LuxBank: The First Universal Dependency Treebank for Luxembourgish

TL;DR

LuxBank is the first comprehensive syntactic dependency treebank for Luxembourgish, filling a crucial resource gap and enabling advanced linguistic and NLP applications for this low-resource West Germanic language.

Contribution

The paper introduces LuxBank, establishing formal annotation guidelines and providing the first large-scale syntactic analysis for Luxembourgish within the UD framework.

Findings

First large-scale UD Treebank for Luxembourgish

Provides foundational syntactic annotation guidelines

Enables NLP applications for Luxembourgish

Abstract

The Universal Dependencies (UD) project has significantly expanded linguistic coverage across 161 languages, yet Luxembourgish, a West Germanic language spoken by approximately 400,000 people, has remained absent until now. In this paper, we introduce LuxBank, the first UD Treebank for Luxembourgish, addressing the gap in syntactic annotation and analysis for this `low-research' language. We establish formal guidelines for Luxembourgish language annotation, providing the foundation for the first large-scale quantitative analysis of its syntax. LuxBank serves not only as a resource for linguists and language learners but also as a tool for developing spell checkers and grammar checkers, organising existing text archives and even training large language models. By incorporating Luxembourgish into the UD framework, we aim to enhance the understanding of syntactic variation within West Germanic languages and offer a model for documenting smaller, semi-standardised languages. This work positions Luxembourgish as a valuable resource in the broader linguistic and NLP communities, contributing to the study of languages with limited research and resources.