{"id":271,"date":"2011-12-29T12:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=271"},"modified":"2011-12-24T12:53:52","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T12:53:52","slug":"those-pretty-letters-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2011\/12\/29\/those-pretty-letters-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Pretty Letters 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We\u2019ll celebrate the close of 2011<\/span> by taking a closer look at the three special characters of Danish. Some readers will find this a bit geeky \u2013 but hey, you\u2019re learning Danish, isn\u2019t that quite offbeat already?! The first to go is \u00c6<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Recently I took a train which I suspect DSB \u2013 D<\/span>anske S<\/span>tatsb<\/span>aner (Danish State Rails), the national and major train company in Denmark \u2013 must have borrowed from our neighbour Sweden. In the ordinary Danish public trains, the so-called InterCity-tog<\/strong>, the names of the next station(s) are shown by yellow pixels flickering across a black panel above the automatic sliding door at the end of each compartment. At the first, sleepy glance I didn\u2019t quite catch it: N\u00e4ste station\u2026<\/em><\/span> What does Naste<\/em> mean?<\/p>\n

Then it dawned on me that, of course, the running letters just said N\u00e6ste station<\/strong> (Next station). The Swedish letter \u00c4 corresponds to the Danish \u00c6, but \u00c6 is such an integrated part of the visuality of written Danish that anything else starts looking confusing!<\/p>\n

If your first language is English, you should already be familiar with \u00c6. It is used in many books as a fancy way of writing the letters A+E: Instead of \u2019encyclopaedia\u2019, those books have \u2019encyclop\u00e6dia<\/span>\u2019. When two letters are forced to be Siamese twins like that, the resulting symbol is called a ligature<\/em>. In Danish, however, \u00c6 is not a ligature. It is a wholly independent letter, that just happens to have a ligature origin. Way back in the Roman Empire\u2026<\/p>\n

When Danes are abroad and can\u2019t find \u00c6 on any keyboard at the local internet caf\u00e9, we do split the letter, though, writing k\u00e6re<\/strong> (dear) and k\u00e6rlig hilsen<\/strong> (sincerely yours) as kaere<\/em><\/strong> and kaerlig hilsen<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Danish \u00c6 sound is close to the E sound of most other languages, for example the E of English pet<\/em>. It is often impossible to know when to use \u00c6 and when to use E. Each spelling has to be learnt by heart. All the following words have an \u00c6 sound:<\/p>\n

k\u00e6re, kn\u00e6, fred, hest, men, m\u00e6nd, kende, bl\u00e6nde, sv\u00e6rte, hjerte<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

One rule to note, though, is that
\n\u2022 if an \u00c6-sounding word is related to another word containing an \u2019a\u2019, it should probably be written with an \u2019\u00e6\u2019.
\nSince mand<\/strong> is the singular, the plural is m\u00e6nd<\/strong> (not \u201d<\/strong>mend\u201d<\/strong><\/em>).<\/p>\n

Whereas the English alphabet stops at Z, the Danish one boldly continues with \u00c6. So in your Danish printed \u2019p\u00e6dia, the island of \u00c6r\u00f8<\/strong> is found after Zanzibar rather than Alcatraz\u2026 The next letter is \u00d8, which we\u2019ll be looking at tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

We\u2019ll celebrate the close of 2011 by taking a closer look at the three special characters of Danish. Some readers will find this a bit geeky \u2013 but hey, you\u2019re learning Danish, isn\u2019t that quite offbeat already?! The first to go is \u00c6. Recently I took a train which I suspect DSB \u2013 Danske Statsbaner…<\/p>\n

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