Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish (/ˈlʌksəmbɜːrɡɪʃ/ LUK-səm-bur-ghish; also Luxemburgish, Luxembourgian, Letzebu(e)rgesch; endonym: Lëtzebuergesch [ˈlətsəbuəjəʃ] ⓘ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide.
| Luxembourgish | |
|---|---|
| Lëtzebuergesch | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈlətsəbuəjəʃ] ⓘ |
| Native to | Luxembourg; Saarland and north-west Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany; Arelerland and Saint-Vith district, Belgium; Moselle department, France |
| Region | Western Europe |
| Ethnicity | Luxembourgers |
Native speakers | 300,000 (2024) |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Luxembourg |
Recognised minority language in | Belgium (recognised by the French Community of Belgium) |
| Regulated by | Council for the Luxembourgish Language |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | lb |
| ISO 639-2 | ltz |
| ISO 639-3 | ltz |
| Glottolog | luxe1243 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ACB-db |
The area where Luxembourgish (pale indigo) and other dialects of Moselle Franconian (medium indigo) are spoken. The internal isogloss for words meaning "on, at", i.e. op and of, is also shown (Standard German: auf). | |
The language is a standardized language and officially the 'national language' of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. As such, Luxembourgish is different from the German language also used in the Grand Duchy. The German language exists in a national standard variety of Luxembourg, which is slightly different from the standard varieties in, say, Germany or Austria. Another important language of Luxembourg is French, which had a certain influence on both the national language Luxembourgish and the Luxembourg national variety of German. Luxembourgish, German and French are the three official languages (Amtssprachen) of Luxembourg.
As a standard form of the Moselle Franconian language, Luxembourgish has similarities with other High German dialects and the wider group of West Germanic languages. The status of Luxembourgish as the national language of Luxembourg and the existence there of a regulatory body have removed Luxembourgish, at least in part, from the domain of Standard German, its traditional Dachsprache. It is also related to the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania, contemporary central Romania.