A multilingual society Integratioun an Identitéit
Languages, schools and newcomers in Luxembourg: say what the country is made of, how people live together and what holds them together.
By the end of this lesson you can
- Describe the languages of Luxembourg and what each is used for.
- Talk about integration, immigration and identity.
- Name minorities and majorities, and say how people live together.
- Read and form compound nouns such as Amtssprooch and Schoulsystem.
19 words and phrases
- d'Mammesprooch
- mother tongue
- d'Amtssprooch
- official (administrative) language
- d'Sproochegesetz
- language law Neuter.
- den Iwwersetzer
- translator
- den Dialekt
- dialect
- den Akzent
- accent, stress
- den Auslänner
- foreigner
- d'Identitéit
- identity
- d'Heemecht
- native country, country of origin
- d'Kultur
- culture
- d'Minoritéit
- minority
- d'Majoritéit
- majority
- zesummeliewen
- to live together Separable: si liewen zesummen, si hunn zesummegelieft.
- de Zesummenhalt
- cohesion, team spirit
- d'Grousselteren
- grandparents
- héich
- high
- online
- online
- jonk
- young
- erzéien
- to educate, to bring up
Grammar
Compound nouns: the last part gives the gender
Luxembourgish writes compounds as one word, and the last part decides the gender: d'Sprooch is feminine, so d'Amtssprooch and d'Mammesprooch are too; d'Gesetz is neuter, so d'Sproochegesetz is; de System is masculine, so de Schoulsystem is.
Read a long compound from the end: Schoulsystem is a system of the school, Amtssprooch the language of an office.
- Lëtzebuergesch gehéiert net zu den Amtssprooche vun der EU. — Luxembourgish is not one of the official languages of the EU.
- Eise Schoulsystem leet vill Gewiicht op de Sproochenunterrecht. — Our school system puts a lot of weight on language teaching.
zesummeliewen: living together, in two forms
The verb is separable. In a main clause zesummen goes to the end: liewen … zesummen. In the perfect the prefix joins the participle: zesummegelieft.
- An eiser Stad liewe Leit aus verschiddene Kulturen zesummen. — In our city people from different cultures live together.
- Meng Grousselteren hu bis an den héijen Alter zesummegelieft. — My grandparents lived together until a great age.
méisproocheg: with and without an ending
Before a neuter noun after e the adjective takes -t: e méisproochegt Land. After ass, or before ze, it takes no ending.
- Lëtzebuerg war schonn ëmmer e méisproochegt Land. — Luxembourg has always been a multilingual country.
- Dësen online Dictionnaire ass méisproocheg. — This online dictionary is multilingual.
- Déi jonk Koppel leet vill Wäert drop, hir Kanner méisproocheg ze erzéien. — The young couple attach great importance to bringing up their children multilingually.
Practice
14 exercises: multiple choice, typing, matching pairs and word order.