Saturday, September 26, 2015

Lessons in Luxembourgish: Days, Weeks, Months

Samschdeg, 26 September.

Moien! I've been in Luxembourg for just over two weeks now and have managed to pick up practically none of the local language. (I have, however, mastered the helpless "I don't speak your language" look.) So today, I'm keeping it simple with a post about something you see every day on this blog -- the Luxembourgish days of the week! I can't think of a particularly practical use for this knowledge at the moment as I have yet to see these words written down in any sort of schedule, but why not?

Let's begin!
Monday: Méindeg
Tuesday: Dënschdeg
Wednesday: Mëttwoch
Thursday: Donneschdeg
Friday: Freideg
Saturday: Samschdeg
Sunday: Sonndeg
As before, these words bear a certain similarity to German days of the week; for example, Montag instead of Méindeg. (And like German, I can't help thinking that the system isn't particularly practical for work week abbreviations ... MDMDF? No thanks!) But as you'll notice in the following video, the pronunciation of these Luxembourgish words COULD NOT BE more different than their German counterparts.


Isn't that crazy?! I can't get over "Dunn-dunnsch" ... I mean Dënschdeg!

While we're here, let's move on to Luxembourgish months. In comparison to the days of the week, they're pretty tame; in fact almost all of them are basically the same as in English.
January: Januar
February: Februar
March: Mäerz
April: Abrëll
May: Mee
June: Juni
July: Juli
August: August
September: September
October: Oktouber
November: November
December: Dezember
I love how October was like, "Hey -- August and September were too normal. I'm going to shake things up and add an extra letter or two!" and then November was like, "Sorry 'bout him." As for what happened to the spring months? I have no idea ... but I have a feeling that I'll be super excited to write "Abrëll" every day for a month!

Äddi!

1 comment: