modern Transylvanian Saxons originally came from the contemporary Low Countries (more specifically the regions of Flanders, Hainaut, Brabant, Liège, or Zeeland) as well as the Moselle and Lorraine river valleys, and, very importantly, LUXEMNOURG as well, then situated in the north-western territories of the Holy Roman Empire around the 1140

@sunblade704 2 года назад

As someone who grew up near the Mosel/in the Eifel that's so interesting hearing spoken Luxembourgish, a blast from the past so to speak (I moved to Hessen over 10 years ago and get terribly homesick about the dialect).

@Szaam 2 года назад

I like how the first example of English being used in Luxembourg is the word "sorry"

@cubanoloquito 2 года назад

I was just watching a video about Luxembourg today! As a German, I learned this language for a while and found it pretty easy :) I am so glad that you made a video about this beautiful language, I have this plan of visiting Luxembourg and I even used to have the plan to live there :D Thanks for what you are doing ^^

@detektiveconanfreak 2 года назад

As a dialect speaker living half an hour away from the border to luxemburg, luxemburgish just sounds like a very extreme form of my own dialect to me. Very easy to understand, even though vowel pronounciation is pretty different. It was very cool to see some of the grammatical differences also present in my dialect being explained in proper linguistic terms, since it really is not a dialect prominently featured in media.

@aswnl4428 2 года назад

Being Dutch I can understand Luxemburgish quite well, also because it sounds more like Dutch than standard German. Luxemburg is a nice little country and it's citizens are generally very polite and welcoming.

@yagi3925 2 года назад

"Polite and welcoming"?! That's really the very last thing I'd say about them!

@ArwedMett 2 года назад

I was actually surprised that he did not mention that it is very close to lower german which is very close to dutch and kept on saying high german. On the german side they speak Moselplatt which is basically the same.

@dernettenachbar951 2 года назад

@@yagi3925 Why though? Please explain.

@gentuxable 2 года назад

I find dutch people more polite and welcoming than most other nations.

@ericcarlson3746 2 года назад

The Netherlands is a nice country and its citizens are generally very polite and welcoming. cheers!

@hrenes 11 месяцев назад

As a speaker of Dutch (and German) and a frequent visitor of Luxemburg, at first, I found communicating difficult, as I tried to use French and they would change to German and even Dutch. Nowadays I start in Dutch and answer them in the language they speak, much more relaxing. On Luxemburgish, I bought "de klenge Prënz" and read it. I had some little problems at first but could understand at least 80% of it.

@weepingscorpion8739 2 года назад

I speak German, but Luxembourgish requires a lot of concentration for me to understand but granted I haven't been exposed to it much. Luxembourgish is pretty cool. As a speaker of another small Germanic language (Faroese), it's nice to see small languages like this. Also, if people want to see Luxembourgish in action, there's always the Netflix show Capitani, which is all in Luxembourgish.

@Ultrajuiced 2 года назад

Are you native speaker of Faroese?

@weepingscorpion8739 2 года назад

@@Ultrajuiced I am, yes.

@Ben-vu2fy 2 года назад

As a native Dutch speaker, I understand quite a lot of Luxembourgish! To me it sounds similar to the Limburg regional language in NL and BE.

@JS-tb9sn 2 года назад

I can't wait to finish this video! Luxembourg is an interesting country at the crossroads of many competing cultures.

@OpaSpielt 2 года назад

Thank you for this very informative video. 2 stories about my own experience mutual intelligibility: I was born in northern Germany. I later got a job at the banks of the Moselle river about 70 km distance from the border to Luxembourg. Those days we had cable TV. One of the TV stations we could watch was the national Luxembourgish TV. I did not understand 100% of the Luxembourgish news and sports programs, but a lot. The other story is: once we visited Bitburg, a German town not far from the border to Luxembourg. On the parking lot of a supermarket, a local wanted to tell me something in his dialect. Because he was speaking in a fast way, i really had problems understanding him. But I noticed, that he was talking in a dialect very close to Luxemburgish. I understood the Luxembourgish TV programs better than this guy, to be honest. Have a nice day Norbert | OpaSpielt

@samibouraoui4449 2 года назад

As a native luxembourgish speaker with a tunisian speaking dad I can tell you that my growing up environment was very multilingual! We are constantly code switching between lux/french/tun and it's very nice when I think about it! Growing up multilingual gave me a lot of benefits when studying abroad in Germany! I'm now doing my masters in secondary education in german here at university of luxembourg 🙌🏻 great video btw. and perfect timing!

@monicabennett6620 2 года назад

I just watched a TV show that was in Luxembourgish on Netflix and fell in love with the sound of this language. I had to look up the information you are giving because I found it so beautiful.

@lucaarmillei1682 2 года назад

Was it "Capitani"? :-)

@abbs2444 2 года назад

I'm a foreigner living in Luxembourg. Mostly I speak English and French here. The only Luxembourgish word I use on a daily basis is "moien" (to greet neighbors). But I will learn the language sometime for sure!

@marcstein2510 2 года назад

Obviously you are not french then. They would never even say moien or eddi. They do it on purpose.

@abbs2444 2 года назад

@@marcstein2510 No I'm not. But it kinda makes sense that the French people here only want to speak French beucause French is the most widely used language here. I think Luxembourgers should make an effort to change the situation of their mother tongue and make it the no. 1 language in their own country.

@marcstein2510 2 года назад

@@abbs2444 absolutely. I m all with you, but nobody asks the french to learn luxembourgish, just 2 words: moien and eddi, they still don‘t want to. They want the world to believe we are frenchspeaking nation. We are only forced to speak french through colonization.

@maatheizzda3751 2 года назад

I live at Luxembourg's border in Germany (Eifel), the dialects that are spoken here in Eifel, Hunsrick and Saarland are the same as Luxembourgish, just formal words are French in Luxembourgish, and here they're German. But especially the Eifel dialect is very close to Luxembourgish (pronounciation etc), Saarlandish and Husrickish have a tendency to use i or e instead of a and ö/ë, e.g.: English: That's a beautiful house. German: Das ist ein schönes Haus. Eifelish: Dat as e schei Haus. Hunsrickish: Dat is e schee Hous. Although in western areas of Hunsrick (called Hochwald) people use ö more often than e, e.g. western: Gedööns, Köscha, bödäppat eastern: Gedeens, Kescha, bedäppat Side note to the video: Sorry, I'm late is in German "Entschuldigt die Verspätung" not "Entschuldigung für die Verspätung" although casually the second one is used (it's wrong though). I cannot translate it into english, but here is the latin equivallent: 1st: Excusate me ut tarde veniam. 2nd: Excusatio pro tarditate mea.

@agent_addi 2 года назад

I speak German and you’re right, it feels so similar. I can understand about half of it

@dafo1648 2 года назад

I'm a German native, and I speak the swabian dialect. If I hear luxembourgish a few minutes it's not at all a problem to understand. There are a lot of German dialects, which differ much more from standard German and are subsequently much harder to understand. But it always depends on which region you're from. E.g. the Swiss German dialects which are considered to be hard to understand are to me quit understandable, but I'm a native speaker of an Allemanic dialect. The same goes for people from North Germany, speakers of Low German are having less of a problem understanding Dutch speakers than people from Bavaria or Austria would. Swabian e.g. also posseses a lot of French loanwords like 'trottwar' for sidewalk. It even has a lot of nasal vowels (which makes learning French much easier). The fact that Luxembourg is there in the middle makes it quite easy to understand for every German speaker. Like I said above, there are other dialects which are much harder to comprehend.

@jandeolive6007 2 года назад

Truly fascinating! The stretch of territory which is presently Portugal was ruled by the Swabians, from roughly 400 AD to 700 AD. This ruling class would eventually miscegenate with the indigenous Iberian-Celtic romanised peoples of Gallecia and Lusitania and with Brittonic refugees (fleeing from the Anglo-Saxon invaders). As result of this and possibly other additional influences (from the Occitan and Norman languages), modern Portuguese is a heavily nasalized language. One of the notable "trademarks" of Portuguese is the extensive use of the diphthong "ão" as in "nação" (nation) or "compressão" (compression). This represents a very distinctive sound that is also present in the Swabian dialect or so I have been told. Would it be possible by any chance for you to show an example of that kind of nasalityt? TIA.

@the_linguist_ll 2 года назад

One of my favorite Germanic languages, Frisian and Wymysorys being the first two

@ypey1 2 года назад

Wymysorys?!

@the_linguist_ll 2 года назад

@@ypey1 Germanic language spoken in Poland with a lot of Polish influence (and a cursed phonology). It's probably the most threatened Germanic language, top two if not.

@robthetraveler1099 2 года назад

What in the world is Wymysorys???

@rocctheconlanger5239 2 года назад

those are also my favourite two 😂

@rocctheconlanger5239 2 года назад

@@robthetraveler1099 a germanic language spoken in Poland, it is considered the most endangered Germanic language

@freakyfishy1 2 года назад

My family is from Mayen area, near Koblenz (around 120km away from Luxemburg) in the German Eifel. My grandmother's countryside dialect is literally Luxembourgish, but without all the French loanwords. (Hope I don't trigger some Lëtzeburgers here)

@Thinkingman69 Год назад

Jo hues Recht. Un der Grentz op der Däitscher Säit get quasi dat selwecht geschwaat.

@reuterromain1054 9 месяцев назад

@@Thinkingman69 Jo zu 75% vläicht.

@LLsunflower 2 года назад

Great video! If possible, I'd like to see some videos about the Japonic languages of the Ryukyu islands, I think that would be super interesting

@aquafieldrocks 2 года назад

I’m 1/8 Luxembourgish and it’s really cool to learn about a relatively obscure language my ancestors (probably) spoke!

@louclarcen5690 2 года назад

Have you looked into applying for dual citizenship? Luxembourg is quite generous in offering citizenship for those with Luxembourgish ancestors? My mom’s whole side of the family is applying.

@mikeleader5075 2 года назад

@@louclarcen5690 Interesting. My grandparents on my father's side emmegrated from Luxembourg. If i got dual citizenship would I have to pay dual taxes?

@dieterraber371 2 года назад

@@mikeleader5075 I have dual citizenship German/Luxembourgish and pay my taxes in LU where I live. I'd be surprised if there was anywhere a relationship between citizenship and tax duty.

@edipires15 2 года назад

@@mikeleader5075 No, Luxembourg’s tax system are based by residency, not nationality (like the rest of the world except the US and Eritrea)

@Nemevv 2 года назад

@@louclarcen5690 I'm also 1/8 Luxembourgish and I thought of doing that but it seems complicated. You have to provide all birth/marriage/death certificates of all your ancestors from 1900 if I'm not mistaken.

@shitrider4987 2 года назад

Thank's Paul, great video! It's fascinating how a dialect can become a "different language" while the original is still around and it's right there across the river! This always brings the question back around what a language actually is - a dialect with an army and a navy.😄😄😄

@humdrumyokel9890 2 года назад

Then ... Luxembourgish would not be a language yet ... it seems to me that thy still do not have any navy.

@shitrider4987 2 года назад

@@humdrumyokel9890 Yeah well... I personally think the language-dialect question shoud only be important for the linguistic science community. For us normal people it's OK to call it either way.😄

@linkedius2532 2 года назад

Thank you Langfocus for consistently bringing interesting videos🙏🏼

@alexis7845 2 года назад

I am one of those non-native residents that Paul mentioned in the beginning of the video. At work I speak mostly English and French (I am a lawyer and all laws here are written in French) and at home my native first language. Whenever I hear Luxembourgish spoken by people around me I always have this odd feeling of my brain trying to tell me that it hears German, and that it should understand at least SOME portion of what has been said. Without success! 😅 I definitely will learn Luxembourgish though!

@OHHnoYOUdidntMAN 8 месяцев назад

this is interesting, what kind of lawyer work do you do? 🤔

@dd.mm.ll. 2 года назад

Hello from Trier, Germany to my neighbours from Luxembourg 🇱🇺🇩🇪 -------------- Hallo aus Trier, Deutschland an meine Nachbar:innen aus Luxemburg 🇱🇺🇩🇪 -------------- Salut de Trèves, Allemagne à mes voisins de Luxembourg 🇱🇺🇩🇪 Sadly, I don't speak Luxembourgish, but when I'm there I do feel like in a language paradise 🤣

@NebuchadnezzaR420 2 года назад

It would be: "Moien aus Tréier, Däitschland un meng Nooperen aus Lëtzebuerg"

@dd.mm.ll. 2 года назад

@@NebuchadnezzaR420 Good to know. Thank you a lot!

@NebuchadnezzaR420 2 года назад

@@dd.mm.ll. and that would be "Gutt ze wëssen. Ech soën Ierch villmols merci!" I hope you come and visit us! Our country needs more friendly people like you!

@morganrickards3811 2 года назад

This is hilarious because when I worked in a restaurant some customers were speaking and I stopped and listened and said 'the language you're speaking sounds like french and german' and they were surprised that I picked up on it and we're proud to tell me it's Luxembourgish Made their day when I told them I speak some French

@raidcrhonos 2 года назад

I'm always excited for new Geofocus videos, thanks for reviving it

@keigezellig 2 года назад

It's also similar to Limburgish dialects spoken in the south of the Netherlands. As a Limburgish speaker myself i can quite easily understand Luxemburgish (although it has a German 'flavour' to my ears)

@sdrtcacgnrjrc 2 года назад

I'm a native English speaker living in the Pfalz (Germany). I only visited Luxembourg briefly but the Luxembourgish I heard was reminiscent of the Pfälzisch dialect

@sdrtcacgnrjrc 2 года назад

I have heard some locals (in Pfalz) say they learned their first foreign language when they go to kindergarten -- meaning the official hoch Deutsch...

@nolongerlistless 2 года назад

Re-watching Edgar Reitz’s Heimat film series is a great deal easier after learning a smattering of Lëtzebuergesch!

@SoWhat89 2 года назад

I live across the border in Germany and speak it on a daily the only difference being it's not an official here, as mentioned in the video. Yet my dialect has been slightly more influenced by Standard German over the years due to it trampled on since it's "only a dialect". We should have the same respect for it as our Luxemburgish neighbors do.

@yanjulio 2 года назад

In Flemish there's something similar to the Eifeler rule. They also say "Den hond" but they ommit pronouncing the "h" at all.

@hugohosman2219 2 года назад

That is quite common in Noord-Brabant(South of the Netherlands) as well in very informal settings

@terrybaker8156 2 года назад

3:30 This was excellent timing because RTL hosted the Eurovision Song Contest that year, on May 5th, and the host Desirée Nosbusch did some of her presentation in Luxembourgish.

@ericcarlson3746 2 года назад

what could be more Luxembourgish than a fine french first name like Desirée and a last name like Nosbusch

@terrybaker8156 2 года назад

@@ericcarlson3746 My name is Terry Baker and I’m from the Netherlands, so?

@MrMemo77full 2 года назад

Having lived in Luxemborug for for years now, I only recently started learning it. I try to use it for small interactions (e.g. at the supermarket or bakery, especially in smaller towns). In general, at a restaurant or store for a 'serious' purchase (i.e. more than groceries), I would use French.

@jinengi 2 года назад

That's kinda sad...

@sdrtcacgnrjrc 2 года назад

Is that because your French is better?

@igeljaeger 2 года назад

@@jinengi luxembourg's existence is sad as it is

@jinengi 2 года назад

@@igeljaeger huh?

@enos1648 2 года назад

@@igeljaeger how so?

@ziizion4074 2 года назад

As a Swiss German speaker I've noticed that Luxembourgish actually shares a lot of similarities and is quite easy to understand!

@katherinemaas6712 2 года назад

Excellent video, as always! Fascinating how so many dialects persist in Europe.

@luxair1997andTAP 2 года назад

Finally, I was waiting for this episode for a long time!! 👏🏻

@asterpolaris07 2 года назад

Thank you for your video Paul! I was very surprised seeing this today! I speak Luxembourgish as my mother tongue at home and in most casual conversations with friends. In my professional life I speak and read/write mostly French, speak Luxembourgish or sometimes German/English. I studied in Germany for 5 years and was often asked if it’s possible as a speaker of German to work in Luxembourg and while it is doable, I always said to be careful not to rely on German or Luxembourgish even if you understand and speak the language. In reality, we use a lot more French in professional and daily conversations and I’ve seen and lived the struggle with French (especially after speaking mostly German for 5 years away from home 😅)

@bongatumtum 2 года назад

This is fascinating! When you were in Germany, did you have to adapt how you spoke German to speak Hochdeutsch or did you just speak in Luxembourgish and avoid French words? Also, for your French, do you think it would be noticeable that your French is different from, say a person who speaks native Metropolitan French?

@asterpolaris07 2 года назад

@@bongatumtum German is taught since the first year in primary school in Luxembourg, so I learned it quite early and never had any issues with it since it’s not much different from Luxembourgish. I always spoke Hochdeutsch in Germany. With some people you might have an accent in their Hochdeutsch, which I didn’t have luckily, but I did sometimes get stuck on finding words in German that are French loan words in Luxembourgish. For example in Luxemburgish for « drawer » I say « Tirang » which is a cognate to « tiroir » in French. So I could never ever remember the German word « Schublade » and would go « uh uh you know that thing… »😂

@asterpolaris07 2 года назад

@@bongatumtum As for the French I think it depends on your French speaking background and family situation, but I would say that the French I learned at school (2nd year of primary school) is the standard variant and I do have more of an Luxembourgish/German accent in French, since I wasn’t as exposed to French as a child outside of school. I hope I could answer some things?

@berzerk3018 2 года назад

@@asterpolaris07 Struggling for words I know as French loanwords is super relatable 😂

@onurbschrednei4569 2 года назад

That’s kinda sad that you can’t work in your mother tongue in your own country.. Sounds like Luxembourg is endangered

@gyara7329 2 года назад

Good on Luxembourg for making its dialect standard. I like seeing stuff like that.

@devenscience8894 2 года назад

Great episode! Thanks to you and your channel, Paul.

@chadbailey7038 2 года назад

I’ve been waiting for this video! Such great information 👏🏾

@Ssarevok 2 года назад

I speak fluent German and when I head Luxemburgisch, my brian goes "This is German, we can understand this" based on the tone of the language, but then when I listen, I can only understand a word here or there. :o

@buck6365 2 года назад

Years ago, while on the train back from the Netherlands I had a woman sitting next to me talking on the phone. I was really confused what language she was talking in, sounded like a thick German accent sometimes, but sometimes also like French. So eventually I asked and it turned out she was from Luxembourg. The sentences in the video were easy to understand and sounded very familiar to me, coming from southwestern Germany. In daily speech it's probably a bit harder to understand. Really well researched video, btw, especially regarding the differences between casual and standard German.

@amiirezashojaee5291 2 года назад

Love you Paul, been following your content for almost 5 years now, keep it up friend.

@christophedegrott3582 2 года назад

"Gudde Moien Jiddereen" - Good morning to everyone 😄 Great interesting video 👍

@wordofswords5386 Год назад

As an American European continent is fascinating. So many languages and culture.

@alexger85 2 года назад

As a German from the Rhineland, I am able to understand most of Letzeburgisch, but I need to pay a lot of attention. A friend of mine from the Saarland, which has a similar dialect, finds it much easier to understand everything. I on the other hand don't have problems understanding Dutch/Flemish, with which he struggles.

@sallyvin3237 Год назад

Funny, with my grandpa being from the cologne Bonn region and me growing up close to the Dutch boarder I would say I can fairly understand both. But I get what u mean! I also have to commit more than only one ear in order to create a conversation! ;)

@melina9551 2 года назад

you did such an amzing research! Thank you for doing research about this !

@_Username__ 2 года назад

Hey man, remembered you and just thought to come back to see if you are still uploading Thanks, you are helping humanity

@thomashein4724 2 года назад

I love the sound of Luxembourgish. When you listen to it with native German speakers ears, has a funny and relaxed element like someone speaking German being slightly drunk. This feeling is supported by `keeping in mind the fact that the neighboring German Eifel/Mosel is a big wine producer and beer producer.

@tkyf4064 2 года назад

Quite easy to understand from a Dutch perspective, Luxembourgish sounds mixed between German and Dutch, very nice video!

@jimihough6332 2 года назад

The production of this video is next level Paul. Amazing video.

@Langfocus 2 года назад

Thank you, Jimi.

@xiaomarou9890 2 года назад

I live in Bavaria and I understood every sample sentence, not always word by word, but out of context.

@chauffeur7838 2 года назад

I live right next to Luxembourg and my home dialect (Moselle Franconian) is actually pretty much like Luxembourgish, it's also heavily influenced by French, so it was rather easy for me when I started learning Luxembourgish at university.

@arrowackskorsou8194 2 года назад

Dutch "mijn hond" sounds exactly the same as in Luxembourgish! 😱

@louisz4912 2 года назад

Beautiful video! It was so interesting to see you compare German and Luxembourgish and I will definitely use this video in the future to explain to my international friends what Luxembourgish is about. I am one of the Luxembourgish people who grew up in a bilingual household, speaking Luxembourgish and French at home as my mother immigrated from France. Luxembourgish was the language I used when meeting up with friends, at school (between people, classes themselves were mostly taught in French or German depending on the class), doing sports, going to club activities and scouting. My sibling and I would rapidly switch between French and Luxembourgish at home depending on our mood, and what language felt easier to express what we were thinking. My parents enforced a "Luxembourgish family speaks Luxembourgish with the kids" rule for the Luxembourgish side of the family to ensure that we would establish a clear distinction between the two languages. It worked well for my older sibling, but not so well for me. For the first 2-3 years of my life, I spoke a weird mix of French and Luxembourgish. Starting public school quickly led to this mix-up being solved. It is quite natural for Luxembourgish people to rapidly switch between the languages, even slotting in words from French or German when we forget a word in Luxembourgish. I often catch myself assuming that everybody who speaks Luxembourgish automatically also is fully fluent in French and in German (which is often, but not always the case). A funny fact about Luxembourg is that even Luxembourgish people end up speaking other languages to each other without meaning to. This mostly happens in situations with customer service involved (restaurants, shops, etc). Due to the high international population and a large number of border workers, it is quite common for us to use French or German in these environments. Often, we end up defaulting to these languages during these types of interactions, until the "Oh wait, you speak Luxembourgish?" moment happens and then we switch to Luxembourgish.

@bytheway1031 2 года назад

Another great video. Thanks Paul!

@khangvutien2538 2 года назад

Excellent video. Accurate description. Actually, I have friends living in the Northern part of the region colored in brown and numbered 30, in the map shown at 3:54, who also speak natively Luxembourgish, in Thionville, Creutzwald more precisely BTW, at 6:58, the Eifeler rule to drop the “n” also exists in Modern Greek. 😉 And to answer to your question, as Luxembourg’s resident, Vietnamese origin, French national (yes, Luxembourg is multicultural 😉) I speak mostly French at home. I speak English when doing zoom calls, Vietnamese, Spanish and Italian with friends, and Luxembourgish at the Post Office and the Gare.

@PainterVierax 2 года назад

Yes that map is not accurate in its French part. This brown color doesn't depict the variety of Franconian/German dialects spoken in Alsace-Moselle.

@Xezlec 2 года назад

That's an awful lot of words to remember!

@Pit1993x 2 года назад

Another interesting very small difference between Luxembourgish and German would be how you can start certain types of sentences in German without using an article but can't in Luxembourgish. Example: English: Paul took the train. German: Paul hat den Zug genommen. Lux.: De Paul huet den Zuch geholl. While you could add the article "Der" to the beginning of the German sentence and it would still be correct (though outside of certain contexts you wouldn't really do that), you absolutely cannot drop the article in Luxembourgish. ^^ Though you could say: English: He took the train. German: Er hat den Zug genommen. Lux.: Hien huet den Zuch geholl. About the question on what Languages I use and how much. I mostly use Luxembourgish throughout the day, both to talk to family & friends as well as co-workers. The main language I'm using at work is English though (Air traffic controller). Written language is a different beast entirely. When writing with family & friends, we often write in English because it oftentimes shortens sentences by about 1/3 and is generally faster. But when talking about a more sensitive topic or when something has happened to someone or when showing concern, we usually switch back to Luxembourgish. We also do code-switching between Lux., English, German and French depending on the situation or because there are jokes and/or puns you can only do in a certain language or by combining the languages (like puns that have jokes on multiple layers because we know the different languages). :)

@mathieuplaquevent5771 2 года назад

@Pit1993x I think i can response to your question in your message. We can say in German: Paul hat den Zug genommen. But you can still say: Der Paul hat den Zug genommen. Its like in English, we say: Paul took the train. But you can say to: The Paul took the Plane. The same in French: Paul a pris l'avion. Le Paul a pris l'avion. (Its a little weird to say Le Paul. This is why we dont say the "Le") It means that in Luxemburgish we can say: Paul huet de Zuch geholl. But in Luxemburg, they love to say : "De Paul". Its a little more... clean? (Sorry i'm bad in English. Im French)

@Pit1993x 2 года назад

@@mathieuplaquevent5771 I didn't really pose a question, it was a statement. I'm a native speaker of Luxembourgish and I speak German fluently as well (as most Luxembourgers do of course ^^). You really can NOT say in Luxembourgish "Paul huet den Zuch geholl.", it doesn't work. The article is absolutely mandatory making it "De Paul huet den Zuch geholl." That's why I was comparing it to German, where you can do the sentence either way (with or without article, both are correct) but in Luxembourgish you have to use the article. Without it the sentence doesn't work. :) Maybe you misunderstood something because my explanation was in English, but no worries. I appreciate the effort! :) Even if you're bad in English you still tried and that's worth a lot! I'm bad in French, so I know how it feels. ;)

@BaluDerBaer933 2 года назад

Impressive, so extensive and detailed! Thank you!

@flaviosouza4449 2 года назад

Greetings from Rio de Janeiro! I love your channel!

@igordemetriusalencar5861 2 года назад

As a Portuguese (br) native speaker, and also a french and german speaker for me Luxembourgish is really pleasant and comfortable to hear and a beautiful language.

@Thinkingman69 Год назад

Thats very nice to hear. In case you don't know this, Luxembourg has a very large lusophone community. Around 18% of our population have Portuguese citizenship/ancestry. In fact, Portuguese has become so widespread that the Lux government publishes documents in Portuguese as well, even though it doesn't have any official status.

@19andy90x 2 года назад

Great video😃 I'm from the German border to Luxembourg and grew up with local dialects. I can understand the language and recently it's used in more and more media (there's even a dub of "The Simpsons"😃). The main differences to my dialect would be a higher amount of French loanwords and a different accent. Overall I really enjoy the language☺️

@louisdewit4429 Год назад

Very comprehensive video. Thanks.

@hankwilliams150 2 года назад

I am SO glad I watched this. I have always wondered what the language was like and now I know a lot more.Thanks!

@Langfocus 2 года назад

That’s great to hear! I’m glad it was helpful. 🙂

@michelleken. 2 года назад

So as you can see it's more politically its own language than it is linguistically. Linguistically it's more like a German dialect. It's actually just like Afrikaans to Dutch is. Linguistically seen it's actually a Dutch dialect (even closer to standard Dutch than some other Dutch dialects), but politically seen it's also its own language being standardized, and adapted as the official "language" of South Africa. They're actually both standardized dialects used as official languages of a certain country or region. (Please do not take any offense to this if you speak Afrikaans or Luxembourgish. I'm really not meaning to be contemptuously about these languages; on the contrary, I think they are very beautiful and unique and I would even like to learn them one day. But I just consider them - purely and only linguistically - to be the same language as the mentioned ones (and thus/hence not really "a part of..." or "belonging to ..." a certain language).)

@jmp9035 2 года назад

Never apologise for speaking facts.

@leoissomething6603 2 года назад

I mean yea it's mostly political, but that's cause we don't want to be German, they literally tried to erase our "language" and we don't culturally identify with them, so in Luxembourg people obviously take offense when you call it a German dialect, because the Germans considered it as seperate enough in WW2 to try and force the people to speak differently and identify as German. So as you said, it's political, but pointing out that it's just a german dialect stings and is kind of hurtful towards the country's history. No offense, just wanted to state that.

@jmp9035 2 года назад

@@leoissomething6603 but it IS a German dialect though just like Bavarian or Swiss German. Luxembourgish is moselle German which derived from Franconian. you cant just coin a new language just because you so happen to have a constructed border and a convenient document called a passport.

@leoissomething6603 2 года назад

@@jmp9035 so for you, at what point does a dialect become a language? I mean would you consider neapolitan different from italian, cause Im guessing you wouldnt, yet it is very different, how different does it have to be for you to consider it a different language? Because Fyi, there are 3 mostly distinct "German languages", Flat German in the North, Middle German in well the Middle and High German, different from "Hoch Deutsch" in the south. Linguists consider that they could be 3 different languages, so in other words, German is not a language. See how your anology makes no sense. German also only exists as a language because of politics.

2 года назад

@@leoissomething6603 You take that argument to an extra because you feel attacked. If you take your question, is someone comming from the German of your border speaking its local dialect or your language?

@arkady714 2 года назад

Brilliant video and spot on! Just to add a little something, the Luxembourg dialect of English (in a sense) contains two words that aren't from the English language: gare and cave (kahv). An English speaker in Luxembourg never uses the word "train station." Instead, we use the French "gare" as in "Let's take the train to Trier. I'll meet you at the gare at 13:00." "Cave," as in cellar... Most every apartment one rents in the capital comes with cellar space in the building's basement. "My new flat is nice and spacious and it comes with a decent sized 'cave'." The Brits, Irish and Yanks who live in Luxembourg always use these words. We also greet each other with either "moien" or "bonjour." Besides "adii," there is also "avvah," a variation of "au revoir." We use this too!

@ziggystardust3060 2 года назад

Great video! Many years ago I stayed with a family in Ansembourg, and almost ended up living there. The father of my friend was actually commissioned to compile the first official Luxembourgish dictionary. Needless to say, they were very interesting hosts, and I had a wonderful time there.

@rustypadhraigdiarmuidseano3192 2 года назад

Fascinating as always Paul. Love ya

@edipires15 2 года назад

Thank you for the video. To answer the question of the day: As a naturalized Luxembourger, I admit that I don’t use Luxembourgish as much as the other languages (French, English, even my mother tongue Portuguese). It really depends on who you socialize with. Most of my friends here, like me, were not born in Luxembourg and/or didn’t do all of their school here, where Luxembourgish is used on a regular basis. So for us it’s not a language of choice for casual conversation. Also, since most, if not all of the people here are at least bilingual, the language of choice is usually one that causes least friction in a conversation, and it’s normal to switch languages during a conversation (we can start a sentence in one language and finish it in an other). I only use Luxembourgish when I have to do some administrative tasks at my municipality, but I should use it more often.

@louclarcen5690 2 года назад

YES! Just became a citizen of Luxembourg through my Luxembourgish ancestry. Next on my list to learn.

@Langfocus 2 года назад

Congratulations!