What language do the Danes speak? The Danish kingdom attracts a lot of attention from travelers from all over the world. About 6,000,000 people live in Denmark, most of whom are of Scandinavian origin.
Please note that immigration in the country is practically not developed. There are also quite a few small population groups.
As a result, only Danish is called the official language of the Kingdom of Denmark. But maybe the Danes use other languages in their life? Let’s look into this issue.
Features of the Danish language
Worldwide, only 5.6 million people speak Danish. Their predominant place of residence is the Kingdom of Denmark and the northern regions of Germany.
Please note that Greenland is part of Denmark, the population of which is fluent in Danish. In addition, the native Greenlandic language is native to the island.
Denmark also includes the Faroe Islands. They define the Danish language as the official state language, as well as the Faroese language.
About 50,000 people who live in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) say that Danish is their national language.
Danish is also spoken in Iceland. More precisely, Danish acts as a compulsory language, which is customary to study at school, starting from the sixth grade.
The history of the emergence of the Danish language
The Danish language originated from a separate branch of the Common Norse language. Its time of appearance in the world is considered to be the 3rd century AD. The former inhabitants, namely the Vikings, added a large number of significant changes to the Danish language.
In particular, modern Danish contains a large number of loanwords. After all, the Vikings traveled a lot and studied the languages of other peoples.
If we turn to the phonetics of the Danish language, then it began to differ as much as possible only by the 10th century. Only later did it become known that the Danish language is dominated by words that were borrowed by the Vikings from German, French and English.
In modern Danish, and more precisely in the alphabet, it is customary to use Latin letters. In principle, there are no differences from other European languages.
Despite this, the Danish language is considered to be quite difficult to learn and understand, especially from other inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
What should tourists remember?
If you happen to be in Denmark, then you should not worry about the lack of knowledge of the official Danish language. On the territory of the Danish kingdom, the local population is fluent in English.
Therefore, it will not be difficult for you to communicate with local residents in terms of ordering products in a restaurant or on excursions.
In addition, if you are in a tourist area, then most of all the signs and signs are duplicated in English.
A large number of Danish residents are fluent in German. Therefore, communication problems should not arise.
Despite this, if you are going to move to Denmark to study at a local university, you will have to take care of learning Danish.
All education is usually conducted in the state language.
Interesting article: 5 ways to make learning any language easier.
