William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French
| Message 9 of 14 23 June 2010 at 12:24pm | IP Logged |
I was studying German at Trier University in 1983-4. I occasionally went to Luxembourg, which is a short distance from Trier.
Germans in Trier said Luxembourgish was not very different from their dialect, and I notice Wikipedia classifies Luxembourgish as Moselle Franconian, which includes Trier dialect.
I was intrigued by the way Luxembourg newspapers would have alternate articles in French and standard German.
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masmavi Triglot Newbie Germany Joined 5707 days ago 9 posts - 17 votes Speaks: German*, English, French Studies: Spanish, Yiddish, Turkish, Italian
| Message 10 of 14 23 June 2010 at 2:59pm | IP Logged |
Luxembourgish is quite removed to High German but it is very close to the German dialects at the border. A lot of German dialects in their purest form are impossible to understand for speakers of other dialects. Without High German, there would be some serious communication difficulties. Yes, I would say it is just as different to standard German as Swiss German (this one probably even more )or Plattdeutsch, Koelsch or Bavarian.
The difference is, really, Luxembourg is its own country and Luxembourgish has a written tradition that most of the other dialects do not have. Therefore, Luxembourgish is also better protected to influences from High German.
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garethw87 Newbie England hockeywide.co.uk Joined 4277 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 11 of 14 10 March 2013 at 9:21pm | IP Logged |
Thanks to the Prince, you can get a BA Honours Degree in Luxembourgish Studies at
Sheffield University in the UK!
http://www.shef.ac.uk/german/prospectiveu_g/courses/1.120556
Edited by garethw87 on 10 March 2013 at 9:22pm
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beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4621 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian
| Message 12 of 14 14 March 2013 at 12:33pm | IP Logged |
I find places like Luxembourg fascinating, where pretty much everyone can function in 2, 3 or even 4 languages. It totally destroys the argument that some people do not have the right type of brain for language learning. They just seem to accept the situation and get on with it.
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Sterogyl Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4366 days ago 152 posts - 263 votes Studies: German*, French, EnglishC2 Studies: Japanese, Norwegian
| Message 13 of 14 15 March 2013 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
I'm German but I don't understand it without effort. Just went to Luxemburg this week. In the shops most people speak French anyway. However I wouldn't say it is more than a German dialect. It's merely for political reasons that Luxembourgish is considered a language, which is okay.
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leroc Senior Member United States Joined 4310 days ago 114 posts - 167 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German
| Message 14 of 14 15 March 2013 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
I had a family member who spoke a dialect of German that was very similar to Luxemborgish, she complained that it was an effort to get the people to speak German, according to her "They were proud to show off their French".
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