Skip to main content Skip to page footer
Confererence on Frisian Humanities Confererence on Frisian Humanities
Peter Gilles. Conference on Frisian Humanities 2025.

Peter Gilles. Conference on Frisian Humanities 2025.

Introducing: plenary speaker Peter Gilles (CFH2025)

Speech technology Conference Language and multilingualism

From 12 to 14 November 2025, the third edition of the Conference on Frisian Humanities (CFH2025) will be held at the Oranje Hotel in Leeuwarden. The overarching theme is “Bridges and Boundaries: Fryslân in a Global Context”. We would like to introduce our four keynote speakers to you one by one.

On Friday, 14 November, Prof. Peter Gilles has been invited as the fourth keynote speaker at the conference. Peter Gilles is full professor of linguistics at the Departmen of Humanities at the University of Luxembourg. His research has consistently aimed to explore and deepen our understanding of language variation, phonetics, and digital speech processing, particularly with a focus on low-resource languages such as Luxembourgish. 

Gilles' career has bridged traditional linguistic disciplines and cutting-edge digital humanities approaches, notably in automatic speech recognition (ASR) and phonetic analysis. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative projects, he seeks to preserve and promote Luxembourgish language and culture while simultaneously addressing global challenges in speech technology. 

Lecture

The title of Gilles' lecture is 'The Evolution of Luxembourgish in Its Multilingual Setting’. 

 


The Evolution of Luxembourgish in Its Multilingual Setting

This talk examines the historical and sociolinguistic development of Luxembourgish within the context of Luxembourg’s unique multilingual landscape. 

Starting from the 19th-century emergence of the nation-state, it traces the formation of a multilingual society shaped by the coexistence of Luxembourgish, French, and German. Particular focus is placed on the Ausbau of Luxembourgish—from a regional Moselle Franconian dialect to a recognized national language—through processes of status elevation, corpus planning, and language ideological shifts. The functional compartmentalization of the three official languages, with Luxembourgish as the dominant spoken code and French and German prevailing in written and institutional contexts, is critically assessed. 

The final part explores current pressures on the multilingual regime, including high rates of migration and cross-border commuting, which pose challenges to the role and transmission of Luxembourgish in a superdiverse society. The case provides broader insights into language standardization, multilingual governance, and identity construction in small states.

More information about Gilles and the lecture can be found on the speakers page on the conference website.

In short

What: Conference on Frisian Humanities
Where: Oranje Hotel, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
When: 12-14 November, 2025 
Organisation: Fryske Akademy, the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, the Lectorate Multilingualism and Literacy of NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, the department of Frisian Studies of University of Groningen, and the department Language, Technology and Culture of UG/Campus Fryslân.
Programme (time schedule): download (pdf) 
Book of Abstracts: download (pdf) 
Registration: through the website.

 

 

Back