| Languages of Luxembourg[1] | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Luxembourgish, French, German |
| Main foreign language(s) | 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.
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Luxembourgish (“Lëtzebuergesch”), a Franconian language of the Moselle region similar to German and Dutch, was introduced in primary school in 1912. It is a Mosel-Frankish dialect, enriched with French vocabulary.
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.
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 1984 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.
German is the primary language of the press and is used for recording police case files. Public service information is in French and German.
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, Italian, Polish, Turkish and Arabic.
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