{"id":1923,"date":"2020-10-30T16:33:15","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T16:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2020-10-31T09:43:26","modified_gmt":"2020-10-31T09:43:26","slug":"short-and-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2020\/10\/30\/short-and-long\/","title":{"rendered":"Short and Long"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How long should I keep saying a sound? Fortunately, vowel (and consonant) length is not one of the difficult aspects of Danish. (Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Grammar \u2013 (quite) easy. Pronunciation \u2013 (very) hard. I sometimes wish there was a pill (or rather a caramel) Danish-learners could eat, and boom! they\u2019d master all the vowel shades & st\u00f8d<\/em> and could concentrate on fun stuff, like poetry or Danish movies. In lack of a magical shortcut, let\u2019s revisit the topic of long vs. short<\/a> sounds in Danish.<\/p>\n

This month\u2019s theme was kindly suggested by a reader (thank you, Nirmala!) First, I must be upfront \u2013 I\u2019m no phonetician (a specialist about language sounds), so you\u2019ll probably miss some of the technical details. But, as someone who studied literature and the history of words, I\u2019ll try my best. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The long vs. short issue is complicated by<\/p>\n

\u2013 the st\u00f8d<\/em>. When it sounds like Danes are \u201dcoughing<\/a>\u201d (or gulping) in the middle of a word, this is the st\u00f8d<\/em>. Tank<\/strong>–en<\/strong> (the tank) is pronounced with a st\u00f8d<\/em>, tanke<\/strong>–n <\/strong>(the thought) isn\u2019t. You have to learn the st\u00f8d<\/em> words by listening \u2013 the spelling won\u2019t help you. \ud83d\ude41 Is a vowel with st\u00f8d<\/em> short or long? I can\u2019t really tell. Somehow, perceptions change when you have a vowel down your throat.<\/p>\n

\u2013 the spelling. You\u2019ve got lots of silent D\u2019s<\/a> in Danish \u2013 vilde vinde <\/strong>(wild winds) is *actually* just \u201dville vinne\u201d<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Okay. Let\u2019s disregard the quirky spelling and pretend st\u00f8d<\/em> doesn\u2019t exist! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Roughly speaking, Danish has short consonants and vowels that can be either short or long. In the spelling, a double consonant indicates that the preceding vowel should be short: Hanne<\/strong> (girl\u2019s name) has a short a<\/strong>, while the a<\/strong> of hane<\/strong> (rooster) is long. The same is true for sake<\/strong> (sake) vs. at sakke bagud<\/strong> (to lag behind).<\/p>\n

(Note that the double writing doesn\u2019t really change the quality of the consonant in the examples above.)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for learners, double letters are simplified at the end of words: at<\/strong> takke<\/strong> (to thank) becomes tak!<\/strong>, still with a short a<\/strong>. In a few cases, this creates confusion \u2013 skin <\/strong>(shine!, from at skinne<\/strong>, to shine) has a short i, <\/strong>while fin<\/strong> (nice \u2013 fine<\/strong> in the plural) has a long i<\/strong>. Fortunately, those cases are very<\/em> rare indeed. (And often the silent D\u2019s make the pronunciation clear: both finde<\/strong> [to find] and its imperative find! <\/strong>are really just \u201dfinne\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and \u201dfinn\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and therefore have a short i <\/strong>sound.)<\/p>\n

All right, the phoneticians will<\/em> say that there are long consonants in Danish. If you take the word sp\u00e6ndende<\/em><\/strong> (exciting) and read it syllable by syllable, it becomes something like sp\u00e6-ne-ne<\/strong>. However, as you probably know, those final e\u2019s<\/strong> are quite neutral sounds (like the weak e<\/strong> sound of English the <\/em>1<\/a><\/sup>this is the schwa sound written \u0259 in the International Phonetic Alphabet<\/span> moon<\/em>). They don\u2019t sound of much, and Danes have a tendency to drop them entirely. So, in casual speech, sp\u00e6-ne-ne<\/strong> becomes something very close to sp\u00e6-n-n <\/strong>(most often, though: sp\u00e6-n-neh<\/strong>). And, when some people speak rapidly, even the little breaks will disappear, and we end up with something like \u201dsp\u00e6nn(eh)\u201d. <\/strong>Is this a long N? I still hear it as two distinct N\u2019s, but yes, the experts will probably hear it as one long N sound! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

To recap \u2013 there\u2019s no need to complicate the \u201dlong vs. short\u201d issue in Danish. Stick to the simple rules. In these names and words, the vowel is long: Ane, hyle, ris, fin.<\/strong> And in these, the vowel (and the consonant) is short: Anne, hylde, rids, Finn.<\/strong><\/p>\n