114-652: The Great Belt Bridge ( Danish : Storebæltsbroen ) or Great Belt fixed link ( Danish : Storebæltsforbindelsen ) is a multi-element fixed link crossing the Great Belt strait between the Danish islands of Zealand and Funen . It consists of a road suspension bridge and a railway tunnel between Zealand and the small island Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt, and a box-girder bridge for both road and rail traffic between Sprogø and Funen. The total length
228-429: A "difficult language to learn, acquire and understand", and some evidence shows that children are slower to acquire the phonological distinctions of Danish compared with other languages. The grammar is moderately inflective with strong (irregular) and weak (regular) conjugations and inflections. Nouns, adjectives, and demonstrative pronouns distinguish common and neutral gender. Like English, Danish only has remnants of
342-805: A 57-year-old truck driver was arrested by police after traffic on the bridge was disrupted due to spilled potatoes. Police stated that they were working on the hypothesis that the potatoes were either planted intentionally or as an accident. In 2009, a study characterized the rail tunnel (together with other major projects like the Channel Tunnel between England and France) as financially non-viable. 55°20′N 10°58′E / 55.333°N 10.967°E / 55.333; 10.967 Danish language Nordic Council Danish ( / ˈ d eɪ n ɪ ʃ / , DAY -nish ; endonym : dansk pronounced [ˈtænˀsk] , dansk sprog [ˈtænˀsk ˈspʁɔwˀ] )
456-409: A Greenlandic series. Still, Greenland continues to use Danish kroner as sole official currency. Historically, Greenland under the colonial administration issued distinct banknotes between 1803 and 1968, together with coins between 1926 and 1964 (see Greenland rigsdaler and Greenland krone ). Faroe Islands and Greenland have their own IBAN codes (FO and GL, while Denmark has DK). Transfers between
570-656: A clay blanket on the sea bed was it possible to dry out the tunnels. The two damaged machines were repaired and the majority of the tunnelling was undertaken from the Sprogø side. The machines on the Zealand side tunnelled through difficult ground and made little progress. A major fire on one of the Zealand machines in June 1994 stopped these drives and the tunnels were completed by the two Sprogø machines. A total of 320 compressed air workers were involved in 9,018 pressure exposures in
684-577: A former case system , particularly in the pronouns. Unlike English, it has lost all person marking on verbs. Its word order is V2 , with the finite verb always occupying the second slot in the sentence. Danish is a Germanic language of the North Germanic branch . Other names for this group are the Nordic or Scandinavian languages. Along with Swedish, Danish descends from the Eastern dialects of
798-561: A free span of 1,624 metres (5,328 ft),. The East Bridge had been planned to be completed in time to be the longest bridge in the world, but there were delays in construction. Therefore, it happened that the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was opened two months earlier. The vertical clearance for ships is 65 metres (213 ft), meaning the world's largest cruise ship, an Oasis -class cruise ship , just fits under with its smokestack folded. At 254 metres (833 ft) above sea level,
912-526: A literary language. Also in this period, Danish began to take on the linguistic traits that differentiate it from Swedish and Norwegian, such as the stød , the voicing of many stop consonants, and the weakening of many final vowels to /e/. The first printed book in Danish dates from 1495, the Rimkrøniken ( Rhyming Chronicle ), a history book told in rhymed verses. The first complete translation of
1026-399: A lower silver content. As a result of the debasement , the public started to lose trust in the respective coins. Danish currency was overhauled several times in attempts to restore public trust in the coins, and later issued in paper money. Several different currency systems have been used by Denmark from the 16th to 19th centuries. The krone (lit. "crown") has existed as early as 1513 as
1140-707: A number of Danes remained as a minority within German territories . After the occupation of Denmark by Germany in World War II, the 1948 orthography reform dropped the German-influenced rule of capitalizing nouns, and introduced the letter ⟨å⟩ . Three 20th-century Danish authors have become Nobel Prize laureates in Literature : Karl Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan (joint recipients in 1917) and Johannes V. Jensen (awarded 1944). With
1254-482: A similarity in pronunciation, combined with the long tradition of having Danish as a written language, which has led to similarities in vocabulary. Among younger Danes, Copenhageners are worse at understanding Swedish than Danes from the provinces. In general, younger Danes are not as good at understanding the neighboring languages as the young in Norway and Sweden. The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided
SECTION 10
#17327723891091368-586: A so-called multiethnolect in the urban areas, an immigrant Danish variety (also known as Perkerdansk ), combining elements of different immigrant languages such as Arabic, Turkish, and Kurdish, as well as English and Danish. Within the Danish Realm , Danish is the national language of Denmark and one of two official languages of the Faroe Islands (alongside Faroese ). There is a Faroese variant of Danish known as Gøtudanskt . Until 2009, Danish
1482-555: A train that does not have to fit on a ferry. The seating capacity offered by DSB across the Great Belt on an ordinary Wednesday has risen from 11,060 seats to 37,490 seats. On Fridays the seating capacity exceeds 40,000 seats. The shortest travel times are: Copenhagen – Odense 1 hour 15 minutes, Copenhagen– Aarhus 2 hours 30 minutes, Copenhagen– Aalborg 3 hours 55 minutes and Copenhagen– Esbjerg 2 hours 35 minutes. Flights between Copenhagen and Odense , and between Copenhagen and Esbjerg have ceased, and
1596-621: A two-track railway and a four-lane motorway had to be built, via the small island of Sprogø in the middle of the Great Belt. The project comprised three different tasks: the East Bridge for road transport, the East Tunnel for rail transport and the West Bridge for road and rail transport combined. The construction work was carried out by Sundlink Contractors, a consortium of Skanska , Hochtief , Højgaard & Schultz (which built
1710-489: A unit of account worth 8 marks. In more general use until 1813, however, was a krone or schlecht daler worth 2 ⁄ 3 rigsdaler , 4 marks , or 64 skilling . The modern-day krone was introduced as the currency of Denmark in January 1875. It replaced the rigsdaler at a rate of 2 kroner = 1 rigsdaler. This placed the krone on the gold standard at a rate of 2,480 kroner = 1 kilogram fine gold. The latter part of
1824-625: A variant of Standard Danish, Southern Schleswig Danish , is spoken in the area. Since 2015, Schleswig-Holstein has officially recognized Danish as a regional language , just as German is north of the border. Furthermore, Danish is one of the official languages of the European Union and one of the working languages of the Nordic Council . Under the Nordic Language Convention , Danish-speaking citizens of
1938-407: A very large vowel inventory consisting of 27 phonemically distinctive vowels , and its prosody is characterized by the distinctive phenomenon stød , a kind of laryngeal phonation type . Due to the many pronunciation differences that set Danish apart from its neighboring languages, particularly the vowels, difficult prosody and "weakly" pronounced consonants, it is sometimes considered to be
2052-423: Is 18 kilometres (11 mi). The term Great Belt Bridge commonly refers to the suspension bridge, although it may also be used to mean the box-girder bridge or the link in its entirety. Officially named the East Bridge, the suspension bridge was designed by the Danish firms COWI and Ramboll , and the architecture firm Dissing+Weitling . It has the world's sixth- longest main span (1.6 km (1 mi)). At
2166-571: Is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark . Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland , the Faroe Islands , and the northern German region of Southern Schleswig , where it has minority language status. Minor Danish-speaking communities are also found in Norway , Sweden ,
2280-700: Is a West Germanic language descended from Old English. Old Norse exerted a strong influence on Old English in the early medieval period. The shared Germanic heritage of Danish and English is demonstrated with many common words that are very similar in the two languages. For example, when written, commonly used Danish verbs, nouns, and prepositions such as have , over , under , for , give , flag , salt , and arm are easily recognizable to English speakers. Similarly, some other words are almost identical to their Scots equivalents, e.g. kirke (Scots kirk , i.e., 'church') or barn (Scots and northern English bairn , i.e. 'child'). In addition,
2394-407: Is highly energy consuming. Domestic air travel over the Great Belt was greatly reduced after the opening of the bridge, with the former air travellers now using trains and private cars. The larger energy consumption by ferries as opposed to via the fixed link is most clearly seen when comparing short driving distances from areas immediately east or west of the link. For more extended driving distances
SECTION 20
#17327723891092508-430: Is its closest relative. East Germanic languages West Germanic languages Icelandic Faroese Norwegian Danish Swedish Approximately 2,000 uncompounded Danish words are derived from Old Norse and ultimately from Proto Indo-European . Of these 2,000, 1,200 are nouns, 500 are verbs and 180 are adjectives. Danish has also absorbed many loanwords , most of which were borrowed from Low German of
2622-466: Is legally obliged to join the euro in the future (though Sweden maintains that joining ERM II is voluntary , thus avoiding euro adoption for the time being). The Faroe Islands uses a localised, non-independent version of the Danish krone, known as the Faroese króna pegged with the Danish krone at par, using the Danish coin series, but have their own series of distinct banknotes, first being issued in
2736-436: The skarre-R , the uvular R sound ( [ʁ] ), began spreading through Denmark, likely through influence from Parisian French and German. It affected all of the areas where Danish had been influential, including all of Denmark, Southern Sweden, and coastal southern Norway. In the 18th century, Danish philology was advanced by Rasmus Rask , who pioneered the disciplines of comparative and historical linguistics, and wrote
2850-623: The Bible in Danish, the Bible of Christian II translated by Christiern Pedersen , was published in 1550. Pedersen's orthographic choices set the de facto standard for subsequent writing in Danish. From around 1500, several printing presses were in operation in Denmark publishing in Danish and other languages. In the period after 1550, presses in Copenhagen dominated the publication of material in
2964-491: The International Court of Justice , on the grounds that Finnish-built mobile offshore drilling units would be unable to pass beneath the bridge. The two countries negotiated a financial compensation of 90 million Danish kroner , and Finland withdrew the lawsuit in 1992. A European Court of Justice ruling in 1993 found that a contractual condition requiring use of local labour and local materials in constructing
3078-570: The Late Middle Ages . Out of the 500 most frequently used Danish words, 100 are loans from Middle Low German; this is because Low German was the second official language of Denmark–Norway. In the 17th and 18th centuries, standard German and French superseded Low German influence, and in the 20th century, English became the main supplier of loanwords, especially after World War II . Although many old Nordic words remain, some were replaced with borrowed synonyms, for example æde (to eat)
3192-523: The Old Norse language ; Danish and Swedish are also classified as East Scandinavian or East Nordic languages. Scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum , where no sharp dividing lines are seen between the different vernacular languages. Like Norwegian and Swedish, Danish was significantly influenced by Low German in the Middle Ages, and has been influenced by English since
3306-1091: The United States , Canada , Brazil , and Argentina . Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse , the common language of the Germanic peoples who lived in Scandinavia during the Viking Era . Danish, together with Swedish, derives from the East Norse dialect group , while the Middle Norwegian language (before the influence of Danish) and Norwegian Bokmål are classified as West Norse along with Faroese and Icelandic . A more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility separates modern spoken Danish, Norwegian , and Swedish as "mainland (or continental ) Scandinavian", while Icelandic and Faroese are classified as "insular Scandinavian". Although
3420-461: The Venstre (Liberal) party demanded postponing public spending. Political agreement to restart work was reached in 1986, with a construction law ( Danish : anlægslov ) being passed in 1987. The design was carried out by the engineering firms COWI and Ramboll together with Dissing+Weitling architecture practice . Construction of the link commenced in 1988. In 1991, Finland sued Denmark at
3534-544: The Zealand dialect Introductio ad lingvam Danicam puta selandicam ; and in 1685 the first Danish grammar written in Danish, Den Danske Sprog-Kunst ("The Art of the Danish Language") by Peder Syv . Major authors from this period are Thomas Kingo , poet and psalmist, and Leonora Christina Ulfeldt , whose novel Jammersminde ( Remembered Woes ) is considered a literary masterpiece by scholars. Orthography
Great Belt Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
3648-402: The introduction of the printing press , a standard language was developed which was based on the educated dialect of Copenhagen and Malmö . It spread through use in the education system and administration, though German and Latin continued to be the most important written languages well into the 17th century. Following the loss of territory to Germany and Sweden, a nationalist movement adopted
3762-523: The Øresund Bridge (built 1995–1999) and the Little Belt Bridge , have together enabled driving from mainland Europe to Sweden through Denmark. Operation and maintenance are performed by A/S Storebælt under Sund & Bælt . Construction and maintenance are financed by tolls on vehicles and trains. Cyclists are not permitted to use the bridge, but bicycles may be transported by train or bus. The Great Belt ferries entered service between
3876-400: The 10 and 20 krone coins from golden aluminium bronze. The coins differ in terms of size, weight and rim. Within each sequence the diameter and weight of the coins increase with their value. The 50 øre and 10 krone coins have smooth rims, while the rims of the 1 and 5 krone coins are milled. The rims of the 2 and 20 krone coins have interrupted milling. The 1, 2 and 5 krone coins have a hole in
3990-516: The 18th century and much of the 19th century saw expanding economic activity and thus also a need for means of payment that were easier to handle than coins. Consequently, banknotes were increasingly used instead of coins. The introduction of the new krone was a result of the Scandinavian Monetary Union , which came into effect in 1873 (with the coins being adopted two years later) and lasted until World War I . The parties to
4104-515: The 1950s and later modernised in the 1970s and the 2000s. Greenland adopted the Act on Banknotes in Greenland in 2006 with a view to introducing separate Greenlandic banknotes. The Act entered into force on 1 June 2007. In the autumn of 2010, a new Greenlandic government indicated that it did not wish to introduce separate Greenlandic banknotes and Danmarks Nationalbank ceased the project to develop
4218-579: The 9th century with the younger futhark . Possibly as far back as the seventh century, the common Norse language began to undergo changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, resulting in the appearance of two dialect areas, Old West Norse ( Norway and Iceland ) and Old East Norse ( Denmark and Sweden ). Most of the changes separating East Norse from West Norse started as innovations in Denmark, that spread through Scania into Sweden and by maritime contact to southern Norway. A change that separated Old East Norse (Runic Swedish/Danish) from Old West Norse
4332-418: The Danish government decided in 1986 to construct a link; it opened to rail traffic in 1997 and to road traffic in 1998. At an estimated cost of DKK 21.4 billion ( EUR 2.8 billion) (1988 prices), the link is the largest construction project in Danish history. It has reduced travel times significantly; previously taking one hour by ferry, the Great Belt can now be crossed in ten minutes. This link, together with
4446-594: The Danish language, and also started a period of homogenization, whereby the Copenhagen standard language gradually displaced the regional vernacular languages. Throughout the 19th century, Danes emigrated, establishing small expatriate communities in the Americas, particularly in the United States, Canada, and Argentina, where memory and some use of Danish remains today. After the Schleswig referendum in 1920 ,
4560-517: The Danish language. Herrer og Narre have frit Sprog . "Lords and jesters have free speech." Peder Syv , proverbs Following the first Bible translation, the development of Danish as a written language , as a language of religion, administration, and public discourse accelerated. In the second half of the 17th century, grammarians elaborated grammars of Danish, first among them Rasmus Bartholin 's 1657 Latin grammar De studio lingvæ danicæ ; then Laurids Olufsen Kock 's 1660 grammar of
4674-407: The Danish tongue." Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson By the eighth century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse , had undergone some changes and evolved into Old Norse . This language was generally called the "Danish tongue" ( Dǫnsk tunga ), or "Norse language" ( Norrœnt mál ). Norse was written in the runic alphabet , first with the elder futhark and from
Great Belt Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue
4788-491: The Faroe Islands and Greenland. The last coin depicting the Copenhagen City Hall was issued in June 2007, marking the end of the series. A second series of 20-krone coins, starting in 2007 with twelve different planned motifs and ten already released by November 2011, shows Denmark as a maritime nation in the world, featuring iconic Danish, Faroese and Greenlandic ships and like the previous series of tower coins,
4902-420: The Great Belt in a car with transfer by ferry, including the waiting time at the ports. It took considerably longer during peak periods, such as weekends and holidays. With the opening of the link, the journey is now between 10 and 15 minutes. By train the time savings are significant as well. The journey has been reduced by 60 minutes, and there are many more seats available because more carriages may be added to
5016-401: The Great Belt. The conclusion of the report was that the marine environment was at least as good as before construction work began. With regards to the water flow, the link must comply with the so-called zero-solution. This has been achieved by deepening parts of the Great Belt, so that the water flow cross section has been increased. This excavation compensates for the blocking effect caused by
5130-524: The ISO code "DKK" and currency sign "kr." are in common use; the former precedes the value, the latter in some contexts follows it. The currency is sometimes referred to as the Danish crown in English , since krone literally means crown . Krone coins have been minted in Denmark since the 17th century. One krone is subdivided into 100 øre ( Danish pronunciation: [ˈøːɐ] ; singular and plural),
5244-502: The Nordic countries have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable for any interpretation or translation costs. Danish krone The krone ( Danish: [ˈkʰʁoːnə] ; plural: kroner ; sign : kr. ; code : DKK ) is the official currency of Denmark , Greenland , and the Faroe Islands , introduced on 1 January 1875. Both
5358-710: The Old Norse word for "island". This monophthongization started in Jutland and spread eastward, having spread throughout Denmark and most of Sweden by 1100. Through Danish conquest, Old East Norse was once widely spoken in the northeast counties of England . Many words derived from Norse, such as "gate" ( gade ) for street, still survive in Yorkshire , the East Midlands and East Anglia, and parts of eastern England colonized by Danish Vikings . The city of York
5472-532: The West Bridge) and Monberg & Thorsen (which built the eight-kilometre (5.0 mi) section under the Great Belt). The work of lifting and placing the elements was carried out by Ballast Nedam using a floating crane. Built between 1991 and 1998 at a cost of US$ 950 million, the East Bridge ( Østbroen ) is a suspension bridge between Halsskov and Sprogø. It is 6,790 metres (4.219 mi) long with
5586-400: The West Bridge. At 19:17 on 3 March 2005, the 3,500-ton freighter MV Karen Danielsen crashed into the West Bridge 800 metres from Funen. All traffic across the bridge was halted, effectively cutting Denmark in two. The bridge was re-opened shortly after midnight, after the freighter was pulled free and inspectors had found no structural damage to the bridge. The East Bridge has so far been in
5700-600: The area, eventually outnumbering the Danish speakers. The political loss of territory sparked a period of intense nationalism in Denmark, coinciding with the so-called " Golden Age " of Danish culture. Authors such as N.F.S. Grundtvig emphasized the role of language in creating national belonging. Some of the most cherished Danish-language authors of this period are existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and prolific fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen . The influence of popular literary role models, together with increased requirements of education did much to strengthen
5814-516: The bridge pylons and approach ramps. The conclusion of the report is that water flows are now almost at the level they were before the bridge was built. The fixed link has generated increased road traffic volume, which has meant increased air pollution . However, there has been significant savings in the energy consumption by switching from ferries to the fixed link. Train and car ferries consume much energy for propulsion, high-speed ferries consume large amounts of energy at high speeds, and air transport
SECTION 50
#17327723891095928-524: The bridge was incompatible with the principles of the EEC Treaty . The link is estimated to have created a value of 379 billion DKK after 50 years of use. In 2022, the bridge was crossed as part of the route of Stage 2 of the 2022 Tour de France . The construction of the fixed link became the biggest building project in the history of Denmark. In order to connect Halsskov on Zealand with Knudshoved on Funen , 18 kilometres (11 mi) to its west,
6042-486: The clear, although on 16 May 2001, the bridge was closed for 10 minutes as the Cambodian 27,000-ton bulk carrier Bella was heading straight for one of the anchorage structures. The ship was deflected by a swift response from the navy. On 5 June 2006, a maintenance vehicle burst into flames in the east-bound railway tunnel at about 21:30. Nobody was hurt; its crew of three fled to the other tunnel and escaped. The fire
6156-533: The coastal towns of Korsør and Nyborg in 1883, connecting the railway lines on either side of the Belt. In 1957, road traffic was moved to the Halsskov–Knudshoved route, about 1.5 kilometres to the north and close to the fixed link. Construction drafts for a fixed link were presented as early as the 1850s, with several suggestions appearing in the following decades. The Danish State Railways , responsible for
6270-402: The countries count as international with international fees, outside EU rules. The design of the coin series is intended to ensure that the coins are easy to distinguish from each other: The series is therefore divided into three sequences, each with its own metal colour. This division into colours has its roots in history. In earlier times, the value of the coins was equivalent to the value of
6384-401: The decision was made to instead install a 70 million DKK sealed de-humidifying system in the cables. This was carried out by UK engineering firm Spencer Group , with help from Danish subcontractors Davai who provided the manpower, and Belvent A/S who provided the dehumidification system. Nineteen concrete pillars (12 on the Zealand side, seven by Sprogø), 193 metres (633 ft) apart, carry
6498-479: The difference in energy consumption is smaller, but any transport within Denmark across the link shows very clear energy savings. During 2009, seven large wind turbines, likely Vestas 3MWs totalling 21MW capacity, were erected in the sea north of Sprogø to contribute to the electrical demand of the Great Belt Link. Their hub heights are about the same level as the road deck of the suspension bridge. Part of
6612-508: The exclusive use of rigsdansk , the High Copenhagen Standard, in national broadcasting, the traditional dialects came under increased pressure. In the 20th century, they have all but disappeared, and the standard language has extended throughout the country. Minor regional pronunciation variation of the standard language, sometimes called regionssprog ("regional languages") remain, and are in some cases vital. Today,
6726-623: The fairy tale series ended, a second series of three 10-krone commemorative coins was introduced, celebrating the International Polar Year . Featuring motifs of a polar bear, the Sirius Sledge Patrol and the Aurora Borealis , the coins aimed to accentuate scientific research in the backdrop of Greenlandic culture and geography. The third and final coin entitled 'Northern Lights' marked the completion of
6840-544: The ferry between Puttgarden and Rødby , as it is a much shorter distance and provides a needed break for those travelling a long distance. For freight trains, the fixed links are a large improvement between Sweden and Germany, and between Sweden and the UK. The Sweden-to-Germany ferry system is still used to some extent owing to limited rail capacity, with heavy passenger traffic over the bridges and some single track stretches in southern Denmark and northern Germany. The Great Belt
6954-534: The ferry service, presented plans for a bridge in 1934. The concepts of bridges over Øresund (152 million DKK) and Storebælt (257 million DKK) were calculated around 1936. In 1948, the Ministry for Public Works (now the Ministry of Transport ) established a commission to investigate the implications of a fixed link. The first law concerning a fixed link was enacted in 1973, but the project was put on hold in 1978 as
SECTION 60
#17327723891097068-451: The first English-language grammar of Danish. Literary Danish continued to develop with the works of Ludvig Holberg , whose plays and historical and scientific works laid the foundation for the Danish literary canon. With the Danish colonization of Greenland by Hans Egede , Danish became the administrative and religious language there, while Iceland and the Faroe Islands had the status of Danish colonies with Danish as an official language until
7182-415: The four tunnel-boring machines. The project had a decompression sickness incidence of 0.14% with two workers having long-term residual symptoms. Prior to the opening of the link, an average of 8,000 cars used the ferries across the Great Belt every day. The traffic across the strait increased 127 percent over the first year after the link's opening due to the so-called traffic leap: new traffic generated by
7296-556: The hidden security thread. Starting in 2020, Danmarks Nationalbank released a new version of the 500-kroner banknote with updated security features, the first in the 2009A series. Updated versions of the 50-, 100-, and 200-kroner banknotes are scheduled to enter circulation in 2024–2025. The next series of banknotes is scheduled for release in 2028 and will not contain a 1000-krone banknote, which will no longer be legal tender as of 31 May 2025, with that banknote being withdrawn in order to combat and prevent money laundering. Banknotes from
7410-426: The history of Danish into a period from 800 AD to 1525 to be "Old Danish", which he subdivided into "Runic Danish" (800–1100), Early Middle Danish (1100–1350) and Late Middle Danish (1350–1525). Móðir Dyggva var Drótt, dóttir Danps konungs, sonar Rígs er fyrstr var konungr kallaðr á danska tungu . " Dyggvi 's mother was Drott, the daughter of king Danp, Ríg 's son, who was the first to be called king in
7524-531: The improved ease, facility and lower price of crossing the Great Belt. In 2021, an average of 34,100 vehicles used the link each day. On August 7, 2022 a record 61,528 vehicles passed the bridge in 24 hours. The increase in traffic is partly caused by the general growth of traffic, partly diversion of traffic volume from other services via ferry and services. The fixed link has produced considerable savings in travel time between eastern and western Denmark. Previously, it took approximately 90 minutes on average to cross
7638-491: The international traffic being shifted from the Great Belt Fixed Link. This more direct route will reduce the rail journey from Hamburg to Copenhagen from 4:45 to 3:30 hours. In 2019, the vehicle tolls were: Environmental considerations have been an integral part of the project, and have been of decisive significance for the choice of alignment and determination of the design. Environmental considerations were
7752-424: The language as a token of Danish identity, and the language experienced a strong surge in use and popularity, with major works of literature produced in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, traditional Danish dialects have all but disappeared, though regional variants of the standard language exist. The main differences in language are between generations, with youth language being particularly innovative. Danish has
7866-547: The language of the courts. Since 1997, public authorities have been obliged to follow the official spelling system laid out in the Orthography Law. In the 21st century, discussions have been held with a view to create a law that would make Danish the official language of Denmark. In addition, a noticeable community of Danish speakers is in Southern Schleswig , the portion of Germany bordering Denmark, and
7980-649: The late 10th century. Organised minting in Denmark was introduced on a larger scale by Canute the Great in the 1020s. Lund (now in Sweden) was the principal minting place and one of Denmark's most important cities in the Middle Ages, but coins were also minted in Roskilde, Slagelse, Odense, Aalborg, Århus, Viborg, Ribe, Ørbæk and Hedeby. For almost 1,000 years, Danish kings – with a few exceptions – have issued coins with their name, monogram and/or portrait. Danish coinage
8094-517: The major political parties; however, a 2000 referendum on joining the Eurozone was defeated with 53.2% voting to maintain the krone and 46.8% voting to join the Eurozone. The oldest known Danish coin is a penny ( penning ) struck AD 825–840, but the earliest systematic minting produced the so-called korsmønter ( lit. ' cross coins ' ) minted by Harald Bluetooth in
8208-407: The major varieties of Standard Danish are High Copenhagen Standard, associated with elderly, well to-do, and well educated people of the capital, and low Copenhagen speech traditionally associated with the working class, but today adopted as the prestige variety of the younger generations. Also, in the 21st century, the influence of immigration has had linguistic consequences, such as the emergence of
8322-422: The metal from which they were minted: gold was used for the coins of the highest denominations, silver for the next-highest, and copper for the lowest coin denominations. This correlation between colour and value has been retained in the present coin series (see examples to the right). The 50 øre coins are thus minted from copper-coloured bronze, the 1, 2 and 5 krone coins from a silver-coloured cupronickel alloy, and
8436-422: The mid-20th century. Moders navn er vort Hjertesprog, kun løs er al fremmed Tale. Det alene i mund og bog, kan vække et folk af dvale. "Mother's name is our hearts' tongue, only idle is all foreign speech It alone, in mouth or in book, can rouse a people from sleep." N.F.S. Grundtvig , "Modersmaalet" Following the loss of Schleswig to Germany, a sharp influx of German speakers moved into
8550-538: The middle. Use of these various characteristics makes it easy for the blind and sight-impaired to tell the coins apart. The coins of the programme have the same size and metal composition as the regular coins of their denomination. The first series, 20-krone coins featuring towers in Denmark, ran between 2002 and 2007 and spawned ten different motifs. Upon selecting the towers, importance had been attached not only to display aesthetic towers, but also towers with different form, functions and from different regions of Denmark,
8664-584: The name øre is probably derived from the Latin word for gold. Altogether there are eleven denominations of the krone, with the smallest being the 50 øre coin (one half of a krone ). Formerly there were more øre coins, but those were discontinued due to inflation . The krone is pegged to the euro via the ERM II , the European Union's exchange rate mechanism. Adoption of the euro is favoured by some of
8778-419: The new series and the 2009 series will co-circulate for a period of time and eventually only the new series of banknotes will be legal tender. The design process started in the spring of 2024, and they are scheduled to be finalised in early 2026. In September 2024, it was announced that the obverse of the banknotes would feature "important achievements and the people behind them" whereas the reverse will feature
8892-409: The past and the present. The present is represented by the bridges, the past by five distinctive prehistoric objects found near the bridges. Among the new security features is a window thread ("Motion") with a moving wave pattern. Another feature is a new, sophisticated hologram that reflects light in different colors. The new banknotes also have the traditional security features such as the watermark and
9006-500: The project was to showcase sea wind at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate meeting. During construction 479 work-related accidents were reported, of which 53 resulted in serious injuries or death. Seven workers died as a result of work-related accidents. The West Bridge has been struck by sea traffic twice. While the link was still under construction on 14 September 1993, the ferry M/F Romsø drifted off course in bad weather and hit
9120-402: The reason why Great Belt A/S established an environmental monitoring programme in 1988, and initiated co-operation with authorities and external consultants on the definition of environmental concerns during the construction work and the professional requirements to the monitoring programme. This co-operation issued in a report published at the beginning of 1997 on the state of the environment in
9234-476: The reverse, the banknotes were designed by Gunnar Biilmann Petersen [ da ] , Gunnar Andersen, and Ib Andersen [ da ] . The 1972 series featured portraits and animals, and was issued from 1975 to 1980. It was replaced in 1997. Every note had a portrait based on a painting by Jens Juel on the obverse side. The reverse featured animals designed by Ib Andersen and Gunnar Andersen. The 1997 series features portraits and church art, and
9348-437: The road deck outside the span. The West Bridge ( Vestbroen ) is a box girder bridge between Sprogø and Knudshoved. It is 6,611 metres (4.108 mi) long, and has a vertical clearance for ships of 18 metres (59 ft). It is actually two separate, adjacent bridges: the northern one carries rail traffic and the southern one road traffic. The pillars of the two bridges rest on common foundations below sea level. The West Bridge
9462-428: The same date. Phased out banknotes will continue to be accepted by Danmarks Nationalbank until 31 May 2026. The 1944 series, known as the substitution series, was developed in secret in 1943−1944 and designed by Danish painter Gerhard Heilmann . The 1952 series featured portraits and landscapes, and was issued from 1952 to 1964. It was replaced in 1972. Featuring famous Danes on the obverse and Danish landscapes on
9576-662: The same year. Within the Bretton Woods System , Denmark devalued its currency with the pound in 1949 to a rate of 6.91 to the dollar. A further devaluation in 1967 resulted in rates of 7.5 kroner. The Danish krone was minted by the Royal Mint of Denmark and banknotes were printed by the Danish National Bank until 1975, when the mint was made a subsidiary of the National Bank. In 2014, it
9690-401: The sea as a motif. The selected achievements and people are as follows: Within context, some of the banknotes have figurative meanings with the 100-krone note sometimes referred to as a hund (dog) shortening the word hundrede (a hundred). The 500-krone note can be referred to as a plovmand (ploughman) because previous circulations of the note featured a picture of a man with a plough and
9804-440: The series in 2009. Most Danish banknotes (with a few exceptions) issued after 1945 are valid as payment. Banknotes have since 1945 been issued with the values: 5 kroner, 10 kroner, 20 kroner, 50 kroner, 100 kroner, 200 kroner, 500 kroner, and 1000 kroner. On 30 November 2023, it was announced that all banknotes issued before 2009 will no longer be legal tender as of 31 May 2025. The 1000-kroner banknote will also be phased out on
9918-464: The series reflect various landmarks in shipbuilding in the three countries. In 2005, Danmarks Nationalbank issued the first in a series of five 10-krone commemorative coins with motifs from Hans Christian Andersen 's fairy tales. The motifs depicted on the coins were chosen to illustrate various aspects and themes central to the fairy tales with the fifth and final fairy tale coin inspired by The Nightingale being issued on 25 October 2007. In 2007, as
10032-472: The shared written standard language remained). With the introduction of absolutism in 1660, the Danish state was further integrated, and the language of the Danish chancellery, a Zealandic variety with German and French influence, became the de facto official standard language , especially in writing—this was the original so-called rigsdansk ("Danish of the Realm"). Also, beginning in the mid-18th century,
10146-486: The three languages can often understand the others fairly well, though studies have shown that the mutual intelligibility is asymmetric: Norwegian speakers generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand each other. Concomitantly, Swedes and Danes understand Norwegian better than they understand each other's languages. Norwegian occupies the middle position in terms of intelligibility because of its shared border with Sweden, resulting in
10260-577: The time of the opening of the bridge it was the second longest, beaten by the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge opened a few months previously. Together with the New Little Belt Bridge , the Great Belt link provides a continuous road and rail connection between Copenhagen and the Danish mainland. The link replaced the Great Belt ferries service, which had been the primary means of crossing the Great Belt. After more than 50 years of debate,
10374-412: The train now has the largest market share between Copenhagen and Aarhus. Together with the Øresund Bridge , and the two Little Belt bridges , the link provides a direct fixed connection between western Continental Europe and northern Scandinavia, eventually connecting all parts of the European Union except Ireland, Malta , Cyprus , and outlying islands. Most people from Zealand still prefer to take
10488-477: The tunnel construction. The plan was to open it in 1993, giving the trains a head start of three years over road traffic, but train traffic started in 1997 and road traffic in 1998. During construction the sea bed gave way and one of the tunnels was flooded. The water continued to rise and reached the end at Sprogø, where it continued into the (still dry) other tunnel. The water damaged two of the four tunnel boring machines , but no workers were injured. Only by placing
10602-445: The turn of the 20th century. Danish itself can be divided into three main dialect areas: Jutlandic (West Danish), Insular Danish (including the standard variety), and East Danish (including Bornholmian and Scanian ). According to the view that Scandinavian is a dialect continuum, East Danish can be considered intermediary between Danish and Swedish, while Scanian can be considered a Swedified East Danish dialect, and Bornholmian
10716-417: The two pylons of the East Bridge are the highest points on self-supporting structures in Denmark. Some radio masts, such as Tommerup transmitter, are taller. To keep the main cables tensioned, an anchorage structure on each side of the span is placed below the road deck. After 15 years, the cables have no rust . They were scheduled for a 15 million DKK paint job, but due to corroding cables on other bridges ,
10830-506: The union were the three Scandinavian countries, where the name was krone in Denmark and Norway and krona in Sweden , a word which in all three languages literally means ‘crown’. The three currencies were on the gold standard , with the krone/krona defined as 1 ⁄ 2480 of a kilogram of pure gold. The Scandinavian Monetary Union came to an end in 1914 when the gold standard
10944-411: The vernacular language to be accessible also to those who were not Latinate. The Jutlandic Law and Scanian Law were written in vernacular Danish in the early 13th century. Beginning in 1350, Danish began to be used as a language of administration, and new types of literature began to be written in the language, such as royal letters and testaments. The orthography in this period was not standardized nor
11058-469: The vernacular, such as the plural form of verbs, should be conserved in writing (i.e. han er "he is" vs. de ere "they are"). The East Danish provinces were lost to Sweden after the Second Treaty of Brömsebro (1645) after which they were gradually Swedified; just as Norway was politically severed from Denmark, beginning also a gradual end of Danish influence on Norwegian (influence through
11172-464: The whore-bed with another man's wife and he comes away alive..." Jutlandic Law, 1241 In the medieval period, Danish emerged as a separate language from Swedish. The main written language was Latin, and the few Danish-language texts preserved from this period are written in the Latin alphabet, although the runic alphabet seems to have lingered in popular usage in some areas. The main text types written in this period are laws, which were formulated in
11286-492: The word by , meaning ‘village’ or ‘town’, occurs in many English place-names, such as Whitby and Selby , as remnants of the Viking occupation . During that period English adopted ‘are’, the third person plural form of the verb ‘to be’, as well as the personal pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’ from contemporary Old Norse. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish . A proficient speaker of any of
11400-489: The written languages are compatible, spoken Danish is distinctly different from Norwegian and Swedish and thus the degree of mutual intelligibility with either is variable between regions and speakers . Until the 16th century, Danish was a continuum of dialects spoken from Southern Jutland and Schleswig to Scania with no standard variety or spelling conventions. With the Protestant Reformation and
11514-492: Was a territory ruled by Denmark–Norway , one of whose official languages was Danish. Though Danish ceased to be an official language in Iceland in 1944, it is still widely used and is a mandatory subject in school, taught as a second foreign language after English. No law stipulates an official language for Denmark, making Danish the de facto official language only. The Code of Civil Procedure does, however, lay down Danish as
11628-605: Was abandoned. Denmark, Sweden and Norway all decided to keep the names of their respective and now separate currencies. Denmark returned to the gold standard in 1924 but left it permanently in 1931. Between 1940 and 1945, the krone was tied to the German Reichsmark . Following the end of the German occupation, a rate of 24 kroner to the British pound was introduced, reduced to 19.34 (4.8 kroner = 1 US dollar ) in August
11742-400: Was also one of two official languages of Greenland (alongside Greenlandic ). Danish now acts as a lingua franca in Greenland, with a large percentage of native Greenlanders able to speak Danish as a second language (it was introduced into the education system as a compulsory language in 1928). About 10% of the population speaks Danish as their first language , due to immigration. Iceland
11856-500: Was built between 1988 and 1994; its road/rail deck comprises 63 sections, supported by 62 pillars. The twin bored tunnel tubes of the East Tunnel ( Østtunnelen ) are each 8,024 m (4.986 miles) long. There are 31 connecting tunnels between the two main tunnels, at 250 metres (820 ft) intervals. The equipment that is necessary for train operation in the tunnels is installed in the connecting tunnels, which also serve as emergency escape routes. There were delays and cost overruns in
11970-528: Was decided to stop minting and printing of the krone in Denmark, but the work would be outsourced, and on 20 December 2016, the last notes were printed by the National Bank. Denmark has not introduced the euro , following a rejection by referendum in 2000 , but the Danish krone is pegged closely to the euro (with the rate 7.46038±2.25%) in ERM II , the EU's exchange rate mechanism. Denmark borders one eurozone member, Germany , and one other EU member, Sweden , which
12084-497: Was generally based on the Carolingian silver standard , with 12 penning to a skilling and 20 skilling to a pound; later on, 16 skilling to a mark . The metal content of minted coins was subject to debasement over the centuries, an easy way to generate income for the monarch and/or the state. Taxes were sometimes imposed via the coinage, such as by the compulsory substitution of coins handed in by new coins handed out with
12198-656: Was issued from 1997 to 1999. It was replaced in 2009. Illustrated by Johan Alkjær, the banknotes featured portraits of Danish artists and scientists on the obverse while the reverse had motifs of cultural and religious art. The process of designing the 'Bridge' banknotes was initiated in 2006 by Danmarks Nationalbank. The theme of the new banknotes is Danish bridges and the surrounding landscapes, or details from these landscapes. Danish artist Karin Birgitte Lund has chosen to interpret this theme in two ways: bridges as links between various parts of Denmark and as links between
12312-488: Was mostly supplanted by the Low German spise . As well as loanwords, new words can be freely formed by compounding existing words. In standard texts of contemporary Danish, Middle Low German loans account for about 16–17% of the vocabulary, Graeco-Latin loans 4–8%, French 2–4% and English about 1%. Danish and English are both Germanic languages. Danish is a North Germanic language descended from Old Norse, and English
12426-627: Was once the Viking settlement of Jorvik. Several other English words derive from Old East Norse, for example "knife" ( kniv ), "husband" ( husbond ), and "egg" ( æg ). The suffix "-by" for 'town' is common in place names in Yorkshire and the east Midlands, for example Selby, Whitby, Derby, and Grimsby. The word "dale" meaning valley is common in Yorkshire and Derbyshire placenames. Fangær man saar i hor seng mæth annæns mansz kunæ. oc kumær han burt liuænd... . "If one catches someone in
12540-401: Was put out shortly before midnight, and the vehicle was removed from the tunnel the next day. Train service resumed on 6 June at reduced speed, and normal service was restored on 12 June. On 2 January 2019, eight people were killed in a train accident on the West Bridge. A passenger train was hit by a semi-trailer that fell off a freight train travelling in the opposite direction. In 2023,
12654-463: Was still not standardized and the principles for doing so were vigorously discussed among Danish philologists. The grammar of Jens Pedersen Høysgaard was the first to give a detailed analysis of Danish phonology and prosody, including a description of the stød . In this period, scholars were also discussing whether it was best to "write as one speaks" or to "speak as one writes", including whether archaic grammatical forms that had fallen out of use in
12768-469: Was the change of the diphthong æi (Old West Norse ei ) to the monophthong e , as in stæin to sten . This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin . Also, a change of au as in dauðr into ø as in døðr occurred. This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change from tauþr into tuþr . Moreover, the øy (Old West Norse ey ) diphthong changed into ø , as well, as in
12882-474: Was the spoken language, and the regional laws demonstrate the dialectal differences between the regions in which they were written. Throughout this period, Danish was in contact with Low German , and many Low German loan words were introduced in this period. With the Protestant Reformation in 1536, Danish also became the language of religion, which sparked a new interest in using Danish as
12996-642: Was used by now defunct night passenger trains between Copenhagen and Germany, which were too long to fit on the ferries. Day trains on the Copenhagen-Hamburg route first continued to use the Fehmarn Belt ferries, utilising short diesel trains, but now also use the Great Belt route, which potentially allows longer trains to be used, increasing capacity. By 2028, the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link is expected to be complete with much of
#108891