Luxembourgish is spoken by about half the population amid many linguistic communities, creating challenges in promoting the language while addressing all residents.
Since March 2025, Luxembourg City council debates held in Luxembourgish have been simultaneously translated into French. This was a necessary step for democracy, given that 70% of the capital’s inhabitants are foreigners and have the right to vote in local elections.
However, the opposition had to fight hard to obtain this measure, facing a reluctant DP-CSV majority. Their position became untenable when it emerged that the council meetings were already being translated into French—not for the public, but for two municipal councillors elected in 2023 who did not speak Luxembourgish themselves.
This case highlights the linguistic challenges of a country with just over 680,000 inhabitants, nearly half of whom are foreign residents, and which has three official languages: Luxembourgish, French and German. It is a country where laws are written in French but debated in the Chamber of Deputies in Luxembourgish. A country where election campaigns must also rise to the challenge of addressing the various linguistic communities living on its territory.
Thus, during the most recent legislative elections in autumn 2023, some political parties, such as the DP and déi Gréng, presented their entire programmes in four languages—but not necessarily the same ones: the DP offered its programme in Luxembourgish, French, German, and English, while déi Gréng chose Portuguese instead of Luxembourgish. The CSV and LSAP published their programmes in one language. The former chose German, clearly aiming to address only voters, while the latter opted for French, aiming to reach out to other communities, even if they are not eligible to vote.
Yet while the country must open up to other languages, the issue can also be viewed from the opposite angle: with a limited number of speakers, is Luxembourgish an endangered language? A 2023 Statec study on linguistic diversity found that the number of people using Luxembourgish as their main language increased slightly between 2011 and 2021, from 265,731 to 275,361. However, the relative share declined from 55.8% to 48.9%. Following Luxembourgish are Portuguese (15.4%), French (14.9%), English, Italian (3.6%) and German (2.9%).
There is no cause for alarm, says Pierre Reding, Luxembourgish Language Commissioner, a post attached to the Ministry of Culture with the role of promoting Luxembourgish. “Luxembourgish is a small language, but I do not consider it to be a vulnerable one,” he states.
Firstly, he explains, the figure of 275,000 does not reflect the true reach of Luxembourgish: many inhabitants may report Portuguese as their main language, for instance, while also speaking Luxembourgish very well. Furthermore, Reding observes “a clear emancipation of the Luxembourgish language”, particularly in written form, especially on social media and in text messaging. “In the past, we wrote short messages in German and letters in French,” he recalls. “Now, among Luxembourgers, everything is written in Luxembourgish—we don’t even consider using another language, and that’s completely normal.” The same is true within institutions, where ministries mostly communicate in Luxembourgish.
“Another encouraging sign is the interest newcomers show in Luxembourgish courses,” he adds. “We can’t organise enough classes to meet the demand.”
“Another encouraging sign is the interest newcomers show in Luxembourgish courses”
Promote rather than protect
Indeed, the national strategy the Language Commissioner must implement is one of “promotion”, not defence or protection. This 20-year action plan is built around three pillars: “learning”, with the aim of making the language more accessible—for instance by linking it to professional life or offering it as a foreign language to young people who did not attend school in Luxembourg from an early age; “visibility” (information panels, travelling exhibitions, online resources); and “R\&D”, including the creation of online tools such as the dictionary “lod.lu” (2,750 daily visitors) and the spell checker *spellchecker.lu* (6,000 daily visitors).
Among the 50 measures included in the action plan, some have already been implemented—most notably the inclusion of Luxembourgish in the Constitution, reformed in 2023. “Until then, the Constitution said nothing about Luxembourg’s linguistic situation,” explains Pierre Reding. “Now it clearly affirms that Luxembourgish is the national language.”
However, the recognition of Luxembourgish as an official language of the European Union has been abandoned. In 2016, the previous coalition government had considered submitting an application, but the initiative was ultimately dropped due to the extreme complexity of the procedure, which requires treaty changes and the unanimous approval of all member states. The current national strategy now aims only to “enhance the value of Luxembourgish within the EU and the Council of Europe”.
Language as a natural resource
In any case, promoting Luxembourgish does not mean excluding other languages. “I am not Luxembourgish Language Commissioner because I am against other languages,” insists Pierre Reding, who sees Luxembourg’s multilingualism as “our country’s natural resource.” While newcomers are encouraged to learn Luxembourgish, native speakers are also urged to learn other languages, particularly at school, where each pupil is taught at least three additional languages. “In some countries, languages are used to build walls,” observes Reding. “In Luxembourg, languages are not seen as barriers, but as bridges.”
Another factor contributing to the emancipation of Luxembourgish lies in new technologies, especially advancements in artificial intelligence and its capabilities in real-time translation. A boon for “small languages”, notes Reding. “We’re doing everything we can to make digitalisation aid communication,” he says. The country is working closely with major tech players such as Microsoft and Google.
Tools to transcribe Luxembourgish
One such project is Lux-ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition for Luxembourgish), a tool for automatic recognition and transcription of Luxembourgish developed by the University of Luxembourg, which is based on Whisper, a model developed by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
Though freely accessible online, the tool is also of interest to the Chamber of Deputies, especially for transcribing the “Chamberblietchen”, summaries of the hundreds of hours of debates held in public sessions. A second phase would involve using the tool to automatically subtitle livestreamed debates in Luxembourgish. A third phase could then subtitle these sessions in other languages—such as French, German, English or Portuguese—making them accessible to the half of the population that does not speak Luxembourgish.
This tool may also be of interest to Luxembourg City’s municipal council. As soon as the simultaneous translation of meetings into French was approved, the opposition began calling for an English translation as well—an option rejected by the majority. In time, AI may well make it possible.
This article was published in the 6th edition of Forbes Luxembourg magazine.
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