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39-875: The Danish dialect South Jutlandic in the Angel Danish variant was still spoken in Schwansen around 1780 (the last time in the villages near the Schlei). Denmark lost Schwansen following the Second Schleswig War in 1864. Schwansen is the name of the former Amt ("collective municipality") Schwansen , which covered most of the peninsula. The seat of the Amt was in Damp. 54°34′N 9°54′E  /  54.567°N 9.900°E  / 54.567; 9.900 This Schleswig-Holstein location article

78-480: A dialect-tinted version of Standard Danish, but everything ranging from relatively pure dialect to Standard Danish can be found. Many are able to switch between both varieties. A renewed popular interest in preserving the South Jutlandic dialect has been seen in recent years. This revival has been fuelled by the works of several local artists and authors as well as Æ Synnejysk Forening, a society working for

117-550: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . South Jutlandic South Jutlandic or South Jutish ( South Jutish : Synnejysk ; Danish : Sønderjysk ; German : Südjütisch or Plattdänisch ) is a dialect of the Danish language . South Jutlandic is spoken in Southern Jutland ( Sønderjylland ; also called Schleswig or Slesvig ) on both sides of the border between Denmark and Germany. Variants of

156-527: Is mastered as well and is taught in schools, along with Standard German. South Jutlandic is still spoken to some degree in villages up to about 15 km south of the Danish-German border, but hardly in the major city of Flensburg, where the Danish speakers speak Standard Danish. Most people will be able to speak or understand Low German and sometimes North Frisian. All will know High German, often being

195-872: The Baltic Sea coast in the east to the extensive marshlands in the west of the peninsula. One of the walls (named Østervolden ), between the Schlei and Eckernförde inlets, defended the Schwansen peninsula. According to written sources, work on the Danevirke was started by the Danish King Gudfred in 808. Fearing an invasion by the Franks , who had conquered heathen Frisia over the previous 100 years and Old Saxony in 772 to 804, Godfred began work on an enormous structure to defend his realm, separating

234-476: The Flensborg Fjord . The Low German dialect of Angel still has a great deal of Danish words and grammatical influence, which makes it difficult to understand for other Low German speakers. During the 19th century the South Jutlandic dialect had a status inferior to Low German, and parents started to encourage their children to speak Low German, so they would be better prepared for school, where education

273-698: The Jutland peninsula from the northern extent of the Frankish empire. However, the Danes were also in conflict with the Saxons south of Hedeby during the Nordic Iron Age, and recent archaeological excavations have revealed that the Danevirke was initiated much earlier than King Gudfred's reign, at least as far back as 500 AD and probably well before that. Because of its historical importance and testimony to

312-416: The Second Schleswig War (1864), eventually resulting in a Danish defeat and subsequent German annexation. In this hostile context, the Danevirke played an important role, at first as a mental cultural barrier against Germany, but soon also as a concrete military fortification, when it was strengthened with cannon emplacements and entrenchments in 1850 and again in 1861. In the early 19th Century Dannevirke

351-541: The 19th Century, the Danevirke became a powerful symbol for Denmark and for the idea of a unique Danish people and Danish culture . Throughout the nineteenth century, Denmark and Germany struggled politically and militarily for possession of the territory variously known as Sønderjylland or Slesvig by the Danes and Schleswig by the Germans. Two wars were fought, the First Schleswig War (1848–1851) and

390-445: The 19th century territory as far north as Flensburg was predominantly German-speaking, but remained part of Denmark. Archaeological excavations in 1969–1975 established, with the help of dendrochronology , that the main structure of the Danevirke had been built in three phases between AD 737 and 968. It is, therefore, contemporary with Offa's Dyke on the border between Wales and England , another great defensive structure of

429-405: The Danish ending -næs (peninsula) being replaced by -nitz , an unrelated Slavic ending which is common in eastern Germany. Such arbitrary translations were often made by the central Prussian government after the whole of Slesvig was ceded to Prussia after the war of 1864 . The South Jutlandic name of the town of Schleswig (Slesvig), from which the region derives its name, was Sljasvig with

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468-653: The Danish language had a much larger extension in South Slesvig than today. South Jutlandic was spoken down to the Danevirke wall south of Schleswig town, close to the Viking town of Hedeby , and to Eckernförde on the east coast. South of this was a sparsely inhabited area which after the Viking Age became populated with Saxon settlers whose language is now better known as Low German . The western islands and

507-646: The Second War of Schleswig, there was some early skirmishing to the south of the Danevirke, but no battle took place at it, as the Danish Commander in Chief, General de Meza , withdrew all soldiers to the trenches at Dybbøl , owing to an unexpected threat of being outflanked, as the Schlei and the wetlands between the Danevirke and Husum had frozen solid in a hard winter and could be crossed easily, and

546-417: The adverse effect, reinforcing anti-Danish sentiment. A pattern emerged, with the poorest in rural areas sticking to South Jutlandic, the wealthier peasants speaking Low German as the lingua franca and the educated townsmen speaking High German. A variety of South Jutlandic was spoken until the 1940s in an area west of the town of Schleswig, 40 km south of the present border. Called Fjoldedansk after

585-422: The chapter of Haderslev and Danish was spoken in church. The church language border was very similar to the present-day Danish-German border which was created by plebiscite in 1920. During the 17th and the 18th centuries, the population in the area south of the Schlei (Sli) inlet switched to Low German, few details being known about their former South Jutlandic dialect. The people of Angeln (Danish Angel ),

624-574: The countryside between Flensburg and the Schlei where the Angles who settled England also originally came from, kept to their South Jutlandic dialect for a longer time, but often had some knowledge of Low German as well. The Angel dialect became extinct around 1900. A few records of it exist and show that it was similar to the South Jutlandic of the Sønderborg area in North Slesvig, across

663-642: The defense of trade routes in the Viking Age, the Danevirke and the nearby Viking town of Hedeby were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2018. Legend has it that Queen Thyra ordered the Danevirke to be built. She was the wife of the first historically recognized king of Denmark, Gorm the Old (reign c. 936 – c. 958). With the emergence of national states in Europe during

702-460: The destruction of an important remnant of " Aryan civilization" and Himmler authorized him to stop the construction of the anti-tank trench. He informed Telling that a written order would be dispatched but that it would take several days to arrive. Telling then drove to the site and ordered the commanding Wehrmacht officers to immediately stop the construction process. When the local Wehrmacht commander refused, Telling threatened him with reprisals from

741-590: The dialect include Western and Eastern South Jutlandic (including Alsisk). The former variant in Angeln (Danish: Angel ) and Schwansen ( Svansø ) was known as Angel Danish . The other dialects classified as belonging to the Jutlandic or Jutish ( Jysk ) group of dialects are West , East , and North Jutlandic . Many older people will still speak a distinct South Jutlandic dialect, both in towns and rural areas. Younger people and children are more likely to use

780-549: The earthen wall into an anti-tank trench to counter this threat. Had the proposal been implemented, it would have destroyed the structure. Hearing of the plans, Danish archaeologist Søren Telling – aware that all archaeological investigation was under the ultimate jurisdiction of SS chief Heinrich Himmler – immediately telephoned both the head of the SS's archaeological department, Amt für Ahnenerbe ("Office for ancestral heritage"), and Himmler himself. Telling argued strongly against

819-607: The evacuation. News of the retreat came as a great shock to Danish public opinion which had considered the Danevirke to be impregnable, and General de Meza was promptly relieved of his command. The Danevirke has remained in German possession ever since. Following the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II , the Wehrmacht feared that a second Allied invasion might take place through Denmark, and contemplated converting

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858-418: The expense of manning it and to the development of ballistas , trebuchets , and similar siege engines. The First Schleswig War commenced on 31 March 1848 but Prussia did not become involved until a naval incident on 19 April. Therefore, on 23 April, General Friedrich von Wrangel marched his 12,000 Prussian troops upon weak Danish resistance at the Danevirke entrenchment and, after a short engagement near

897-399: The late 8th century. New carbon-14 dating in 2013 has revealed that the second stage started around 500 AD, and the oldest fortifications are even older than that. Previous carbon-14 dating had dated some of the early constructions to the second half of the 7th century, and dendrochronology also suggests that the examined constructions began not very long after 737, about 70 years before

936-467: The only language of young people and children. Members of the Danish minority are taught Standard Danish as well in schools, but often choose to communicate in German in everyday life. Language, especially spoken language, is not necessarily linked with national identification. Family ties and informal local contact across the border used to be very common, with South Jutlandic being the first language of both Danish-minded and German-minded people. Sometimes,

975-615: The promotion of the dialect. Several schools now offer the dialect as an optional subject, but Rigsdansk , the official Danish, remains a compulsory subject. Members of the South Jutlandic minority on the German side of the border tend to emphasize their South Jutlandic identity. Many members of this minority are in one way or another connected with agriculture, the dialect being more prevalent in rural communities. The German minority usually speak South Jutlandic with each other and with Danish-minded people alike, but prefer German for writing and official occasions such as meetings. Standard Danish

1014-420: The purest South Jutlandic may be found among older people who identify as German. Since they have not attended Danish schools, their speech is not influenced by Standard Danish. With urbanisation in the recent decades, the crisscross of dialects and national sentiment has faded, with High German becoming the first choice everywhere, but some South Jutlandic words are often retained in the vocabulary. Historically,

1053-509: The reign of king Gudfred . The Danevirke is about 30 kilometres (19 mi) long overall, with a height varying between 3.6 and 6 metres (12 and 20 ft). During the Middle Ages , the structure was reinforced with palisades and masonry walls, and was used by Danish kings as a gathering point for Danish military excursions, including a series of crusader raids against the Slavs of

1092-470: The school language to be Danish in areas where the peasantry spoke Danish and even in an area stretching further south, into the Low German speaking area. Church language would alternate between Danish and German. Standard Danish had never been widely used in South Slesvig even where the populace spoke a Danish dialect. The dominant official language was German, and the measures of the government had quite

1131-455: The south Baltic. In particular, the 12th-century King Valdemar the Great reinforced parts of the Danevirke with a brick wall, which enabled a continued military use of this strategically important structure. The reinforced parts of the structure are consequently known in Danish as Valdemarsmuren (lit: Valdemar's wall). The Danevirke began to lose its purpose in the 14th century, owing both to

1170-534: The southernmost area. Typical Scandinavian endings include -by, -bøl, -trup, -lund, -ved, -toft (in German form: -by, -büll, -trup, -lund, -witt, -toft ). In some cases the South Jutlandic form has been eradicated from the Standard Danish variety of the name, but is still visible in the Germanised version: In many other cases the Germanised versions are out of etymological context. Examples include

1209-633: The stress on the second syllable. Danevirke The Danevirke or Danework (modern Danish spelling: Dannevirke ; in Old Norse : Danavirki , in German : Danewerk , literally meaning earthwork of the Danes ) is a system of Danish fortifications in Schleswig-Holstein , Germany. This historically important linear defensive earthwork across the neck of the Cimbrian peninsula

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1248-482: The territory immediately south of the Danevirke had been conquered by the advancing German army. This retreat came as a surprise to the Austro-Prussian army, and almost all of the Danish army succeeded in completing the evacuation. It resulted, however, in the abandonment of important pieces of heavy artillery, and it remains a matter of historical debate why the railway to Flensburg was never properly used for

1287-465: The town of Dannewerk , drove the Danish army into retreat and seized the city of Schleswig . An armistice signed on 2 August 1848 caused the Prussians to evacuate Schleswig-Holstein but did not end the war. Further engagements in the next two years saw fighting in the vicinity of the Danevirke but not directly involving it. Final peace was signed on 8 May 1852. The last military use of the Danevirke

1326-563: The village Fjolde (German: Viöl) or sydslesvigsk (southern Schleswigian), the dialect had many archaic features otherwise lost in Danish, such as verbs fully inflected in person and number. The village was isolated between surrounding moorland, creating a language island , similar to the case of the Saterland Frisian language . Place names in South Slesvig are of almost exclusively Danish origin, except in North Frisia and

1365-459: The west coast were settled by Frisians . A little further inland Frisians and Danes were mixed. With the reformation in the 16th century the national language was installed in church instead of Latin. In Slesvig this meant not the language of the peasantry, but that of the dukes and gentry, being first Low German and later High German. German was the language of administration in all of Slesvig. In Northern Slesvig, however, priests were educated at

1404-418: Was adopted as the title of several Danish nationalist journals dealing specifically with the question of Danish autonomy vis-à-vis Germany, the most notable of these being published by N. F. S. Grundtvig in 1816–19. In earlier times, the Danevirke had indeed defined a cultural and linguistic border between Danish and German fiefdoms , but the cultural and linguistic frontiers had gradually moved north, and by

1443-461: Was during the Second Schleswig War in 1864. Due especially to the above-mentioned emotive nationalist symbolism, public opinion in Denmark and the Danish military had expected the coming battle to take place along the Danevirke. After centuries of abandonment and decay, the Danevirke fortifications were partially restored, strengthened, and equipped with artillery installations in 1850 and 1861. In

1482-600: Was in High German. Some scholars assume that centuries with German spoken in church made people identify with the German nationality, even if they still spoke a Danish vernacular at home. The Danish government, for political reasons, wished to halt this language shift from Danish to German. After the First War of Schleswig , in 1851, the government issued the Slesvig Language Rescripts, ordering

1521-669: Was initiated by the Danes in the Nordic Iron Age about AD 650. It was later expanded multiple times during Denmark's Viking Age and High Middle Ages . The Danevirke was last used for military purposes in 1864 during the Second War of Schleswig . The Danevirke consists of several walls, trenches and the Schlei Barrier. The walls stretch for 30 km, from the former Viking trade centre of Hedeby near Schleswig on

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