{"id":1146,"date":"2014-09-27T19:50:13","date_gmt":"2014-09-27T19:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2014-09-27T19:54:06","modified_gmt":"2014-09-27T19:54:06","slug":"the-scotlands-of-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2014\/09\/27\/the-scotlands-of-denmark\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scotlands of Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greenland.<\/a>

Greenland. (By Boegh<\/a>. Licensed under Creative Commons on Flickr.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Last week the people in Scotland voted no to becoming a country independent from the United Kingdom. For some people in faraway countries, it was maybe the first time they saw the Scottish flag or even heard about Scotland. I want to make sure that you, i det mindste<\/strong> (at least), hear about the parts of Kongeriget Danmark<\/strong> (the Kingdom of Denmark) that aren\u2019t culturally Danish:<\/p>\n

\""Flag<\/a>

“Flag of Greenland” by Jeffrey Connell (IceKarma) –\u00a0Own Work. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2013 Gr\u00f8nland<\/strong> or Kalaallit Nunaat<\/em> (in Greenlandic) is a huge island country to the east of Canada. The 50.000-something inhabitants live in bygder<\/strong> (settlements) ved kysten<\/strong> (by the coast); indlandet<\/strong> (the inner parts) of the country is just as white as it looks on Google Maps, thanks to Indlandsisen<\/strong> (the \u201dInland\u201d Ice Cap). Most people are gr\u00f8nl\u00e6ndere<\/strong> (Greenlanders) and speak gr\u00f8nlandsk<\/strong> (Greenlandic), although there\u2019s also a considerable number of Danish-speakers. For centuries, Greenland was a koloni<\/strong> (colony). First Norway felt like owning the island (since the first Europeans there had been Vikings from Iceland, which was part of Norway in the Middle Ages). Then Norway entered a union with Denmark (or became a colony itself, depending on your point of view!), and when Denmark \u201dlost\u201d Norway in 1814, the Danes kept the \u201dNorth-Atlantic colonies\u201d: Gr\u00f8nland<\/strong>, F\u00e6r\u00f8erne<\/strong> and Island<\/strong> (Iceland, which is now as free as a puffin). Phew, this is going to be a long passage!<\/em><\/span> \ud83d\ude42 Anyway, since 2009 Gr\u00f8nland has had selvstyre<\/strong> (home rule). That means that Greenland gets to decide most of its own affairs like any country would do. If Canada tried to invade the island, however, they would still have to fight the Danish army. And if China wanted to drill for oil, they would have to talk with both the Danish and the Greenlandic government. (Isn\u2019t it so, Greenlanders?) People in Greenland often talk about going fully independent. So far, it\u2019s been a bit tricky, as Greenland gets a lot of money from Denmark each year. This money is called bloktilskuddet<\/strong> (\u201dthe block subvention\u201d \u2013 yawn!), and it would go away like a rainbow if the Greenlanders cut the ties. There are two Greenlandic MPs in Folketinget<\/strong> (the Danish parliament).<\/p>\n

\""Flag<\/a>

Merki\u00f0<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(The Sign) is the name of the Faroese flag. \u2022\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>“Flag of the Faroe Islands”. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2013 F\u00e6r\u00f8erne<\/strong> or F\u00f8royar<\/em> (in Faroese) is a tiny, rocky and green island group somewhere between Iceland, Scotland and Norway. There are almost 50.000 f\u00e6ringer<\/strong> (Faroe Islanders) on the \u00f8er<\/strong> (islands), and an innumerable population of f\u00e5r<\/strong> (sheep). The f\u00e6ringer<\/strong> are of Scandinavian stock like most\u00a0Danes, and they speak a language \u2013 f\u00e6r\u00f8sk<\/strong> \u2013 that is halfway between Icelandic and Norwegian. Almost everyone speaks fluent Danish as well. F\u00e6r\u00f8erne<\/strong> were settled by Vikings, mostly from Norway. The islands became Norwegian, and later Danish. The similarities with Greenland go on: The f\u00e6ringer<\/strong> have got selvstyre<\/strong> as well, and are represented in Folketinget<\/strong> with two MPs. And they also receive a lot of financial support from Denmark, which is why some Faroese people find it hard to split completely from Rigsf\u00e6llesskabet<\/strong> (the \u201dcommunity of the Realm\u201d \u2013 a kind of Danish mix between the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth). When I visited the islands in 2007, the Faroese seemed to be quite fond of the Danish Queen, Margrethe II<\/strong>. As a Dane, however, I felt there were certain things that I should rather not ask about. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\""Flag<\/a>

“Flag of Germany”. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I should also mention tyskerne<\/strong> (the Germans) in S\u00f8nderjylland<\/strong> (Southern Jutland). The border between Denmark and Tyskland<\/strong> (Germany) has been shifting quite a few times; as a result, there is a Danish population in Germany and a German population in Denmark. Most of the Germans that are native to S\u00f8nderjylland<\/strong>, however, don\u2019t speak German as their main language at home anymore, and are in the minority, so I doubt they\u2019ll get a Scotland-style referendum anytime soon! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Last week the people in Scotland voted no to becoming a country independent from the United Kingdom. For some people in faraway countries, it was maybe the first time they saw the Scottish flag or even heard about Scotland. I want to make sure that you, i det mindste (at least), hear about the parts…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[269727,1859,362649,362650,362641,1046,251430,362637,34580,362648,8426,362636,362646,362638,9889,362640,3683,362652,6719,362639,362644,362642],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-269727","tag-1859","tag-bloktilskud","tag-bloktilskuddet","tag-colony","tag-denmark","tag-faeroerne","tag-faroes","tag-faroese","tag-folketinget","tag-germany","tag-greenland","tag-greenlandic","tag-gronland","tag-iceland","tag-margrethe-ii","tag-norway","tag-rigsfaellesskabet","tag-scotland","tag-selvstyre","tag-sonderjylland","tag-tyskland"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}