hallef

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old High German half, northern variant of halb, from Proto-Germanic *halbaz. Cognate with German halb, English half, Dutch half, Icelandic hálfur.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhalef/, [ˈhɑləf]

Adjective

hallef (masculine hallwen or halwen, neuter halleft, not comparable)

1. half

   Ech kéint en halleft Päerd friessen.

   I could eat half a horse.

Usage notes

• For the inflected stem, the spellings hallw- and halw- are both commonly found in edited texts. This is because there is a conflict between two basic principles of Luxembourgish spelling, namely (1.) that doubled consonants are not simplified in inflections, and (2.) that the spelling should be as close to the German cognate as the pronunciation allows. The Luxemburger Wörterbuch (1962) used halw-, but it seems that the more standard spelling is now hallw-.
• There is also a third inflected stem haalw- with a long [aː], but this is now archaic.

Derived terms

• Halschent
• Hallefnuecht