Editing Luxembourgish (section)

==Speech==
[[File:Luxembourg shop direction of walking pandemic 2021.jpg|thumb|Sign in Luxembourgish indicating the way to walk through a shop during the [[COVID-19 pandemic]]]]
[[File:Supermarket Luxembourg meat section sign 3.jpg|thumb|Sign in French and Luxembourgish (in ''italic'') in a supermarket. Items labeled in Standard German and  French are displayed.]]
Luxembourgish is considered the [[national language]] of Luxembourg and also one of the three administrative languages, alongside [[Standard German|German]] and [[French language|French]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/a/archives/1984/0162702/index.html |title=''Mémorial A'' no. 16 (27 February 1984), pp. 196–7: "Loi du 24 février 1984 sur le régime des langues". |access-date=15 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060203005510/http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/a/archives/1984/0162702/index.html |archive-date=3 February 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Luxemburger Lexikon - Das Großherzogtum von A-Z|last=Hausemer|first=Georges}}</ref>

In Luxembourg, 77% of residents can speak Luxembourgish,<ref>{{cite web |title=What languages do people speak in Luxembourg? |url=https://luxembourg.public.lu/en/society-and-culture/languages/languages-spoken-luxembourg.html |website=luxembourg.public.lu |access-date=28 September 2021 |language=en}}</ref> and it is the primary language of 48% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://statistiques.public.lu/dam-assets/recensement/publication-8/docs/rp08-diversit-linguistique-fr.pdf |title=Une diversité linguistique en forte hausse |access-date=2024-02-15 |website=statistiques.public.lu |language=fr}}</ref> It is also spoken in the [[Arelerland]] region of [[Belgium]] (part of the [[Luxembourg (Belgium)|Province of Luxembourg]]) and in small parts of [[Lorraine]] in [[France]].

In the [[Germany|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 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 Luxembourg general election|1999 election]] pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion for [[naturalization|naturalisation]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Acquisition and Loss of Nationality: Policies and Trends in 15 European States – Volume 2: Country Analysis |editor1-first=Rainer |editor1-last=Bauböck |editor2-first=Eva |editor2-last=Ersbøll |editor3-first=Kees |editor3-last=Groenendijk |editor4-first=Harald |editor4-last=Waldrauch |first=François |last=Moyse |author2=Brasseur, Pierre|author3= Scuto, Denis |year=2004 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |location=Amsterdam |chapter=Luxembourg |isbn=978-90-5356-921-4 |page=380 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rtl.lu/news/national/a/1242132.html|title = VIDEO: ADR-Kongress: Déi 3 Haaptpilieren: Wuesstem, Lëtzebuerger Sprooch a Famill}}</ref> It 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 [[Languages of the European Union|language of the European Union]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rtl.lu/news/national/a/964594.html|title = Lëtzebuerger Sprooch stäerken: ADR: Wichteg Gesetzer och op Lëtzebuergesch}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://adr.lu/walen/walen-2013/eise-walprogramm/eise-walprogramm-op-letzebuergesch/26-letzebuergesch-dei-sprooch-fir-eist-land/|title=26. Lëtzebuergesch, DÉI Sprooch fir eist Land!|access-date=13 October 2021|archive-date=23 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023193557/https://adr.lu/walen/walen-2013/eise-walprogramm/eise-walprogramm-op-letzebuergesch/26-letzebuergesch-dei-sprooch-fir-eist-land/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In this context, in 2005, then-[[List of deputy prime ministers of Luxembourg|Deputy Prime Minister]] [[Jean Asselborn]] of the [[Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party|LSAP]] rejected a demand made by the ADR to make Luxembourgish an official language of the EU, citing financial reasons and the sufficiency of official [[German language|German]] and [[French language|French]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://europaforum.public.lu/fr/actualites/2010/09/qp-kartheiser-langue/index.html|title = De l'usage de la langue luxembourgeoise dans le contexte européen : Une question parlementaire de Fernand Kartheiser - Europaforum Luxembourg - Septembre 2010}}</ref> A similar proposal by the ADR was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.chd.lu/fr/motion_resolution/4224 |title=Reconnaissance de la langue luxembourgeoise en tant que langue officielle de l'Union européenne au même titre que la langue irlandaise |date=2024-01-30 |website=chd.lu |language=fr}}</ref>

===Varieties===
There are several distinct dialect forms of Luxembourgish including Areler (from [[Arlon]]), Eechternoacher ([[Echternach]]), Dikrecher ([[Diekirch]]), Kliärrwer ([[Clervaux]]), Miseler ([[Moselle (river)|Moselle]]), Stater ([[Luxembourg City]]), Veiner ([[Vianden]]), Minetter (Southwest Luxembourg) and Weelzer ([[Wiltz]]). Further small vocabulary differences may be seen even between small villages. These varieties are grouped into North, East, South, and Center dialects which can be automatically categorised with a correctness of about 80%.<ref>Nina Hosseini-Kivanani, Christoph Schommer, Peter Gilles. 2025. "[https://hdl.handle.net/10062/107127 Voices of Luxembourg: Tackling Dialect Diversity in a Low-Resource Setting]". Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Resources and Representations for Under-Resourced Languages and Domains (RESOURCEFUL 2025). Tallinn.</ref> 

Increasing mobility of 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 [[Koiné language|koineization]].<ref name="Ammon, 2014">[http://www.ulrichammon.de/resources/Stellung_der_deutschen_Sprache.pdf Ammon, Ulrich - Die Stellung der deutschen Sprache in der Welt (de Gruyter Mouton)]; {{ISBN|978-3-11-019298-8}}</ref>

===Surrounding languages===
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 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 the everyday vocabulary is concerned.<ref name="Ammon, 2014"/> 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).