| Danish | |
|---|---|
| dansk | |
| Pronunciation | [d̥anˀsɡ̊] |
| Native to | Denmark, Greenland, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) |
| Native speakers | 5.6 million (2007) |
| Language family |
Indo-European
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |
Denmark Faroe Islands |
| Recognised minority language in |
Germany Greenland |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | da |
| ISO 639-2 | dan |
| ISO 639-3 | dan |
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark and in the region of Southern Schleswig in northern Germany, where it holds minority language status. There are also significant Danish-speaking communities in USA, Canada and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas around 15-20% of the population of Greenland speaks Danish as their home language.
Danish is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Swedish. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can understand the others, though studies have shown that speakers of Norwegian generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand each other. Both Swedes and Danes also understand Norwegian better than they understand each other's languages.