57-453: Dommeldange ( Luxembourgish : Dummeldeng , pronounced [ˈduməldeŋ] ; German : Dommeldingen ) is a quarter in north-eastern Luxembourg City , in southern Luxembourg . As of 31 December 2023, the quarter has a population of 2,951 inhabitants. Since the 17th century, Dommeldange was a metal production site under the Ancien Régime , using charcoal from
114-417: A dialect continuum of gradual change. Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are generally not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects (or at least other West Central German dialects). They can usually read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is relatively easy to understand and speak Luxembourgish as far as
171-720: A partnership limited by shares with an initial capital of 5 million francs, named "Forges d’Eich, Metz & Cie". The fact that the forge masters had access to an experienced workforce, inhabiting the nearby areas of Weimerskirch , Beggen , Walferdange , Eich and Muhlenbach , was probably helpful in the decision to establish the works in Dommeldange rather than Esch-sur-Alzette . "Forges d’Eich, Metz & Cie" decided, in an extraordinary general meeting in January 1866, to initially build two blast furnaces that used coke in Dommeldange. These processed minette from Esch, Rumelange and Kayl, that
228-594: A doctor and obtained an appointment as a police court clerk, which he kept until May 1879. During these twelve years, besides the work of a busy police court, which brought him into intimate contact with social problems, he found time to study chemistry , and attended lectures at the Birkbeck Institute (which later became Birkbeck College ). George Chaloner, the chemistry teacher at the Institute, remarked one evening that "the man who eliminates phosphorus by means of
285-442: A few nominal phrases such as der Däiwel ("the devil") and eiser Herrgott ("our Lord"). Rare examples of the genitive are also found: Enn des Mounts ("end of the month"), Ufanks der Woch ("at the beginning of the week"). The functions of the genitive are normally expressed using a combination of the dative and a possessive determiner: e.g. dem Mann säi Buch (lit. "to the man his book", i.e. "the man's book"). This
342-481: A maximum of some 285,000 native speakers, resources in the language like books, newspapers, magazines, television, internet etc. are limited. Since most Luxembourgers also speak Standard German and French, there is strong competition with these languages, which both have large language resources. Because of this, the use of Luxembourgish remains limited. Luxembourgish belongs to the West Central German group of
399-553: A residence in Egypt proved unavailing in restoring his health; he died in Paris in 1885 and was buried at Passy . He had what William Ewart Gladstone , in a review of the Memoirs published in 1891, described as an "enthusiasm of humanity," and he left his fortune to be used for philanthropic work. A police court mission was endowed in his memory. In July 1960 an obelisk dedicated to his memory
456-543: A technical difficulty which risked becoming a question of life and death for the steel industry of Luxembourg and Lorraine. It is therefore not surprising that the forge master Emile Metz and his chief chemist, Jean Meyer, were among the first European steel producers to acquire, in April 1879, a licence for Metz & Cie to use the patent by the British inventor Sidney Gilchrist Thomas for a method to dephosphorise cast iron, as soon as
513-576: Is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg . About 300,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized 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
570-718: Is currently also the only political party in Luxembourg that wishes to implement written laws also in Luxembourgish and that wants Luxembourgish to be an officially recognized language of the European Union . In this context, in 2005, then- Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn of the LSAP rejected a demand made by the ADR to make Luxembourgish an official language of the EU, citing financial reasons and
627-457: Is formed using the adverb méi : e.g. schéin → méi schéin The superlative involves a synthetic form consisting of the adjective and the suffix -st : e.g. schéin → schéin st (compare German schönst , English prettiest ). Attributive modification requires the emphatic definite article and the inflected superlative adjective: Predicative modification uses either the same adjectival structure or
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#1732902193089684-671: Is known as a periphrastic genitive , and is a phenomenon also commonly seen in dialectal and colloquial German, and in Dutch. The forms of the personal pronouns are given in the following table (unstressed forms appear in parentheses): The 2pl form is also used as a polite singular (like French vous , see T-V distinction ); the forms are capitalised in writing: Like most varieties of colloquial German, but even more invariably, Luxembourgish uses definite articles with personal names. They are obligatory and not to be translated: A feature Luxembourgish shares with only some western dialects of German
741-536: Is quite similar to that of Standard German . Luxembourgish has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and three cases ( nominative , accusative , and dative ). These are marked morphologically on determiners and pronouns . As in German, there is no morphological gender distinction in the plural. The forms of the articles and of some selected determiners are given below: As seen above, Luxembourgish has plural forms of en ("a, an"), namely eng in
798-416: Is that women and girls are most often referred to with forms of the neuter pronoun hatt : Adjectives show a different morphological behaviour when used attributively and predicatively . In predicative use, e.g. when they occur with verbs like sinn ("to be"), adjectives receive no extra ending: In attributive use, i.e. when placed before the noun they describe, they change their ending according to
855-894: Is the primary language of 48% of the population. It is also spoken in the Arelerland region of Belgium (part of the Province of Luxembourg ) and in small parts of Lorraine in France . In the German Eifel and Hunsrück regions, similar local Moselle Franconian dialects of German are spoken. The language is also spoken by a few descendants of Luxembourg immigrants in the United States and Canada . Other Moselle Franconian dialects are spoken by ethnic Germans long settled in Transylvania , Romania (Siebenbürgen). Moselle Franconian dialects outside
912-594: The Bessemer converter will make his fortune." This caught the attention of Thomas, and he set himself the task of solving the problem of eliminating phosphorus from iron produced by Bessemer converters. By the end of 1875 he was convinced that he had discovered a method. He communicated his theory to his cousin, Percy Gilchrist , who was a chemist at the former Blaenavon Ironworks , Blaenavon in Wales, and experiments were made which proved satisfactory. Edward Martin, manager of
969-709: The Gilchrist–Thomas process , was especially valuable on the continent of Europe, where the proportion of phosphoric iron is much larger than in Britain, and both in Belgium and in Germany the name of the inventor became more widely known than in his own country. In the United States, although non-phosphoric iron largely predominated, immense interest was taken in the invention. The improved process resulted in much more slag forming in
1026-679: The High German languages and is the primary example of a Moselle Franconian language . Furthermore, it is closely related to Transylvanian Saxon which has been spoken since the High Middle Ages by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , present-day central Romania . Luxembourgish is considered the national language of Luxembourg and also one of the three administrative languages, alongside German and French . In Luxembourg, 77% of residents can speak Luxembourgish, and it
1083-639: The Rhineland . The Dommeldange factory generated substantial profits in the years 1868–1873, which allowed the Metz & Cie directors to finance the construction of a second large iron works, this time in the heart of the mining basin, in Esch-sur-Alzette. This also had four blast furnaces using coke, and was built from 1870 in partnership with the Tesch family, who were business partners of the Metz family. In order to assure
1140-541: The "Elimination of Phosphorus in the Bessemer Converter" for the autumn meeting of this institute, but it was not read until May 1879. Thomas, however, made the acquaintance of Edward Windsor Richards , the manager of Bolckow Vaughan & Co's works at Cleveland, Yorkshire, whom he interested in the process, and from this time the success of the invention was assured and domestic and foreign patents were taken out. The "basic process" invented by Thomas, also known as
1197-551: The Blaenavon Works, gave facilities for conducting the experiments on a larger scale and undertook to help in taking out a patent . In March 1878, the first public announcement of the discovery was made at the meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute; Thomas and Gilchrist took out a patent in May, but without attracting much attention. In September a paper was written by Thomas and Gilchrist on
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#17329021930891254-605: The Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loanwords, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution. The political party that places the greatest importance on promoting, using and preserving Luxembourgish is the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) and its electoral success in the 1999 election pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion for naturalisation . It
1311-525: The Martin model, as a first refinement of the Thomas cast iron, as well as four electric induction furnaces. Electric steel production lent itself to the manufacture of very pure steel, with a high degree of tenacity. With alloys of nickel, chrome, molybdenum, cobalt, or vanadium, one could obtain different qualities of steel with high durability, increasing the breaking point. These fine steels were particularly suited to
1368-431: The adoption of the "OLO" ( ofizjel lezebuurjer ortografi ) on 5 June 1946. This orthography provided a system for speakers of all varieties of Luxembourgish to transcribe words the way they pronounced them, rather than imposing a single, standard spelling for the words of the language. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography ( e.g. , the use of ⟨ ä ⟩ and ⟨ ö ⟩ ,
1425-437: The adverbial structure am + - sten : e.g. schéin → am schéinsten : Some common adjectives have exceptional comparative and superlative forms: Several other adjectives also have comparative forms, not commonly used as normal comparatives, but in special senses: Luxembourgish exhibits "verb second" word order in clauses. More specifically, Luxembourgish is a V2 - SOV language , like German and Dutch. In other words, we find
1482-430: The atmosphere, their rational use for energy production made it possible to electrically power a variety of motors and production works. The future belonged to large integrated factories with a closed electric circuit. Without a steelworks or rolling mills, the question of the future of Dommeldange's cast iron works became all the more urgent since the sales price of cast iron showed a long-term downward trend. The goals of
1539-798: The basis of the standard orthography that became official on 10 October 1975. Modifications to this standard were proposed by the Permanent Council of the Luxembourguish language and adopted officially in the spelling reform of 30 July 1999. A detailed explanation of current practice for Luxembourgish can be found in Schanen & Lulling (2003). The Luxembourgish alphabet consists of the 26 Latin letters plus three letters with diacritics: ⟨é⟩ , ⟨ä⟩ , and ⟨ë⟩ . In loanwords from French and Standard German, other diacritics are usually preserved: In German loanwords,
1596-674: The capitalisation of nouns). Similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords. This proposed orthography, so different from existing "foreign" standards that people were already familiar with, did not enjoy widespread approval. A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating the Luxemburger Wörterbuch , published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this decades-long project, set out in Bruch (1955), provided
1653-575: The converter. Thomas discovered that this "basic slag" could be useful and profitable as a phosphate fertiliser , known as Thomas meal. In 1883, jointly with George James Snelus , who had previously discovered the process but had failed to develop it, he was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal of the Iron and Steel Institute for their work on dephosphorisation. Thomas had been overworking for years, and his lungs became affected. A long sea voyage and
1710-404: The decisive redevelopment of the steelworks of Dommeldange, implemented after the turn of the century by the engineer Emile Bian, were therefore the specialisation of the manufacturing process and the modernisation of the production works. In 1901 the two old blast furnaces I and II were demolished and replaced by a new blast furnace with a production capacity of 100 tonnes per day. In terms of using
1767-521: The digraphs ⟨ eu ⟩ and ⟨ äu ⟩ indicate the diphthong /oɪ/ , which does not appear in native words. Like many other varieties of Western High German, Luxembourgish has a rule of final n -deletion in certain contexts. The effects of this rule (known as the "Eifel Rule") are indicated in writing, and therefore must be taken into account when spelling words and morphemes ending in ⟨n⟩ or ⟨nn⟩ . For example: The consonant inventory of Luxembourgish
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1824-581: The early 20th century, electro-metallurgy was still in its infancy, and the works of Dommeldange should be regarded as one of the pioneering works of electro-metallurgy in Europe. After having performed tests in an induction oven of the Röchling-Rodenhauser type, adapted from the prototype developed by the Swede Mr Kjellin, the directors of the factory proceeded in 1908 to establish two tilting furnaces on
1881-515: The end, the directors of Metz & Cie opted to establish a new works in Dudelange, with Jean Meyer, the chief chemist at Dommeldange, as its manager. The foundation of the Hauts Fourneaux et Forges de Dudelange ("Blast Furnaces and Foundries of Dudelange") in 1882 brought about the construction of the first large integrated works comprising blast furnaces, a Thomas steelworks and rolling mills. For
1938-399: The everyday vocabulary is concerned. The large number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics or with certain speakers (those who use many terms taken from French). A number of proposals for standardising the orthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, going back to the middle of the 19th century. There was no officially recognised system until
1995-426: The first time, the realisation of Metz & Cie's strategic development goals had turned out to the detriment of Dommeldange. 20 years later, the steelworks of Dommeldange again faced a major challenge. The focus on powerful gas-powered machines in blast furnaces, at the turn of the 19th/20th century, would revolutionise technology in steel production. While the gases emitted by blast furnaces had hitherto been lost in
2052-465: The following finite clausal structures: Non-finite verbs (infinitives and participles) generally appear in final position: These rules interact so that in subordinate clauses, the finite verb and any non-finite verbs must all cluster at the end. Luxembourgish allows different word orders in these cases: This is also the case when two non-finite verb forms occur together: Luxembourgish (like Dutch and German) allows prepositional phrases to appear after
2109-405: The gases from the blast furnaces, two gas plants with electricity generators were established in 1904 and 1907. The surplus of electricity was then sold by a supply contract to the city of Luxembourg, in the form of alternating current with a tension of 5000 volts. Finally and above all, it was decided to establish an electric steelworks and to re-orient production towards special forms of steel. In
2166-428: The grammatical gender, number and case of the noun: The definite article changes with the use of an attributive adjective: feminine d' goes to déi (or di ), neuter d' goes to dat , and plural d' changes to déi . The comparative in Luxembourgish is formed analytically, i.e. the adjective itself is not altered (compare the use of - er in German and English; tall → taller , klein → kleiner ). Instead it
2223-467: The nearby Grünewald and obtaining ore from sediment deposits from surrounding lands, which were heated in kilns. From 1845, the Metz family of businessmen and industrialists, started to set up blast furnaces and foundries in the neighbouring district of Eich , where they were to experiment with using coke and oolite iron ore with a high phosphorus content, known as minette . The mining and use of minette in
2280-408: The news of its invention became known in Europe. Together with the inventor and with the German metallurgist Joseph Massenez, Jean Meyer, chief scientist at the Dommeldange works, subsequently proceeded to empirically analyse the first tests of the Thomas procedure in Europe. It was for this reason that Sidney Gilchrist Thomas came to Dommeldange several times during 1879–1881 to meet with Jean Meyer. It
2337-503: The nominative/accusative and engen in the dative. They are not used as indefinite articles, which—as in German and English—do not exist in the plural, but they do occur in the compound pronouns wéi en ("what, which") and sou en ("such"). For example: wéi eng Saachen ("what things"); sou eng Saachen ("such things"). Moreover, they are used before numbers to express an estimation: eng 30.000 Spectateuren ("some 30,000 spectators"). Distinct nominative forms survive in
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2394-550: The operation of the Esch works, numerous foremen and foundrymen were transferred from Dommeldange to Esch. After the panic of 1873 and the ensuing depression , it seemed that the rise of the Luxembourgish steel industry was hampered by the impossibility of transforming cast iron made of oolite ore into steel, using the Bessemer process , and of ensuring a reliable mass production. The high phosphorus content of minette caused problems,
2451-405: The population and the dissemination of the language through mass media such as radio and television are leading to a gradual standardisation towards a "Standard Luxembourgish" through the process of koineization . There is no distinct geographic boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects (for example, Lorraine Franconian ); it instead forms
2508-527: The production of machine tools and were used in mechanical construction, the automobile industry, aeronautics and the arms industry. At the Dommeldange works the electrically produced steel was cast into bars, or taken to the steel foundry where moulded pieces were produced. Luxembourgish language Luxembourgish ( / ˈ l ʌ k s əm b ɜːr ɡ ɪ ʃ / LUK -səm-bur-ghish ; also Luxemburgish , Luxembourgian , Letzebu(e)rgesch ; endonym : Lëtzebuergesch [ˈlətsəbuəjəʃ] )
2565-507: The railway station be constructed on the Bonnevoie plateau, within reach of the fortress's cannons. Considering the connection to the railway to be indispensable to the profitable running of a cast-iron works, Norbert Metz decided to build a new factory immediately by the Dommeldange station, between the railway track and the Alzette. To this effect, the Metz family on 24 August 1865 established
2622-464: The south of the country soared in the 1850s and gave the works in Eich an upturn. However, the route finally chosen for the construction of the northern railway line in the late 1850s would change the circumstances for the Eich works. Rather than passing via Septfontaines and Muhlenbach , as originally planned, it went via the right bank of the Alzette river. The Prussian military authorities had insisted that
2679-572: The standard varieties in Germany , Austria or Switzerland . 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
2736-574: The sufficiency of official German and French . A similar proposal by the ADR was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024. There are several distinct dialect forms of Luxembourgish including Areler (from Arlon ), Eechternoacher ( Echternach ), Dikrecher ( Diekirch ), Kliärrwer ( Clervaux ), Miseler ( Moselle ), Stater ( Luxembourg ), Veiner ( Vianden ), Minetter (Southern Luxembourg) and Weelzer ( Wiltz ). Further small vocabulary differences may be seen even between small villages. Increasing mobility of
2793-558: The verb cluster in subordinate clauses: Luxembourgish has borrowed many French words. For example, the word for a bus driver is Buschauffeur (as in Dutch and Swiss German ), which would be Busfahrer in German and chauffeur de bus in French. Some words are different from Standard German, but have equivalents in German dialects. An example is Gromperen (potatoes – German: Kartoffeln ). Other words are exclusive to Luxembourgish. Listen to
2850-497: 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 . Luxembourgish
2907-562: The words below. Note: Words spoken in sound clip do not reflect all words on this list. Neologisms in Luxembourgish include both entirely new words, and the attachment of new meanings to old words in everyday speech. The most recent neologisms come from the English language in the fields of telecommunications , computer science , and the Internet . Sidney Gilchrist Thomas Sidney Gilchrist Thomas (16 April 1850 – 1 February 1885)
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#17329021930892964-454: Was also at the Dommeldange works that Meyer did the first tests of mixing iron ore with a view to the production of different qualities of Thomas cast iron in a blast furnace. While Metz & Cie had a licence for the Thomas patent, the company would have needed a steelworks to use the new procedure. In the years 1879–1882, the question then posed itself to the directors of Metz & Cie of what location seemed best-suited for this. The question
3021-500: Was an English inventor, best known for his role in the iron and steel industry. Thomas was born at Canonbury , London , and was educated at Dulwich College . His father, a Welshman, was in the Civil Service , and his mother was the daughter of the Rev. James Gilchrist. His father's death left the family with a considerably reduced income, so Thomas gave up his original idea of becoming
3078-514: Was brought in by rail. the daily output was 40-50 tonnes of raw iron. Already in December 1868, two further blast furnaces were made operational, which more than doubled the daily output. In their first years of operation, they produced around 78,000 tonnes of cast iron, a considerable amount at the time. Dommeldange's iron was brought to market mostly in the industrial area of Charleroi , the Saarland and
3135-475: Was considered a German dialect like many others until about World War II but then it underwent ausbau , creating its own standard form in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling and therefore is seen today as an independent language. Luxembourgish managed to gain linguistic autonomy against a vigorous One Standard German Axiom by being framed as an independent language with a name rather than as a national pluricentric standard variety of German. As Luxembourgish has
3192-634: Was erected in South Wales by the Newport and District Metallurgical Society in conjunction with the Iron and Steel Institute. Financial contributions came from many sources and reflected acknowledgment of his work from the United Kingdom and other countries. The former American Society for Metals , in 1985, struck a commemorative plaque in recognition of the historical importance of the ironworks and honouring his work there. The obelisk and plaque may be seen at
3249-483: Was whether to build a steelworks using the Thomas procedure next to the Dommeldange blast furnaces, or rather to set up a facility in immediate proximity to the iron ore mines of the mining basin. Dommeldange was considered for a time, but was discarded as an option due to the transportation costs of shipping the iron ore. It also turned out that there were legal constraints that hindered the Esch-Schifflange option. In
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