Luxembourgish

The Eifel rule is pervasive in Luxembourgish as -n is a common ending for verbs, plural nouns and function words. Since Luxembourgish spelling strives for phonetic accuracy, n-deletion is also reflected in the standard orthography. The rule can be described as follows:

• In the suffix -(e)n or -nn, as well as in function words (e.g. articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjuctions, adverbs), morpheme-final /n/ is deleted before a consonant both word-finally and word-internally, except before homorganic (i.e. apical) noncontinuants, i.e. /n t d ts tʃ dʒ/, and /h/. For example:
  • Word-finally: den + Ball → de Ball ("the ball"), wann + mer ginn → wa mer ginn ("when we go")
  • Word-internally: Dammen + Schong → Dammeschong ("women's shoes"), un + fänken → ufänken (“to start”)

• It is not deleted in the following contexts:
  • Before a vowel:

    den Apel ("the apple"), den Yves (male name), wann ech ginn ("when I go")

    Ouerenentzündung ("ear infection")

  • Before homorganic (i.e. apical) noncontinuants, i.e. /n t d ts tʃ dʒ/, and /h/:

    /n/: den Noper (“the neighbour”)

    /t/: den Tuerm ("the tower")

    /d/: den Dag (“the day”), hien drénkt ("he drinks"), fënnefandrësseg ("thirty-five")

    /ts/ (possible spellings include z, c or ts): den Zuch (“the train”), den Cäsar (“Caesar [Julius Caesar]”), den Tsunami (“the tsunami”), Gromperenzalot ("potato salad")

    /tʃ/ (possible spellings include tsch, ch or c): an Tschechien (“in Czechia”), den Chip (“the chip [microchip]”), den Cello (“the cello”)

    /dʒ/ (possible spellings include dsch, j or g): den Dschungel (“the jungle”), vun Jamaika (“from Jamaica”), den George Washington (“George Washington”)

    /h/: den Hond (“the dog”), wann hie schléift ("when he sleeps")

  • Before a pause, or in spelling before a punctuation mark:

    Ech hunn (wéi gëschter) vill geschafft. ("I have (like yesterday) done a lot of work.")

• Deletion is optional before the following function words beginning with s: säin, si/se/s', sech, seng, sou (and perhaps others).

Note that the prefix on- is not affected by the Eifel rule, e.g. onvergiesslech ("unforgettable"). At the same time, certain content words do undergo n-deletion, e.g. Wäi(n) (wine), Stee(n) (stone), geschwë(nn) (soon).

When final -n is dropped from a plural noun whose singular form ends in -e (which occurs mostly in loanwords), a diaeresis must be used to distinguish the plural, e.g.: Chance (singular [ˈʃɑ̃ːs]), Chancen (plural, full form [ˈʃɑ̃ːsən]), Chancë (plural + Eifel rule [ˈʃɑ̃ːsə]).

Colognian

In Colognian, the Eifeler Regel is of lesser impact than further south. This is due in part to slight morphological differences between the Moselle Franconian languages of the upper Eifel regions (High Eifel and Schneifel), and the Ripuarian languages of the North- and Vordereifel region and the Cologne Lowland, to which Colognian belongs.

There are several ways to write Colognian, and the Eifeler Regel may be reflected in writing when it follows phonetic reality, but more often is not, since the majority of people do not write very phonetically.

In comparison to standard German, Colognian is often described as having historically omitted the trailing n. This is oversimplified, and not always true. The Colognian version of liaison sometimes inserts an n. Colognian multisyllabic base words or lexemes regularly drop "-n" when some related languages, such as Standard German and Low German (but not Dutch and Limburgish) do not. Liaison is often optional, and there is hardly any liaison on stressed words within a sentence. For example, with the words bovve (up, up there) and en (in, into), one may build the phrase: bovve en der Schaaf (up there into the cupboard) which depending on stress and voice flow inside a complete sentence is spoken as either [ˈbɔvə ʔen dɐ ˈʃaˑf] or [ˈbɔvən‿en dɐ ˈʃaˑf].

The general rule is that monosyllabic words most often keep their trailing n, while otherwise -en endings are transformed to -e in Colognian unless the following word starts with a glottal stop, a dental consonant, a vowel, or an h, and neither of the two words is being stressed inside the sentence.^[3] There are exceptions, the most notable being that speakers do not use liaison even if they could when speaking very slowly or solemnly, e.g. preaching or praying.