Danish (dansk)

Danish is a North Germanic language with around 5.5 million speakers mainly in Denmark, but also in Greenland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the UAE and the USA. Danish was the official language of Norway until about 1830 and of Iceland until 1944. Danish is now the first foreign language learnt in Iceland.

During the Middle Ages, Danish was heavily influenced by Low German dialects, while during the 17th century Danish absorbed many French loanwords and from the 19th century onwards, many English words have been taken into Danish.

The first written work of Danish literature was Gesta Danorum (History of the Danes) written in Latin in about 1200 by Saxo Grammaticus. This recounts the history of Denmark up to 1186 and includes Danish versions (in a somewhat Christianized form) of Scandinavian myths and sagas, including the earliest version of the Hamlet story.

You can see an online version of Gesta Danorum in the original Latin at: http://www.kb.dk/elib/lit/dan/saxo/lat/or.dsr/

An English version is available at: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/DanishHistory/

Danish began to be used a literary languge during the 16th century. In 1514 Christian Pedersen published a Danish version of Gesta Danorum, which was highly influential on subsequent Danish literature. Pedersen also published the first Danish translation of the New Testament in 1531.

The letters C, Q, W, X and Z are only used in foreign loanwords. Before 1948, the sound written å was written aa, which can still be seen in some place names, such as Aalborg and Aabenraa.

Pronunciation

Notes

• c = [ s ] before e or i, [ k ] elsewhere
• e = [ ɑ ] before g
• d = [ ð ] after a vowel, [ d ] at the start of a word, silent after l, n or r and before t or s
• g = [ ɪ ] after a vowel, [ ʒ ] in words of foreign origin. The g in words ending in ig is silent, e.g. kedelig (boring)
• h is not pronounced before v or j

A good guide to Danish pronunciation, with sounds files, can be found at:
http://www.speakdanish.dk/html/pronunciation_index.htm

Sample text

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

Hear a recording of this text

Translation

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.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Danish

  Danish language courses, dictionaries, etc

Links

Information about the Danish language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_language
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages/danish.shtml

Online Danish lessons
http://www.speakdanish.dk
http://www.eulanguages.net

Danish Grammar
http://www.geocities.com/tsca.geo/dansk/
http://www.grammarexplorer.eu

Online Danish dictionaries
http://www.freedict.com/onldict/dan.html
http://danish.nigilist.ru
http://www.nordskol.org/ordbog/
http://www.hist.uib.no/kalkar/

Dansk for Alle - information about the Danish language and culture (in Danish)
http://www.studycentre.eu

Online Danish radio
http://www.dr.dk
http://www.abcsiden.dk/Netradio.aspx

Online Danish news
http://www.berlingske.dk
http://www.dr.dk
http://nyhederne.tv2.dk
http://www.information.dk
http://ing.dk

Project Runeberg - a volunteer effort to create free electronic editions of classic Nordic (Scandinavian) literature: http://runeberg.org

Related languages

Afrikaans, Alsatian, Cimbrian, Danish, Dutch, English, Faroese, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Old English, Old Norse, Scots, Swedish

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

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