Phonological domains in Luxembourgish and their relevance for the phonological system

Situated in the recent discussion on syllable languages and word languages, the relevance and impact of phonological domains for the phonology of Luxembourgish will be discussed. Analyzing various aspects of the phonological organization of Luxembourgish, the paper addresses the question whether there is one main prosodic domain, i.e. either the phonological word or the syllable, shaping the overall phonological structure of this language. The features presented concern the distribution of shwa, syllable complexity, the behavior of unstressed syllables, the role of the trochaic foot as well as the impact of the language contact with French. It turns out that Luxembourgish cannot be attributed to either the syllable language or word language type. Instead, features originating from both types seem to be mixed in an intricate way. Furthermore, frequent sandhi phenomena like the n-rule and voicing assimilation show that indeed both phonological domains are necessary to describe the structures appropriately.