Similarities Between German and Luxembourgish

In this video, we take a look at how well people from Germany and Austria can understand Luxembourgish. We showcase the similarities and differences while testing the degree of mutual intelligibility between German and Luxembourgish. Instead of a list of words and sentences, David (Luxembourgish speaker) will read short sentences and paragraphs to see how well Matthias and Thomas, from Germany and Austria, respectively, can understand.
Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you speak a language that has not been featured before and would like to participate in a future video: / bahadoralast
Luxembourgish / Luxemburgish / Luxembourgian (Lëtzebuergesch) is a West Germanic language which serves as the official language of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Luxembourgish shares many similarities with German, as well as other West Germanic languages. It is also related to the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania, contemporary central Romania.
The German language (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language with official status in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. In Luxembourg, Belgium and parts of Poland, German is a co-official language, and one of several national languages of Namibia. German has many similarities with West Germanic languages such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, and Yiddish. The German-speaking countries are ranked among the top in the world in terms of annual publication of new books, and a great amount of German literature, from medieval works to modern times, has been produced. Among many others, there are the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a literary genius who is considered to be like the German Shakespeare. Goethe is best known for his novel, "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), which was published when he was only 25. Other classics include Simplicius Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Hyperion by Friedrich Holderlin, The Devil’s Elixirs by ETA Hoffman, Debt and Credit by Gustav Freytag, Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge by Rainer Maria Rilke, and many others.
In more recent times, several German language authors have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. They are Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann who is perhaps best known for Buddenbrooks and Death in Venice, Hermann Hesse, Nelly Sachs, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller, and Peter Handke.
Austro-Bavarian / Bavarian (Bairisch / Boarisch or Boirisch) consists of a major group of Upper German varieties, primarily spoken German state of Bavaria, most of Austria and the Italian region of South Tyrol. Historically, it was also widely spoken in the southern Sudetenland and western Hungary.

[@BahadorAlast]

In this video, we take a look at how well people from Germany and Austria can understand Luxembourgish, a West Germanic language which serves as the official language of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Please follow and contact us on Instagram if you have any suggestions or if you would like to participate in a future video: instagram.com/BahadorAlast

[@markomiljkovic1137]

What you can do is also have several Slavic languages speak in their own native tongue like to teach other.

[@samspear8772]

Awesome!

[@ademtaklit959]

Excuse me Bahador, but, can the 3 participants speak English? For Matthias, I know the answer is Yes. I mean, the video would have been easier to follow if they had spoken in English. I know you provided subtitles but it's not the same as when they speak directly in English.

[@franzaepinus2498]

@@ademtaklit959 Maybe speaking in their mother tongues was easier for them

[@ademtaklit959]

@@franzaepinus2498 Yes, this is possible.

[@markomiljkovic1137]

I loved this video. David is very knowledageble and I enjoyed his explanations. With my basic understanding of Dutch and French, I was able to follow along to a an extent and figure out some parts.

[@aileen0711]

South German speaker here - I had a friend who was from Luxembourg. Understanding her was pretty easy for the most part unless she used local idioms and more French words (which they do in Luxembourgish). If I spoke French, I probably would‘ve been able to understand more. I suppose someone from Northern Germany would have a harder time understanding Luxembourgish (or Austrian and Swiss German, too, for that matter) because German, too, is a dialect continuum with different (still very similar) standard versions in the respective countries.

[@jfrancobelge]

I'm from the other Luxembourg, i.e. the Belgian Province of Luxembourg, and a 20-minute drive to the Grand-Duchy - and a 30-minute drive to the German border. I'm a native French speaker who can speak decent "standard" German. Therefore, I don't speak Luxembourgish besides a few basic words like "moien" but it's not too hard for me to read it; and it's always fun to find the French words in the text, as such or "germanized" French words (e.g. "pompjeeën" or "fëmmen" from "pompiers" and "fumer" in French - "Feuerwehrleute" and "rauchen" in German).

[@runningaroundaimlessly432]

Hey, it's Matthias! Goondach! (That's how we say "Guten Tag" in Plautdietsch. 😊) It was fun making that other video with him and Remco, and he did great this time too.

[@autumnphillips151]

Hey, Matthias. Good day to you. That’s interesting that you speak Plautdietsch as well... That’s a Saxon dialect, isn’t it? Wikipedia says it’s descended from Old Saxon, anyway, but it’s also defined as a Low Prussian dialect, which is strange to see as just a few hours ago I was reading a comment from someone identifying as Prussian about there being animosity between “Prussians” and “Saxons”, and I’ve been struggling to find out why and exactly who falls into either of those two categories in this context. This is one of the rare occasions where my usual sources have failed me. It’s an odd coincidence that I’d stumble across a Plautdietsch speaker just after that. Would you mind helping me understand, if you’re able to?

[@c.g.6577]

​​@@autumnphillips151It's a bit complicated. Prussian/Old Prussian language = Baltic language. (Eastern) Prussia = region where Prussian was spoken until ~300 years ago (there's a revitalisation going on for some decades, with ~200 new speakers now). Low Prussian = Low Saxon dialect that was spoken in the Prussia region (today only spoken by people that migrated from there, like the Plautdietsch, because the region has again changed language to Polish and Russian). Modern Saxony and Saxon dialect of German ≠ early medieval Saxony and (Low) Saxon language. They are different regions and languages. I hope that helps.

[@autumnphillips151]

@@c.g.6577 Thank you for answering. I’m still stumped on why modern Saxony was named that if it wasn’t populated by Saxons, and I also don’t understand who that person was referring to and who would generally be referred to in discussions like that when people use the terms “Saxons” and “Prussians”, though. For example, are the English included in the list of Saxons that “Prussians” apparently don’t like? And why were people talking about this supposed animosity-where exactly would it have come from? Also, the article I was reading about Saxony didn’t make any mention of where it got its name, it only had a note about how it shouldn’t be confused with Old Saxony (which, I’m assuming, is what the Dutch Low Saxon singer-songwriter whose music I sometimes listen to was referring to when he sang about “Twaalfhonderd jaor leden / In saksenland”).

[@c.g.6577]

@@autumnphillips151 Ok, that’s even more complicated, and I never tried to explain that in English, but I’ll try my best. The bigger part of the regions where Low Saxon is spoken now (or at least was until the 20th century) - from the Eastern Netherlands, Westphalia, Low Saxony, Bremen, Holstein, Hamburg - all western of the river Elbe was Saxon tribes’ land in the Early Middle Ages, around 800 CE. Eastern of the Elbe (and more southern: eastern of the river Saale) were Slavic tribes’ settlements. Like Polabes, Obodrites, Liutizi, Sorbs ect. During the next centuries two things happened, that surely would not meet today's human rights standards ;-) - 1. forced Christianisation and 2. subjugation and colonization of the Slavic tribes. The Duchy of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, among others, incorporated more and more of the areas east of the Elbe into his territory and started to found German-speaking (id est Saxon-speaking in this case) settlements there. That’s how Low Saxon and German spreaded further and further east. Until it even reached forementioned Prussian speaking regions far in the Baltics! On the other hand remnants of the Sorbian minority are still there in eastern Germany. So in the 12th century, when Henry the Lion was the duke of Saxony and a very powerful man in the Holy Roman Empire, the duchy of Saxony already included some regions more eastern. However, Henry, who was residing in Brunswick at the time, was deposed and his realm was divided into two parts: Westphalia and Saxony, which was now more to the southeast in its core. A few centuries later the title of Duke of Saxony, and with it the country's name, moved even further to the southeast, so that the residence of the Saxon rulers was now in Meißen (near Dresden). That’s a region that had been only populated by Slavs in the Early Middle Ages! The terms Lower Saxony and Upper Saxony came in use to distinguish between these old and new Saxonies. Nevertheless, we still say Lower Saxony today in German, but the "upper" in Upper Saxony has fallen out of use. Also in German the language is now called "Plattdeutsch” (Low German, kind of similar to Plautdietsch), as if there were a kind of reluctance to use the “Saxon” word for it. But its early medieval form is still called "Altsächsisch" (Old Saxon). The Dutch, on the other hand, still say "Nedersaksies" (Low Saxon), but of course they have no region to confuse it with. :)

[@autumnphillips151]

@@c.g.6577 Thank you! I appreciate the efforts you’ve made, and I understand some things better now thanks to you. I wonder, in your opinion, who would the people who are considered “Prussians” and “Saxons” today be likely to be? After doing some more reading, it seems that both Low German (Saxon) and High German (Elbe Germanic) speakers moved east in Prussia, and that the Low Prussian and High Prussian dialects formed from them. So I’m not sure if the Prussians could be considered to be united by language. But, if not language, then what was it that united them? And would the revival of a Baltic Prussian language make it more difficult for people speaking Germanic languages to identify as Prussian today? I know that most often, when I see people referred to as Saxons, it’s the Celtic nations doing it, referring to the English. The Gaelic word for English is “Sasannach”, and I’ve seen even Scots who probably aren’t Gaelic speakers use that word as a slur against the English. But I’ve also seen people who seem proud to be English using the term Saxon for themselves. And, I’m also aware that Finns and Estonians refer to all Germans as Saxons in their languages. Meanwhile, nobody seems to know the origin of the Lithuanian and Latvian words for “German”. It’s really interesting to try to trace back the origins of how people identify themselves and are identified by others, but it does seem to often get really difficult to do that when it comes to Germany, in particular. Of course it’s going to vary widely depending on who you ask, but I’m interested in knowing how different groups of Germans see themselves and others, especially in regard to the languages they speak (or don’t speak).

[@hassanalast6670]

Good to know Germany and Austria people can understand Luxembourgish

[@TWOCOWS1]

It is so easy to understand Matthias, his wonderful diction and enunciation of all letters of the alphabet in a word, while the other two garble them into sherds (as I do myself) in the manner of any common, street speech. Instead, so clear Matthias is. I only understand a few words and verbs from what the Luxembourgian fellow says, and not much of the Austrian fellow. I just wished you had an Alsatian too. Would have been nice to do the comparison

[@ademtaklit959]

Same here, as a German learner.

[@TWOCOWS1]

@@ademtaklit959 Not many Germans pronounce things the way he does, as not many English speakers have good diction or enunciation. It is a gift, and Matthias got it.

[@ademtaklit959]

@@TWOCOWS1 Ah ok There is another video where he figures. Personally, I enjoyed it more than this one.

[@TWOCOWS1]

@@ademtaklit959 Thanks, but I am not sure I understand what you are saying. Can say it in German (or French), if that is easier for you

[@ademtaklit959]

@@TWOCOWS1 Il y a une autre vidéo où Matthias avait participé. Et personnellement, j'ai bien aimé l'autre vidéo plus que celle ci.

[@kulik03]

French speaker here, I understood nothing except "velo" (bike), but I didn't know at the beginning that they sometimes use French words in Luxembourgish so I didn"t even guess that part lol

[@smallwisdom8819]

Understandably so. No chance for a non-Germanic speaker. Basically slightly over time isolated south west German with some very little French spice, which isn't even sounding very French anymore. I'd assume it might be a similar experience for a Swiss-French speaker who listens to Swiss-German the first time.

[@pierreabbat6157]

I would prabbeli have understood "Prabbeli" better if it had sounded more like «parapluie».

[@smallwisdom8819]

@@pierreabbat6157 if that was intended and not a typo, good one ;)

[@Alaedious]

Interesting!

[@atstrollz6875]

Auf Deutsch sagt man "Die dümmsten Bauern ernten die dicksten Kartoffeln"

[@tannywel24]

Saarlanders who live in the northwest near Merzig speak the same dialect as the Luxembourgers, namely Moselle-Franconian. I'm from the north-east of Saarland and don't understand everything because I speak a mix of Rhine-Franconian and Moselle-Franconian.

[@angelgomez4632]

Saarländisch

[@LiliTellz]

🤩🤩🤩interesting

[@levaltshuler1315]

Gromper like Grundbirne - Grund (“ground”) +‎ Birne (“pear”)

[@alifar1403]

great

[@wolfgangschmitz448]

...oder das Sprichwort auf pfälzisch "Die dimmschde Baure honn die diggschde Grumbiere"

[@angelgomez4632]

Palatinado

[@jessy8974]

fun fact : "Päiperléck" (Schmetterling/butterfly) can also be called "Pimpampel" in luxembourgish ^^

[@rolandp.6133]

Transylvanian-Saxon sounds really close to Luxembourgish. Those Moselle-Franconian dialects, despite time and distance, didn't change much.

[@levaltshuler1315]

We don't hear much about Luxembourgish. I did not even know it was a language.

[@angelgomez4632]

Ist the austrian men austrian or croatian burgenland?

[@giuseppelopresti3740]

13:23 "heinsdo" ?.....kann man vergleichen mit "ab und zu" ??? /// 26:55 päiperlek /Französisch papillon.

[@criff85]

it would be cool if someone analyses these video afterwards and get some facts straight. for example. der dümmste bauer hat die dicksten kartoffeln is very well known in many parts of germany. because the german dude says "like how the proverbs can be different, even though the languages are really similar" theyre not different at all. even the word grumbeer is the palatine word for kartoffel. almost any luxembourgish word can be found in a german dialect

[@wolfgangschmitz448]

pfälzisch Kartoffel = Grumbier

[@fadhelamir3424]

wie kölsch 🙂

[@angelgomez4632]

Kennst du diesen Kanal?

[@martelkapo]

Luxembourgish 🤝 Romanian stressed schwa

[@ronshlomi582]

And most dialects of English.

[@martelkapo]

@@ronshlomi582 yes, but allophonically in most dialects, not phonemically (New Zealand English being an exception). You could make an argument that stressed schwa occurs phonemically in General American English, but that mostly boils down to whether the reduced vowel is notated using /ʌ/ or /ə/, and if those two vowels are even distinguished in notation…which they should be, in my opinion, as they occupy different places in vowel space

[@ronshlomi582]

@@martelkapo Most Northern English accents and Scottish accents also stress schwa, as well as South African English. It’s mostly RP-influenced accents that still stress schwa.

[@martelkapo]

@@ronshlomi582 interesting! I learn something new every day

[@angelgomez4632]

The luxemburgisch people is from the rheinland born

[@BIGDAV90]

Luxembourgish is Low German with French elements and may be easier to learn than Dutch for Germans, Austrians and Swiss.

[@autumnphillips151]

No, it’s not Low German. Low German is a different language entirely, descended from Old Saxon and more closely related to the Anglo-Frisian languages than to German. Luxembourgish is a Moselle Franconian dialect descended from Old High German.

[@smallwisdom8819]

I also find languages not particularly easy to learn, if I already understand quite a lot of it. While it helps to get a lot of input quickly, it's still confusing. The amount of similar or equal words, with slight different up to opposite meanings feels somewhat overwhelming.

[@TomWaldgeist]

Definately not Low german.

[@BIGDAV90]

@@TomWaldgeist Moselle Franconian and Pennsylvania Dutch are similar

[@TomWaldgeist]

@@BIGDAV90 Similar is relative, High german and Dutch are similar as well But Luxemburgis is not a low german variant. In contrast Low german is distinctively different since it didnt have the second germanic consonant shift which Luxemburgisch had

[@Tartarin269]

Bush village,il think

[@levaltshuler1315]

Bush - Dutch bos (“forest”), German Busch (“bush”), Danish and Norwegian busk (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian بیشه‎ (bêsha/bishe, “woods”)

[@Kouroshyousefi]

Man dar iran yek nefar ro mishenasam ke 20 ta zeban hayee donya ro sohbet mikard .ve marouf ham hastan . Shahyet alon beshter midone.

[@jonam7589]

Thomas looks Iranian!

[@KoroushRP]

Nein nein nein

[@jonam7589]

he doesn't look German! God knows where his genes come from!@@KoroushRP

[@dagobert54]

Sweden 😄

[@jonam7589]

yes, probably one of those refugees kids.@@dagobert54

[@angelgomez4632]

Yes😅😮

[@marchauchler1622]

Luxembourgish is just another German dialect tossing in a few French words every now and then.

[@darkfantasybrun5381]

Brussels is in Belgium not germany.

[@samspear8772]

Who said Brussels is in Germany?

[@darkfantasybrun5381]

@@samspear8772 how dare you don't know my perspective? brussles is the capitian of belguim. look at a map or look up on google

[@darkfantasybrun5381]

Please change the German flag into Belgium flag.the first speaker is from Belgium not Germany.

[@markomiljkovic1137]

No he is not. The German speaker is from Germany. The Luxembourgish speaker is from Luxembourg and is living in Brussels, why should he show the flag of Belgium when the person is representing Luxembourgish? There are numerous videos where the participants represent languages of countries they are not living in. For example, Croatian speaker living in the United States, or Turkish speaker living in Canada, or Russian speaker living in the U.K, should he show the flags of United States, Canada, and U.K, for people representing Croatian, Turkish and Russian?

[@darkfantasybrun5381]

@@markomiljkovic1137 1. you're right i'm sorry i havent thought of that

[@matileto9836]

No, I'm not from Belgium - I'm from Germany indeed! 😀

[@Kouroshyousefi]

اقای لهادر الاست چرا با کسی که در ایران بیشتر از 30 تا زبان حرف می زنه ویدبو نمیگیرید در شهر همدان فکر کنم زندگی می کنه و پیدا کردنش هم راحت است لطفا بک مستند ازش بگیرید سپاس