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Danish orthography
Danish orthography is the system and norms used for writing the Danish language, including spelling and punctuation.
Officially, the norms are set by the Danish language council through the publication of Retskrivningsordbogen.
Danish currently uses a 29-letter Latin-script alphabet with three additional letters: ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨å⟩. It is identical to the Norwegian alphabet.
The orthography is characterized by a low degree of correspondence between writing and pronunciation.
There were spelling reforms in 1872, 1889 (with some changes in 1892), and 1948. These spelling reforms were based in the decisions of the Nordic spelling conference of 1869, whose goal was to abolish spellings that are justified by neither phonetics nor etymology and to bring Danish and Swedish orthographies closer.
The reform of 1872 replaced the letter ⟨e⟩ by ⟨æ⟩ in some words (Eg> Æg, fegte> fægte, Hjelm> Hjælm; however, for words with ⟨je⟩ the change was reverted in 1889), abolished the distinction of the homophonous words Thing and Ting (however, the distinction between thi and ti was retained), replaced the letter ⟨q⟩ by ⟨k⟩ (Qvinde>Kvinde), deleted the silent ⟨e⟩ after vowels (faae>faa), abolished doubling of vowels to signify vowel length (Steen>Sten), replaced ⟨i⟩ by ⟨j⟩ after vowels (Vei>Vej), deleted the letter ⟨d⟩ in the combinations ⟨dsk⟩ and ⟨nds⟩ except in morpheme borders (Vædske>Væske, Prinds>Prins, but islandsk), and abolished doubling of consonants before other consonants (sikkre>sikre). In some cases, spelling of loanwords was simplified, but in general the question of spelling loanwords was largely left undecided.
In 1889, ⟨x⟩ was abolished from native words and most loanwords: Oxe>Okse, Exempel>Eksempel. The letter ⟨j⟩ was deleted from the combinations gje, gjæ, gjø, kje, kjæ, kjø: Kjøkken>Køkken. This change reflected a phonological shift in the spoken language towards dropping the j in these consonant clusters, e.g. Kjøbenhavn>København (Copenhagen). Additionally, spelling of loanwords was standardized. In some cases, simplified spellings were adopted (⟨c⟩ sounded ⟨k⟩ mostly becomes ⟨k⟩; ⟨ch, ph, rh, th⟩ in words of Greek origin are replaced by ⟨k, f, r, t⟩), but in many cases original spellings were retained.
Danish formerly used both ⟨ø⟩ (in Fraktur) and ⟨ö⟩ (in Antiqua), though it was suggested to use ⟨ø⟩ for /ø/ and ⟨ö⟩ for /œ/, which was also sometimes employed. The distinction between ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ was optionally allowed in 1872, recommended in 1889, but rejected in 1892, although the orthographic dictionaries continued to use ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ (collated as if they were the same letter) until 1918 and the book Folkehöjskolens Sangbog continued to use ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ in its editions as late as 1962.
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Danish orthography
Danish orthography is the system and norms used for writing the Danish language, including spelling and punctuation.
Officially, the norms are set by the Danish language council through the publication of Retskrivningsordbogen.
Danish currently uses a 29-letter Latin-script alphabet with three additional letters: ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨å⟩. It is identical to the Norwegian alphabet.
The orthography is characterized by a low degree of correspondence between writing and pronunciation.
There were spelling reforms in 1872, 1889 (with some changes in 1892), and 1948. These spelling reforms were based in the decisions of the Nordic spelling conference of 1869, whose goal was to abolish spellings that are justified by neither phonetics nor etymology and to bring Danish and Swedish orthographies closer.
The reform of 1872 replaced the letter ⟨e⟩ by ⟨æ⟩ in some words (Eg> Æg, fegte> fægte, Hjelm> Hjælm; however, for words with ⟨je⟩ the change was reverted in 1889), abolished the distinction of the homophonous words Thing and Ting (however, the distinction between thi and ti was retained), replaced the letter ⟨q⟩ by ⟨k⟩ (Qvinde>Kvinde), deleted the silent ⟨e⟩ after vowels (faae>faa), abolished doubling of vowels to signify vowel length (Steen>Sten), replaced ⟨i⟩ by ⟨j⟩ after vowels (Vei>Vej), deleted the letter ⟨d⟩ in the combinations ⟨dsk⟩ and ⟨nds⟩ except in morpheme borders (Vædske>Væske, Prinds>Prins, but islandsk), and abolished doubling of consonants before other consonants (sikkre>sikre). In some cases, spelling of loanwords was simplified, but in general the question of spelling loanwords was largely left undecided.
In 1889, ⟨x⟩ was abolished from native words and most loanwords: Oxe>Okse, Exempel>Eksempel. The letter ⟨j⟩ was deleted from the combinations gje, gjæ, gjø, kje, kjæ, kjø: Kjøkken>Køkken. This change reflected a phonological shift in the spoken language towards dropping the j in these consonant clusters, e.g. Kjøbenhavn>København (Copenhagen). Additionally, spelling of loanwords was standardized. In some cases, simplified spellings were adopted (⟨c⟩ sounded ⟨k⟩ mostly becomes ⟨k⟩; ⟨ch, ph, rh, th⟩ in words of Greek origin are replaced by ⟨k, f, r, t⟩), but in many cases original spellings were retained.
Danish formerly used both ⟨ø⟩ (in Fraktur) and ⟨ö⟩ (in Antiqua), though it was suggested to use ⟨ø⟩ for /ø/ and ⟨ö⟩ for /œ/, which was also sometimes employed. The distinction between ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ was optionally allowed in 1872, recommended in 1889, but rejected in 1892, although the orthographic dictionaries continued to use ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ (collated as if they were the same letter) until 1918 and the book Folkehöjskolens Sangbog continued to use ⟨ø⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ in its editions as late as 1962.