The Danish language is too hard for the Danes

[Ann]

This one is for Chris, the resident scientist of Starship Asterisk* and also its resident Danish-American.

According to Politiken, the most prestigious newspaper in Denmark, Swedes and Norwegians are finding it ever harder to understand Danish. It is not so much the Danish language that is hard to understand, but rather the way the Danes are speaking it! In particular, Danes frequently don't really pronounce their consonants, but rather make a mumbling, sometimes throaty sound, leaving Swedes and Norwegians baffled. Read about it here, if you read Danish.

Okay, and you have to check out this Youtube parody of how Danes can't even understand one another! The video has been made by Norwegians, not by Swedes, I hasten to add!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Ann

[neufer]

. May 20, 1857: Release of Hans Christian Andersen's
_AT VÆRE ELLER IKKE VÆRE_, - "To Be or Not to Be"

[starstruck]

Ann, hehe!, that's a classic!
Now I can see why everybody on the Danish/Swedish TV thriller series "The Bridge" looks so confused and baffled all the time

[orin stepanek]

Ann: Can you speak Danish? Can you under stand them when they speak? You better have a

[Chris Peterson]

This one is for Chris, the resident scientist of Starship Asterisk* and also its resident Danish-American.

That's funny. And it's true- at least from the perspective of a non-native speaker. All the modern Scandinavian languages are quite simple (Icelandic and Old Norse are pretty brutal, though). Reading them is easy. But man, Danes produce some sounds so deep down in their throats that I think you have to be born to it to manage. Maybe even that isn't good enough anymore! (I can pull off "rød grød med fløde" quite passably.)

[Ann]

Ann: Can you speak Danish? Can you under stand them when they speak? You better have a

Well, I watch a bit of Danish television - not much, mind you! Mostly the weather report really, because the Danish weather report is much better for us in the southernmost part of Sweden than the weather report we get on Swedish television, which is sent to us from Stockholm!

But I watch the Danish weather report several times a week, so I get to listen to a bit of Danish very regularly. I have no problems whatsoever understanding the Danish meteorologists, who speak a clear, polished kind of Danish. I never have any problems with any parts of the Danish TV news, TV-Avisen, on those occasions when I watch more than the weather report. Wait, I have to take that back! Because sometimes they interview a Danish person who is not speaking "television Danish", and then I often can't understand much!

But I often meet Danish people who spend some of their time working in Sweden. I commute to work on a train which runs between Denmark and Sweden, and some of the staff on board are Danish and some are Swedish. I never have any problems whatsoever talking with the Danish ticket controllers or listening to what the Danish train driver is telling us passengers over the loudspeakers.

And yesterday, when I went to the luxurious Danish chocolaterie Peter Beier, I was speaking to a Danish woman working in the store. I had no problems whatsoever with her. But of course, this chocolate store is in Malmö, and she is talking to Swedish customers all the time.

Not that she was speaking some kind of semi-Swedish or something, mind you! She spoke Danish, pure and simple. But she spoke it clearly, and she expected me to understand, which I did, of course! And I spoke Swedish, and I expected her to understand, which she did, of course.

So I have no problems with what I might call "communicating Danish", the kind of Danish they speak on the Danish TV news or in stores where they really want to sell you something. But as for the Danish that many Danes speak on the street - no, I'm afraid I don't understand that much!

And I don't speak Danish myself, although I can write some sort of semi-passable Danish.

Ann