What is Luxembourgish?

Luxembourgish, or Lëtzebuergesch, is the native language of Luxembourgers. Foreigners often tell me it sounds like Dutch but softer. It has kept much of the German grammar and syntax and a lot of its words can be traced back to either German or French.

Isn’t it just a dialect?

Technically no. In 1984, Lëtzebuergesch was established as the national language of Luxembourg and adopted as one of three official languages, alongside German and French. However, the question of when and how a dialect becomes a language is not a simple one to answer.

Liz WengerJanuary 19, 2014Luxembourg culture, Luxembourgish language, Lëtzebuergesch

Start learning Luxembourgish by looking at common verbs

It can be a bit frustrating when you start learning a new language. It just seems that there is so much to learn before knowing even the basics. Where do you start? And how do you know if you’ve made any progress?

Today, we will look at a common-verb list you can find on the Infolux website.

Learn how to use this list whether you're a beginner or advanced learner.

Liz WengerJanuary 2, 2014Learn Luxembourgish, verbs, flash cards Comments

My favourite Kleeschen song

I have never really been one for singing songs until my son was born two and a half years ago. There is nothing more soothing to a crying baby than a song sung by mom and dad (well, a song, and a swaddle, and gently rocking, and a soother, and all the other things you'll try in desperation... ok, you got me).

Nonetheless, I found myself running out of songs I could sing from start to finish pretty fast. So here's to building a repertoire of Luxembourgish songs on the eve of Saint Nicolas day!

Liz WengerDecember 5, 2013Luxembourg culture, Songs, Kleeschen Comments

Luxembourgish culture: Who is Dicks?

Dicks, Luxembourgish writer, poet, lawyer, Prime Minister. He is credited with the writing and producing of the first theater play in the Luxembourgish language, then known as the ‘Luxembourger German dialect’.

Some of the songs that Dicks composed for his plays, are still known and sung today. One example is the song called ‘Ech sinn e groussen Hexemeeschter’ from the operetta ‘D’Mumm Séis oder De Geescht’. Lyrics and English translation to be found here.

Liz WengerNovember 22, 2013Luxembourg culture, Dicks, Songs

Try this memorization technique for verb conjugations

Do you remember verb conjugation from your school days? Reading, covering up the solution, trying to remember the correct answer, writing and re-writing endless lists of verbs... for a lot of people, this was not much fun (even though, depending on your learning preferences, this might actually have worked for you). We will try a different method here so you can see for yourself if that works for you as a primary method of learning Luxembourgish verb conjugations, or maybe just as an occasional change in your language-learning routine.

This method relies on the assumption that language is better learned when we use our imagination and emotions and not simply repeat endless lists of words.

Liz WengerNovember 13, 2013Learn Luxembourgish, memorization, verbs, kommen

Please = wann ech gelift, but what does that mean?

The phrase ‘wann ech gelift’ or ‘wann ech glift’ has even many Luxembourgers confused as to what that actually means. Sure, people use it every day to say ‘please’ but many don't know what it means word by word or where this strange phrase came from.

More about the definition and origin of this phrase.

Liz WengerNovember 4, 2013please, wann ech gelift, Learn Luxembourgish Comment

Ginn, ginn, ginn... how can one word have so many meanings?

A quick look at the online dictionary dico.lu immediately shows how many meanings and expressions this simple word has (I counted 120). In his 2010 book De Sproochmates, the linguaphile Alain Atten alludes to the fact that not even scientific research currently fully understands the many usages of ‘ginn’ since we have not yet been able to track its development over time.

In this post, I would like to give you a short and useful introduction to some of the more important usages of ‘ginn’ that someone starting out to learn Luxembourgish might come across.

Liz WengerOctober 19, 2013goen, ginn, verbs, Luxembourgish grammatical cases, nominative, dative, pronouns, passive

Luxembourgish numbers from 0 to 100

Learn how to count from 0 to 100 in Luxembourgish in three steps:

1. Understand the Luxembourgish counting system

2. Familiarize yourself with the spelling of the numbers

3. Check if you're pronouncing the numbers correctly using the audio files

Liz WengerSeptember 27, 2013Numbers, Learn Luxembourgish Comments

Not every English word has an equivalent in Luxembourgish - and why that makes it fun.

Sometimes it can be frustrating translating from English to Luxembourgish as some words just don’t seem to have a direct equivalent but rather have to be described in half a sentence.

But we have to give some credit to Luxembourgish for being rich in imagination in it’s lengthy descriptions of otherwise simple facts of life.

Liz WengerSeptember 13, 2013Translation, Fun expressions

Why learning Luxembourgish is a good idea

As a foreigner in Luxembourg, you are realizing that you've hardly seen the language written down anywhere and you probably haven't even heard it spoken all that much. But if you want to maximize your time in Luxembourg, make friends and progress at work, Luxembourgish is a useful language to know.

Find out what learning Luxembourgish can do for you.

Liz WengerJuly 20, 2013Why Luxembourgish

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