Locale De Lu

Reference data for the German (Luxembourg) locale — endonym Deutsch (Luxemburg), written in the Latin script, left-to-right (LTR).

Identifiers

• BCP 47 tag: de-LU
• ISO 639-1: de
• ISO 639-3: deu
• Script: Latn (Latin)
• Region: LU (Luxembourg)
• Text direction: ltr — left-to-right (LTR)

Speakers (approximate)

• L1 (native): 5,000
• L2 (additional): 450,000
• L1+L2 (total): 455,000

Base locale

This is a regional variant of Locale De 001 (German), the base/macro locale for this language.

Pluralization

CLDR plural categories for this locale: one, other (2 forms).

• one — i = 1 and v = 0 (e.g. 1)
• other — everything else (e.g. 0, 2~16, 100, 1000, …)

See Unicode Messageformat for writing plural messages using these categories.

Translating into this locale

Apply Locale De 001 with Luxembourg conventions. German is one of three administrative languages (with Luxembourgish and French), used in the press and education; spoken Luxembourgish is not the written German standard.

• Spelling: standard German spelling with ß; "Luxemburg" is spelled with a "g" in German.
• Formats: euro, day.month.year, 24-hour clock, decimal comma; check CLDR de-LU.
• Institutions: official names are given in French first; keep the German forms used in Luxembourgish legislation (for example "Chamber" is "Abgeordnetenkammer").
• Register: "Sie" is the default; mixing in French or Luxembourgish phrases in German text is common in speech but not in formal writing.

Common pitfalls

• Using Germany-only administrative terms for Luxembourg institutions.
• Mixing French and German forms inconsistently within one document.
• The general pitfalls in Locale De 001 also apply.

Learn more

• Locale for BCP 47 identifiers, locale-sensitive formatting, pluralization, and text-direction concepts that apply across all locales.
• Unicode Messageformat for writing plural/selection messages correctly for this locale's grammar.
• Unicode CLDR locale data for de-LU (https://cldr.unicode.org)