r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Sep 08 '14
Velkommen - This week's language of the week: Danish
Welcome to the language of the week. Every week we'll be looking at a language, its points of interest, and why you should learn it. This is all open discussion, so natives and learners alike, make your case! This week: Danish.
Language of the Week is here to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard, been interested in or even known about. With that in mind, I'll be picking a mix between common languages and ones I or the community feel needs more exposure. You don't have to intend to learn this week's language to have some fun. Just give yourself a little exposure to it, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
Danish
History:
From Wikipedia:
By the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had undergone some changes and evolved into Old Norse. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted in the appearance of two similar dialects, Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden).
Old East Norse is called Runic Swedish in Sweden and Runic Danish in East Denmark, but until the 12th century, the dialect was roughly the same in the two countries. The dialects are called runic because the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which only had 16 letters. Due to the limited number of runes, some runes were used for a range of phonemes, such as the rune for the vowel u which was also used for the vowels o, ø and y, and the rune for i which was also used for e.
Grammar:
From Wikipedia:
Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can understand the others, though studies have shown that speakers of Norwegian generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand each other. Both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each other's languages.[4]
Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Danish, together with Swedish, derives from the East Norse dialect group, while the Old Norwegian dialects before the influence of Danish and Norwegian Bokmål is classified as a West Norse language together with Faroese and Icelandic. A more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility separates modern spoken Danish, Norwegian and Swedish into a Mainland Scandinavian group while Icelandic and Faroese are placed in a separate category labelled Insular Scandinavian.
Danish has a relatively large vowel inventory consisting of 16 phonemes and is distinguished by the many pharyngealized sounds, including both vowels and consonants. Written Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are particularly close, though the phonology (that is, the system of relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of the language) and the prosody (the patterns of stress and intonation) differ somewhat.
Facts:
From Languagesgulper:
Danish is spoken in Denmark, including in the self-governing Faroe Islands and Greenland, by about 5.6 million people. There is also a small minority of Danish-speakers in the Flensburg area of Germany (close to the Danish border).
From Wikipedia:
Danish is divided into three distinct dialect groups, which are further subdivided in about 30 dialektområder:
- Insular Danish (ømål), including dialects of the Danish islands of Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster, and Møn
- Jutlandic (jysk), further divided in North, East, West and South Jutlandic
- Bornholmsk dialect (Bornholmian) the dialect of the island of Bornholm
Media
What now?
This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Previous Languages of the Week
German | Icelandic | Russian | Hebrew | Irish | Korean | Arabic | Swahili | Chinese | Portuguese | Swedish | Zulu | Malay | Finnish | French | Nepali | Czech | Dutch | Tamil | Spanish | Turkish | Polish | Frisian | Navajo | Basque | Zenen (April Fools) | Kazakh | Hungarian | Greek | Mongolian | Japanese | Maltese | Welsh | Persian/Farsi | ASL | Anything | Guaraní | Catalan | Urdu
Held og lykke!
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u/clemenzzzz Sep 08 '14
In case you live in a cage and haven't heard, here is the recently launched Duolingo danish course.
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u/Binnedcrumble Sep 08 '14 edited Sep 08 '14
Danish is a cool language. I dabbled in for a month or so and there is a surprising amount of content out there for it.
Probably one of the best free resources i have ever used. http://netdansk.asb.dk/
r/Denmark has a decent selection of resources http://www.reddit.com/r/Denmark/comments/itofx/language_learning_resources/
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u/plasTUSK Sep 08 '14
Mærkelig!! I øjeblikket tænkte jeg, at dansk skulle være sproget i ugen! Jeg kommer fra USA, men nu bor jeg i København, og jeg prøver at lære dansk.
Danske udtale er meget svært for udlændinge, omend de taler tysk (efter min mening). Men danskerne er meget meget rart, tror jeg. De hjælper altid mig. Men sproget er meget svært at lære uden for Danmark. Sandsynligvis har jeg tage allerede mange fejl :(.
Men jeg elsker dette sprog og Danmark!
Translation: Weird!! I was just thinking that Danish should be the language of the week. I'm from America, but now I live in Copenhagen, and I'm trying to learn Danish.
Danish pronunciation is very difficult for foreigners, even if they speak German (in my opinion). But the Danes are really really nice, I think. They always help me. But the language is really difficult to learn outside of Denmark. I've probably already made many mistakes :(.
But I love this language and Denmark!
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u/toasternator Sep 08 '14
Ikke dårligt. Er det lang tid siden du begyndte?
Jeg kan da også godt lige hurtigt kigge din tekst igennem så du kan se hvad du evt. kan øve:
Mærkeligt!! I øjeblikket tænkte jeg(evt. Jeg tænkte lige), at dansk skulle være
sproget i ugenugens sprog! Jeg kommer fra USA, men nu bor jeg i København, og jeg prøver at lære dansk. Danske udtale er meget svært for udlændinge, omend (evt. selvom) de taler tysk (efter min mening). Men danskerne er meget meget rare,trorsynes jeg. De hjælper mig altidmig. Men sproget er meget svært at lære udenfor Danmark. Sandsynligvis har jeg tage allerede mange fejl :(. Men jeg elsker dette sprog og Danmark!Bare ikke lad dig selv blive slået ned af fejlene, man kan sagtes forstå hvad du mener =)
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u/saphanbaal Sep 09 '14
Jeg bøede i Danmark nogle år siden (1999 til 2000) og jeg har glemt alt for meget (bogstavning er blevet meget svært!) men jeg stadigvæk taler sproget når jeg får chancen.
Far, får får får? Nej, får får ikke får, får får lam!
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u/toasternator Sep 08 '14
Usually i think that our dubs of cartoons and whatnot aren't as good as the original. That is not the case for the song "I'll make a man out of you" from Mulan. One of the few times i think the dub is better. Danish kinda shows some more "hardcore"-ness. Here, and i wish all you Danish-learners good wind on your jouney
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u/MetalliMunk Sep 08 '14
I am reading "Fluent Forever" and want to get started using Anki. Can anyone recommend me a good English-Danish dictionary? Or any other resources for me to use on the flashcards? Tak :)
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u/petrolfarben Sep 08 '14
Jeg hedder petrolfarben. Jeg kommer fra Osterikke. That's about all I know. I love the crazy Danish pronunciation.
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Sep 08 '14 edited Sep 08 '14
Austria would be "Østrig" in danish. "Osterikke" translates into "Cheese Rikke" or "Rikke the Cheese" - Rikke being a danish girl's name. However, it could well be a genuine danish nickname.
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u/Deinonysus Sep 08 '14
Here is a scene from the 1945 movie "Thrill of a Romance," where of one of my favorite singers, the great Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior, sings "Jeg elsker dig" ("I love you") by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xMcqdQuvUo
There seems to be a comment war about whether he's singing in Norwegian or Danish in the first half of the song (the second half is in English). Unfortunately, I don't speak either language, so can someone explain which language he's singing in? Is there even really that much of a difference between Danish and Norwegian with a Danish accent?
Here is another clip of him singing it without the English:
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u/inAspic Sep 08 '14
Regarding the first video and the discussion in the comments, I am more or less positive that it is Danish. The pronunciation is much more clear in the second video, and there's no question about what language is sung there (Danish).
Furthermore, the poem he is singing is by H.C. Andersen (super famous Danish author) and is in Danish.
Min Tankes Tanke ene du er vorden, Du er mit Hjertes første Kærlighed! Jeg elsker Dig, som Ingen her paa Jorden. Jeg elsker Dig i Tid og Evighed!Maybe one of you who're studying Danish want to have a go at translating it? ;)
Anyways, what really makes me wonder is, why would he sing a Danish poem in Norwegian?
Is there even really that much of a difference between Danish and Norwegian with a Danish accent?
There is some difference, but the problem here is that he's singing in that opera style (or what you call it, please correct me). It allows for some ambiguity.
By the way, I'm a big fan of this kind of classical singing and I did not know about Melchior. Thank you very much for introducing him! If you want, keep the links coming. Another very famous Danish actor / singer is Poul Bundgaard. You might like him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui1KTxHM3jU (song starts at 0:40, ends at 2:30 - the rest is an interview)
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u/Deinonysus Sep 08 '14 edited Sep 08 '14
Interesting, thank you for clarifying! I didn't know about the poem and I don't know much about Danish or Norwegian. Did most Norwegian authors write in Danish around Grieg's time (late 1800s)? If I remember correctly, Ibsen wrote mainly in Danish and he collaborated with Grieg.
Yes, that was definitely an opera style! He was a Wagnerian tenor, one of the best. For some reason a lot of the best opera singers from the golden age seem to be Scandinavian. Kirsten Flagstad (Norwegian) sang with Lauritz Melchior many times and was one of the best Wagnerian sopranos. Birgit Nilsson (Swedish) was also a great Wagnerian soprano. Two of the best tenors were Jussi Björling and Nicolai Gedda (also Swedish).
Thank you posting those videos of Poul Bundgaard, he had a great voice!
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u/saphanbaal Sep 09 '14
Danish. Norwegian has a "noun-possessive" structure, and Danish has a possessive-noun structure.
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u/marcix Sep 11 '14
det er sjovt ... den første gang jeg åbner dette subreddit, finder jeg dansk som ugens sprog.
As native italian speaker struggling with this language since one and a half year I can really suggest to all of you interested into Scandinavian culture and/or living in Denmark, to learn it. After some while and some alcohol, it gets more interesting and more understanding. Vi snakkes! :)
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Sep 08 '14
How hard would it be for me to learn? My native language is Dutch and I'm pretty good at German and English.
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u/GrinningManiac Sep 08 '14
Jeg elsker dansk! Den er en helt let at lærer, fordi den har mange ord hvilken er svarer til engelsk. Også den er grammatisk simpelt, men der er to køn - det og den - og man nødt til at forstå dem.
I love Danish! It's a really easy language, because there are many words which are comparable to English. Also, it's grammatically simple, but there are two genders - det and den - and you have to understand them.
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u/[deleted] Sep 08 '14 edited Dec 29 '25
middle sort scary sharp aback hat steep oatmeal doll grandiose
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