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Danish Language or Da-ih Langa? | ||
Tags: Danish | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| exscribere Diglot Senior Member IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5284 days ago 104 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English*, Danish Studies: Mandarin, French, Korean, Hindi | Message 9 of 18 11 September 2010 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I lived in Denmark for a year; by the 6 month point, I was speaking at a near-fluent level, and I was speaking completely fluently at the 8-10 month point. If you actually apply yourself, expose yourself to the language, and have an interest in doing it, I think you'll have the similar experience.
You pick up the phonological variation (as Zankou77 pointed out with the info) and... well, I loved living in Denmark, and learning it there. Unhelpful, I know, but I really think that it's worth it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Schalburg Tetraglot Newbie Denmark Joined 4599 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Danish*, German, English, Russian | Message 10 of 18 14 May 2014 at 8:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Isnt your example somewhat flawed? "komme og gøre noget" and "Komme at gøre noget" are both correct. They just mean different things. But in general you are of course right that people write "og + infinitive" falsely 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4295 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 11 of 18 14 May 2014 at 9:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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I also felt that Danish seemed to be competing with French to which language can have
the least ratio of words pronounced against how the words are spelt, and also the amount of silent parts of words. But it probably takes practise. I thought that Swedish was slightly irregular with pronunciation and relation to how the word was pronounced against how it was spelt, but when I started Danish, Swedish seems quite easy, Dutch definitely easier to pronounce than Danish. There are sounds that I have never encountered in any other languages, like the "d" after vowels in Danish. You must pronounce a sort of "ð" with what seems like a numb tongue, i.e. I pronounce it like I try to pronounce "ð" but as if I were administered anæthæsiæ by a dentist for tooth drilling. So, "meged" sounds like "mai-yehhð". Sometimes I even after hold my nose from exhaling with that "d" sound. In this respect, even a basic phrase like "Jeg hedder...", those two d's in the "hedder" make the entire word sound completely different than how it looks, like, "heeh-hðhǝ", for whose sound I must push out my throat and hold my breath from both my mouth and nose simultaneously to produce. "mad", or food, reminds me somewhat of "c" or "z" at the end of words in «la distinción», of the "lisp" (a misnomer) of Peninsular Spanish, where the consonant seems to half-disappear if placed at the end (c.f. «escasez», which requires practise too. It seems as though the learning curve for the pronunciation is the main problem, because reading it is not very difficult. Trying to hear a transcript of Danish speech whilst reading it would be quite strange at first due to the seemingly low correlation of pronunciation/spelling compared to both Norwegian and Swedish, and definitely Dutch. However, just spending more time on pronunciation oneself, and also connecting the speech with the transcript helps immensely to try to clarify this problem. I have a fairly high suspicion that in Denmark, they could very likely switch to English if they hear that you struggle, but if you can master that "ð" sound and the other problematic sounds, they could possibly be impressed. I am slightly more than half done with the Assimil Danish course, which I feel has required at least twice as much effort in pronunciation than Swedish, but Copenhagen, or København, "kih-p'n-hau-w'n" (how did they pronounce it like that when it is looks spelt completely differently?), is too nice a place to not learn the language and go thither, as well as the rest of Denmark (spelt Danmark, but pronounced Denmark--again low correlation). Also, Denmark keeps ranking #1 in quality of life and happiness, if you want to live there, no better way to learn the language. They seem fairly happy despite their language being hard to pronounce... Edited by 1e4e6 on 14 May 2014 at 10:17am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 18 14 May 2014 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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After several years, I still don't dare to read without audio. I now started Swedish and I feel very comfortable after a few weeks...
I think unless you already speak Swedish or Norwegian it's pretty hard to learn Danish only passively. My main problem is that I have zero interest in going through something like Teach Yourself or Assimil, and that I don't trust my ears. If I knew how things are supposed to be pronounced, I'd be fine with people dropping consonants all around, but recognizing that sort of thing requires some active skills. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4526 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 13 of 18 14 May 2014 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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When I see a word written, I usually know how it is pronounced (except for the stød)
even if I've never heard it before. On the other hand, if I know a word only from listening, I can't figure out for myself how it is written, although I can make some educated guesses a dictionary or spell-checker has then to confirm. But this has no influence on me knowing the meaning of the word or not, I'm perfectly fine with actively knowing a word only in its spoken form as I almost never write in Danish anyway. The hard thing for me in Danish is to actually get the sounds out right. Even knowing how it is supposed to sound doesn't mean I can actually pronounce it right (words like 'Norge' or 'Borgen' somehow remind me of the problems some speakers have with the American pronunciation of 'squirrel'). One last note on the stød. It's comparable to the pitch-accent in Norwegian and Swedish. I don't think you need to consciously know when to make it and when not. As your proficiency improves (or in other words: with more exposure), you will often know it unconsciously and pronounce it right. But your probably won't ever make it right all the time, no matter how hard you try. Cross that bridge when you come to it... in the meantime, just ignore the issue :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6708 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 18 15 May 2014 at 1:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
In my variant of Danish the two things in practice mean the same thing. For me the intention is a necessary part of the expression "komme (FOR) at gøre noget", where the coming and the doing in theory could be independent events in the version with "og" (I might come today and do whatever I had promised tomorrow - or I might even do it before coming).. The problem is that with this literal interpretation of "og" the expression "komme og gøre noget" would be syntactically wrong in my Danish. You would only find the expression in a context with "at" before "komme", and then the to actions can only be independent if there also is an "at" before "gøre" - or a placeholder like "og" with the same meaning as "at": independent events: "jeg lover at komme og (jeg lover også) at gøre noget". intentional coming: jeg lover at komme (for) at/og gøre noget" 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6602 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 15 of 18 15 May 2014 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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To some extent this feels like English influence, tbh.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4104 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 16 of 18 15 May 2014 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
If it is, then it has influenced multiple Scandinavian languages in exactly the same way. In Swedish, "och" (and) frequently takes the place of "för att" (to). The latter really stresses the secondary verb, which isn't always what you want. It can sound kind of like you're telling the nice police officer what happened right before the suspect took off. "Han gick och handlade." (He went shopping.) "Han gick för att handla." (He went in order to shop.) "Kom och köp!" (Come buy [stuff]!) "Han kom för att köpa..." (He came in order to buy [something... but then there was an unexpected turn of events, officer!]) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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