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79-656: Noerdange ( Luxembourgish : Näerden , German : Noerdingen ) is a small town in the commune of Beckerich , in western Luxembourg . As of 2024, the town has a population of 617. 49°45′N 5°56′E  /  49.750°N 5.933°E  / 49.750; 5.933 This article related to the geography of Redange canton is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Luxembourgish language Luxembourgish ( / ˈ l ʌ k s əm b ɜːr ɡ ɪ ʃ / LUK -səm-bur-ghish ; also Luxemburgish , Luxembourgian , Letzebu(e)rgesch ; endonym : Lëtzebuergesch [ˈlətsəbuəjəʃ] )

158-417: A dialect continuum of gradual change. Spoken Luxembourgish is relatively hard to understand for speakers of German who are generally not familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects (or at least other West Central German dialects). They can usually read the language to some degree. For those Germans familiar with Moselle Franconian dialects, it is relatively easy to understand and speak Luxembourgish as far as

237-442: A few nominal phrases such as der Däiwel ("the devil") and eiser Herrgott ("our Lord"). Rare examples of the genitive are also found: Enn des Mounts ("end of the month"), Ufanks der Woch ("at the beginning of the week"). The functions of the genitive are normally expressed using a combination of the dative and a possessive determiner: e.g. dem Mann säi Buch (lit. "to the man his book", i.e. "the man's book"). This

316-552: A fortress on a hill near the town during the early 13th century. However, throughout the passing of time, demographically, their numbers gradually dwindled and had been subsequently assimilated in the local medieval Wallachian and Moldavian cultures by the overwhelming Romanian ethnic majority. Along with the largely Hungarian -Transylvanian nobility and the Székelys , the Transylvanian Saxons were members of

395-490: A maximum of some 285,000 native speakers, resources in the language like books, newspapers, magazines, television, internet etc. are limited. Since most Luxembourgers also speak Standard German and French, there is strong competition with these languages, which both have large language resources. Because of this, the use of Luxembourgish remains limited. Luxembourgish belongs to the West Central German group of

474-546: A minor alternative theory suggests settlement in Transylvania. In the context of medieval Transylvania, the term Saxon was used to denote a nobleman's title and not necessarily someone who was German-speaking. In these regards, the Saxon title could have been awarded to someone who was a non-native German speaker as well. Not all Transylvanian Saxon settlers were German-speaking given the fact that they also stemmed from

553-694: A result, today only approximately 12,000 Saxons remain in Romania. Nowadays, the vast majority of Transylvanian Saxons live in either Germany or Austria. Nonetheless, a sizable Transylvanian Saxon population also resides today in North America, most notably in the United States (specifically in Idaho , Ohio , and Colorado as well as in Canada, southern Ontario more precisely). On the history of

632-486: Is 100 years since our children left") when a group of 130 children from the town of Hamelin (German: Hameln ), in present-day Lower Saxony , were led away from their hometown by a piper (who may be a folk memory of a lokator ) is that this related to an emigration event as part of the Ostsiedlung (i.e. Eastern settlement). The destination is usually supposed to have been Prignitz , Uckermark , and Pomerania , but

711-592: Is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg . About 300,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officially the national language of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. As such, Luxembourgish is different from the German language also used in the Grand Duchy. The German language exists in a national standard variety of Luxembourg, which is slightly different from

790-650: Is close to Luxembourgish . Nowadays, organisations representing the Transylvanian Saxons exist in Romania , Germany, Austria , Canada, and the United States (in the latter case most notably 'Alliance of Transylvanian Saxons'). Other smaller communities of Transylvanian Saxons can be found in South Africa and Australia as well as South America (for example in Argentina ). The legal foundation of their settlement in southern, southeastern, and northeastern Transylvania

869-748: Is currently also the only political party in Luxembourg that wishes to implement written laws also in Luxembourgish and that wants Luxembourgish to be an officially recognized language of the European Union . In this context, in 2005, then- Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn of the LSAP rejected a demand made by the ADR to make Luxembourgish an official language of the EU, citing financial reasons and

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948-460: Is formed using the adverb méi : e.g. schéin → méi schéin The superlative involves a synthetic form consisting of the adjective and the suffix -st : e.g. schéin → schéin st (compare German schönst , English prettiest ). Attributive modification requires the emphatic definite article and the inflected superlative adjective: Predicative modification uses either the same adjectival structure or

1027-675: Is known as a periphrastic genitive , and is a phenomenon also commonly seen in dialectal and colloquial German, and in Dutch. The forms of the personal pronouns are given in the following table (unstressed forms appear in parentheses): The 2pl form is also used as a polite singular (like French vous , see T-V distinction ); the forms are capitalised in writing: Like most varieties of colloquial German, but even more invariably, Luxembourgish uses definite articles with personal names. They are obligatory and not to be translated: A feature Luxembourgish shares with only some western dialects of German

1106-540: Is quite similar to that of Standard German . Luxembourgish has three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and three cases ( nominative , accusative , and dative ). These are marked morphologically on determiners and pronouns . As in German, there is no morphological gender distinction in the plural. The forms of the articles and of some selected determiners are given below: As seen above, Luxembourgish has plural forms of en ("a, an"), namely eng in

1185-416: Is that women and girls are most often referred to with forms of the neuter pronoun hatt : Adjectives show a different morphological behaviour when used attributively and predicatively . In predicative use, e.g. when they occur with verbs like sinn ("to be"), adjectives receive no extra ending: In attributive use, i.e. when placed before the noun they describe, they change their ending according to

1264-928: Is the primary language of 48% of the population. It is also spoken in the Arelerland region of Belgium (part of the Province of Luxembourg ) and in small parts of Lorraine in France . In the German Eifel and Hunsrück regions, similar local Moselle Franconian dialects of German are spoken. The language is also spoken by a few descendants of Luxembourg immigrants in the United States and Canada . Other Moselle Franconian dialects are spoken by ethnic Germans long settled in Transylvania , Romania (Siebenbürgen). Moselle Franconian dialects outside

1343-469: Is therefore known that Suceava had a small yet influent and thriving community of Transylvanian Saxons in medieval times. The newly arrived Saxons outside the Carpathian arch in the emerging medieval Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia brought urbanisation, craftsmanship, trade, and the so-called German law , under which the local administrations of medieval Romanian towns had operated in

1422-610: The Weinland including the village of Nympz (Latin for Nemșa / Nimesch ) near Mediasch ( Romanian : Mediaș ). Allegedly, the term Saxon was applied to all Germans of these historical regions because the first German settlers who came to the Kingdom of Hungary were either poor miners or groups of convicts from Saxony. In 1211, King Andrew II of Hungary invited the Teutonic Knights to settle and defend

1501-707: The Burzenland in the southeastern corner of Transylvania. To guard the mountain passes of the Carpathians (German: Karpaten ) against the Cumans , the knights constructed numerous castles and towns, including the major city of Kronstadt ( Romanian : Brașov ). Alarmed by the knights' rapidly expanding power, in 1225 King Andrew II expelled the Teutonic Order from Transylvania permanently, which henceforth relocated to Prussia in 1226, although

1580-702: The High German languages and is the primary example of a Moselle Franconian language . Furthermore, it is closely related to Transylvanian Saxon which has been spoken since the High Middle Ages by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , present-day central Romania . Luxembourgish is considered the national language of Luxembourg and also one of the three administrative languages, alongside German and French . In Luxembourg, 77% of residents can speak Luxembourgish, and it

1659-704: The Kingdom of Romania , after the Transylvanian Saxons also voted for the union with the Romanian kingdom in February 1919. Consequently, the Transylvanian Saxons, together with other ethnic German sub-groups in then newly enlarged Kingdom of Romania (namely the Banat Swabians , Sathmar Swabians , Bessarabia Germans , Bukovina Germans , and Zipser Germans ), became part of that country's broader German minority . Today, relatively few still live in Romania, where

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1738-557: The Modern Age , more specifically during the 19th century. Furthermore, Transylvanian Saxon intellectual Stephan Ludwig Roth also pleaded for a strengthening of the German element in Transylvania during the 19th century by means of subsequent waves of settlers stemming from contemporary Germany while at the same time firstly supporting the rights of the ethnic Romanians. Although the Teutonic Knights had left Transylvania,

1817-573: The Reformation ). These fortified churches, or kirchenburgen as they are known in standard German, had defensive capacities in the event of a foreign attack on a rural Transylvanian Saxon community (e.g. extensive inner and outer walls and a fortified watch tower). Such an attack would often stem from the Cumans , for example, or from the Pechenegs . It was estimated that there are approximately 300 such villages with fortified churches built by

1896-656: The Unio Trium Nationum (or 'Union of the Three Nations'), which was a charter signed in 1438. This agreement preserved a considerable degree of political rights for the three aforementioned groups but excluded the largely Hungarian and Romanian peasantry from political life in the principality. During the Protestant Reformation , most Transylvanian Saxons converted to Lutheranism . As the semi-independent Principality of Transylvania

1975-488: The Zipser Saxons from present-day Spiš (German: Zips ), north-eastern Slovakia (as well as other historical regions of contemporary Romania, namely Maramureș and Bukovina ) given the fact they are two of the oldest ethnic German groups in non-native German-speaking Central and Eastern Europe. The first wave of settlement continued well until the end of the 13th century. Although the colonists came mostly from

2054-616: The Carpathian arch, and, implicitly, outside their then newly native lands across Transylvania starting in the mid and mid-late 12th century. Those areas pertained to the neighbouring and emerging Romanian medieval principalities of Moldavia (to the east) and Wallachia (to the south). In this particular process, they founded or co-founded major historical settlements on the territory of both aforementioned Romanian principalities such as Târgu Neamț (German: Niamtz ), Baia (German: Stadt Molde or Moldennmarkt ), Târgoviște (German: Tergowisch ), or Câmpulung (German: Langenau ). In

2133-727: The Empire expanded the area of the Saxons further to the east. Settlers from the Hermannstadt region spread into the Hârtibaciu River valley (German: Harbachtal ) and to the foot of the Cibin (German: Zibin ) and Sebeș (German: Mühlbacher ) mountains. The latter region, centered around the town of Mühlbach ( Romanian : Sebeș ), was known as Unterwald . To the north of Hermannstadt they settled what they called

2212-458: The German name for the Olt river, or the old land as in a word for word translation from German) or Hermannstadt Provinz , based around the picturesque well preserved medieval town of Hermannstadt , today's Sibiu . Additionally, the surrounding areas of the present-day town of Sibiu/Hermannstadt (former European Capital of Culture in 2007 alongside Luxembourg City ) were formed of marshlands in

2291-466: The High Middle Ages. Hence, taking in consideration the aforementioned regarding the Saxon title in high medieval Transylvania, the Transylvanian Saxons' ethnic consciousness subsequently solidified after the first waves of settlers from Western Europe arrived in the region and was further reinforced or revitalised with new waves of settlers from central and southern present-day Germany during

2370-513: The High Middle Ages. This is further hinted but also highlighted in the coat of arms of the town of Sibiu/Hermannstadt ( Latin : Cibinium ) by the water lily included therein. These German settlers were invited by Géza II . Although the primary reason for Géza II 's invitation was border defence, similar to employing the Szeklers against foreign invaders in the east of Transylvania, Germans were also sought for their mining expertise as well as

2449-629: The Hungarian monarchs. Consequently, they had to pay yearly tax to the king and provide military contributions to the royal army in case of danger of attack from abroad. Otherwise, they enjoyed suzerainty ; even Hungarians could not settle down in the Saxon territories. The territory colonized by Germans covered an area of about 30,000 km (10,000 sq. mi.). The region was called Royal Lands or Saxon Lands (German: Königsboden ; Hungarian : Királyföld or Szászföld ; Romanian : Pământul crăiesc ; Latin : Terra Saxonum or Fundus Regius ). During

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2528-754: The Hungarian nobility, with Transylvanian Saxon intellectuals pleading for the Latinity of the Romanian language and the Romanian people. They were subsequently allied with the Transylvanian Romanians and thus sided with the Austrian Empire in the context of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 . After 1918 and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary , in the wake of the Treaty of Trianon (signed in 1920), Transylvania united with

2607-631: The Luxembourg state border tend to have far fewer French loanwords, and these mostly remain from the French Revolution. The political party that places the greatest importance on promoting, using and preserving Luxembourgish is the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) and its electoral success in the 1999 election pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion for naturalisation . It

2686-514: The Saxon colonists remained, and the king allowed them to retain the rights and obligations included within the Diploma Andreanum of 1224 by Hungarian King Andrew II . This document conferred upon the German population of the territory between Drăușeni (German: Draas , Romanian : Drăușeni ) and Orăștie (German: Broos , Romanian : Orăștie ) both administrative and religious autonomy and defined their obligations towards

2765-716: The Saxons in Transylvania during the Middle Ages. The majority of them are still in very good to relatively good shape to this day, after further consolidation and renovation based on European funds or Norwegian grants (for example in Alma Vii or Laslea ), but also based on foreign donations. Nevertheless, there also some still left in ruin or decay, since the vast majority of the Saxons in their respective villages left them deserted during either before 1989 and after 1989 while emigrating for Western Europe or North America. The Transylvanian Saxons also colonized areas outside

2844-511: The Saxons in northeastern Transylvania). The initial waves of Transylvanian Saxons were referred to as hospites flandrenses et teutonici or primi hospites regni in Latin, literally "the Flemish and Teutonic guests" or "the first guests of the kingdom" (i.e. of the former Kingdom of Hungary ). For centuries, the main tasks of the Transylvanian Saxons during the High Middle Ages were to protect

2923-639: The Saxons led to Transylvania being known in German as Siebenbürgen and Septem Castra or Septem Castrensis in Latin , referring to seven of the fortified towns (see Historical names of Transylvania ), most likely: Other potential candidates for this list include: Other notable urban Saxon settlements include: In addition to fortifying their towns over the passing of time, the Transylvanian Saxons also had to fortify their villages by building their fortified churches (the Transylvanian Saxons were initially strongly Roman Catholic then Evangelical Lutheran after

3002-571: The Sibiu (German: Hermannstadt ) area. Moreover, under the title of Schultheiß (German: Șoltuz ), ethnic Germans were even briefly in charge of some of these Romanian settlements during the High Middle Ages . Additionally, German potters and merchants were also present in the former Moldavian capital of Suceava at the end of the 14th century. Historically, the town of Suceava has also been known in Old High German as Sedschopff . It

3081-722: The Transylvanian 'Saxons' originally stemmed from Flanders , Hainaut , Brabant , Liège , Zeeland , Moselle, Lorraine , and Luxembourg , then situated in the north-western territories of the Holy Roman Empire around the 1140s and 1150s. Alongside the Baltic Germans from Estonia and Latvia and the Zipser Germans (also sometimes known or referred to as Zipser Saxons ) from Zips , northeastern Slovakia , as well as Maramureș and Bucovina ,

3160-539: The Transylvanian Saxons are one of the three eldest German-speaking and ethnic German groups of the German diaspora in Central-Eastern Europe , having continuously been living there since the High Middle Ages onwards. The Transylvanian Saxons are part of the broader group of Romanian Germans as well, being the eldest and one of the most important of all the constituent sub-groups of this ethnic community. Their native dialect, Transylvanian Saxon

3239-435: The Transylvanian Saxons, former federal German president and professor doctor Theodor Heuss ( FDP ) stated, namely: "...their history is a piece of German history as a whole..." . The initial phase of German settlement in Transylvania began in the mid and mid-late 12th century, with colonists travelling to and residing in what would later become known in standard German as Altland (i.e. Țara Oltului in Romanian, after

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3318-601: The Transylvanian context, of the terms Lutheran and Saxon, with the Lutheran Church in Transylvania being de facto a "Volkskirche", i.e. the "national church" of the Transylvanian Saxons (or the people's church of the Saxons). The Mongol invasion of 1241–42 devastated much of the Kingdom of Hungary. Although the Saxons did their best to resist and even tried to valiantly fight back the Mongol invaders, their resistance

3397-583: The ability to develop the region's economy. Most colonists to this area came from Luxembourg ( Luxembourgish : Lëtzebuerg ) and the Moselle River region (see for instance Medardus de Nympz , former knight and founder of the fortified village of Niemesch/Nemșa in Moșna ). A second phase of German settlement during the early 13th century consisted of settlers primarily stemming from the Rhineland region,

3476-431: The adoption of the "OLO" ( ofizjel lezebuurjer ortografi ) on 5 June 1946. This orthography provided a system for speakers of all varieties of Luxembourgish to transcribe words the way they pronounced them, rather than imposing a single, standard spelling for the words of the language. The rules explicitly rejected certain elements of German orthography ( e.g. , the use of ⟨ ä ⟩ and ⟨ ö ⟩ ,

3555-437: The adverbial structure am + - sten : e.g. schéin → am schéinsten : Some common adjectives have exceptional comparative and superlative forms: Several other adjectives also have comparative forms, not commonly used as normal comparatives, but in special senses: Luxembourgish exhibits "verb second" word order in clauses. More specifically, Luxembourgish is a V2 - SOV language , like German and Dutch. In other words, we find

3634-818: The basis of the standard orthography that became official on 10 October 1975. Modifications to this standard were proposed by the Permanent Council of the Luxembourguish language and adopted officially in the spelling reform of 30 July 1999. A detailed explanation of current practice for Luxembourgish can be found in Schanen & Lulling (2003). The Luxembourgish alphabet consists of the 26 Latin letters plus three letters with diacritics: ⟨é⟩ , ⟨ä⟩ , and ⟨ë⟩ . In loanwords from French and Standard German, other diacritics are usually preserved: In German loanwords,

3713-579: The beginning. In the medieval towns situated in the highlands of the Principality of Moldavia (or what would later become Bukovina starting in the Modern Age ), namely Suceava or Câmpulung Moldovenesc (German: Kimpolung ), the type of German town law which operated there was the Magdeburg law . Furthermore, the Teutonic Knights were also present in Siret (German: Sereth ) where they built

3792-688: The capitalisation of nouns). Similarly, new principles were adopted for the spelling of French loanwords. This proposed orthography, so different from existing "foreign" standards that people were already familiar with, did not enjoy widespread approval. A more successful standard eventually emerged from the work of the committee of specialists charged with the task of creating the Luxemburger Wörterbuch , published in 5 volumes between 1950 and 1977. The orthographic conventions adopted in this decades-long project, set out in Bruch (1955), provided

3871-650: The case of the first settlement (i.e. Târgu Neamț), they could have been equally helped in establishing it by the Teutonic Knights . Saxons in Wallachia also settled in Râmnic (i.e. present-day Râmnicu Vâlcea ) and Pitești (German: Pitesk ). Saxon colonization in Moldavia had likely occurred through a crossing from the Bistrița area eastward and northward whereas Saxon colonization in Wallachia had likely occurred from

3950-535: The colonists remained in Burzenland . The Kingdom of Hungary's medieval eastern borders were therefore defended in the northeast by the Nösnerland Saxons, in the east by the Hungarian border guard tribe of the Székelys, in the southeast by the castles built by the Teutonic Knights and Burzenland Saxons and in the south by the Altland Saxons. A common interpretation of the tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin , dated to 26 June 1284 and recorded in Hamelin records that (the earliest of such records dating from 1384: "It

4029-407: The contemporary Low Countries (i.e. aside from Luxembourg, also contemporary Netherlands and Belgium ) and from modern day France as well. Additionally, it is equally important to mention the fact that the family name 'Sas' or 'Sasu' in Romanian and 'Szász' respectively in Hungarian could denote both an ethnic lineage as well as a social liaison to the Saxon title awarded in Transylvania during

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4108-521: The digraphs ⟨ eu ⟩ and ⟨ äu ⟩ indicate the diphthong /oɪ/ , which does not appear in native words. Like many other varieties of Western High German, Luxembourgish has a rule of final n -deletion in certain contexts. The effects of this rule (known as the "Eifel Rule") are indicated in writing, and therefore must be taken into account when spelling words and morphemes ending in ⟨n⟩ or ⟨nn⟩ . For example: The consonant inventory of Luxembourgish

4187-480: The easternmost frontiers of the former Kingdom of Hungary against certain invading migratory Asiatic peoples, to bring more agriculture to the region, to instil Central European culture, enhance trade, and boost urbanisation and overall economic development. In the process of fortifying the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary to the east, they were early on helped by the Teutonic Knights . Later on, they had to further strengthen their hometowns and rural settlements against

4266-399: The everyday vocabulary is concerned. The large number of French loanwords in Luxembourgish may hamper communication about certain topics or with certain speakers (those who use many terms taken from French). A number of proposals for standardising the orthography of Luxembourgish can be documented, going back to the middle of the 19th century. There was no officially recognised system until

4345-458: The expanding Ottoman Empire which posed a major threat from the south. The rural settlements were more protected with a series of fortified churches known as 'kirchenburgen' in standard German . An alternative term for them in standard German is also ' wehrkirchen ' (i.e. fortified churches). During the Modern Age, they favoured more and more the Romanians for the latter to obtain increased and rightful political, social, and cultural rights before

4424-465: The following finite clausal structures: Non-finite verbs (infinitives and participles) generally appear in final position: These rules interact so that in subordinate clauses, the finite verb and any non-finite verbs must all cluster at the end. Luxembourgish allows different word orders in these cases: This is also the case when two non-finite verb forms occur together: Luxembourgish (like Dutch and German) allows prepositional phrases to appear after

4503-478: The following territorial extent, as depicted in the maps below: Along with the Teutonic Order, other religious organizations important to the development of German communities were the Cistercian abbeys of Igrisch (Igriș) in the Banat region respectively Kerz (Cârța) in Fogaraschland (Țara Făgărașului). The earliest religious organization of the Saxons was the Provostship of Hermannstadt (now Sibiu ), founded 20 December 1191. In its early years, it included

4582-428: The grammatical gender, number and case of the noun: The definite article changes with the use of an attributive adjective: feminine d' goes to déi (or di ), neuter d' goes to dat , and plural d' changes to déi . The comparative in Luxembourgish is formed analytically, i.e. the adjective itself is not altered (compare the use of - er in German and English; tall → taller , klein → kleiner ). Instead it

4661-553: The modern Transylvanian Saxons originally came from the contemporary Low Countries (more specifically the regions of Flanders , Hainaut , Brabant , Liège , or Zeeland ) as well as the Moselle and Lorraine river valleys, and Luxembourg as well, then situated in the north-western territories of the Holy Roman Empire around the 1140s. Further or subsequent waves of German colonists in Transylvania also stemmed from more southern regions of present-day Germany such as Thuringia or even Bavaria (the latter particularly valid for

4740-503: The nominative/accusative and engen in the dative. They are not used as indefinite articles, which—as in German and English—do not exist in the plural, but they do occur in the compound pronouns wéi en ("what, which") and sou en ("such"). For example: wéi eng Saachen ("what things"); sou eng Saachen ("such things"). Moreover, they are used before numbers to express an estimation: eng 30.000 Spectateuren ("some 30,000 spectators"). Distinct nominative forms survive in

4819-405: The population and the dissemination of the language through mass media such as radio and television are leading to a gradual standardisation towards a "Standard Luxembourgish" through the process of koineization . There is no distinct geographic boundary between the use of Luxembourgish and the use of other closely related High German dialects (for example, Lorraine Franconian ); it instead forms

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4898-460: The reign of King Géza II of Hungary (1141–1162). For several consecutive centuries, the main task of these medieval German-speaking settlers (as that of the Szeklers for example in the east of Transylvania) was to defend the southern, southeastern, and northeastern borders of the then Kingdom of Hungary against foreign invaders stemming most notably from Central Asia and even far East Asia (e.g. Cumans , Pechenegs , Mongols , and Tatars ). At

4977-422: The reign of Hungarian King Charles I (probably 1325–1329; also referred to as Charles Robert d'Anjou ), the Saxons were organized in the Saxon Chairs (or seats) as follows: The territorial extent of the aforementioned Saxon seats can be clearly seen in depth in the maps from the gallery below: Aside from the Saxon seats, there had also been two districts, namely Bistritz/Bistrița and Kronstadt/Brașov, which had

5056-405: The same time, the Saxons were also charged with developing agriculture and introducing Central European culture. Later on, the Saxons needed to further fortify both their rural and urban settlements against invading Ottomans (or against the invading and expanding Ottoman Empire ). The Saxons in northeastern Transylvania were also in charge of mining. They can be perceived as being quite related to

5135-405: The second last official census (carried out in 2011) indicated 36,042 Germans, out of which only 11,400 were of Transylvanian Saxon descent. As per the latest Romanian census conducted in 2022, they are even fewer, as other sub-groups of the entire German community in Romania as well. The colonization of Transylvania by ethnic Germans later collectively known as Transylvanian Saxons began under

5214-413: The south-eastern region of Transylvania still has one of the highest density of existing fortified churches from the 13th to 16th centuries as more than 150 villages in the area count various types of fortified churches in good shape, seven of them being included in the UNESCO World Heritage under the name of Villages with fortified churches in Transylvania . The rapid expansion of cities populated by

5293-429: The southern Low Countries , and the Moselle region, with others from Thuringia , Bavaria, and even from France . A settlement in northeastern Transylvania was centered on the town of Nösen , the later Bistritz ( Romanian : Bistrița ), located on the Bistrița River . The surrounding area became known as the Nösnerland . That area was important for mining in the Middle Ages. Continued immigration from

5372-463: The standard varieties in Germany , Austria or Switzerland . Another important language of Luxembourg is French, which had a certain influence on both the national language Luxembourgish and the Luxembourg national variety of German. Luxembourgish, German and French are the three official languages (Amtssprachen) of Luxembourg. As a standard form of the Moselle Franconian language , Luxembourgish has similarities with other High German dialects and

5451-524: The sufficiency of official German and French . A similar proposal by the ADR was rejected by the Chamber of Deputies in 2024. There are several distinct dialect forms of Luxembourgish including Areler (from Arlon ), Eechternoacher ( Echternach ), Dikrecher ( Diekirch ), Kliärrwer ( Clervaux ), Miseler ( Moselle ), Stater ( Luxembourg ), Veiner ( Vianden ), Minetter (Southern Luxembourg) and Weelzer ( Wiltz ). Further small vocabulary differences may be seen even between small villages. Increasing mobility of

5530-407: The territories of Hermannstadt, Leschkirch (Nocrich), and Groß-Schenk (Cincu), the areas that were colonized the earliest by ethnic Germans in the region. Under the influence of Johannes Honterus , the great majority of the Transylvanian Saxons embraced the new creed of Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation . The first superintendent of the Saxons Evangelical Church, Paul Wiener ,

5609-416: The territory of present-day Romania en masse during and after World War II, relocating initially to Austria, then predominantly to southern Germany (especially in Bavaria ). The process of emigration continued during communist rule in Romania. After the collapse of the Ceaușescu regime in 1989 and the fall of the East German communist government, many of them continued to emigrate to unified Germany. As

5688-566: The verb cluster in subordinate clauses: Luxembourgish has borrowed many French words. For example, the word for a bus driver is Buschauffeur (as in Dutch and Swiss German ), which would be Busfahrer in German and chauffeur de bus in French. Some words are different from Standard German, but have equivalents in German dialects. An example is Gromperen (potatoes – German: Kartoffeln ). Other words are exclusive to Luxembourgish. Listen to

5767-624: The western Holy Roman Empire , they came to be collectively referred to as ' Saxons ' because of Germans working for the royal Hungarian chancellery . Gradually, the type of medieval German once spoken by these settlers, craftsmen, guardsmen, miners, and various other workers became locally known as Såksesch (i.e. Transylvanian Saxon ; in its longest form Siweberjesch-Såksesch ) and remains, still to this day, very closely related to Luxembourgish with which it shares many lexical similarities. The Transylvanian Saxon population has been steadily decreasing since World War II as they started leaving

5846-506: The wider group of West Germanic languages . The status of Luxembourgish as the national language of Luxembourg and the existence there of a regulatory body have removed Luxembourgish, at least in part, from the domain of Standard German, its traditional Dachsprache . It is also related to the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken by the Transylvanian Saxons in Transylvania , contemporary central Romania . Luxembourgish

5925-532: The words below. Note: Words spoken in sound clip do not reflect all words on this list. Neologisms in Luxembourgish include both entirely new words, and the attachment of new meanings to old words in everyday speech. The most recent neologisms come from the English language in the fields of telecommunications , computer science , and the Internet . Transylvanian Saxons The first ancestors of

6004-475: Was considered a German dialect like many others until about World War II but then it underwent ausbau , creating its own standard form in vocabulary, grammar, and spelling and therefore is seen today as an independent language. Luxembourgish managed to gain linguistic autonomy against a vigorous One Standard German Axiom by being framed as an independent language with a name rather than as a national pluricentric standard variety of German. As Luxembourgish has

6083-603: Was elected by Saxon pastors at a synod on 6 February 1553. Almost all became Lutheran Protestants , with very few Calvinists , while other minor segments of the Transylvanian Saxon society remained staunchly Catholic (of Latin Church , more specifically) or were converted to Catholicism later on. Nonetheless, one of the consequences of the Reformation was the emergence of an almost perfect equivalence, in

6162-667: Was eventually turned down by the Mongols and many of their settlements were destroyed or ruined in the process. After the Mongols retreated from Transylvania, in the event of another invasion, many Transylvanian towns were fortified with stone castles and an emphasis was put on developing towns economically. In the Middle Ages, approximately 300 villages were defended by the Kirchenburgen , or fortified churches with massive walls and watch towers. Although many of these fortified churches have fallen into either decay or ruin, nowadays

6241-512: Was officially stipulated within the Diploma Andreanum (German: Der Goldener Freibrief der Siebenbürger Sachsen , The Golden Charter of the Transylvanian Saxons , Romanian : Bula de aur a sașilor transilvăneni ) issued by King Andrew II of Hungary which allocated them the royal land ( Romanian : Pământul crăiesc or Pământul regal ) under local autonomy known as Königsboden or Fundus Regius in Latin . The ancestors of

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