Danish language

Danish, or dansk, is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, mainly in and around Denmark. You can also find Danish speakers in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and parts of northern Germany called Southern Schleswig. Smaller communities speak Danish in Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

Danish comes from Old Norse, the ancient language of the Germanic peoples in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Today, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish are easy for each other to understand when spoken, though written forms are more alike than the spoken ones.

The Danish language developed a standard form in the 16th century after the Reformation and the printing press were introduced, based on the dialect of Copenhagen. It became a symbol of Danish identity, especially after losing territory to Germany and Sweden. Though many traditional dialects have disappeared, the language continues to evolve, especially among younger generations.

Danish has many vowels and unique sounds, making it challenging for some to learn. Its grammar is moderately inflected, and it has specific rules for word order that differ from English.

Classification

Danish is a Germanic language from the North Germanic branch. Along with Swedish, it comes from the Eastern dialects of the Old Norse language. These languages are often called Nordic or Scandinavian.

Danish has three main dialect areas: Jutlandic, Insular Danish, and East Danish. Danish has been influenced by Low German and English over time. It shares many words with English because of their common Germanic roots.

Danish is mostly understood by people who speak Norwegian or Swedish, though it works better in one direction than the other. Norwegian speakers usually understand Danish and Swedish better than Danes or Swedes understand each other.

History

Main article: History of Danish

The history of Danish is divided into different periods. From around 800 AD to 1525, it was known as Old Danish. This period includes Runic Danish (800–1100), Early Middle Danish (1100–1350), and Late Middle Danish (1350–1525).

During the eighth century, the common language of Scandinavia changed and became Old Norse. It was called Dǫnsk tunga meaning 'Danish tongue'. Norse was written using special letters called runes, first with the elder futhark and later with the younger futhark.

Old Norse split into two groups: Old West Norse (spoken in Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (spoken in Denmark and Sweden). Changes began in Denmark and spread to Sweden and Norway. One big change was turning æi into e, like changing stæin to sten. Another change turned au into ø, like dauðr to døðr. These changes started in Denmark and spread eastward.

Old East Norse was once spoken in parts of England by Danish Vikings. Many English words come from this language, like gate, knife, husband, and egg. The word -by meaning 'town' is common in places like Selby and Whitby.

In the medieval period, Danish became its own language separate from Swedish. Latin was the main written language, but some Danish laws were written in Danish. The Jutlandic Law and Scanian Law were written in Danish in the early 1300s. Danish started being used more in government and literature after 1350. Danish borrowed many words from Low German.

With the Protestant Reformation in 1536, Danish became the language of religion. Danish started to change and become different from Swedish and Norwegian. Features like the stød, certain sound changes, and vowel weakening began to appear.

The first printed book in Danish was in 1495. The first full Bible in Danish was published in 1550. This helped set the standard for writing Danish. Printing presses in Denmark started publishing in Danish and other languages.

Danish kept developing as a written language after the first Bible was translated. Grammar books were written, and famous authors like Thomas Kingo and Leonora Christina Ulfeldt wrote in Danish. Orthography (the way words are spelled) was still being discussed.

In the 17th century, Denmark lost some areas to Sweden, and Norway became politically separate. Danish influence on Norway slowly ended. Absolutism began in 1660, and a special form of Danish from Zealand with German and French influence became the official standard, called rigsdansk. A new sound called the skarre-R started spreading in Denmark.

In the 18th century, Rasmus Rask studied Danish and helped create the study of comparative and historical linguistics. Danish literature grew with authors like Ludvig Holberg. Danish became the official language in Greenland when Denmark colonized it. Iceland and the Faroe Islands were also Danish territories with Danish as an official language until the mid-1900s.

The "Golden Age" was a time when Danish literature grew strongly. Authors like N.F.S. Grundtvig and Hans Christian Andersen became famous. Danes also moved to places like the United States, Canada, and Argentina, where some still remember Danish today.

After losing Schleswig to Germany, Danish lost status there. In 1920, after a referendum, some Danes stayed in Germany. After World War II, Danish spelling changed, dropping a rule from German and adding the letter ⟨å⟩.

With national broadcasting using rigsdansk, traditional dialects slowly disappeared. Today, Standard Danish is spoken everywhere, but some areas have their own way of speaking. In cities, new ways of speaking Danish have developed from immigrants, mixing Danish with languages like Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, and English. This is sometimes called multiethnolect or Perkerdansk.

Geographic distribution and status

Danish Realm

In Denmark, Danish is the main language. In the Faroe Islands, Danish is one of the two official languages, along with Faroese. There is a special version of Danish called Gøtudanskt used there. In Greenland, Danish used to be an official language, but now it is mainly used as a common language that many people speak as a second language. About 10% of Greenland’s people speak Danish as their first language because of immigration.

In Iceland, which was once ruled by Denmark, Danish is still taught in schools as a second foreign language.

Denmark does not have a law saying Danish is the official language, but it is the language used in courts and by public authorities.

Surrounding countries

There is also a group of Danish speakers in Southern Schleswig, a part of Germany near Denmark. Since 2015, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein has recognized Danish as a regional language. Danish is also an official language in the European Union and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council. People from Nordic countries can use Danish when dealing with officials in other Nordic countries without paying for translation.

In Norway, the most common written form of the language, called Bokmål, is very similar to Danish because Danish was used as the main administrative language until 1814.

Other locations

Danish-speaking communities can also be found in the US, Canada, Argentina, and Brazil.

Dialects

Main article: Dialects of Danish

Standard Danish is based on the language spoken in and around Copenhagen. Unlike some other languages, Danish has just one main way of speaking across the country. Over a quarter of Danish speakers live in the Copenhagen area, where many important offices are located, leading to a common way of speaking nationwide.

Danish has traditional dialects that differ from standard Danish in sounds and grammar, and these are mostly spoken only by older people now. These dialects are divided into three groups: Insular Danish spoken on islands such as Zealand and Funen, Jutlandic spoken in the mainland area of Jutland, and East Danish spoken in places like Bornholm. Each of these has its own special features, like different sounds or ways of forming words.

For example, some areas do not use a special sound called stød, while others use it more often than in standard Danish. There are also differences in how words are made into their "the" form. Some dialects even use three genders for nouns instead of the two used in standard Danish. These differences make each dialect unique.

Phonology

Main article: Danish phonology

Danish has a unique sound system, especially with many different vowel sounds. When people speak quickly, some sounds get dropped, which can make it hard to understand. This, along with other sound patterns, makes Danish tricky for learners.

The language has many vowel sounds—27 in total—which is a lot compared to most languages. There are also many ways consonants can sound different depending on their position in a word. One special feature of Danish is called stød, a special throat sound that can change the meaning of words. Stress and pitch also play important roles in how Danish is spoken.

Grammar

Main article: Danish grammar

Danish grammar has changed over time from a system with many rules to a simpler one. Like English, it now has fewer rules and a fixed order of words in sentences. Danish still keeps some features from older Germanic languages, such as changing the vowel in words (like "tager" (takes) and "tog" (took)) or adding endings to nouns (like "elsker" (love) and "elskede" (loved)).

Nouns

Nouns in Danish change to show if they are singular or plural and if they are definite (like "the"). They also have two genders: common and neuter. The way nouns change depends on their gender and whether they are definite or not.

Gender

Danish nouns are either common gender or neuter gender. Common gender includes both old feminine and masculine nouns, while neuter is often used for things. The gender of a noun affects how adjectives and endings change with it.

Definiteness

Definiteness is shown in two ways: with a suffix added to the end of the noun, or with a word placed before the noun. For example, "hus" (house) becomes "huset" (the house) with a suffix, or "det store hus" (the big house) with a word before it.

Number

There are three ways to form plurals in Danish:

• Adding "-er" to the end (like "skib" (ship) becomes "skibe" (ships))
• Adding "-e" to the end (like "pige" (girl) becomes "piger" (girls))
• No ending for some plurals (like "øje" (eye) becomes "øjne" (eyes))

Possession

Possession is shown by adding "-s" to the end of a noun (like "min fars hus" (my father's house)).

Nominal compounds

Danish can combine nouns into one word, like "kvindehåndboldlandsholdet" (the women's national handball team).

Pronouns

Danish pronouns change depending on their role in the sentence. For example, "jeg" means "I" when the speaker is the subject, and "mig" means "me" when the speaker is the object.

Verbs

Danish verbs are simple and do not change much. They have past, present, and infinitive forms, and can be regular or irregular. Verbs also have different forms for passive voice and commands.

Numerals

Numbers in Danish above 20 are formed in a special way. For example, 21 is "enogtyve" (one and twenty). Numbers like 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 are based on multiples of twenty.

Syntax

In Danish, the basic order of words in a sentence is Subject-Verb-Object. However, the verb is always the second word in a sentence. For example, "Peter så Jytte" (Peter saw Jytte) follows this order, while "I går så Peter Jytte" (Yesterday, Peter saw Jytte) shows the verb as the second word.

Writing system and alphabet

Main article: Danish orthography

The oldest examples of written Danish come from the Iron and Viking Ages and used the Runic alphabet. When Christianity arrived, the Latin script was introduced to Denmark. By the 13th century, runes were mostly replaced by Latin letters.

Today, the Danish alphabet looks a lot like the English one but has three extra letters: ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ø⟩, and ⟨å⟩. These come at the end of the alphabet. Letters like ⟨c⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨w⟩, ⟨x⟩, and ⟨z⟩ are only used in words borrowed from other languages. In 1948, a spelling change added the letter ⟨å⟩ to replace the combination ⟨aa⟩, though some place names still use ⟨Aa⟩. This reform also changed the spelling of some common verbs. Danish and Norwegian now use the same alphabet, even though their spellings are not exactly the same.

Example text

Here is the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Danish:

Alle mennesker er født frie og lige i værdighed og rettigheder. De er udstyret med fornuft og samvittighed, og de bør handle mod hinanden i en broderskabets ånd.

And here it is in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.