Languages of Luxembourg

Languages of
country = Luxembourg [ [http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf Europeans and their Languages] – Eurobarometer]
official = Luxembourgish, French, German
foreign = English (60%)

The linguistic situation in Luxembourg is characterized by the practice and the recognition of three official languages: French, German and Luxembourgish.

Upon the country's founding, French enjoyed the greatest prestige, and therefore gained preferential use as the official and administrative language. German was used in the political field to comment on the laws and the ordinances in order to make them comprehensible to everyone. At the primary-school level, teaching was limited to German, while French was taught in secondary education.

The law of July 26, 1843 reinforced bilingualism by introducing the teaching of French in primary school.

Luxembourgish (“Lëtzebuergesch”), a Franconian language of the Moselle region similar to German, was introduced in primary school in 1912. It is a Mosel-Frankish dialect, enriched with French vocables.

Until 1984, the official use of the languages was based on the grand-ducal decrees of 1830, 1832 and 1834, which allowed the free choice between German and French. French was preferred in the administration. Luxembourgish had no official status at all.

The constitutional revision of 1948 gave the legislature the power to regulate the language by law. On February 24, 1984 a law, passed by the constitutional chamber, made Luxemburgish the national language. Furthermore, this law recognized the three languages of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French and German) as official languages. French remains the language of legislation, due to the application of the Napoleonic civil code in Luxembourg.

Luxembourgish is taught in schools after French and German. Moreover, Luxembourgish is taught only one hour per week at secondary school and only in the first years. In secondary school, besides German, French and Luxembourgish, English and either Latin, Spanish or Italian is taught. At the university level, multilingualism makes it possible for Luxembourgish students to continue their higher education in French-, German- or English-speaking countries.

Proficiency in several major European languages has made it possible for Luxembourg to be easily integrated into the creation of the European Community and to become a unifying and progressive factor.Dubious|date=March 2008

German is the primary language of the press and is used for recording police case files. Public service information is in French and German.

Between 2000 and 2002 the Luxembourgish linguist Jerome Lulling developed a lexical database of 125,000 word forms for the very first Luxembourgish spellchecker, thus launching the computerisation of the Luxembourgish language.

Foreign-born persons and guest workers make up a fifth (20%) of the population of Luxembourg. The most common languages spoken by them are Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Turkish and Arabic.

References