We saw this sign at the front desk in our hotel on a recent trip to Luxembourg. Please leave your room till 11:00 a.m. One thing the sign says is: ‘Please leave your room till 11:00 am.’ That says the opposite of what is intended: intended meaning: please leave your room permanently before 11:00 am.…… Continue reading Please leave your room until 11 o’clock
Tag: Lëtzebuergesch
German in Europe
Today saw the publication of a book on the state of German in Europe. The book is Deutsch in Europa: Vielfalt, Sprachnormen und Sprachgebrauch, Vierter Bericht zur Lage der deutschen Sprache [‘German in Europe: Diversity, Language Standards and Language Use, 4th Report on the situation of the German Language’]. It is available in open access…… Continue reading German in Europe
Two sounds merging in Lëtzebuergesch
Lëtzebuergesch has (or used to have) 2 similar but distinct sibilants post-alveolar /ʃ/ and palatal /ç/, but those sounds are now well on the way to merging into a single alveolopalatal sound /ɕ/. A recent paper examined the nature and spread of this change (Conrad, 2023). The paper concludes that: this change is almost complete among…… Continue reading Two sounds merging in Lëtzebuergesch
Learning languages at Habs in the 70s
This is a piece I wrote for the newsletter of the alumni association of my secondary school, Haberdasher’s Aske’s in Elstree (Hertfordshire, England). The published version is at Notes 217 | oldhabs | OHnotesThe editor put in above my original title a new title Écoutez, répétez—unfortunately, without the acute accents above the letter e. For…… Continue reading Learning languages at Habs in the 70s
How to need and how to have
The way languages express needing something is linked in a surprising way to how they express having something. In their paper Having “need” and needing “have” Stephanie Harves and Richard Kayne (Linguistic Inquiry, 2012) summarise the facts and suggest an explanation. How to have: H-languages English and some other languages use a transitive verb like…… Continue reading How to need and how to have
A is for Bee
A is for BEE: An Alphabet Book in Translation, by Ellen Heck, is a delightful alphabet book for children. Each page lists one or more words starting with the same letter and has bright pictures illustrating each word. The pages are in alphabetical order. This is an alphabet book with a twist: each page lists…… Continue reading A is for Bee
Luxembourg’s submerged language comes to the surface
Thanks to my former colleague Alan Fisk. He has kindly allowed me to post this article he wrote for a magazine in about 1993. In the streets of the city of Luxembourg, all the signs and public notices are in French. Buy a newspaper, and it will be mainly in German. Here and there, messages…… Continue reading Luxembourg’s submerged language comes to the surface
Languages in Luxembourg
The people of Luxemburg speak Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgish), which was officially designated as the national language in 1984. This is a Germanic language descended from a Moselle-Franconian dialect, but having numerous French loan words, particularly in the fields of business and administration. Many German speakers can understand spoken Luxembourgish to a greater or lesser extent. Until…… Continue reading Languages in Luxembourg