Editing Danish language (section)

{{Short description|North Germanic language}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox language
| name             =  Danish
| nativename       = {{lang|da|dansk}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|da|ˈtænˀsk|}}<ref name="ordnet.dk">{{cite web|url=https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=dansk&tab=for|title=dansk – Den Danske Ordbog|website=ordnet.dk|access-date=16 May 2018|archive-date=4 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104012117/https://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=dansk&tab=for|url-status=live}}</ref>
| states           = {{ublist |[[Denmark]] |{{nowrap|[[Schleswig-Holstein]] ([[Germany]])}}}}
| region           = [[Denmark]], [[Schleswig-Holstein]] ([[Germany]]);<br/>Additionally in the [[Faroe Islands]] and [[Greenland]]
| image            = Codex Holmiensis CE 1350.jpg
| imagecaption     = The first page of the Jutlandic Law originally from 1241 in [[Codex Holmiensis]], copied in 1350. <br />'''The first sentence is:''' "{{lang|non|Mæth logh skal land byggas}}" <br />'''Modern orthography:''' "{{lang|da|Med lov skal land bygges}}" <br />'''English translation:''' "With law shall a country be built"
| speakers         = {{sigfig|5.97|2}} million
| ethnicity        = {{plainlist|
*[[Danish people|Danes]]
}}
| date             = 2019
| ref              = e18
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3             = [[Northwest Germanic]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/olde1239 |title=Older Runic |date=2022-05-24 |access-date=2022-11-13 |website=[[Glottolog]] |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221113105941/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/olde1239 |archive-date=2022-11-13 |url-status=live |publisher=[[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] |last2=Forkel |first2=Robert |last3=Haspelmath |first3=Martin |last4=Bank |first4=Sebastian}}</ref>
| fam4             = [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic]]
| fam5             = [[East Scandinavian languages|East Scandinavian]]<ref>{{glottolog|sout3248}}</ref>
| ancestor         = [[Old Norse language|Old Norse]]
| ancestor2        = [[Old East Norse]]
| ancestor3        = [[Old Danish|Early Old Danish]]
| ancestor4        = [[History of Danish#Middle Danish|Late Old Danish]]
| dia1             = [[Jutlandic dialect|Jutlandic]]
| dia2             = [[Insular Danish|Insular]]
| dia3             = [[Gøtudanskt accent|Dano-Faroese]]
| dia4             = [[Southern Schleswig Danish|Southern Schleswig]]
| dia5             = [[Perkerdansk]]
| dia6             = [[Dano-Norwegian]] {{extinct}}
| dia7             = [[Angel Danish|Angel]] {{extinct}}
| dia8             = [[East Danish]]
| dia9             = [[South Jutlandic]]
| script           = {{plainlist|
* [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[Danish and Norwegian alphabet|Danish alphabet]])
* [[Danish Braille]]}}
| nation           = [[Kingdom of Denmark]]
* [[Denmark]]
* [[Faroe Islands]]
''[[Nordic Council]]''
''[[European Union]]''
| minority         = {{ublist | [[Greenland]]|[[Germany]]}}
| agency           = {{longitem|[[Dansk Sprognævn]]<br />(Danish Language Council)}}
| iso1             = da
| iso2             = dan
| lc1              = dan
| ld1              = Insular Danish
| lc2              = jut
| ld2              = Jutlandic
| lingua           = 5 2-AAA-bf & -ca to -cj
| glotto           = dani1285
| glottoname       = Danish
| glotto2          = juti1236
| glottoname2      = Jutish
| notice           = IPA
| map              = Danish language distribution.jpg
| mapcaption       = {{ubl
|{{legend|#0080ff|Spoken by a majority}}
|{{legend|#88c4ff|Spoken by a minority}}
}}
| map2             = 
| mapcaption2      = 
}}

'''Danish''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-uk-Danish.ogg|ˈ|d|eɪ|n|ᵻ|ʃ}}, {{respell|DAY|nish}}; {{langx|da|label=[[endonym]]|dansk}} {{IPA|da|ˈtænˀsk|pron|Da-dansk.ogg}}, {{lang|da|dansk sprog}} {{IPA|da|ˈtænˀsk ˈspʁɔwˀ|}})<ref name="ordnet.dk" /> is a [[North Germanic languages|North Germanic language]] from the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]] spoken by about six million people, principally in and around [[Denmark]]. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in [[Greenland]],{{sfn|Frederiksen|Olsen|2017}} [[the Faroe Islands]], and the northern [[Germany|German]] region of [[Southern Schleswig]], where it has [[minority language]] status.<ref name=deofficial-law /><ref name="deofficial-tvsyd" /> Minor Danish-speaking communities are also found in [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], the [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Brazil]], and [[Argentina]].{{sfn|Kühl|Petersen|Hansen|2020}}

Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of [[Old Norse]], the common language of the [[Germanic peoples]] who lived in [[Scandinavia]] during the [[Viking Age|Viking Era]]. Danish, together with Swedish, derives from the ''East Norse'' [[dialect group]], while the [[Middle Norwegian]] language (before the influence of Danish) and [[Bokmål|Norwegian Bokmål]] are classified as ''West Norse'' along with [[Faroese language|Faroese]] and [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]. A more recent classification based on [[mutual intelligibility]] separates modern spoken Danish, [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], and [[Swedish language|Swedish]] as "mainland (or ''continental'') Scandinavian", while Icelandic and Faroese are classified as "insular Scandinavian". Although the written languages are compatible, spoken Danish is distinctly different from Norwegian and Swedish and thus the degree of mutual intelligibility with either is [[North Germanic languages#Mutual intelligibility|variable between regions and speakers]].

Until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from [[Southern Jutland]] and [[Duchy of Schleswig|Schleswig]] to [[Scania]] with no [[standard language|standard variety]] or spelling conventions. With the Protestant [[Reformation]] and the [[History of printing|introduction of the printing press]], a standard language was developed which was based on the educated dialect of [[Copenhagen]] and [[Malmö]].{{sfn|Dal|1991}} It spread through use in the education system and administration, though German and Latin continued to be the most important written languages well into the 17th century. Following the loss of territory to Germany and Sweden, a nationalist movement adopted the language as a token of Danish identity, and the language experienced a strong surge in use and popularity, with major works of literature produced in the 18th and 19th centuries. 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.

Danish has a very large vowel inventory consisting of 27 [[phonemes|phonemically distinctive]] [[vowel]]s,{{sfn|Haberland|1994|page=318}} and its [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]] is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon {{lang|da|[[stød]]}}, a kind of [[glottal consonant|laryngeal phonation type]]. Due to the many pronunciation differences that set Danish apart from its neighboring languages, particularly the vowels, difficult prosody and "weakly" pronounced consonants, it is sometimes considered to be a "difficult language to learn, acquire and understand",{{sfn|Grønnum|2008a}}{{sfn|Grønnum|2008b}} and some evidence shows that children are slower to acquire the phonological distinctions of Danish compared with other languages.{{sfn|Trecca|Bleses|Højen|Madsen|2020}} The grammar is moderately [[Fusional language|inflective]] with strong (irregular) and weak (regular) conjugations and inflections. Nouns, adjectives, and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. Like English, Danish only has remnants of a former [[grammatical case|case system]], particularly in the pronouns. Unlike English, it has lost all person marking on verbs. Its word order is [[V2 word order|V2]], with the finite verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence.