Diphthongs on the Go Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 17, 2012
There are two main groups of Danish diphthongs: Diphthongs ending in an i (ee) sound. Diphthongs ending in an u (oo) sound. Some diphthongs can be written in different ways. Spellings aside, the main diphthongs are as follow: I (ee) diphthongs AJ. Rhymes with English I. It is spelt aj in haj (shark), maj (May). It…
Danish Diphthongs Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 14, 2012
Having looked at the Danish vowels, the Danish diphthongs are next in line. A diphthong is a vowel glide, consisting of a main vowel that unnoticeably ”slides” into a different, quieter vowel (a ’semivowel’) to form a single syllable – as in English joy, ”joᵉᵉ”. Your ”Danish for Nerds” handbook will tell you there are…
Aarhus Festuge 2012 Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Sep 12, 2012
As I write this, Århus is slowly recovering from last week’s festuge [FESToo’eh] (festive week, party week). With a quarter of a million indbyggere (inhabitants), the second largest city of Denmark and the capital of Jylland (the Jutland peninsula) has indeed got the human resources to stage a party! 🙂 Århus Festuge (or Aarhus Festuge…
Danish Vowels: O to Å Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 30, 2012
Yesterday’s trip through the Danish vowels continues… O Many foreigners think this is a U, as the two sounds are really close in Danish. The basic O is just a hair’s breadth more open than the basic U: to (two, pronounced somewhere in the middle of too and ”tuh”), skole (school). When short, however, most O’s open…
Danish Vowels: A, E, I Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 29, 2012
Language geeks love Danish. They’re amazed by the fact that the language is full of strange vowel sounds, and that we Danes pronounce our consonants with so much ”timidity” that the whole language sounds like a stream of vowels (our a soup, if you like 🙂 ). Yeah, if you analyze it at scientific level…
Højskole Highs Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 23, 2012
A few months ago, I met three students at Ry Højskole for a chat… Who’re you and what are you doing here at Ry Højskole? My name is Daniel and I’m a student here at Ry Højskole. I have chosen friluftsliv (outdoor life) as my main subject. We canoe and kayak a lot, and we…
Grundtvig and the Love of Learning Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Aug 21, 2012
These days, elev/er (pupil/s, student/s) all over Denmark are coming back to school life after sommerferien (the summer vacation). Sweating, with the sun shining through the classroom curtains, they’re doing their best to rehearse and learn the answers the teacher would like them to write in their final eksamen [ekSAmen]. Everyone’s competing with themselves and everyone…