Luxembourg language goes digital

At a presentation on 8 December 2025, Minister of Culture Eric Thill and the Centre for the Luxembourg Language (Zenter fir d'Lëtzebuerger Sprooch, ZLS) presented four tools designed to strengthen the position of the Luxembourg language in the digital environment. All solutions share the common goal of making the language more accessible, recognisable and practical in everyday and professional use.

The updated Orthotrainer is the centrepiece of this package. It is a learning platform where you can learn the spelling rules of Luxembourgish and practise with exercises. It has now been completely redesigned and hosted on a new website with improved navigation. The developers have paid special attention to accessibility: the site supports the OpenDyslexic font and is optimised for visually impaired users, in collaboration with the Centre de développement des compétences relatives à la vue (Centre de développement des compétences relatives à la vue). In the future, Orthotrainer will also be available as a mobile app.

Notably, the new version of Orthotrainer offers users more than 400 interactive exercises organised in a pedagogically sound sequence. These are complemented by a detailed theory section with PDF downloads. The tool also helps to prepare for the ZLO (Zertifikat Lëtzebuerger Orthografie) exam from the National Institute of Languages (INLL).

The next step was the redesigned Sproochmaschinn 2.0, a language machine that combines automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis (text reading). By using twice as much data, the recognition accuracy is noticeably improved and the number of errors is reduced. New features have been added: Speaker Recognition and the ability to use a female voice, along with the familiar Max Kuborn voice. The interface is adapted for use with screen readers, is available in a dark theme and supports OpenDyslexic.

Another innovation concerns the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire (LOD). The online dictionary, which previously provided translations in five languages (German, French, English, Portuguese and sign language), has now been expanded to include a sixth - Dutch. This has been made possible thanks to the work of two volunteers who have produced more than 30,000 translations. The new section is available on the subdomain nl.lod.lu and is a pilot project proving that such work can be done effectively by the community.

The Dutch version of the dictionary also has an applied purpose: it is planned to be actively used in the tourism industry, which is confirmed by co-operation with the Directorate General of Tourism and a number of local partners.

The latest announcement is the upcoming release of the Spellchecker application for Luxembourgish. In parallel, ZLS is in dialogue with Microsoft about deeper integration of the language into Office products, including Word and Outlook. Similar talks are underway with Apple to incorporate the language into iOS platforms.