Monday, March 18, 2013

Danish Language Quirks

My Danish teacher has mentioned several times, "This book has the most current spelling, but you might also see this word spelled ___." In Denmark, the language is continually updated. This is not the organic updating that comes as a other languages influence it, but imposed changes, particularly to simplify spelling. It's interesting because the US does nothing about English; it's not even our official language, and any attempt for Americans to try "owning" English would be met with outrage. In France, it is the opposite, where the state tries to protect the language and prevent change from happening.

Another interesting thing about Danish is that there are two genders, but they are not masculine and feminine. Instead they are simply "n-words" and "t-words," named as such depending on if they use the article "en" or "et." This makes me curious to read more about gender in language and how it emerged.

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