Danish is also spoken by 20,000 people just south of the German border. It goes back to the time before 1864 when the area belonged to Denmark, and the Danish minority south of the German border is very keen on preserving the Danish language. In Icelandic schools, too, the first foreign language to be taught is Danish. That serves as a way of communicating with the other Scandinavian countries.

Danish is not exactly known as one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Actually, the sound of Danish always seems to amuse foreigners which gives the language a certain entertainment value. Foreigners often characterize Danish as a monotone-like drawl, and many people say that Danes speak like they have a hot potato in their mouth. Of course, the Danes themselves find their language both charming and pretty though they are aware of the fact that Danish can be difficult to learn for people from other countries. Because of that, most Danes find it amusing to test foreigners with the sentence Rødgrød med fløde (A Danish dessert), because they know that foreigners are unable to pronounce it. So if you ever visit Denmark you can be sure that several Danes will test you on that one.

Danish is characterized as a very flat language. It is said that people in flat countries speak with flat accents. As to Denmark this could be true, because Denmark is indeed a very flat country with its highest point only 147 m or 482.28 feet.

The written Danish is characterized by a very strict norm, but the spoken language may vary considerably in pronunciation. The Danish language has several dialects even though Denmark is a small country. The standard language that is called Rigsdansk originated around Copenhagen, and was originally based on the sociolect of the upper class of Copenhagen. Almost every island has its own dialect, which can be difficult to understand for Danes in other parts of the country. However, the vast majority of the population speak either standard Danish or a social variation of it.

The Origin of Danish

Origin

Danish is a language of the Indo-European family, and it belongs to the North Germanic group together with Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian and Swedish. Historically speaking, Danish is a dialect of a common Scandinavian language which is known from AD 200. Only towards AD 1200 did a split become obvious, and many Viking Age loan words in English, law, window, ill, loose, die etc. are Scandinavian rather than Danish.

Over the centuries Danish has adopted thousands of words from foreign languages, especially from Lower German in the Middle Ages. Since the 17th century a considerable number of loan words have been taken from French, and especially in the 20th century many English words have found their way into the Danish language.

The historical changes in vocabulary were to a large extent brought about by external factors such as Christian missionaries in the Viking Age, trade links with Hanseatic merchants, immigration by north German artisans and noble families in the Middle Ages, the Lutheran Reformation in the 16th century, and since then a broad cultural contact with the modern international prestige languages. These were first German and French and from the end of the 19th century mainly English. The whole of this western European cultural milieu has constantly adopted words from the "dead" languages, Latin and Greek. Under the same external influences, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have in all essential aspects undergone a parallel development.

Differences between the Scandinavian Languages

As many foreigners will know, the differences between the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish vocabulary are not great. The languages are to a large extent mutually intelligible. Danes, Norwegians and Swedes can converse in their native tongues, though they indeed sound very different for most foreigners. However, the Danish language has changed more than any of the other Scandinavian languages. The language has been - and still is - influenced by international loan words to a greater extent than Swedish and Norwegian, and therefore the rules for the spelling have often changed.

Generally, native speakers of one of the three languages have little trouble dealing with the written versions in other languages. Especially written Danish and Norwegian can be difficult to separate, some sentences are even absolutely identical.

The Written Language

The Alphabet

Danish is written in the Roman alphabet. The biggest difference between the American and the Danish alphabet is that the Danish alphabet has three additional letters - æ, ø and å - totally 29 letters. Since 1948, the alphabet has been expanded with the Swedish and Norwegian letter å. The spelling reform of 1948 also abolished the practice of beginning all nouns with a capital letter.

The letters æ, ø and å come in this order as the last three letters of the alphabet and they are all vowels. The pronunciation can be confusing, but a good way of remembering how they should sound is: for æ as with e in egg; for ø as with i in first; for å as with o in lord.

The letters æ, ø and å are only found in Danish and Norwegian, so if you find a sentence with these three letters there is a good chance that it is a Danish text.

The å entered the Danish alphabet in 1948, and was meant to replace the double-a. However, the double-a is still to be found in written Danish. Double-a is precisely the same as å, so don’t look for Aabenraa in the beginning of the dictionary, as you will then be searching in vain.

But what is the difference between å and aa and why are towns like Aalborg and Århus often spelt both ways? Today it is a question of spelling conventions, Aalborg insists on using the double-a even on road signs whereas Århus insists on using the å.

It is now year 2001 and things are changing so YOU WILL find that the way the use of the å was used in the old days is not necessary the way things are anymore.

The proper usage of å versus aa is according to Retskrivningsbogen (The Danish dictionary of orthography):

The letter å was substituted for aa in 1948 as the token symbol for the å sound, but it is still possible to use both in Danish personal names and places, but not in other words.

The correct use is å but you should follow the way the named person uses it.

Some places like Aalborg and Aabenraa have strong local traditions for replacing the å with the aa, and these should be followed. It can also be important to remember that the capitalization of the double-a when it starts a sentence is Aa, not AA.

Besides the æ, ø and å the most important things worth knowing about the Danish alphabet is that the letters c, q, w, x and z are only used in loan words as for instance check, zoo, weekend, and that the letters v and w are treated as being the same.

Therefore many Danes have difficulties in the pronunciation of these two letters in English.

Pronunciation

Some of the major characteristics of Danish pronunciation is that the Danish r has to be fetched from deep below the tonsils and, as somebody would say, it requires special muscles. The reduction of unstressed vowels and the glottal stop are also characteristic features.

The glottal stop (stød) may be difficult for non-Danish speakers to imitate and does not in fact exist in the pronunciation of the language in many regions of Denmark. However, it is important to pronounce the glottal stop because otherwise words may be misunderstood. For example le´ver (with a glottal stop) means liver, whereas lever (without a glottal stop) means to live. The glottal stop is produced by a sudden contraction of the expiration muscles. If the vowel of the syllable in question is long, the glottal stop occurs at the end of the vowel. If the vowel is short the glottal stop is pronounced before the following consonant. In a syllable with a short vowel and a voiceless consonant there is no glottal stop.

The Danish orthography is principally conservative and only partly conforms to present day pronunciation. In for instance ligge (to lie), skylle (to rinse) and mund (mouth) the i, y and u represent a sound corresponding to e, ø and å, while the same vowel sign in kigge (to look), skylde (to owe), and hund (dog) is pronounced as it is written.

The written sequences ld and nd in which d can be silent, always indicate a preceding short vowel as for instance in bold (ball) and vind (wind)

Danish is rich in vowels. The 9 vowel letters represent 16 different vocalic sounds; for instance in sal (hall), salt (salt) and saks ( scissors) the letter a stands for three different pronunciations. In addition there are several diphthongs e.g. [aj] as in leje (to hire) and lege (to play).

Few consonants are voiced; even [b,d,g] are unvoiced. Moreover, the particular sound of Danish is partly due to stød, a near-closing of the vocal chords which occurs regularly in specific word types, for instance in monosyllables like tab [ta´b] (loss) and fugl [fu´l] (bird)

   
Grammar

Within the Germanic languages there are two grammatical traits that are peculiar to Scandinavian, namely the enclitic definite article e.g. dag-en (the day) år-et (the year) dage-ne (the days), år-ene (the years), and the passive form of the verbs, e.g. føl-es (is/are felt).