Luxembourg language goes digital

The Minister of Culture, Eric Thill, the director of the Centre for the Luxembourg Language (Zenter fir d'Lëtzebuerger Sprooch, ZLS), Alexandre Ecker, and the leadership of the municipality of Nidderaanwen, led by Mayor Fréd Ternes, have signed an agreement aimed at strengthening the position of the Luxembourg language in public life at local government level. This is the first such convention between the ZLS and a commune in the Grand Duchy.

The communes play a key role in day-to-day communication with residents, as they are most often the first point of contact for important information. Niederanwen has long stood out for its loyalty to the mother tongue: the official website of the commune is available entirely in Luxembourgish, as well as in other languages. This is particularly valuable not only for native speakers, but also for language learners: you can compare texts in different languages to develop your understanding.

Under the signed agreement, ZLS will gain access to the textual content of Niederanwen's digital platforms, and the utility itself will start using ZLS's language platform, which includes speech recognition, text-to-audio synthesis and other tools, on a large scale. This will increase the accessibility of digital content - for example, people with visual impairments will be able to listen to material from the website.

In the near future, the ZLS will also help to develop guidelines for the use of simplified language (liicht Sprooch) - adapted language that can be easily understood by a wide range of citizens. This will help all other municipalities to eventually make their digital services available in Luxembourgish.

Minister Eric Thiel called the project "an important first step": "It strengthens co-operation with the communes and promotes our language in everyday life. I am sure that the products created through this convention will benefit everyone, especially the small communes". Such materials and tools could be used everywhere in the future, he said, from glossaries for administrations to digital tools for recording commune council meetings in Luxembourgish.

The project is being implemented with the participation of Syvicol, the association of Luxembourg communes represented at the signing by Jacques Bauer. Syvicol will provide methodological support to all interested communes in order to disseminate the Niederanwen practice as a standard.