If someone in the English-speaking world declares (and, better still, demonstrates) proficiency in four languages, they are seen as some kind of quirky genius. Yet there is a country not far from where I am writing where the majority of residents are quadrilingual. Wëllkomm zu Lëtzebuerg!
Luxembourgish
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is, of course, a small country with a central location meaning 44% of the population are foreign citizens. This explains the multilingual nature of the place up to a point, but far from entirely. Moreover, for all that, is has only one “national” language – Luxembourgish. Indeed, the fact that it is Germanic-speaking (at least at a social level) is the reason the Grand Duchy exists as an independent state separate from the neighbouring French-speaking Belgian province of the same name.
Very few people would even be aware of Luxembourgish, and that is because it was standardised only recently. The recency is such that it remains used overwhelmingly only in speech.
Luxembourgish is closely related to the Moselle-Franconian dialects of western Germany (and thus, ultimately, even to the variety spoken around Cologne though less so to the city’s dialect itself), and those with a knowledge of Standard German will find it intelligible to some extent. It does, however, contain considerable loans from French which give it a markedly distinct flavour.
The language is now used at all levels in society, up to and including in parliament – but it is much more limited in written domains.
Administrative languages
Although Luxembourgish is the “national” language, there are two other administrative languages.
One peculiarity is that the primary written language of administration and, most notably, legislation and government communication is French, despite the fact that the very reason for the country’s existence is that its people tend not to speak French socially. French is also clearly the predominant language of business communication. In practice, therefore, road signs and advertising hoardings almost all appear in French.
Conversely, the language of media is Standard German – that means both in broadcasting and the press. This is in part a hangover from when Luxembourgish had no written standard, but also it is a practical reality given the largest nearby media market is neighbouring Germany.
Minority languages
Just over half the resident population (52% in 2018) declare Luxembourgish their preferred “native” language (and, implicitly, the language they use at home). This is compared with 16% for French and just 2% for German (though the linguistic proximity between Luxembourgish and German may be relevant here).
However, interestingly, that 16% for French does not place it second in this list: just ahead of it as the second most common native language in Luxembourg is Portuguese! Around one in six of the resident population is Portuguese, and all Portuguese citizens resident in the country declare Portuguese their native language.
Another considerable share of the resident population (over 13%) declares another language “native”; common among these are Spanish, Italian and English. This would be explained by the presence of European institutions and the headquartering of some international businesses.
Knowledge
Despite being the “national” language and the most common “native” language, Luxembourgish ranks only fourth among languages known to the level of conversational proficiency by residents of the country (and Portuguese fifth). 77% say they know Luxembourgish but fully 44% say they rarely if ever use it (thus including a considerable share of those who know it).
Using knowledge rather than native speaker status as the measure, French emerges on top at fully 98%; it is in fact followed by English, at 80%, and German at 78%.
Most companies also opt to operate in French (56%), ahead of Luxembourgish (20%) and English (18%).
Quadrilingualism
In practice, most residents can speak Luxembourgish, French, German and English; some may be native in a different language and may then typically not use Luxembourgish, but that still means they will speak four languages to some degree. Many administrators, including for example police officers, must be proficient in Luxembourgish, French and German – if they come from elsewhere they may speak an additional language natively, plus potentially English.
This is perhaps marginally more impressive than it appears because, in practice, most residents use different languages in different domains: they may use Luxembourgish at home, French at work and German for media while knowing English for occasional international communication – the practical outcome of this is that a certain language will be stronger than the others in a certain context.
Nevertheless, it does demonstrate one fundamental thing: anyone can learn languages when the motivation exists to do so! That is a lesson from tiny Luxembourg to the big wide world!
Ian James Parsley 