95-507: Zealand ( Danish : Sjælland [ˈɕeˌlænˀ] ) is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island , which are larger in size) at 7,031 km. Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020, comprising 40% of the country's population. Zealand is the 13th-largest island in Europe by area and the 4th most populous . It
190-411: A "Council", which may be a government based on the representatives of all the "cities" ( civitates ) or a part thereof. Gildas also does not consider Vortigern as bad; he simply qualifies him as "unlucky" ( infaustus ) and lacking judgement, which is understandable, as these mercenaries proved to be faithless. Gildas adds several small details that suggest either he or his source received at least part of
285-429: 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
380-577: 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
475-613: A height of 126 metres (413 ft), but that is due to a man-made hill from the 17th century and its highest natural point is only 121.3 metres (398 ft). Zealand gives its name to the Selandian era of the Paleocene . Urban areas with 10,000+ inhabitants: Danish language Nordic Council Danish ( / ˈ d eɪ n ɪ ʃ / , DAY -nish ; endonym : dansk pronounced [ˈtænˀsk] , dansk sprog [ˈtænˀsk ˈspʁɔwˀ] )
570-465: A hundred and fifty years, should plunder and despoil the same." Both of these details are unlikely to have been invented by a Roman or Brittonic source. Modern scholars have debated the various details of Gildas' story. One topic of discussion has been about the words Gildas uses to describe the Saxons' subsidies ( annonas , epimenia ) and whether they are legal terms used in a treaty of foederati ,
665-404: A late Roman political practice of settling allied barbarian peoples within the boundaries of the empire to furnish troops to aid the defence of the empire. Gildas describes how their raids took them "sea to sea, heaped up by the eastern band of impious men; and as it devastated all the neighbouring cities and lands, did not cease after it had been kindled, until it burnt nearly the whole surface of
760-526: 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
855-542: A lost version of Gildas. Bede also gives names in the Historia to the leaders of the Saxons, Hengist and Horsa , specifically identifying their tribes as the Saxons, Angles and Jutes ( H.E. , 1.14–15). Another significant detail that Bede adds to Gildas' account is calling Vortigern the king of the British people. Bede also supplies the date, 449, which was traditionally accepted but has been considered suspect since
950-450: A man calculated neither for the field nor the council, but wholly given up to the lusts of the flesh, the slave of every vice: a character of insatiable avarice, ungovernable pride, and polluted by his lusts. To complete the picture, he had defiled his own daughter, who was lured to the participation of such a crime by the hope of sharing his kingdom, and she had borne him a son. Regardless of his treasures at this dreadful juncture, and wasting
1045-604: A mere slave. The Historia Brittonum relates four battles occurring in Kent, apparently related to material in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (see below). It claims that Vortigern's son Vortimer commanded the Britons against Hengest's Saxons. Moreover, it claims that the Saxons were driven out of Britain, only to return at Vortigern's invitation a few years later, after the death of Vortimer. The stories preserved in
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#17327646644691140-707: 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
1235-545: A piece of land and transported it to Denmark, which became Zealand. The vacant area was filled with water and became Mälaren . However, since modern maps show a similarity between Zealand and the Swedish lake Vänern , it is sometimes identified as the hole left by Gefjun. Gefjun is queen of King Skjöldr , eponymous ancestor of the Scyldings , related to the etymological debate. Zealand is the most populous Danish island. It
1330-482: 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
1425-586: 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
1520-625: 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
1615-407: 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
1710-571: 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 ,
1805-700: 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,
1900-800: Is connected to Sprogø and Funen by the Great Belt Fixed Link and to Amager by several bridges in Copenhagen. Indirectly, through the island of Amager and the Øresund Bridge , it is also linked to Scania in Sweden. In the south, the Storstrøm Bridge and the Farø Bridges connect it to Falster , and beyond that island to Lolland , from where the Fehmarnbelt Tunnel to Germany is planned. Copenhagen ,
1995-538: Is dispute as to when the material was written which comprises the Historia Brittonum , and it could be later than the Chronicle . Some historians argue that the Historia Brittonum took its material from a source close to the Chronicle . Writing soon before Geoffrey of Monmouth , William of Malmesbury added much to the unfavourable assessment of Vortigern: At this time Vortigern was King of Britain;
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#17327646644692090-474: Is irregularly shaped, and is north of the islands of Lolland , Falster , and Møn . The small island of Amager lies immediately east. Copenhagen is mostly on Zealand but extends across northern Amager. A number of bridges and the Copenhagen Metro connect Zealand to Amager, which is connected to Scania in Sweden by the Øresund Bridge via the artificial island of Peberholm . Zealand is joined in
2185-430: 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
2280-468: Is mentioned. The annals for the 5th century in the Chronicle were put into their current form during the 9th century, probably during the reign of Alfred the Great . The sources are obscure for the fifth century annals; however, an analysis of the text demonstrates some poetic conventions, so it is probable that they were derived from an oral tradition such as sagas in the form of epic poems . There
2375-1248: Is named after Vortigern, and until modern times had a small barrow known locally as "Vortigern's Grave", along with a ruin known as "Vortigern's Fort". However, this conflicts with doubtful reports that he died in his castle on the River Teifi in Dyfed ( "Nennius" ) or his tower at The Doward in Herefordshire ( Geoffrey of Monmouth ). Other fortifications associated with Vortigern are at Arfon in Gwynedd , Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire , Carn Fadryn in Gwynedd, Clwyd in Powys, Llandysul in Dyfed, Old Carlisle in Cumberland , Old Sarum in Wiltshire, Rhayader in Powys , Snowdon and Stonehenge in Wiltshire. Vortigern's story remained well known after
2470-454: Is named after the Dutch province of Zeeland , which is sometimes referred to as and/or anglicized to Zealand, but is not to be confused with the Danish island. However, there is a historical connection between Denmark and New Zealand based on 19th century immigration of Scandinavians, especially Danes, to New Zealand's North Island, particularly to the districts of the southern Hawkes Bay and
2565-483: Is not attested as a common noun, there is no reason to suppose that it was used as anything other than a personal name. In fact, an Old Irish cognate of it, Foirtchern , was a fairly common personal name in medieval Ireland, further lending credence to the notion that Vortigern was a personal name and not a title. A valley on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula , known as Nant Gwrtheyrn or "Vortigern's Gorge",
2660-436: 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
2755-564: 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
2850-591: The Capital Region , while the major and more rural part of the island belongs to the Zealand Region . The origin of the Danish name Sjælland is not exactly known. Sjæl in modern Danish means "soul"; a derivation from siô / sæ (meaning "lake" or "sea") has been assumed. However, today a common hypothesis is that the Old Danish form Siâland is based on the word * selha- with
2945-402: The Historia Brittonum reveal an attempt by one or more anonymous British scholars to provide more detail to this story, while struggling to accommodate the facts of the British tradition. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides dates and locations of four battles which Hengest and his brother Horsa fought against the British in the county of Kent. Vortigern is said to have been the commander of
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3040-794: The Isle of Wight and other areas, where they settled. They were later absorbed or ethnically cleansed by the invading Angles and Saxons , who formed the Anglo-Saxons . The remaining Jutish population in Jutland assimilated in with the settling Danes . Valdemar's Zealandic Law was a civil code enacted in the 13th century. Prior to the adoption of the Jutlandic, Zealandic and the Scanian laws, there had been no uniformity of laws throughout settlements in Denmark. Ringsted and later Roskilde were
3135-570: 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)
3230-576: The Middle Ages , especially in Great Britain . He is a major character in two Jacobean plays , the anonymous The Birth of Merlin and Thomas Middleton 's Hengist, King of Kent , first published in 1661. His meeting with Rowena became a popular subject in 17th-century engraving and painting, e.g., William Hamilton 's 1793 work Vortigern and Rowena (above right). He was also featured in literature, such as John Lesslie Hall 's poems about
3325-523: 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
3420-1091: 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
3515-544: 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
3610-402: 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
3705-579: 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
3800-511: The British for only the first battle; the opponents in the next three battles are variously termed " British " and " Welsh ", which is not unusual for this part of the Chronicle . The Chronicle locates the Battle of Wippedesfleot as the place where the Saxons first landed, dated 465 in Wippedsfleot and thought to be Ebbsfleet near Ramsgate . The year 455 is the last date when Vortigern
3895-686: The Britons) was attributed until recently to Nennius , a monk from Bangor, Gwynedd , and was probably compiled during the early 9th century. The writer mentions a great number of sources. Nennius wrote more negatively of Vortigern, accusing him of incest (perhaps confusing Vortigern with the Welsh king Vortiporius , accused by Gildas of the same crime), oath-breaking, treason, love for a pagan woman, and lesser vices such as pride. The Historia Brittonum recounts many details about Vortigern and his sons. Chapters 31–49 tell how Vortigern (Guorthigirn) deals with
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3990-594: 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 ,
4085-517: 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
4180-407: 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
4275-581: 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. Vortigern Vortigern ( / ˈ v ɔːr t ɪ dʒ ɜːr n / ; Old Welsh : Guorthigirn , Guorthegern ; Welsh : Gwrtheyrn ; Old English : Wyrtgeorn ; Old Breton : Gurdiern , Gurthiern ; Irish : Foirtchern ; Latin : Vortigernus , Vertigernus , Uuertigernus , etc.), also spelled Vortiger , Vortigan , Voertigern and Vortigen ,
4370-655: 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
4465-535: The Romans leave, the archbishop of London is put forward by the representatives of Britain to organise the island's defences. To do so, he arranges for continental soldiers to come to Britain. The name of the bishop is Guitelin, a name similar to the Vitalinus mentioned in the ancestry of Vortigern and to the Vitalinus said to have fought with Ambrosius at the Battle of Guoloph . This Guithelin/Vitalinus disappears from
4560-517: The Ruin and Conquest of Britain ) in the first decades of the 6th century. In Chapter 23, he tells how "all the councillors, together with that proud usurper " [ omnes consiliarii una cum superbo tyranno ] made the mistake of inviting "the fierce and impious Saxons " to settle in Britain . According to Gildas, apparently, a small group came at first and was settled "on the eastern side of the island, by
4655-506: The Saxons and Saint Germanus of Auxerre . Chapters 50–55 deal with Saint Patrick . Chapter 56 tells about King Arthur and his battles. Chapters 57–65 mention English genealogies, mingled with English and Welsh history . Chapter 66 gives important chronological calculations, mostly on Vortigern and the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain . Excluding what is taken from Gildas, there are a number of traditions: It has been suggested that
4750-600: 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
4845-418: The beginnings of England. One of Vortigern's most notorious literary appearances is in the play Vortigern and Rowena , which was promoted as a lost work of William Shakespeare when it first emerged in 1796. However, it was soon revealed as a literary forgery written by the play's purported discoverer, William Henry Ireland , who had previously forged a number of other Shakespearean manuscripts. The play
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#17327646644694940-433: The capital of Denmark, with a population between 1.3 and 1.4 million people in 2020, is located mostly on the eastern shore of Zealand and partly on the island of Amager . Other cities on Zealand include Roskilde , Hillerød , Næstved , Helsingør , Slagelse , Køge , Holbæk and Kalundborg . Administratively, Zealand is divided between two Danish regions: The Copenhagen metropolitan area and North Zealand belong to
5035-483: The elements * wor- "over-, super" and * tigerno- "king, lord, chief, ruler" (compare Old Breton machtiern , Cornish myghtygern a type of local ruler - literally "pledge chief") in medieval Brittany and Cornwall . However, the element * tigerno- was a regular one in Brittonic personal names (compare Kentigern , Catigern , Ritigern, Tigernmaglus, et al.) and, as * wortigernos (or derivatives of it)
5130-465: The ending * wundia- . The latter means "indicates, resembles". The word * selha- may have two different meanings: "seal" (in modern Danish sæl ) or "deep bay, fjord". Since Roskilde is a major and ancient settlement on Zealand, accessible by sea through the narrow Roskilde Fjord (branched from the Isefjord ), it has been assumed that the sailors named the island after this. The Swedish name of
5225-508: 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,
5320-451: 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
5415-470: The first important political and religious centres on the island, a role later taken over by Copenhagen. Other important religious centres prior to the Reformation were Sorø Abbey at Sorø and Esrom Abbey at Esrum . With its strategic location at the entrance to the Øresund, especially after the construction of Kronborg Castle and the introduction of Sound Dues , Helsingør would later develop into
5510-426: 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
5605-491: The invitation of the unlucky [ infaustus ] usurper". This small group invited more of their countrymen to join them, and the colony grew. Eventually the Saxons demanded that "their monthly allotments" be increased and, when their demands were eventually refused, broke their treaty and plundered the lands of the Romano-British . It is not clear whether Gildas used the name Vortigern. Most editions published currently omit
5700-481: The island is Själland , a direct translation to the different script used in that language. The English form may be borrowed from the German form Seeland . These forms might be based on the assumption that the first part means sea or lake (German See ), or they could simply be based on an alternative Danish form of the name, Sælland , which was common until the 19th century. The island nation of New Zealand has no etymological relations to Zealand. New Zealand
5795-660: The island, and licked the western ocean with its red and savage tongue" (chapter 24). The first extant text considering Gildas' account is Bede , writing in the early- to mid-8th century. He mostly paraphrases Gildas in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People and The Reckoning of Time , adding several details, perhaps most importantly the name of this "proud tyrant", whom he first calls Vertigernus (in his Chronica Maiora ) and later Vurtigernus (in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum ). The Vertigernus form may reflect an earlier Celtic source or
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#17327646644695890-424: 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
5985-547: 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
6080-519: The late 20th century: " Marcian being made emperor with Valentinian , and the forty-sixth from Augustus , ruled the empire seven years." Michael Jones notes that there are several arrival dates in Bede. In H.E. 1.15 the arrival occurs within the period 449–455; in 1.23 and 5.23 another date, c. 446, is given; and in 2.14 the same event is dated 446 or 447, suggesting that these dates are calculated approximations. The Historia Brittonum (History of
6175-407: 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
6270-422: 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
6365-549: The most important town and seaport outside Copenhagen. Most of North Zealand was for centuries, starting in the late 16th century, owned by the crown and used mainly as a royal hunting domain. Local manors played a central role in the economy on the rest of the island. Early industrial centres outside Copenhagen included Mølleåen with its watermills, the Kronborg Arms Factory at Hellebæk , Johan Frederik Classen 's Frederick's Works at Frederiksværk and Niels Ryberg's Køng Textile Factory at Vordingborg. Substantial parts of
6460-419: The name. Two manuscripts name him: MS. A (Avranches MS 162, 12th century), refers to Uortigerno ; and Mommsen's MS. X (Cambridge University Library MS. Ff. I.27) (13th century) calls him Gurthigerno . Gildas never addresses Vortigern as the king of Britain. He is termed a usurper ( tyrannus ), but not solely responsible for inviting the Saxons. To the contrary, he is portrayed as being aided by or aiding
6555-401: The northern Wairarapa . The tribal Danes came from Zealand and Scania and spoke an early form of North Germanic . Historians believe that before their arrival, most of Jutland and the nearest islands were settled by tribal Jutes . The Jutes migrated to Great Britain eventually, some as mercenaries of Brythonic King Vortigern , and were granted the south-eastern territories of Kent ,
6650-477: The older brother of Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon . After the death of their father, Constantinus III , Vortigern persuades Constans to leave his monastery and claim the throne. Constans proved a weak and unpopular puppet monarch and Vortigern ruled the country through him until he finally managed Constans' death by insurgent Picts . Geoffrey mentions a similar tale just before that episode, however, which may be an unintentional duplication. Just after
6745-439: The process and forming the Kingdom of Kent . It is said that he took refuge in North Wales , and that his grave was in Dyfed or the Llŷn Peninsula . Gildas later denigrated Vortigern for his misjudgement and also blamed him for the loss of Britain. He is cited at the beginning of the genealogy of the early Kings of Powys . The 6th-century cleric and historian Gildas wrote De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae (English: On
6840-546: The resources of the kingdom in riotous living, he was awake only to the blandishments of abandoned women. Gesta Regum Anglorum William does, however, add some detail, no doubt because of a good local knowledge, in De Gestis Regum Anglorum book I, chapter 23. The story of Vortigern adopted its best-known form in Geoffrey's pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae . Geoffrey names Constans
6935-419: The saint mentioned here may be no more than a local saint or a tale that had to explain all the holy places dedicated to a St. Germanus or a "Garmon", who may have been a Powys saint or even a bishop from the Isle of Man about the time of writing the Historia Brittonum . The story seems only to be explained as a slur against the rival dynasty of Powys, suggesting that they did not descend from Vortigern but from
7030-495: The same person as Gildas's "superbus tyrannus", Vortigern. The pillar also states that he was married to Sevira , the daughter of Magnus Maximus , and gave a line of descent leading to the royal family of Powys , who erected the cross. It has occasionally been suggested by scholars that Vortigern might be a royal title , rather than a personal name. The name in Brittonic literally means "Great King" or "Overlord", composed of
7125-472: 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,
7220-486: The southernmost part of the island was in the 18th century part of Vordingborg Cavalry District . The first railways on the island were constructed by Det Sjællandske Jernbaneselskab (1847-1888). The first section opened between Copenhagen and Roskilde in 1847. In Norse mythology as told in the Gylfaginning , the island was created by the goddess Gefjun after she tricked Gylfi , the king of Sweden. She removed
7315-412: The story as soon as Vortigern arrives. All these coincidences imply that Geoffrey duplicated the story of the invitation of the Saxons, and that the tale of Guithelinus the archbishop might possibly give some insight into the background of Vortigern before his acquisition of power. Geoffrey identifies Hengest's daughter as Rowena . After Vortigern marries her, his sons rebel. Geoffrey adds that Vortigern
7410-460: The story from the Anglo-Saxons . The first is when he describes the size of the initial party of Saxons, stating that they came in three cyulis (or "keels"), "as they call ships of war". This may be the earliest recovered word of English. The second detail is his repetition that the visiting Saxons were "told by a certain soothsayer among them, that they should occupy the country to which they were sailing three hundred years, and half of that time,
7505-486: 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
7600-445: 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
7695-411: 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
7790-469: 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
7885-558: The west to Funen, by the Great Belt Fixed Link, and Funen is connected by bridges to the country's mainland, Jutland . On 5 June 2007 the regional subsidiary of national broadcaster DR reported that Kobanke in the southeast near the town Rønnede in Faxe Municipality , with a height of 122.9 metres (403 ft), was the highest natural point on Zealand. Gyldenløveshøj , south of the city Roskilde , has
7980-516: 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
8075-492: 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
8170-489: 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
8265-564: Was a 5th-century warlord in Britain , known perhaps as a king of the Britons or at least connoted as such in the writings of Bede and Gildas . His existence is contested by scholars and information about him is obscure. He may have been the "superbus tyrannus" said to have invited Hengist and Horsa to aid him in fighting the Picts and the Scots , whereupon they revolted, killing his son in
8360-492: 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
8455-457: 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
8550-488: 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
8645-627: 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
8740-463: 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
8835-566: Was succeeded briefly by his son Vortimer, as does the Historia Brittonum , only to assume the throne again when Vortimer is killed. The inscription on the Pillar of Eliseg , a mid-9th century stone cross in Llangollen , northern Wales , gives the Old Welsh spelling of Vortigern: Guarthi[gern], (the inscription is now damaged and the final letters of the name are missing), believed to be
8930-469: 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
9025-474: 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
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