Languagle #27: Luxembourgish
All Déierche säi Pleséierche
"Every little creature has its little pleasure."
What it means
Each to their own. Every creature, however small, has its own pleasures. In Luxembourgish, both words end in the diminutive -che and rhyme (Déierche, Pleséierche), which is most of the saying's charm.
How to say it
al DAY-er-sheh ZAY pluh-ZAY-er-sheh
The ch after e or i is soft, as in German 'ich', almost a sh. Ä sounds like the a in 'cat'.
Word by word
- All al: every
- Déierche DAY-er-sheh: little creature (Déier, animal)
- säi zay: its
- Pleséierche pluh-ZAY-er-sheh: little pleasure (from the French plaisir)
The -che ending makes things small and sweet, like German -chen. Pleséier is borrowed from French, which is typical of how Luxembourgish mixes the two.
Where it was found
Luxembourgish calls a proverb a Spréchwuert. This one is from Konterbont's list of 24 Luxembourgish proverbs.
Similar sayings
- German: Jedem Tierchen sein Pläsierchen. To every little creature its little pleasure.
How to recognise Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish looks like German at first glance: nouns start with capital letters and words are long. The clues are é and ë, which German doesn't use, and lots of double vowels and vowel pairs like ee, ii, éi, ue and ou. German has ß and ü, which Luxembourgish rarely uses.
About the Luxembourgish language
Luxembourgish is a West Germanic language spoken by around 400,000 people, the national language of Luxembourg. It developed from Moselle Franconian German dialects and was only made the national language by law in 1984. Luxembourg is strongly multilingual: Luxembourgish is the everyday spoken language, while French and German are used heavily in writing, the law and schools.
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