E. C. Otté

“ Until recently the Danes and Norwegians used no other characters in printing and writing but those known as the Gothic, or German. In the present day, however, the Latin Alphabet is being extensively employed by the best writers of Denmark and Norway, and a new and more rational system of spelling is gaining ground among the ablest cultivators of that special form of Northern speech known as Danish, or Dano-Norwegian (Dansk-Norsk) . ”

“ The Dano-Norwegian language which was thus common to both Norwegians and Danes had, however, in the course of time become so deeply affected by Germanizing influences, that it had lost much of the special Scandinavian character, which could still be traced in Swedish, and in the various forms of the "Bondesprog" or peasant language of provincial Norway. Of this Danish and Norwegian scholars have long been sensible, and more than fifty years ago a scheme was propounded by the eminent philologist, Rasmus Rask, for the thorough reform of "Dansk-Norsk" (Dano-Norwegian) . ”

“ Thus many words having different meanings, which were formerly distinguished by differences of gender, are now reduced to one gender, while their special significance is often indicated by some slight but definite accentuation. Danes and Norwegians in some cases use different genders, as Smäld, 'crack,' 'smack,' which the former refer to the neuter, and the latter to the common gender.
Danish adapts itself with the most facile readiness to the formation of compounds, the gender of which is regulated by that of the last word in the compound group ”

“ This identity of language between cultivated Norwegians and Danes is due to political, rather than to racial causes; for although all the Scandinavian peoples retained as late as the eleventh century a sufficiently accurate acquaintance with their common mother-tongue, the Old Northern, to be able to communicate freely together wherever they met in the course of their wanderings, they soon began to adopt special peculiarities of speech, although in unequal degrees. ”

“ That whatever may be the form of the past imperfect of the indicative, it remains the same for all persons, both in the singular and plural. The strong, or irregular form of conjugation, whose imperfect past of the indicative is always monosyllabic, includes upwards of 100 verbs, and was apparently the more ancient mode of conjugation in the Old Northern. The tendency of modern Danish is to depart from this more characteristic type, and to bring certain verbs, which in older times accorded with the strong form, under the rules of the regular weak forms of conjugation. ”

“ Accentuation, or stress, plays an important part in Dano-Norwegian, but is dependent on so many arbitrary rules that it requires a prolonged acquaintance with the tone in which the language is spoken by Danes and Norwegians to enable a stranger to acquire the various modifications of stress, characteristic of their mother-tongue. ”

“ The independent form of the definite article, known as the "Adjective Article" (Tillœgs Kendeord) , agrees in gender and number with the noun to which it refers, and always precedes the adjective qualifying the latter, never standing in direct proximity to the noun itself. ”

“ The present work, in conformity with the plan of the series of which it forms a part, addresses itself principally to those, whose grammatical knowledge of other tongues, whether dead or living, enables them readily to master a new language, provided only that its essential and specific characteristics are clearly presented to them. ”

“ Thus the authorized Dansk-Retskrivnings-Ordbog (Danish Spelling-Manual) of Svend Gruntvig, 1870, gave å for aa after the letter y , followed by æ, ö and ø. The Dansk Hand-Ordbog, which was issued by the same author in 1872, at the express orders of the Ministry for Education, which recommended its use to all colleges and schools in Denmark, differs however wholly from its predecessor, both as to the writing and place in the alphabet of this letter, for here aa is placed first among the letters, and is no longer represented by å. ”

“ The Danish prepositions usually govern the objective, but some, as fra, 'from;' i, 'in,' 'on;' til, 'to,' are associated with a genitive, in which we may trace a survival of the original inflexion of the Old Northern nouns. Thus, in the expressions of at gå fra Bords, 'to leave the table;' i Mandags, 'on (last) Monday;' at være til Års, 'to be up in years;' at gå til Sengs, 'to go to bed,' we have evidence of the early government of cases by prepositions. ”

“ At the present moment the old and the new systems are still running their parallel courses in Denmark and in Norway, for while scientific works almost without exception, and some of the best literary productions of either country, are printed and spelt in accordance with the new system, the popular daily press, and all public notices, and advertisements, generally adhere to the German characters, and to the old forms of spelling. ”

“ Der, 'there,' with the vowel short, is used in the sense of 'there are,' (il y a,) 'they,' 'one,' etc.; as, Der er mange Træer i Haven, 'There are many trees in the garden.' When der is used with a passive, or deponent verb, it acquires the special sense of 'people,' 'they,' and gives to the verb the force of a gerund ”

“ The s, which now forms the distinctive characteristic of the passive form in Dano-Norwegian verbs, is a survival of the Old Northern st, which represented the still older affix sk, contracted from sik, modern sig, which is the reflective pronoun 'self.'
Deponents, which are often defective, and must always be conjugated with at have, 'to have,' differ from passives, with which they otherwise agree, by requiring that the participle past shall end in ts ”

“ Certain adverbs, when required to be used in the superlative, may be expressed by a neuter adjective with a preposition; as, på det bedste, 'best;' på det aller venligste, 'most friendly' (in the most friendly way) .
Certain adverbs imply motion, or rest, by the absence or presence of a terminal e; as, Barnet går ikke ud, 'The child is not going out;' Barnet står allerede ude på Marken, 'The child is already standing out in the field;' At gå hjem, 'to go home;' at være hjemme, 'to be at home.' In these cases the final e may be regarded as a survival of an otherwise obsolete ablative form. ”

“ Adjectives, which must agree in gender and number with the noun which they qualify, generally form the neuter by adding t, and their plural by adding e to the abstract singular form; as, en god Mand, 'a good man;' et godt Barn, 'a good child;' gode Drenge, 'good boys.'
When the adjective is preceded by the independent demonstrative article, den, det, de, it generally takes an e, as den gode Mand, det gode Barn, de gode Drenge. ”

“ Else sometimes indicates a property, as Tykkelse, 'thickness;' but more frequently an action, as Anvendelse, 'application.' A similar idea is conveyed by the termination ning, as Skrivning, 'writing.' These two terminations serve to form nouns from the corresponding verbs, and thus constitute an important characteristic of Dano-Norwegian, distinguishing it from Swedish, in which the participles, and not the root of the verb, serve as the basis of words. The German mode of construction, which admits of using the infinitives of verbs as nouns, as das Schreiben, has found its way into Danish ”

“ Verbs having a reciprocative sense assume the passive form when used simply with the subject-noun, or pronoun; as, de ses, 'they see each other;' Hans og Jens slås, 'Hans (John) and Jens are fighting.' De slå hinanden, and de slås, convey different meanings; the former signifying 'they are beating each other,' while the latter implies the more forcible act of fighting. ”

“ The reflective pronoun sig, 'self,' is used in both genders for the third person singular.
In common parlance the third person plural de, written with a capital D, (De) , is employed in the sense of 'you,' when addressing another individual, excepting in cases of near relationship, or close intimacy, when Du, 'thou,' is used, as among Germans. ”

“ The indefinite article precedes the noun, or the adjective qualifying the latter, as en Mand, en god Mand, excepting in cases where it is used with the adjectives slig, sådan, mangen; or when the adjective to which it refers is preceded by så, hvor, altfor, for, and the sentence has an interjectional sense, under which conditions it stands between the adjective and noun; as, slig en Mand, 'such a man!' mangt et Barn! 'many a child;' så vranten en Pige! ”

“ Adjectives may be used as, and in the place of, nouns, the latter being understood; as, hun ælskede den Gode, 'she loved the good (man, person) ;' De Stolte, 'the proud! (people) .'
Some adjectives, expressive of worth, or obligation, follow the objective noun, instead of standing near the subject-noun; as, Præsten er den Ære værdig, 'the clergyman is worthy of the honour;' Soldaten er Generalen intet skyldig, 'the soldier owes the General nothing.'
Adjectives follow the noun when used as titular distinctions ”

“ Man, (one, they,) can only be used in the nominative, while En, (one,) can only be used in the objective; as, Man söger hvad behager En, 'One seeks for that which pleases one.'
The use of the possessive pronoun sin, sit, sine (his, her, its) , in contradistinction to hans, hendes, dets (his, her, its) , demands careful notice, but as a general rule it may be accepted that sin should refer to the nearest preceding subject-noun, and hans, hendes, to the objective personal noun ”

“ Deponent verbs have an active significance, while in most particulars they follow the mode of conjugation required for passive verbs; as,—
Many deponents can only be used as impersonals; as, det dages, 'the day is breaking,' (day is coming) ; det mörknes, 'it is growing dark.'
Passives and deponents may be used in an impersonal sense with der, 'there;' as, der slås, 'there is fighting going on;' der kappes om Prisen, 'the prize is being contended for.'
Some verbs must always be used in a reflective sense ”

“ The independent adjective-article may be used in the place of the noun-affixes when special emphasis, or a distinct meaning is to be given to the word; as, Aldrig lader den Mand sine Börn i Fred! "The man never leaves his children in peace!" ”

“ Among the various terminations of adjectives, the following may be noted as indicating some special degree or kind of resemblance, or some distinctive character:— (1) agtig, as in grönagtig, 'greenish,' conveys a sense of moderate greenness. (2) bar answers to the English 'ful' and 'able;' as, frugtbar, 'fruitful;' agtbar, 'respectable.' (3) en expresses a quality; as, doven, 'idle;' vranten 'cross.' (4) lig, which is often identical with English 'ly,' is frequently associated with words having a passive significance, while adjectives ending in som convey the idea of some mental condition ”

“ The first syllable very usually takes the accent in Northern words, unless they are compounded with the German prefixes, be, er, for (Ger. ver) , which are unaccentuated; as, bĕgrive, 'to comprehend;' ĕrindre, 'to remember;' fŏrrådne, 'to putrefy.' In words compounded of Northern particles, these take the accent; as, fōrekaste, 'to upbraid;' vēdblive, 'to continue.'
In compound words the stress is usually thrown on the syllable which marks the leading characteristic of the whole ”

“ This merging of the two numbers under the singular has been carried especially far by the grammarian Grundtvig, who writes vi kan, skal, vil etc., although the plural forms of these auxiliaries are still very generally used, as vi kunne, skulle, ville, etc.
Distinctions of persons which have been lost in modern Danish verbs are occasionally employed in poetry, as du vilt, which represents the Old Northern form of the second person singular. ”

“ The use of skal, 'shall,' vil, 'will,' is often the same as in English; but it may be still more exactly defined by saying that the former implies the will of the subject, and the latter the agency of some person, or thing, apart from the subject: as, Jeg skal nok komme hjem i Aften, 'I shall be sure to come home to-night;' and Min Mand vil næppe komme hjem i Aften, 'My husband will scarcely come. . . ”

“ The following examples will sufficiently indicate the variations of spelling and writing which prevail at the present moment:—
It may be observed that cumbrous as is the older system of doubling e, i and u, it helps to mark the long sound of the vowel, as Green (Grēn) , 'twig;' Sviin (Svīn) , 'swine;' Huus (Hūs) , 'house'. And this is specially important to foreigners, as these vowels, together with y, ö and ø, have two distinct sounds, one short and open; as, let, 'easy;' lidt, 'little,' godt, 'good;' Grund, 'foundation;' Tryk, 'pressure;' gör, 'does;'—and the other long and close ”

“ Nouns ending in s, ks (x) , and in vowels, excepting e, take es in the genitive; as, Hus, n., 'house,' gen. Huses; By, e. g., 'town,' gen. Byes; Bro, e. g., 'bridge,' gen. Broes.
Although the common gender includes generally all words designating living beings,—as en Person, 'a person;' en Sanger, 'a singer;' en Hest, 'a horse,'—certain words which indicate a special class of beings without reference to sex are exceptions to this rule ”

“ Some are formed by the addition to other adverbs, adjectives, or other parts of speech, of the affixes ledes and vis; as, ligeledes, 'likewise;' uheldigvis, 'unfortunately;' stykkevis, 'piece by piece.'
Adverbs form their degrees of comparison in the same manner as adjectives; as—
Some adverbs are irregular; as—
Some are defective; as—
The latter are used to express diminutive degrees of comparison both for adjectives and other adverbs; as—
The superlative of adjectives and adverbs acquires additional force when preceded by aller (all, most, very) ”

“ Dötre. Words of one or more unaccentuated syllables, ending in a consonant, double the latter in the plural; as, Bal, e. g., 'ball,' pl. Baller; Sön, e.g., 'son,' pl. Sönner; Rigdom, e.g., 'riches', pl. Rigdomme.
The genitive is the only case which is marked by any special termination, this being made, as in English, by the addition of, s without an apostrophe, or es.
Nouns ending in any consonant except s or ks (x) , and those ending in e, take s in the genitive; as Mand, e. g., 'man,' gen. Mands; Barn, n., 'child,' gen. Barns; Konerne, pl. 'the women,' gen. Konernes. ”