General Information and Questions about the Luxembourg Grand Ducal Family

[Marengo]

Posts about the Waringo report have been moved to a seperate thread, which you can find here:

http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...ml#post2288622

[Somebody]

An overview of the languages spoken by the Grand Ducal Family according to their own biographies. They distinguish between fluent and 'good knowledge' - I interpreted that as an 'intermediate' level. As all of them speak 6 languages between them, I've included all 6 languages for each, for easy comparison. For Maria Teresa and Sébastien, it is not included in their biographies.

Henri: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (NOT), Italian (NOT)
Maria Teresa: Luxembourgish (insufficient), French (fluent - most likely), German (not really as far as I know), English (fluent - I suppose), Spanish (fluent/mother tongue), Italian (not - most likely)

Guillaume: Luxembourgish (fluent/mother tongue), French (fluent), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (fluent), Italian (NOT)
Stéphanie: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent/mother tongue), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (NOT), Italian (NOT)

Félix: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate), Italian (fluent)
Claire: Luxembourgish (NOT), French (fluent), German (fluent/mother tongue), English (fluent), Spanish (NOT), Italian (fluent)

Louis: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate), Italian (NOT)

Alexandra: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent), German (intermediate), English (fluent), Spanish (fluent), Italian (intermediate)

Sébastien: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent), German (intermediate?), English (fluent), Spanish (intermediate?), Italian (not?)

[LauraS3514]

Originally Posted by Somebody

An overview of the languages spoken by the Grand Ducal Family according to their own biographies. They distinguish between fluent and 'good knowledge' - I interpreted that as an 'intermediate' level. As all of them speak 6 languages between them, I've included all 6 languages for each, for easy comparison. For Maria Teresa and Sébastien, it is not included in their biographies.

Stéphanie: Luxembourgish (fluent), French (fluent/mother tongue), German (fluent), English (fluent), Spanish (NOT), Italian (NOT)

Doesn't Stephanie also have a good knowledge of Russian and/or Dutch?

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by LauraS3514

Doesn't Stephanie also have a good knowledge of Russian and/or Dutch?

She attended a Dutch school as a young child but apparently she lost most of it - probably because she never used it afterwards; I also thought she spoke Russian - but I would assume the court would put it up on their website if she felt she had a reasonable level.

[tommy100]

Stephanie studied Russian language and literature so I would assume she knows some Russian even if its not fluent.

She attended a Dutch language school before studying in France so I think it would be fair to again assume that she knows some level of Dutch.

[Somebody]

Originally Posted by tommy100

Stephanie studied Russian language and literature so I would assume she knows some Russian even if its not fluent.

She attended a Dutch language school before studying in France so I think it would be fair to again assume that she knows some level of Dutch.

The question remains: why does the court itself not include it as a languages she speaks either 'courammente' or 'at a reasonable level' (they used various descriptions: "He has also studied Spanish" (for Félix), "He also has an extensive knowledge of Spanish" (for Louis) and "She also has a good knowledge of German and Italian" (for Alexandra)? It seems most likely that Stéphanie herself thinks that her level isn't good enough to be mentioned...

And, while I would suppose she retained quite a bit of her Russian, it could very well be that she 'lost' most of her Dutch after not using it for several decades. If she would decide to study it again, she most likely would pick it up rather quickly but it is possible to loose a language completely (even if you spoke it fluently - as some people who were adopted can attest to).

[victor1319]

Originally Posted by Somebody

An overview of the languages spoken by the Grand Ducal Family according to their own biographies.

Does this mean, that nobody speaks a bit Portuguise?

Luxembourg has a lot of immigrants from Portugal. So, I thought... perhaps a bit... And Spanish might not be as different as it sounds.

[Blog Real]

Grand Ducal House seeks to hire a Director of Administration and Human Resources.

Un/Une Directeur/Directrice Administration et Ressources Humaines - Cour Grand-Ducale de Luxembourg - Retrouvez les dernières offres d'emploi de la Maison grand-ducale

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by Somebody

The question remains: why does the court itself not include it as a languages she speaks either 'courammente' or 'at a reasonable level' (they used various descriptions: "He has also studied Spanish" (for Félix), "He also has an extensive knowledge of Spanish" (for Louis) and "She also has a good knowledge of German and Italian" (for Alexandra)? It seems most likely that Stéphanie herself thinks that her level isn't good enough to be mentioned...

And, while I would suppose she retained quite a bit of her Russian, it could very well be that she 'lost' most of her Dutch after not using it for several decades. If she would decide to study it again, she most likely would pick it up rather quickly but it is possible to loose a language completely (even if you spoke it fluently - as some people who were adopted can attest to).

Stéphanie is fluent in German and in English. She grew up in Belgium and, although she is a native Francophone, she briefly attended a Dutch-speaking school, if I am not mistaken, and, in any case, she definitely had previous exposure to Dutch as it is inevitable in contemporary Belgium.


Considering that she learned Luxembourgish (Middle Franconian) in a short period of time (bulding on her knowledge probably of High German), I would say picking up fluency in Dutch (Low Franconian) would be a breeze for her, even though Dutch is more akin to Low German (like Low Saxon) than High German or Luxembourgish.

Originally Posted by victor1319

Does this mean, that nobody speaks a bit Portuguise?

Luxembourg has a lot of immigrants from Portugal. So, I thought... perhaps a bit... And Spanish might not be as different as it sounds.

Spanish and Portuguese are very similar in writing, grammar and vocabulary although Portuguese has a more complicated spelling and a much more complex phonology, chiefly because it has far more vowel phonemes and diphtongs than Spanish. They are generally mutually intelligible, but, perhaps because of the differences in pronunciation, it is often claimed that Spanish speakers have more difficulty to understand Portuguese than vice-versa (similar to what happens with Swedish and Danish perhaps in the case of the Germanic languages). Reading standard written Portuguese should be straightforward for a Spanish speaker.


King Felipe VI for example claims to speak Portuguese and has used it occasionally at state banquets where the Portuguese president was present. His Spanish accent is very heavy though when speaking Portuguese and he only limited himself to a few pre-prepared lines, which makes me doubt how proficient he is. His Catalan is even worse, I think, even though he was the Prince of Girona before becoming the King of Spain. Princess Leonor appears to be being groomed to speak Catalan much better than her father and it would make sense for her to learn Portuguese too, although I think she prefers to concentrate on major international languages like English and Mandarin instead.

[JR76]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

Princess Leonor appears to be being groomed to speak Catalan much better than her father and it would make sense for her to learn Portuguese too, although I think she prefers to concentrate on major international languages like English and Mandarin instead.

Off topic but it seems fitting to point out that one of the most prominent co-official languages of Spain is the Portuguese sister language/dialect (depending of who you ask) Galician spoken by over two million people so it wouldn't be wrong for them to demand that Leonore has at least some knowledge of that language.

[Somebody]

The website of the GDF still requires some updates; for example the family still doesn't include their future grand duke: prince Charles.

Luckily, he is mentioned at his parents' pages (Guillaume, Stéphanie)

[An Ard Ri]

I think it needs a revamp it looks about 10 years out of date but at least it functions unlike the crash prone casareal .

[Blog Real]

Yes the GDF website needs to be updated and modernized.

[iceflower]

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa shared a Christmas card with all her children and grandchildren:

"I wish you all a wonderful holiday season with your family.

May the magic of Christmas erase for a few moments this difficult year":


** Card **

[Somebody]

Great to see that all grandchildren got together at least once this year. The 'family' picture seems to be from a previous year. Nonetheless, great that she included various family pictures in her Christmas wish.

[Biri]

Very beautiful card!

[Prisma]

Wonderful family photos!

[eya]

From the Palace:


"The House of the Grand Duke has been contacted regarding an active Linkedin account circulating in the name of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke. The House of the Grand Duke would like to point out that the “Grand Duke Henri” profile visible on the platform in question, as well as the associated activities, have no link with the Grand Duke, respectively the House of the Grand Duke, nor with the company mentioned therein. This is a fake."


https://t.co/E0F82x5ZRE?amp=1

[Blog Real]

Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa are the executive directors of the real estate company "Flags".

The real estate is based in one of the best neighborhoods in the French capital! 45, rue de Bellchasse, 7th arrondissement.
The "SCI Flags" belonging to the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess will exist for 99 years. The shares in the company's share capital (600 euros) belong to both parties.

Everything is managed by Henri and Maria Teresa, and they are also entitled to the apartment, but every child has a share. Maria Teresa and Henri own 20,500 shares each, plus ten each. Guillaume, Félix, Louis, Alexandra and Sébastien each own 8,200 shares.

FLAGS is mainly managed by de Nassau Henri, who is its Manager.

The main activity of this company is: Rental of land and other real estate, rental of offices, rental of commercial space, rental of exhibition halls, rental of conference rooms, rental of reception rooms, rental of meeting rooms meeting, land rental, land rental, rental and operation of non-residential buildings (offices, commercial spaces, exhibition halls, conference, reception or meeting room, self-service storage facilities , etc.) the rental of land and land, in particular for agricultural use the rental of business assets the monthly or annual rental of boxes or garage spaces for vehicles.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&ct=clnk&gl=pt

https://edecideur.info/edecideur.php...-75007-paris-7

https://www.meilleursagents.com/prix...hasse-1784/45/

http://entreprises.lefigaro.fr/flags...rise-812110666

[iceflower]

An Easter greeting of the Grand Ducal family together with paintings that were sent to the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess:


** Pic **


And some old family photos shared on Easter Monday:


** Pics **