Updated spelling rules for the Luxembourg language to come into effect in 2020
written by Liz Wenger
In November 2019, the Luxembourg Government published their updated spelling rules for the Luxembourgish language, to come into effect in autumn of 2020. Up until then, both spelling versions are correct.
Luxembourgish was recognized as a national language only in 1984, and justifyingly so, as our distinct language is part of what defines the Nation and People of Luxembourg.
Since then, Luxembourgish spelling has undergone several revisions as we are distinguishing the language more and more from how the Germans or French write words and becoming more assertive in our own principles of writing.
In my opinion, this will not be the last update to our orthography and I’m sensing that some of us might get annoyed at the perception of ever-changing Luxembourgish spelling rules and throw in the towel in self-defeat exclaiming “Then I’ll continue writing how I think it is! Everyone will understand anyway”! And that is a choice one is free to make.
Even though I have gotten used to the current Luxembourgish spelling rules, especially since I had to dive in deep when I was writing the Learn Luxembourgish Book, I’m choosing to think that my brain is malleable, hopefully, more malleable than I think, and that I can retrain my brain to overwrite the old habits and learn the new spelling rules. I think I have achieved more difficult things in my life!
One of the best ways of learning something is to teach someone else. So join me on this webpage as I publish spelling rules and updated orthography principles over the coming months.
A brief overview of the main updates to the Luxembourgish spelling to come into effect in 2020, as posted by RTL Today
First off, I’ll copy a brief overview of the biggest spelling changes to come to the Luxembourg orthography as published by RTL Today on October 30, 2019. By clicking on the image, you will be taken straight to the original article.
In 2017, the Ministry of Education (often abbreviated as MEN) in Luxembourg had released a well-thought-out and well-designed campaign to educate us on the most important spelling rules of the Luxembourg language, which I suspect will be updated in the months to come. A lot of the principles explained on that website will continue to be accurate, so it’s still worth having a look: https://portal.education.lu/schreiwen
To read more about the updated spelling rules:
- overview of the spelling rules on wort.lu
- download the PDF version of the updated rules on cpll.lu
- LOD - Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire
- ORTHO-TRAINER - Lëtzebuerger Orthografie-Trainer
- De MED-Site vum LOD - Lëtzebuergesch Wierder aus dem Gesondheetsberäich
- INFOLUX - Fuerschungsportal iwwert d’Lëtzebuergescht
- Spellchecker.lu - Lëtzebuergesch Texter schreiwen a korrigéieren. Online, offline an ënnerwee.
Below I’m posting bite-sized nuggets of spelling rules as I discover them!
