After the unexpected news of Pope Francis’ death on Easter Monday caused grief and shock among Catholics, an RTL article in Luxembourgish about the pontiff’s passing has drawn widespread online attention to the country’s national language.
The Luxembourgish language has sparked reactions including incomprehension, smiles, and funny comments on X. It’s not the news itself, but the “gibberish,” as some users would describe the language, that is unexpectedly taking centre stage.
Judging by the reactions to the article, the world seems to be discovering the Luxembourgish language, even though there’s still no consensus among users on its definition. Is it Dutch, Dutch squared, or French after all?
Some X users know better and identify the RTL article as Luxembourgish: the language that even Luxembourgers describe as “weird” under the social media post.
“Can’t believe this is how I found out,” wrote one user, sharing the RTL news report on the death of Pope Francis. What seems like a factual announcement to Luxembourgish eyes becomes a linguistic stumbling block with comedic potential for the rest of the world.
English-speaking users, in particular, reacted promptly with a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and the uncontrollable urge to read the whole thing out loud, which unfortunately sounds very misleading, with some words even coming across as vulgar or irreverent. “Poopst” suddenly sounds like… well, you know. And “ass dout” is interpreted by numerous users as “assed out.” In any case, the reactions to the post resemble more of a comedy club than a digital book of condolence.
“Even the Pope looks confused,” replied one user to the post, which has now been shared over 120,000 times. “Luxembourgish is a fake language,” read another comment.
Luxembourgers, on the other hand, are simply happy that “the internet is learning Lëtzebuergesch.”
“We’re international now,” wrote another user, even if most people are more likely to make fun of the language. The author of the post probably never expected that a death notice would give Luxembourgish such wide attention and make the language go viral.
(This article was originally published by the Luxemburger Wort. Translation, adaptation and editing by Lucrezia Reale.)