{"id":432,"date":"2021-02-04T18:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/somethingpolyglot83.wordpress.com\/?p=3"},"modified":"2021-05-27T19:16:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T17:16:59","slug":"studying-danish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/somethingpolyglot.com\/myblog\/2021\/02\/04\/studying-danish\/","title":{"rendered":"Six months into studying Danish"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Six months into studying Danish \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0 <\/h2>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

So, why the hell did I choose it?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Sm\u00f8rrebr\u00f8d<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Hot summers. Freaking cold nights (in our tent) and Lego(land) of course (I was a tween at the time). That’s what immediately comes to mind when I think back to our Danish holidays in the early nighties. <\/span><\/p>\n

But it’s probably a strong desire to be able to understand the incredibly attractive and talented Sidse Babett Knudsen<\/em><\/a> in the well-made \ud83d\udcfa series Borgen<\/em><\/a> that explains why during \ud83d\ude37 lockdown I chose her native tongue as my new language challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\u00a0Some West Germanic help<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Depending on what your mother tongue is and\/or which other languages you already master, pronunciation is the big hurdle. My native Dutch \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddea, proficient English \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 and especially my intermediate German \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea gave me a head start with sentence structure and vocabulary. <\/span><\/p>\n

But don’t get me started on my struggles (definitely more than one and yes I am going to start now) with their numerals: 10, 20, 30 and 40 are still doable; though 30 was one of my struggles<\/span>:<\/p>\n

ti <\/span><\/strong>(10),<\/span> tyve <\/span><\/strong>(20)<\/span>, tredive <\/span><\/strong>(30),\u00a0<\/span>fyrre <\/span><\/strong>(40)<\/span><\/p>\n

But when I got to 50, I started scratching my head. Multiple times. <\/span>\ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n

Well, that’s exactly what the Danes do when counting from 50 up until the same 99, but with the added particularity (aka difficulty) that somewhere down the road they decided to leave out a part of the original pronunciation. Confusing? Yes! Me struggling? Yes!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

The big hurdle: pronouncing \ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0 letters (or keeping them silent)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

But let me get back to their udtale <\/strong><\/em>(pronunciation) and to the first word of this blog entry as it immediately shows a particularity: the letter <\/span>\u00f8<\/span><\/strong>. Add <\/span>\u00e6<\/strong> <\/span>and <\/span>\u00e5<\/span><\/strong> and you have the three extra letters of the Danish (and Norwegian) alphabet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n