Danish Dialects and Slang

From UniLang Wiki

Contents

Dialects

Danish is divided into three major groups of dialects. Those groups are called: "Eastern Danish," "Island Danish" and "Jutlandic" (Danish: "Østdansk," "Ømål/Ødansk" and "Jysk/Jydsk," respectively) Eastern Danish is primarily used in Bornholm, and also used in small parts of the south-eastern Sweden. Island Danish is primarily used on all the islands (therefore the name), these islands including; Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Møn. And finally, Jutlandic is used in Jutland. Jutlandic can furthermore be splitted into four sub categories; North-, East-, West- and South-Jutlandic.

There's also a standard dialect, called "Standard Danish" (Danish: "rigsdansk") Standard Danish is used in- and around Copenhagen, but also on Funen, and other places as well. It's Standard Danish that is being used in the media, though local medias can tend to use their own dialect.

Slang

This section is divided into four parts; Jutland, Funen, Zealand and Bornholm. The slang is very different from place to place, and even through some of them is in the still dialect group (like Funen and Zealand; Island Danish) the slang, and sometimes the speech is very different.

Slang used in Jutland

  • Use of a's and æ's instead of e's
Some people from Jutland uses the letter, a or æ, heavily instead of, e. It's not as common for the younger generation, as for the older. Furthermore the following letters are removed sometimes.
Æ' hedder... (right: Jeg hedder) = I'm called.../My name is...
  • en/et confusion
Some people from Jutland (especially from the northern part) do not distinguish between the genders, and says en no matter which gender the word really is.
en hus/husen (right: et hus/huset) = a house/the house
en dyr/dyren (right: et dyr/dyret) = an animal/the animal

Slang used on Funen

  • Shortening of words
On Funen it's common to shorten words in speech, but it has become a trend for young people to do it in written form as well. Some people choose to make a single-quote where the word is cutted, and other prefers to leave it out. This is a list of some of the common ones:
ha' (right: have) = have
ik' (right: ikke) = not
hva' (right: hvad) = what
be'r (right: beder) = pleasing
no'et (right: noget) = some
no'en (right: nogen) = someone
ka' (right: kan) = can
These words are also somewhat common for Jydsk.

Slang used on Zealand

No slang yet. Contribute!

Slang used on Bornholm

No slang yet. Contribute!


Main Page >> Languages >> Danish >> Danish Dialects and Slang

Personal tools