{"id":650,"date":"2012-08-29T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-08-29T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/?p=650"},"modified":"2012-08-29T10:06:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T10:06:41","slug":"danish-vowels-a-e-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/2012\/08\/29\/danish-vowels-a-e-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Danish Vowels: A, E, I"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Here we are\u2026<\/p><\/div>\n

Language geeks love Danish. They\u2019re amazed by the fact that the language is full of strange vowel sounds, and that we Danes pronounce our consonants with so much \u201dtimidity\u201d that the whole language sounds like a stream of vowels (our a soup<\/a>, if you like \ud83d\ude42 ). Yeah, if you analyze it at scientific level, there really are many vowel shades in Danish (according to phonetician Ruben Schachtenhaufen<\/a>, the count ranges between 10 and 50!) Fortunately, you don\u2019t have to be a scientist to learn Danish! Many people have learnt perfect communicational Danish even if they didn\u2019t get every a or e \u201dnatively correct\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There are 9 basic vowels in Danish. Each of them can be either short<\/span> or long<\/span>, and it can be pronounced with<\/span> or without st\u00f8d<\/strong><\/span>. A st\u00f8d<\/strong> is a kind of cough pronounced at the same time as the vowel (let\u2019s review this one later!)<\/p>\n

The basic vokaler<\/strong> [voKAHLor] (vowels) are: A, E, I, O, U, Y, \u00c6, \u00d8, \u00c5.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the three first ones:<\/em><\/p>\n

A \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>In most words, A<\/strong> sounds a lot like the light a<\/em>\u00a0of English cat<\/em>: kat<\/strong> (cat), vane<\/strong> (habit). This is the common way of saying A<\/strong>\u00a0in Danish. Use it whenever you\u2019re in doubt.\u00a0Next to\u00a0R<\/strong>, however \u2013 or when it\u2019s short and stands in front of\u00a0F<\/strong>, P<\/strong>, K<\/strong> or\u00a0M<\/strong> \u2013 it usually sounds like the dark a<\/em> of English father<\/em>: rasende<\/strong>\u00a0[RAHsehneh] (furious), bar<\/strong> (bar), kaffe<\/strong> (coffee), snaps<\/strong> (schnapps), tak<\/strong> (thanks), ham<\/strong> (him). Once again \u2013 the A<\/strong>\u2019s of the last four examples are all short. In a word like dame<\/strong> (lady) [DAAmeh], it\u2019s long and has the normal, light pronunciation.<\/p>\n

E \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>The long E<\/strong> has a very tight pronunciation. Many foreigners confuse it with an I<\/strong> [as in \u201dfeet\u201d]: en<\/strong> (one, sounds almost like \u201din\u201d), ledig<\/strong>\u00a0[LEH-thee] (free, unoccupied). The short E<\/strong> is more open, like the e<\/em> of English bet<\/em>: hest<\/strong> (horse), let<\/strong> (light, easy). In unstressed syllables it sounds like the muffled\u00a0e<\/em> of English the<\/span> bat<\/em>: bakke\u00a0<\/strong>[BAHkeh]\u00a0(hill). In partnership with an R<\/strong><\/a>, this unstressed E<\/strong> makes a British \u201dor\u201d kind of sound: biler<\/strong> [BEELo\u02b3] (cars), bedre<\/strong>\u00a0[BETHRo\u02b3]\u00a0(better).<\/p>\n

I \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>The I<\/strong> usually sounds like the I\u2019s of other languages (somewhere in the range of English bi<\/span>t<\/em> and bea<\/span>t<\/em>): is<\/strong>\u00a0[ees] (ice, ice-cream), lille<\/strong>\u00a0[LILLeh] (little, small). When it\u2019s short, though, it occasionally sounds a wee bit more open, just like a short version of the long E<\/strong>: lidt<\/strong> (a little bit, almost sounds like \u201dlet\u201d), Mikkel<\/strong> (Michael).<\/p>\n

Okay, that wasn\u2019t that hard, was it? Now, listen to some Danish music<\/a> and relax. Tomorrow we\u2019ll take a look at the remaining little bastards\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Language geeks love Danish. They\u2019re amazed by the fact that the language is full of strange vowel sounds, and that we Danes pronounce our consonants with so much \u201dtimidity\u201d that the whole language sounds like a stream of vowels (our a soup, if you like \ud83d\ude42 ). Yeah, if you analyze it at scientific level…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,238016,930,9180,238018,3056],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a","tag-e","tag-english","tag-i","tag-stod","tag-vowels"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","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=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/danish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}