01Traditionally, Luxembourgish was rarely written, and no official rules of spelling and grammar existed until they were established by the government in 1984.
02Luxembourg is a genuine trilingual society. It has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French and German. It also has a education system that is tri-lingual. For the first four years, Luxembourgian is the medium of instruction, before giving way to German, which in turn gives way to French. Likewise, in the country's parliament, debates are held in Luxembourgish, draft legislation is drafted in German, while the statute laws are written in French.
03Luxembourgish is a Franconian language of the Moselle region and is quite similar to German and Dutch.
04Few distinct dialects of Luxembourgish can be defined, all of them tending gradually to transit to dialects of German. These are defined based on geographical criteria: Areler (spoken in Arlon), Eechternoacher (Eechternach), Kliärrwer (in Clervaux), Minetter, Miseler (in Moselle), Stater (in Luxembourg city), Veiner (in Vianden) and Weelzer (in Wiltz). An overall trend marks the standardization of the language and its unification to the official Luxembourgish known as koine.
05Luxembourgish uses the 26-letter Latin alphabet, adding three letters - é, ä and ë. In borrowings it usually keeps the orthography unchanged (example – boîte – box, from French), thus using other graphic symbols.
06The Lifelong Exposure to Multilingualism research study on Alzheimer’s disease found that because of their language facility, seniors from Luxembourg have a lower risk of impaired memory than in other countries.
What does Luxembourgish sound like? Listen to a Luxembourgish radio station here.