Languages of Denmark
See language map.Kingdom of Denmark, Kongeriget Danmark. 5,417,000. 43,000 on Faroe Islands (1998 United Nations). National or official languages: Danish, Standard German (regional), Faroese (regional). Also see Greenland. Greenland and Faroe Islands both have home rule. Literacy rate: 99%. Immigrant languages: English (20,000), Iu Mien (200), Kirmanjki, Northern Kurdish (8,000), Turkish (30,000), Western Farsi (9,000). Also includes languages of the former Yugoslavia (10,000), and of India and Pakistan (4,000). Information mainly from B. Comrie 1987; I. Hancock 1991; M. Stephens 1976. Deaf population: 3,500 to 314,548 (1998). Deaf institutions: 20. The number of individual languages listed for Denmark is 8. Of those, 7 are living languages and 1 has no known speakers.
| Danish | [dan]
5,450,000 in Denmark (2007). Population total all countries: 5,581,690. Also in Canada, Germany, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United States.
Alternate names: Dansk, Rigsdansk.
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, North, East Scandinavian, Danish-Swedish, Danish-Riksmal, Danish
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| Danish Sign Language | [dsl]
5,000 (2007).
Dialects: Some signs are related to French Sign Language [fsl]. Intelligible with Swedish and Norwegian sign languages with only moderate difficulty. Not intelligible with Finnish Sign Language [fse].
Classification: Deaf sign language
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| Faroese | [fao]
48,200 in Denmark (2007). Population total all countries: 48,260. Faroe Islands. Also in United States.
Alternate names: Føroyskt.
Dialects: Not inherently intelligible with Icelandic [isl].
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, North, West Scandinavian
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| German, Standard | [deu]
25,900 in Denmark (2007). North Slesvig (Sydjylland).
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, German, Middle German, East Middle German
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| Jutish | [jut]
German-Danish border area, south Jutland. Also in Germany.
Alternate names: Jutlandish, Jysk, Western Danish.
Dialects: The westernmost and southernmost dialects differ so much from Standard Danish that many people from the Eastern Islands have great difficulty understanding it. From the viewpoint of inherent intelligibility, it could be considered a separate language (1996 N. Strade).
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, North, East Scandinavian, Danish-Swedish, Danish-Riksmal, Danish
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| Kalaallisut, Greenlandic | [kal]
10,000 in Denmark (2002).
Alternate names: Inuktitut, Greenlandic.
Classification: Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo, Inuit
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| Swedish | [swe]
Bornholm Island.
Dialects: Scanian (Eastern Danish, Skane, Skånska, Southern Swedish).
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, North, East Scandinavian, Danish-Swedish, Swedish
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| Traveller Danish | [rmd]
Extinct.
Alternate names: Rodi, Rotwelsch.
Dialects: An independent language based on Danish [dan] with heavy lexical borrowing from Romani. Not inherently intelligible with Angloromani [rme]. It may be intelligible with Traveller Norwegian [rmg] and Traveller Swedish [rmu].
Classification: Mixed language, Danish-Romani
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