# Danish: dialects



## Namakemono

I've been told that people from Copenhagen has problems understanding, for example, south Jutland accent. Are the accents _that_ different? In classes we're taught Copenhagen accent, which is, as I've heard, "softer" than the others. Can anyone explain some of the phonetic differences?


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## Vejrudsigt

Det kan jeg desværre ikke, men kontroller dine hemmelige meddelelser.


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## 1234plet

Yes, some of the very south Jutland accents (Sønderjylland) are very hard to understand - not just for people in Copenhagen, but as well for people in other places in Denmark. 
Everywhere else, except Sønderjylland (south Jutland), the accents aren't really that different. You will have no problem understanding them.


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## Namakemono

I just listened to a recording of southern Jutland dialect and it does sound very different. Still, I think I would understand that accent better than that of Copenhagen if I were to study there.


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## duckie

The strong dialects of south as well as north-west Jutland are very difficult to understand for outsiders. The same goes for the dialect from the island Bornholm. Few people really speak dialect to the degree they used to, and as such they tend to mix them with mainstream Danish. Most parts of Denmark actually have fairly distinct dialects, but the three mentioned tend to deviate the most from the mainstream.

I'm not sure how to describe them phonetically, although it's fair to say that the dialects from Jutland are typical rural dialects, slower, with a softer tone and more weight to the vowels.. Bornholmsk is and odd mix of Danish and Swedish and almost a language of its own both in terms of grammar and vocabulary as well as pronounciation.


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## 1234plet

I think Duckie is right about this.


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## AtropoZ

Agree...

my inlaws use dialect. We live in the middle of jutland, and some words I just can't understand.. even though I've grown up 15 km from them. !?!  
It's typically older people who cling to the real "hardcore" dialect here in Jutland, but in some places it's just neveryone who talks "funny", not just the old folkes. like for an example Sønder Jylland, Thy or Bornholm like mentioned earlier.


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## duckie

I actually cannot understand my own cousin who's from Bornholm - even when he tries to speak mainstream. It's such a peculiar language of its own.. probably akin to how Sicilian is to Italian..


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## Lingvisten

I like to some up, some of the phonetic differences in danish dialects. there are three main cathergories: "jydsk", "ømål" and "østdansk/bornholmsk". some dialects have glottal stop and som don't. dialects south of "stødgrænsen" hasn't got it. Then there is three types of gender systems in danish dialects: "three genders" (on all the islands, northern jutland and djursland) two genders, as in standard danish (eastern/southern jutland and copenhagen) and then the west jutlandic gender system, where everything countable is common gender, and everything uncountable is neutrum. another difference is that in western jutland definitness is described with a word places in front of the noun, in all other dialects it is expressed through an ending: standard: "huset" west jutl.: æ hus (as in english).
the western jutlandic, although generaly seen as rural, is the most modern of all the dialects. the most conservative i bornholmsk, wich once was a part of the larger east danish dialect, including "Skåne", "Halland" and "Blekinge". there are lots of differences inside the island and jutlandic dialects, that will take to much space to describe. i can't post URLs yet, but if you read danish go to the website: dialekt.dk or dr.dk/udmedsproget (they made some programs on dialects wich can be found in their archives.


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## Sepia

Namakemono said:


> I've been told that people from Copenhagen has problems understanding, for example, south Jutland accent. Are the accents _that_ different? In classes we're taught Copenhagen accent, which is, as I've heard, "softer" than the others. Can anyone explain some of the phonetic differences?




Moin!

Ingen forstaar os. Det gaelder for Danske dialekter paa begge sider af graensen. Det umuligt at give en kort forklaring paa det, du vil vide. Men hvis du taler med en dansktalende fra Nord- eller Sydslesvig, han har en sjov accent, men du forstaar ham, saa er det fordi han IKKE taler dialekt !  
Sammenlignet andre Jyder tenderer man til at tale hurtigere.

Mange sammensatte verber deler man - 

"Har du overfoert pengene til hans bank"

"Ha do vist ae peng over o hans bank" 

(Jeg er ikke enig i at udtalen er uden stoed, men det stemmer at stoedet er svagere end laengere oppe i Jylland)

Overfoere penge (standarddansk) = overvise penge (soenderjysk), verbet "overvise" deles. Det er ikke kun ude paa landet. Det hoerer du ogsaa i banken.


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## Lingvisten

stødgrænsen har jeg fået fra dialekt.dk, en hjemmeside lavet af to dialekt forskere. ud fra deres kort ses det også, at det kun er det østlige sønderjylland + als, der ikke har stød. Da jeg ikke er kyndig i sønderjydsk, skal jeg ikke gøre mig yderligere klog på dette emne  
et, i mine øjne, interesant emne er også hvordan "d" udtales i forskellige dialekter (et emne jeg udfra nogle threads her kan se giver udlændinge problemer). i nordsjællandsk udtales "d" oftere blødt end i rigsdansk (som for eksempel i kreds), københavnsk har, i mine øre, en tendens til at blive udtalt som "j" 
"Bredgade" -> "Brejgaje"
nogle steder, vist nok østfyn, udelades det bløde "d" helt.
jeg ved ikke om det bløde "d", som i gade, i nogle dialekter bliver udtalt hårdt.
en enkel tilføjelse til københavnsk. "t" kan ofte udtales som "ts" Tivoli -> Tsivoli. man hører dog mere jydsk (accent) end københavnsk i København


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## Sepia

Denne udtale tror jeg ikke man finder saa ofte mere - "Brejgaje" - men det er vist rigtigt at den existerede paa Noerrebro og Vesterbro. Egentlig en mellemting mellem "j" og overhovedet ingen konsonant. 

Jeg tror ikke, at nogen dialekt har det bloede "d" som haardt "d". Med mindre ein slags tyrkisk-dansk har manifesteret sig som en selvstaendig dialekt, ligesom vi har vores "Türk-Deutsch" syd for graensen.


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## MarX

Namakemono said:


> I've been told that people from Copenhagen has problems understanding, for example, south Jutland accent. Are the accents _that_ different? In classes we're taught Copenhagen accent, which is, as I've heard, "softer" than the others. Can anyone explain some of the phonetic differences?


AFAIK, the Danish dialects are dying out quickly.
What's going to be left is probably just Standard Danish with regional accents (just as your question), but no dialects.

I notice that your post is one year old. Have you gone to Denmark in the meantime? If yes, what are your impressions (of the accents)? Are they hard to understand?


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