by Jerome Carter

Created on: October 11, 2010

Danish is the official language of Denmark.  The language belongs to the East Scandinavian division of Germanic subgroup within the Indo-European language family.  The language is spoken today by about 5.4 million people.  It is also spoken in by a few thousand in neighboring Germany and in Greenland, which is part of Denmark.  The West Scandinavian language Faroese is spoken on the Faroe islands, which are also part of Denmark.

Like the other Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic), Danish developed form an old, common Scandinavian tongue.  Evidence of this early language can be found in 3rd century A.D. runic inscriptions.  This old Scandinavian language was once spoken in parts of England due to Norse conquest and settlement in that country.  During this era of Norse expansion, from the 9th to 11th centuries, the original language split into two distinct dialects, West Scandinavian and East Scandinavian.  The western dialects gave rise to Norwegian. Icelandic and Faroese.  The eastern dialects, by contrast, gave rise to Swedish and Danish.

The development of the Danish language can be divided into three distinct phases:

(1) Old Danish, from about 800 to 1100 A.D.

(2) Middle Danish, from about 1100 to 1500

And

(3) Modern Danish, from about 1500 to the present

Examples of Old Danish can be found in numerous old runic inscriptions.  Early Middle Danish is preserved mainly in early Danish laws.  During the Middle Danish period, the language consisted of three separate dialects.  Each dialect corresponded to a particular province- Scania, Zealand and Jutland.  Eventually the Zealand dialect emerged as the primary dialect, becoming the basis for the modern Danish language.  During this period, grammar was simplified and words from other languages, especially Low German, were adopted.

By around 1500, Danish had become to resemble its contemporary form.  During the 16th century, a great deal of publishing and printing activity associated with the Reformation helped to create a more standardized form.

In the last half of the 17th century, German was spoken in the royal court.  As a result, a number of German words entered the language.

During the 19th and 20th century, some official changes were made in spelling.  Additional loan words were adopted from the French, English and German languages.  The language became more standardized.  Use of the standard version of Danish, based on the dialect spoken around the capital Copenhagen, has increased at the expense of local dialects since the middle of the 20th century.

Learn more about this author, Jerome Carter.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.