Is Danish influenced by German?

Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum, where no sharp dividing lines are seen between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, and has been influenced by English since the turn of the 20th century.

Is the Danish language related to German?

Danish and German are distant relatives of the Germanic language family, as different to each other as English is to these two. Their sounds and grammars are quite different. But being Germanic they do have cognates, although you’d have to study both languages to recognize their divergent spellings.

Are German and Danish language similar?

Danish and German are both Germanic languages and share a lot in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. There are, however, some notable differences, and today, Danish appears to be less consistently pronounced whereas German is more complicated grammatically.

Can a Danish person understand German?

The vast majority pick German (about 47\% of Danes report being able to speak conversational German). The third most widely understood foreign language is Swedish, with about 13\% of Danes reporting to be able to speak it.

Where did the Danish language come from?

Old Danish were spoken north of a line between the Eider, Treene and Eckernförde Bay. But in the 17th, 18th and up to the 19th centuries there was a language shift from Danish and North Frisian dialects to Low German and later to High German as common speech in Southern Schleswig.

What is the language like in Denmark today?

Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though regional variants of the standard language exist. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative.

What is the history of the Danish minority in Schleswig?

The Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, Germany, has existed by this name since 1920, when the Schleswig Plebiscite split German-ruled Schleswig into two parts: Northern Schleswig, with a Danish majority and a German minority was united with Denmark, while Southern Schleswig remained…

What is the difference between Danish and Swedish?

In the medieval period, Danish emerged as a separate language from Swedish. The main written language was Latin, and the few Danish-language texts preserved from this period are written in the Latin alphabet, although the runic alphabet seems to have lingered in popular usage in some areas.