How to write “Luxembourgish” (in Luxembourgish)


As a written language, Luxembourgish is more popular than ever. This statement by sociolinguist Mélanie Wagner in an interview with Wort.lu led to a number of comments on the newspaper’s Facebook page.

The list below contains the different spellings of “Luxembourgish” in these comments (referring to the Luxembourgish language in Luxembourgish). It is in no way meant to make fun of the language, the country or the comments*, I just thought it was interesting.

VariationOccurrences
Lëtzebuergesch7
Letzebuerg**2
Letzebuergech2
Létzebuergesch1
Letzeburg**1
Letzebursch1
Letzedeuerch1
Letztebuergesch1
Lezeburgich1

*Not even the hilarious ones like “Eis Land heescht Luxemburg an net anecht” or “Letzeburg as eng SPROCH an basta…”.

**Since the Luxembourgish language is so important for the identity of the country, some people apparently use the same word for both. That’s the most favorable interpretation I can offer.


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