Danish is one of the North Germanic languages (also known as Scandinavian languages) – a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. The language is spoken by nearly 5.5 million people (mostly in Denmark), Danish is also considered as a minority language in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It also holds the official status and is a mandatory subject in schools of former Danish colonies, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
In the 8th century, Proto-Norse, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, underwent some changes and evolved into Old Norse, which further led to the development of two similar dialects – Old West Norse (spoken in Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (spoken in Denmark and Sweden). Old East Norse in Sweden was called Runic. The reason the word ‘runic’ was affixed to the dialects was because the main body of the text appeared in the runic alphabet. Old Norse was written in the Younger Futhark alphabet which had only 16 letters, as opposed to Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet.
From 1100, the dialect of Denmark started diverging from that of Sweden. The new derivations of the language began to spread sporadically and unevenly, leading to a series of minor dialectal boundaries ranging from Zealand to Svealand.
Danish was widely spoken for some time in the north-eastern counties of England and several Danish words and derivatives such as gate (gade) for street, still survive in places like Yorkshire and other smaller parts of eastern England, colonized by Danish Vikings. The popular city of York, known for York Minster, was once the Danish settlement of Jorvik.
Some of the best known Danish authors include philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, Hans Christian Andersen and Luvig Holberg. The first Bible translation to Danish was done in 1550.
OutsourcingTranslation provides effective solutions for translation, interpretation and transcription to several companies in the world. We stand out in the market of translation service providers by positioning ourselves entirely on the basis of high-quality work, delivered within a shorter turnaround time and at competitive rates.
Contact us for all your Danish translation, transcription and interpretation needs.
Get the Outsourcing Translation Advantage!
