Danish, alphabet and pronunciation

Danish was always associated with the great conquests of the Vikings. Great cultural heritage of the country - it is such an unspoken title he wears. A large number of dialects, as well as inconsistency of oral and written speech, on the one hand, makes it difficult to study, and on the other, attracts more and more people who want to learn Danish. Despite the fact that it sounds sometimes monotonously and slowly, the Danes are proud of it and consider it very soft and sensual.

History of origin

The language of Denmark was referred to the Germanic languages and is official in the kingdom. It began to develop in the Middle Ages. In the course of its development, it combined many Scandinavian languages, and also fell under the influence of Lower German dialects. Since the XVII century began absorbing words from the French language, and later also from English. Danish has a rich past. It is believed that the origin occurred in the III millennium BC, the ancient runes found later on the territory of the country speak about it. Danish refers to the Old Norse languages. In the era when the resettlement of the Vikings began, it divided into two parts: the East Scandinavian and the West Scandinavian. The first group later formed the Danish and Swedish languages, and the second - Icelandic and Norwegian.

At the heart of the Danish script lies Latin, from which the language has absorbed some letters. Prior to it, runes were used, which became the first monuments of the writing of this country. The word "runa" in Old Norse dialect meant "secret knowledge". It seemed to the Danes that the transmission of information using symbols in some way resembled a magical rite. The priests were almost magicians, because only they knew how to use them. They used runes in predicting destiny and performing rituals. This was possible because each rune had its own name, and it was given a special significance. Although linguists have a different opinion. They assume that this information was borrowed from Sanskrit.

Distribution area

The main places of distribution of Danish are Canada, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The language is native to more than 5 million people and stands at the second most prevalent place in the group of Scandinavian dialects. Until the mid 40-ies was the official in Norway and Iceland. Currently being studied by Icelandic schoolchildren as the second mandatory. Any person who knows any European language will be much easier to learn Danish because of the huge influence of German dialects on him.

At the moment, the Danish threat looms. Despite the fact that the Scandinavian languages are very popular and such a large number of people speak to them, English speech introduces serious changes in their structure. As for Denmark, the fact is that many books here are printed in English. Products are advertised also in this language. Lessons in schools prefer to lead on it, and write scientific dissertations too. On the territory of Denmark is the Council for the Danish language, whose members sound alarm. If no measures are taken, then in a couple of decades, the Danish simply disappears.

General characteristics of the language

The Scandinavian group of languages includes Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. The latter is more inclined to change than others. It is thanks to this phenomenon that Danish is difficult to understand and study. Norwegians, Swedes and Danes are very easy to understand each other because of the common language. Many words in the speech of these peoples are similar, and many are repeated without change in meaning. By simplifying the morphology of Danish, its structure became similar to the structure of the English language.

Dialects

Approximately in the year 1000 this adverb appears some deviations from the norm accepted at that time, and it was divided into three branches: skomsky, zelandsky and yutlandsky. The language of the Danes is a multi-dialect language. Danish combined a large number of island (zeland, fyunsky), yutland (northeast, southwestern) dialects. Despite its rich history, the literary language was formed here only towards the end of the 18th century. It is based on the Zellish dialect. Dialects are spoken by people who mainly live in rural areas. All adverbs differ both in the used vocabulary and grammatically. Many words pronounced in dialects are unknown to people who have long been accustomed to the usual literary norm.

Alphabet

The Danish alphabet consists of 29 letters, many of them do not occur in Russian, so their pronunciation requires some preparation.

Pronunciation

The Danes call it "the most melodic language". Danish is famous for its uneasy sound due to the large number of soft vowels that are sometimes pronounced too hard. As a result, words do not sound like they are written. Not everyone can hear the difference between vowels. They can be long, brief, open and closed. "Push" is a very important feature that characterizes this language. Danish may not seem quite logical due to this phenomenon. The fact is that there is no push in most languages. It is characterized by a brief interruption of the air stream during the pronunciation of the word. On the letter it is not indicated in any way. In Russian, this phenomenon can be seen when the word "not-a" is pronounced. Danes themselves do not always use it correctly, and this makes the language of Denmark even more confusing.

Grammar

Not every people can boast that it has a rich history. The structure of some modern languages has left a mark on the great Scandinavian language. Danish is the same language in the structure of its proposals. Many nouns can refer directly to two genera, and their structure is completely unchanged. Adjectives are consistent with nouns in number and gender. Suggestions, as a rule, are two-part. The word order in the sentence can be either direct or reverse. The direct order of words is used in narrative sentences, interrogative, where the interrogative word is in place of the subject. The reverse order of words can be used both in narrative sentences, and in interrogative and motivational ones.

Morphology

Nouns of the Danish language have a kind, a number and a case, an article. The latter identifies the number and genus of the noun. He has a plural and singular number, and the genus can be general and average. The adjective can be definite and indefinite. If the adjective is indefinite, it agrees with the noun in number and gender. The verb has time, a pledge and an inclination. In total in the Danish language 8 time categories, 2 of which are responsible for the future time, 2 - for the future in the past, present, present completed, past and long gone.

In the derivation of nouns, endings and changing root vowels participate. The word-building is the most common way of word formation. It can also occur by adding suffixes to the root, removing suffixes or converting. In Danish, new concepts are easily formed.