Dossier nº. 12 - Transfrontier Cooperation and Language Policy: the Case of Lëtzebuergesch

The most well-known and effective cases of transfrontier linguistic cooperation have, as a general rule, been protective of official languages of the UE (such as the case of the already historic accord between Denmark and Germany, whose goal was to protect the German and Danish languages within their respective frontiers[1]). However, the fact is that this type of collaboration is not limited, nor should it be in the future, to languages that, as is the case of German, benefit from international prestige and are backed by significant political and economic power.

Therefore, this dossier would like to offer a modest, but significant example of transfrontier linguistic cooperation regarding a language that features a unique sociolinguistic status: Lëtzebuergesch. Lëtzebuergesch is a language spoken by a small community that populates not only the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, but also the surrounding area encompassing the frontiers of Germany, France and Belgium.

In general, linguistic issues play a small part in the sector of transfrontier cooperation. The transfrontier programs for the protection and promotion of minority languages are even more marginalized. Despite the fact that international treaties have taken them into account (see article 14 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages), they have never been more than good intentions.

In Luxembourg's case, even if it cannot be considered strictly a minority language, there are various transfrontier programs to promote the language, specifically in the teaching area. However, these measures are not aimed at merely defending Lëtzebuergesch against the threat of other languages spoken in Luxembourg and its environs. They also address the thousands of people that enter the Grand Duchy everyday for work and their need to learn it, considering that they interact with the country's population, which speaks, naturally, their own language.

This is not the only reason why the Luxembourg's case is surprising in Europe. It is most notable for its originality in the field of language management. Even though it is a small state of only 2586 km2 and with 440,000 inhabitants, it has three official languages: German, French and Lëtzebuergesch, which are complementary distributed amongst various public sectors and sociolinguistic domains.

The reasons for this situation can be found, on the one hand, in the country's geographical placement. It practically acts as a hinge between the Romance and Germanic linguistic spheres. On the other hand, there is its history: French has been the language of the court since the 12th century. What was at that time the Duchy's territory extended far beyond its current limits and was linguistically divided between the Walloon and Germanic speaking areas. Luxembourg has undergone successive changeovers in foreign sovereignty from the 14th century to the 18th: first dominated by the Hapsburg Empire, then Spain, France, Austria and finally, yet again France. It also suffered loss of territory at the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), the Congress of Vienna (1815) which resulted in ceding to Prussia the greater part of its German speaking territory, and the Treaty of London (1839) by which it gained its independence although it once again lost part of its French speaking territory, the current Belgian Province of Luxembourg. Throughout the centuries, French continued to be the almost exclusive language of the Administration and provided social cohesion, especially among the upper classes, in the face of some political regimes that would seem little conducive to the survival of this language.

As for German, it must be said that because of its linguistic proximity, this has been the language used traditionally by the working-class (except during the period following the Nazi invasion). For the same reason, and as an illustrative example, it should be remembered that German, alongside French, has always been the language in which new legislative and parliamentary debates have been transmitted to the public, as well as the usual language of the written press. Above all, it is the teaching language of the first years of primary school. Logically, the linguistic and geographic proximity combined with the intense commercial relationship with Germany have been historically fundamental in allowing German to maintain a certain official status.

The Role of Lëtzebuergesch in Current Linguistic Policy

Lëtzebuergesch is a Germanic language spoken by 300,000 people in the State of Luxembourg and is typologically considered to form part of the Western Germanic language family (a subgroup of the Mosel-Frankish dialect) but which, for historical reasons and in part due to identity issues, it began an either linguistic and deliberate process of differentiation from the standard German variant. This process was ultimately defined at the end of the Second World War after the liberation, since the Nazis, while in power, had imposed standard German as the sole language.

As it is located in a zone of permanent confluence, Lëtzebuergesch is in contact with Romance languages and can be considered, as said before, a hinge language. It is an example of the existing limit between the Latin and Germanic continuum of Indo-European languages. Over the last two centuries, Lëtzebuergesch has progressively asserted its condition as a separate language and, in fact, continues to do so now. Its development from the linguistic variant of an autonomous rural environment makes Lëtzebuergesch difficult to understand for a speaker of standard German.

On the other hand, the creation of the State of Luxembourg explains Lëtzebuergesch's status as a national language. The formation of the State and the use of a different orthography by means of the Grand-Ducal Regulation of July 30, 1999, on the Reform of the Luxembourgish Official Spelling System (2)[2] have contributed to the development of a linguistically independent community, as is common in standardization processes.

From the beginning of the 19th century until the end of World War II, French and German functioned, to varying degrees, as administrative languages, tools for economic cooperation and as official languages, with the same rights and status established by both legal documents and the Constitutions (1848 and 1868). Lëtzebuergesch was legally deprived of all administrative functions, despite being the most common form of communication amongst the majority of the population. This triglossic phenomenon (or instrumental multilingualism) continues to this day. It is characterized by a complementary functional distribution of the languages in their daily usage. Since the end of the Second World War up until 1984, French has been the only official language, while German has maintained its role as the de facto language of labour.

Today, the three languages share the same status, but each has a specific official function. According to the Act on the Status of Languages of 1984 (3), which derives from Art. 29 of the Constitution of Luxembourg (1), Lëtzebuergesch is the official language. French and German are also administrative and judicial languages, with French being the legislative language[3]. As in Switzerland's case, the distinction between national and official languages has a symbolic rather than a political or legal relevance. In other political and juridical ways, it is similar to the recognition of native language in cases such as Catalan in Spain. In Luxembourg's case, the amendment introduced into the Constitution in 1948 gave the legislator the right to regulate the linguistic policy in the future, an occurrence that took place in 1984.

Article 1 of the Act on the Status of Languages establishes that the State's official language is Lëtzebuergesch. At the same time, due to the aforementioned historical and social circumstances, German and French share with Lëtzebuergesch some sectors of public use, especially in the Administration. These public usages seem to complement each other without causing major conflicts in other fields.

Lëtzebuergesch is constantly gaining more presence in the Luxembourg’s Administration and the public acts associated with it (see articles 3 and 4 concerning the linguistic policy). As a result, some texts regarding administrative practices can be found in Lëtzebuergesch. However, the use of Lëtzebuergesch in written communications between the Central Government and the Local Administration is reduced whereas it is more significant in the communication between regional and local institutions with the public.

Since 1984, the presence of Lëtzebuergesch has notably increased in both the primary school and the law courts and, to a lesser extent, in the media.

In a sense, Luxembourg’s language policy is unique, since, while seeming to be regulated by the aforementioned law and the regulations derived from it, it can also be considered to be self-regulating. This leads to a dynamic situation, as opposed to a stagnant one. On the other hand, experts unanimously consider it necessary to take the phenomena of immigration into account within the sociolinguistic reality of Luxembourg[4]. It can be estimated that practically 40% of the population that lives in Luxembourg is of foreign origin and that, within these, the majority speak a Romance language as their mother tongue. According to the experts, this explains why the usual linguistic choice of immigrants is French, since it is closer to their own languages and therefore easier to learn[5]. Some initiatives aiming at the linguistic integration of foreign labour force have nevertheless been set up in Luxembourg[6].

Lëtzebuergesch and Transfrontier Cooperation

We find that, just as with the vast majority of European languages, the territories in which Lëtzebuergesch is spoken extend beyond the State's borders. This language, up until a few years ago, was considered merely a Mosel-Frankish dialect with a Germanic root. Being declared the national language by the grand Duchy in 1984 consolidated its status. However, Lëtzebuergesch is not recognized to the same extent in the countries that border Luxembourg, and which speak different linguistic variants of it: specifically the Arelerland region surrounding the city of Arlon, in the Province of Luxembourg, Belgium; in the city and surrounding area of Thionville, in the French Lorraine; and in regions of the land of Rheinland-Palatinate (in the city and surrounding areas of Bitburg), in Germany.

Taking into account the sociolinguistic uniqueness of the Lëtzebuergesch speaking community and that its official status has made the language eligible for the LINGUA educational program along with other official languages of the European Union[7], it cannot be denied that, official denominations aside, Lëtzebuergesch does have some of the characteristics associated with the so-called minority languages[8].

However, it must also be remembered that Luxembourg signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 1992 and that Lëtzebuergesch is not officially classified as a regional or minority language. After almost ten years, the ratification instrument has yet to be submitted to the Council of Europe. As a result, the State of Luxembourg cannot invoke Article 14 of this Act when establishing projects of transfrontier cooperation aimed at the general promotion of Lëtzebuergesch[9].

On May 21st, 1980, prior to the creation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, The European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation between Territorial Communities or Authorities (4)[10], aimed at the encouragement and facilitation of agreements between regions and municipalities on both sides of a frontier, always within the limits of their competences. These accords can include issues related either to regional development, environmental protection, the management of public services and infrastructures, or the formation of local transfrontier associations that serve these purposes.

It was precisely through the Madrid Convention that the legal grounds for The Karlsruhe Accord For Transfrontier Cooperation Between Territorial Communities and Local Public Authorities (7)[11] were established and approved in 1996 by Germany, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Although the Accord's objective is to promote cooperation between associations or local administrative groups (regions, municipalities, communities, etc.) the Act had to be signed by the Government of each of the states on behalf of these: France signed for Alsace and Lorraine; Germany for the länder of Baden-Wurttemburg, Rheinland-Palatinate and Saarland; and Luxembourg for Syvicol, the union of all-Luxemburg municipalities. Both in the case of The Madrid Convention and the Karlsruhe Accord, these organisations can establish cooperative agreements together, just as they can also form associations of transfrontier cooperation with or without legal weight.

From a historical, geographical, cultural and up to a certain extent, linguistic point of view, the aforementioned regions maintain certain ties that (thanks to the process of integration in Europe and the opportunities elicited by these and other international accords, such as the Treaty of Maastricht and the Schengen Accords) have facilitated transfrontier initiatives, to be discussed further on. These initiatives, although being based fundamentally on commerce, have also fallen upon the linguistic field. Although France and German have a potent demographic and considerable international relevance, the promotion of Lëtzebuergesch has also been an object of attention. This is in a large part due to the commute of a significant number of people who cross the frontier everyday to work in Luxembourg, where, obviously, this language has an important social presence amongst the local population and is consequently useful for these commuters[12].

Thus, transfrontier cooperation, predominantly due to the commerce between the territories surrounding the Grand Duchy and its Administration, has been a reality for decades. This situation brought about the consolidation of an association, neither political nor official in nature, known as the Grande Region (or Grossregion)[13]. This body is currently made up of various administrations- the German länder of Saarland and the Rheinland- Palatinate, the French region of Lorraine, the German-speaking Community and the Walloon-French Community in Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Its objective is to become a model of transfrontier cooperation and to participate in the development of Europe's new socioeconomic reality. It must be pointed out that the total population of the Grande Region exceeds eleven million people.

The Grande Region took on official status in the 1980s with the establishment of its own juridical bodies and the increasing institutional representation of its different administrations. For example, the creation, after 1986, of the Interregional Parliamentary Council[14], the periodic organisation of summits, the formation of regional commissions as well as the participation in successive European programs of transfrontier and interregional cooperation (INTERREG), within the framework of the European Funds for Regional Development (FEDER)[15].

In terms of transfrontier co-operation aimed at promoting minority languages, one must point out the creation in 1988 of the first COMREGIO, a work community that represents most of the municipalities within the Grossregion[16]. In 1995, prior to the signing of the Karlsruhe Accord (1996), this community was converted into the current EUREGIO SaarLoorLuxRhin[17], a non-profit Luxembourgish legal organisation made up of 36 municipalities[18] within the regions (or länder in Germany's case) of Saarland, Rheinland-Palatinate, Lorraine and Luxembourg (the Belgian members are excluded because this country did not sign the aforementioned accords). EUREGIO’s goals and activities are primarily focused on creating a forum for transfrontier cooperation and defending common interests. The fact that France, Germany and Luxembourg all signed the Karlsruhe Accord allowed for the development of new legal tools which subsequently widened EUREGIO’s sphere of influence.

Finally, since 1997, EUREGIO has provided the framework that has allowed the organisation, in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training and Sports[19], of a series of Lëtzebuergesch courses for adults. The legal framework for these activities is still the Karlsruhe Accord, which allows, for example the signing of model agreements such as those included in this dossier (Convention concerning the organisation of courses of Luxembourgish language in Lorraine (8) and Saarland (9)), between the National Ministry of Education, Professional Training and Sports of Luxembourg (through Syvicol, since municipalities cannot sign agreements with foreign ministries) and each municipal or regional authorities. These courses of Lëtzebuergesch will be taught in eight municipalities in the Lorraine and seven in the German länder of Saarland and Rheinland-Palatinate during the current academic year of 2002/03 (being 2334 the number of people who attended such courses during 2001/02).

The implementation of this Accord entails the coordination of activities. In this case, the Ministry of Education, Professional Training and Sports of Luxembourg is responsible for the teachers' salary and their placement in centres, whereas the local organizers are responsible for the organisation of the students management and for the coordination of the students and educational materials. In France, due to the historical centralization of its educational system, as of now these kinds of collaborations have been complicated. At the same time, apart from the semi-official courses described above (those that are given in Lorraine), the French Ministry of Education also organizes classes of Lëtzebuergesch for adults through their continuous training program GRETA[20]. But it is foreseen that there will be even more collaborations of this type in the near future.

The situation in Belgium is more complicated because it hasn’t recognized the community of Luxembourg as a national and linguistic minority, not to mention the fact that Belgium is not a signatory of the Karlsruhe Accord[21]. Nevertheless, a cultural accord signed in 1999 between Belgium and Luxembourg[22] has allowed private initiatives and at the university level to be recently developed. Thus, the University of Namur[23] has just announced courses in the language and culture of Luxembourg beginning next February[24].

At this point, the balance of the Lëtzebuergesch courses is very positive, as well as the educational level and the expectations about possibilities of sharing and coordinating activities. Because of this, it is believed that the courses will continue and that other initiatives will be added on beyond adult education[25]. Europe provides transfrontier programs with a legal framework and political support. It is perhaps necessary to look at modest examples like the one we have described in order to understand why these are not just successful activities, but also important tools for the survival of languages. They are ultimately developmental strategies that have yet to be fully explored and benefited from.

Translation by Cheryl Leah Morgan

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[1]	The European Council’s report “Examples of good practice of transfrontier co-operation concerning members of ethnic groups residing on the territory of several states” (1995) describes various other interesting cases, especially those that discuss the presence of one country’s minority language within another country (Croatian in Austria; German and France in Italy; Swedish in Finland, etc.).
[2]	The last orthographical proposal was officially recognized as recently as 1999. But the first dates back to 1850 and there have been others since then (for example, the Ministry’s Decree of June 5th 1946, a proposal that was not accepted by the population).
[3]	In accordance with our definition of an official language, which establishes that a language attains this status when it affords juridical validity to the texts written in it, one can consider French to be an official language of Luxemboug.
[4]	According to a recent report by Eurydice, 62% of the Luxemborgish population’s mother tongue is Lëtzebuergesch: http://www.eurydice.org/Documents/FLT/En/FLTENcover1.pdf
[5]	Partageant des frontières communes avec la Belgique, la France et l'Allemagne, le Luxembourg est en contact avec le français et l'allemand, voire le néerlandais. Si l'on en croit des études récentes, la dynamique des langues jouerait lentement en faveur du français, notamment du fait de la forte immigration majoritairement d'origine «romane» (Italiens, Espagnols, Portugais et Français ou Belges francophones) qui préfère s'intégrer par l'usage du français plutôt que de l'allemand, alors que le luxembourgeois reste réservé à l'usage des seuls «autochtones de souche». LECLERC, Jacques. «Luxembourg Grossherzogtum Luxemburg » dans L’aménagement linguistique dans le monde, Québec, TLFQ, Université Laval, October 9, 2002, [http://www.tlfq.ulaval.ca/axl/europe/danemark.htm]
[6]	http://www.projet-moien.lu/
[7]	http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/languages/actions/lingua2.html The Luxembourgish language cannot be considered an official language of the Union since it is not a Treaty language (European Union Council Decision of 1 January 1995 amending the instruments on the accession of the new Member States to the European Union).
[8]	Luxembourgish’s inclusion into the group of minority, or lesser-used languages of the European Union is reflected by its presence in various reports comissioned by European Institutions, such as EUROMOSAIC (of the European Comission, DG22) and the report in “The European Union And Lesser-Used Languages”, comissioned by the European Parlament last year. However, the high level of learning amoungst the Luxembourg’s population has caused this consideration to be questioned on many occasions.
[9]	The Resolution 232 (1992) of the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) concerning autonomy, minorities, nationalisms and the European Unon defines the approach of the European Charter in matters of transfrontier cooperation.
[10]	http://conventions.coeint/Treaty/EN/CadreListeTraites.htm
[11]	http://www.etat.lu/MAT/accord.htm For further information about the accord: http://www.geneve.ch/DicoTrans/LettreA/acc_karl.asp
[12]	According to STATEC (http://statec.gouvernement.lu/html_en/), some 97.000 thousand: 51.800 from France, 26.700 from Belgium and 18.800 from Germany.
[13]	http://www.grande-region.net/
[14]	http://www.grande-region.net/fr/coll_pol/index_BC22747FB0C04C6A8DE2952F76B831C7.html
[15]	http://www.grande-region.net/fr/coop_eur/index.html
[16]	textual note: In this case we use municipalities to refer to various administrative: collectivité territoriale, association communale...
[17]	http://www.grande-region.net/fr/coll_pol/index_AC69A561F77E40B3A4592340643B4D1B.html
[18]	http://www.euregio.lu/euregio.lu/html_fr/nos_membres/index.html
[19]	http://www.men.lu/
[20]	http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/DAFCO/actus/artinfos_continue/num_2/nu2_p7.htm
[21]	http://www.alas.be/cours.htm
[22]	http://etat.lu/CE/html/45087.htm
[23]	http://www.alas.be/chairelux.htm
[24]	Lëtzebuergesch studies are also offered at Trier University (Germany) and University of Sheffield (UK).
[25]	See for example the “apprendre sans frontières” project (http://www.lernenohnegrenzen.lu/frameset.html) between Luxembourgish and German municipalities. French partners are expected to get involved in a near future.