{"id":431,"date":"2012-03-18T23:36:29","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T23:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=431"},"modified":"2012-03-19T08:31:43","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T08:31:43","slug":"but-how-do-i-pronounce-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/03\/18\/but-how-do-i-pronounce-it\/","title":{"rendered":"But how do I pronounce it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, as I\u2019ve been trying to show you throughout this blog, Danish is fun to learn. It has a lot of colourful expressions (like t\u00f8mmerm\u00e6nd<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 carpenters<\/em> \u2013 for \u2019hangover\u2019) and even some nice concepts not found in English (such as hygge<\/a>). For an English-speaker, Danish grammar should be quite straightforward, and a lot of the vocabulary<\/a> you already know. Furthermore, Danish gives you direct access to the free-and-easy Danes, who are generally<\/a> very open and modern people. Danish might just open your mind to a wittier, more relaxed attitude to life and its pleasures. Why, then, have so few foreigners made a real attempt to master the Danish language?<\/p>\n

Swedes and Norwegians know it, when they say Danes speak with a \u201dpotato in the throat\u201d. Benny Andersen knew it, when he compared<\/a> Danish to boiling oatmeal porridge. Danes in trains and busses know it, when they ask their foreign travelling companions to repeat the phrase r\u00f8dgr\u00f8d med fl\u00f8de<\/strong><\/span> (red fruit pudding with cream): It\u2019s the pronunciation, dude!<\/p>\n

Danes on the go like to entertain other people with the \u201dweird\u201d sounds of their language. They say some random phrases in an exaggerated way, as if they were alternatively swallowing and coughing up the words. Their Italian or Spanish audience can then shake their heads at such an \u201dunnatural\u201d language. (Often forgetting that any<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0language can sound slurred when spoken by cool people \u2013 just listen to streetwise folks from Madrid\u2026)<\/p>\n

All the jokes about potatoes, throat diseases and vomit are, of course, said with a twinkle and a dash of Danish self-irony. Danish can be a very beautiful and poetic language indeed. (When foreigners tell us this, we often get really happy and proud, while still feigning we can\u2019t quite believe it\u2026)<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Danish pronunciation is<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0peculiar. Over the next few weeks or so, we\u2019ll be taking a look at some of the things that make spoken Danish such a fascinating challenge.<\/p>\n