Danish Language

Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by more than six million people worldwide. The standard form of the language today, Rigsmålet, is spoken near Denmark's capital of Copenhagen—home to about 25 percent of all Danes. Despite a number of rural dialects developing over the centuries, Rigsmålet became the accepted standard form of modern Danish as people abandoned more rustic dialects.

Early Danes used a twenty-four character runic writing system called Futhark, a name created from the first six letters of its alphabet. This was replaced by a sixteen-character set about 750 CE. Runic carvings survive on more than 250 stone monuments erected between 850 and 1050 CE. The language adopted the Latin alphabet about 1100 CE, and added three symbols representing vowels å (written as aa before 1948), æ, and ø.

Danish appeared in foreign texts such as the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, which dates from about 700 to 1000 CE, and in place names found in what is now Great Britain. The first manuscripts written in a distinct Danish script date to the thirteenth century, but Danish was not used as a literary language until the sixteenth century. In 1515, a Danish scholar republished Gesta Danorum—a history of the Danes written in Latin from about 1200 CE—in theDanish vernacular and later published a version of the New Testament.

History and Classification

Danish is a North Germanic language descended from the Indo-European family, a common ancestor of many modern languages that originated about 4000 BCE. Danish evolved from Old Norse and shares many characteristics with other Scandinavian languages. As a Germanic tongue, it also shares traits with German and English. Although many words are written the same as in English, such as have, over, under, for, flag, salt, and give, the pronunciation of vowels is different. English words borrowed from Danish include "knife" (kniv) and "egg" (aeg).

The Danish language developed several dialects based on geography. There are three main dialect groups: Eastern Danish (Bornholmian), Island Danish, and Jutlandic. These dialects can be further divided into branches such as North Jutlandic, West Jutlandic, Zealand, and Funen. Danish is also distinguished from other Nordic tongues because of its guttural sound pattern which softens consonants, ends words in a glottal stop, and uses a uvular r, a sound originating in the back of the throat.

Modern Denmark was first settled by Indo-European speakers around 2000 BCE. Runic inscriptions carved into stone suggest Northern Germanic and Primitive Scandinavian languages were spoken there by 200 CE. By the eighth century, Old Norse had split into Western and Eastern dialects, evolving into Norwegian and Icelandic evolving in the west, and Danish and Swedish in the east. When Danish Vikings conquered Britain in about the eighth century CE, the invaders' language greatly influenced the development of English.

The era of Medieval Danish ranged from 1100 to 1500 CE. King Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity between 983 and 987 CE, which ushered in the use of words from Greek, Latin, Old English, and Old Saxon. By the early twelfth century, a uniquely Danish language had developed. Between 1100 and 1800, many phonological changes occurred and grammar was simplified. Danish was influenced by the Low German dialects used by merchants who traded extensively with the Danes. The language abandoned the Old Norse case system and created new words for plants, clothes, tools, and other trade products.

Early Modern Danish dates from 1500 to1700 CE and is marked by High German, French, Italian, and Dutch influences. The arrival of printing in Denmark in 1482, and the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century also influenced the language. In the sixteenth century, scholar and printer Christiern Pedersen published the first Danish translation of the Bible while promoting a uniform spelling system.

By 1700, the Danish language had evolved close to its modern form, and was increasingly influenced by English. Reforms in the nineteenth century aimed to purify the language, bringing it closer to its roots by replacing many foreign words with Danish equivalents. Spelling was also standardized in the eighteenth century, and a standard pronunciation based on the dialect of Copenhagen was established.

Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage

Danish spread rapidly during the Viking conquests of the eighth to eleventh centuries, gaining a firm foothold elsewhere in Europe. The English city of York was once the Danish settlement of Jorvik. In France, the Danes were granted territory, which became Normandy. The language's influence on other Scandinavian languages remains into the twenty-first century. While under Danish control in the fourteenth century, Norway developed the Norwegian Bokmål language, which is still an official language of Norway. Although more similar in written form, Danish is mutually intelligible with Norwegian and, to some extent, Swedish.

In the twenty-first century, Danish is spoken by more than six million people. Speakers of this language reside, for the majority, in Denmark, but also in Greenland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Canada, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States. Used by the Nordic Council, Danish holds minority language status in Germany and is recognized as an official language in the European Union, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands. The Dansk Sprognævn (Danish Language Council), which collects and registers all new Danish words, routinely regulates the language. Since 1997, Denmark has maintained an Orthography Law, which establishes an official spelling.

Bibliography

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"Danish Language." In The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press. 2015. Print

"Danish Literature." In The Columbia Encyclopedia. New York: Columbia University Press. 2015. Print

"Danish." Omniglot: The Online Encyclopedia of Writing Systems & Languages. Simon Ager. 2015. Web. 18 Sept. 2015. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/danish.htm

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Lentzner, K. Historical Outline of the Danish Language. Modern Language Notes, 10(6), 161-168. doi:10.2307/2918668 Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. 1895. Print

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