52-559: The Maulkuerfgesetz ( Luxembourgish for "Muzzle law") ( German : Maulkorbgesetz ; French : Loi muselière ) was a proposed 1937 law in Luxembourg . Officially, it was entitled the "Law for the Defence of the Political and Social Order" ( French : Projet de loi pour la défense de l'ordre politique et social ) but was nicknamed Maulkuerfgesetz by its opponents. The law would have allowed
104-417: 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
156-442: 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
208-688: A focus for the resistance movements in Luxembourg. Charlotte's younger sister Antonia and brother-in-law Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria , were exiled from Germany in 1939. In 1944, living now in Hungary , Crown Princess Antonia was captured when the Germans invaded Hungary and found herself deported to the concentration camp at Dachau , being later transferred to Flossenbürg where she survived torture but only with her health badly impaired. Meanwhile, from 1942 Grand Duchess Charlotte's eldest son, Jean, served as
260-481: 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
312-547: A new constitution that year. In a referendum on 28 September 1919, 77.8% of the Luxembourgish people voted for the continuation of the monarchy with Grand Duchess Charlotte as head of state. However, in the new constitution, the powers of the monarch were severely restricted, thus codifying actual practices dating from the end of the personal union with the Netherlands in 1890. By 1935, Charlotte had sold her German properties,
364-810: A volunteer in the British Army's Irish Guards , after the war becoming its Honorary Colonel-in-chief (1984-2000). In the years after the war, Charlotte showed a lot of public activity which contributed to raising Luxembourg's profile on the international stage, by hosting visits from foreign heads of state and other dignitaries, such as Eleanor Roosevelt (1950), Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (1951), René Coty (1957), King Baudouin of Belgium (1959), King Bhumibol of Thailand (1961), and King Olav V of Norway (1964). Likewise, she visited Pope Pius XII (1950), Charles de Gaulle (1961), and John F. Kennedy (1963). In 1951 Charlotte and her prime minister Pierre Dupong admitted by decree three Swedish relatives into
416-524: 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
468-609: 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
520-457: 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
572-671: 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
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#1732858941294624-536: 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
676-416: 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
728-894: 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
780-612: The BBC . Later she travelled to the United States and to Canada . Her children continued their schooling in Montreal while she had several meetings with President Roosevelt who encouraged her itinerant campaigning across the country in support of his own opposition to isolationism which was a powerful political current until the Pearl Harbor attacks . In the meantime Luxembourg, along with
832-670: The Bech Ministry , the Right Party and the Liberals, were in favour of the law, the opposition (consisting of the Socialists and other left-wing parties) were not. It took almost 3 years until the law's text was clarified. To understand how a party that received just 9% of the vote in the Chamber elections (many of them protest votes) was seen as such a threat that it had to be banned, one must look at
884-679: 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
936-573: The Party of the Right , one of their advocates being the young editor of the Luxemburger Wort , Jean-Baptiste Esch . When communists started to achieve some electoral successes and managed in 1934 to get their general secretary Zénon Bernard elected to the Chamber of Deputies, Bech decided to act. The Chamber invalidated Bernard's election. The pretext was that as a revolutionary, he could not swear an oath on
988-533: The 1930s gave a certain impetus to the Communist Party. Revolutionary ideas gained in popularity among workers in the Red Lands mining area, which started to worry conservatives. As a young Deputy, Joseph Bech had watched the unrest of 1917-1921, which left a profound impression on him. In addition, he was influenced by the same authoritarian and corporatist tendencies which were showing themselves in his own party,
1040-475: The Chamber started on 16 April 1937, and lasted 4 days. On 23 April the law was adopted by a majority (34 votes for, 19 against, 1 abstention). After the vote, however, opposition in the country increased rather than fading away. There was, notably, a large amount of extra-parliamentary opposition organised by the Luxembourg Workers' Party , trade unions and young liberals. The Bech government decided to put
1092-773: The Constitution. As minister for education, Bech had two teachers dismissed who were members of the Communist Party. The origins of the "Law for the defence of the political and social order", also named the Loi Bech after the prime minister Joseph Bech , go back to the year 1934. The government, a coalition of the Right Party and the Radical Liberal Party , put the proposed law to the Chamber of Deputies on 2 May 1935. Little happened from then to December 1936. The parties supporting
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#17328589412941144-785: The Liberals lost some, and the Socialists made gains. The government coalition still possessed a majority of 31 of 55 seats; however, Bech felt rejected by the referendum result. Joseph Bech then offered his government's resignation to the Grand Duchess . The latter did not accept it immediately, and so it took until 5 November 1937 for the new Dupong-Krier Ministry to be sworn in, with Joseph Bech as Foreign Minister, Minister for Wine-growing, and Arts and Sciences. 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] )
1196-605: 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
1248-487: The Luxembourgish government to ban the Communist Party and dissolve any political organisation which they believed might endanger the constitutional institutions. The members of these parties or organisations would be stripped of their political offices and could not be employed by the state or by local governments. The law was rejected in a referendum on 6 June 1937 , and therefore never came into force. The crisis of
1300-512: The adjacent French Moselle department, found itself integrated into an expanded Germany under the name Heim ins Reich , which left Luxembourgers required to speak German and liable for conscription into the German army. In 1943 Grand Duchess Charlotte and the Luxembourg government established themselves in London : her broadcasts became a more regular feature of the BBC schedules, establishing her as
1352-431: 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 ⟩ ,
1404-437: 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
1456-798: 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,
1508-674: 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
1560-521: 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
1612-399: 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
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1664-465: 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
1716-627: The former residential palaces of the Dukes of Nassau , Biebrich Palace and Schloss Weilburg , to the State of Prussia. During World War II the grand ducal family left Luxembourg shortly before the arrival of Nazi troops . Luxembourg's neutrality was violated on 9 May 1940, while the Grand Duchess and her family were in residence at Colmar-Berg . That day she called an extraordinary meeting of her leading ministers, and they all decided to place themselves under
1768-428: 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
1820-572: The matter to a referendum. It was convinced that, with the support of the Luxemburger Wort and the Catholic Church , they would receive the population's assent. To many people's surprise, a slim majority (50,67 %) rejected the law on 6 June 1937. Partial general elections in the Nord and Centre constituencies took place on the same day as the referendum. Here, the Party of the Right kept all its seats,
1872-586: The monarchy with Charlotte as grand duchess. She married Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma on 6 November 1919. They had six children. Following the 1940 German invasion of Luxembourg during World War II , Charlotte went into exile: first in France, then Portugal, Great Britain, and North America. While in Britain, she made broadcasts to the people of Luxembourg. She returned to Luxembourg in April 1945. She abdicated in 1964, and
1924-559: The nobility of Luxembourg who were not allowed to use their birth titles in Sweden. They were then named as Sigvard Prince Bernadotte , Carl Johan Prince Bernadotte and Lennart Prince Bernadotte and also, with their legitimate descendants, were given the hereditary titles of Counts and Countesses of Wisborg there. On 12 November 1964, she abdicated in favour of her son Jean, who then reigned until his abdication in 2000. Charlotte died at Schloss Fischbach on 9 July 1985, from cancer . She
1976-503: 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
2028-486: The political context of the time. Especially for the Christian-conservatives, communism was the embodiment of all evil; the Liberals, as representatives of industry and the world of business, were not much more well-disposed. Additionally, the prime minister Joseph Bech had never been a friend of universal suffrage , introduced in 1919, and was nostalgic for census suffrage for the rest of his life. The debate in
2080-405: 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
2132-505: The protection of France, described by the Grand Duchess as a difficult but necessary decision. Initially the family took up residence at the Château de Montastruc in south-western France, but the rapid advance of the German forces into France followed by French capitulation the next month caused the French government to refuse any guarantee of security to the exiled Luxembourg government. Permission
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2184-572: 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
2236-524: 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
2288-509: 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
2340-497: 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
2392-609: 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 . Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Charlotte (Charlotte Adelgonde Elisabeth Marie Wilhelmine; 23 January 1896 – 9 July 1985)
2444-456: Was Grand Duchess of Luxembourg from 14 January 1919 until her abdication on 12 November 1964. Her reign is the longest of any Luxembourgish monarch since 1815 when the country was elevated to a Grand Duchy. She acceded to the throne on 14 January 1919 following the abdication of her sister, Marie-Adélaïde , due to political pressure over Marie-Adélaïde's role during the German occupation of Luxembourg during World War I . A referendum retained
2496-475: 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
2548-622: Was interred in the Ducal Crypt of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in the city of Luxembourg . A statue of the Grand Duchess is in Place Clarefontaine in the city of Luxembourg. On 6 November 1919 in Luxembourg , she married Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma , a first cousin on her mother's side. (Both Charlotte and Felix were grandchildren of King Miguel of Portugal , through his daughters Maria Anna and Maria Antonia, respectively). With
2600-574: Was received to cross Spain provided they did not stop en route , and the Grand Duchess with her ministers moved on to Portugal . The Germans proposed to restore the Grand Duchess to her functions, but Charlotte refused, mindful of her sister's experiences of remaining in Luxembourg under German occupation during the First World War . By 29 August 1940 Grand Duchess Charlotte was in London where she began to make supportive broadcasts to her homeland using
2652-631: Was succeeded by her son Jean . Charlotte died from cancer on 9 July 1985. She was the last agnatic member of the House of Nassau . She was the last personal recipient of the Golden Rose and since her death there are no living personal recipients of that honour, which in modern times has been awarded only to churches and shrines. She is to date the most recent Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Born in Berg Castle , Charlotte of Nassau-Weilburg , Princess of Luxembourg,
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#17328589412942704-459: Was the second daughter of Grand Duke William IV and his wife, Marie Anne of Portugal . Her older sister, Marie-Adélaide , had succeeded their father. However, Marie-Adélaïde's actions had become controversial, and she was seen as sympathetic to the German occupation of Luxembourg during World War I . There were calls in parliament for her abdication , and she was forced to abdicate in favour of Charlotte on 14 January 1919. Luxembourg adopted
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