|
The Danish language is a North Germanic or Scandinavian language that belongs to the Germanic language family of the Indo-European languages. Danish is the official language of Denmark, and it is spoken by more than six million people in the country. It is also spoken by some 50,000 speakers in Northern Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and in countries like the Faroe Islands and the Danish autonomous territories of Greenland for political and educational purposes. It is the second foreign language used in the educational institutions in Iceland, as it was once under the power of Denmark. Danish is also widely spoken in Northeastern England. The Danish language is based on several dialects used in and around the Danish capital of Copenhagen, and its closest relatives are the Norwegian and Swedish languages. Danish has three general dialect classifications: Eastern Danish or Copenhagenish, Island Danish, and Jutlandish. In its spoken form, Danish is distinguished by its high tendency to reduce sounds, making it difficult for non-native speakers to understand and completely learn the language. Danish originally used the Latin alphabet in its written form, but it does not exist anymore. Danish only remains as a spoken language.  
Most of the words in the Danish vocabulary came from the language of Old Norse, mainly formed by compounding, and later on from the Middle Low German. Standard German, French, and English have since then succeeded over the influence of Low German. Danish actually uses several English words such as “over,” “under,” “have,” “give,” “for,” and “flag.” |
