This Sound Only Exists In One Language

Danish phonology is not a joke. It’s a cry for help.

Someone should create a north germanic interlang that combines the Swedish sj-sound, Icelandic voiceless nasals, Norwegian dialectal differences, Danish vowels, stød and blodt d and Faroese skerping. Then no Scandinavian can insult each other because they all speak incomprehensibly.

My poor fiancé. I listened to this video through headphones. He was sitting alongside me with no headphones listening to me whispering weird sounds and wondering if I was having a fit.

As an Dane I have never thought of that sound to be hard to make, but apparently it is😅

The phase “rød grød med fløde” was used to out German spies during WWII bc there’s no way anyone not born and raised in Denmark can pronounce it.

I'm absolutely shocked no one has made the joke about how in order to speak Danish you have to move the soft D backwards in your mouth?

As a swede who has lived in Denmark for nearly 15 years, and is a fluent speaker, I can say that I still have problems with the difference between u and o, and a and æ, when spelling things out. It has definitely been a challenge to adapt my use of my muscles to speaking Danish. But I feel richer for it.

I'm sitting here, as a dane, impressed by the fact, that you took time and effort to explain the Danish language. Well done. Gold star for you! 🌟

As a native speaker of Limburgish, it was nice to see my language featured online, even if it was only for 5 seconds on a video about Danish. I take what I can get

I remember living in the US as the only danish exhange student, but there being an ocean of norwegians and a handfull of swedes. Norwegians from oslo had no issue understanding me and vice verca, but many other norwegians and most swedes struggled. One swedish kid from lund understood danish, but he is also much more exposed to danish then ur average Stockholmer or whatever. At one point i had the idea of straight up speaking danish without soft Ds and other soft continents, and in an instant i was understood. It was realy weird how, what was for me a tiny, stupid change, was practicaly a difrent language for my norwegian and swedish freinds. For a while i was a lil upset about having to do this, but I came to apreciate the fact that i could always understand them, but they could only understand me when I wanted them to.

Hi I'm Icelandic and living in Denmark. The symbol you showed for soft d, ð is an actual letter in our icelandic alphabet. I imagine that the reason this sound exists in danish is a remnant from old norse. The sound used in the, thor, thunder is also an actual letter in Icelandic þ. Those sounds are very similar but þ can never be in the end of a word and ð can never be in the start of a word. The word for "it" in icelandic is "það" using both of those letters :D but yeah the soft d in danish is less frictional as in icelandic we actually use the tip of our tongue and the upper teeth to make the sound but not in danish, but the danish language is generally less frictional :)

Hi, Dane here. 😊 I usually say to those (Swedes), that makes fun of our language, that if your only exposed to the dialect, they use in Copenhagen, I truly understand the thing about the potato and the throat. But the rest of the country speaks a very different Danish. It would be like saying that every Swede speaks like they do in Skåne, where they have a very distinct dialect too. 😂 Where I’m from (South Jutland) we tend to switch our soft d with a kind of i sound instead. Especially if we speak in our dialect, that is more or less a language in its own.

It’s so odd to hear something so natural to me explained in so much detail. I was shocked by the number 26. I keep forgetting that because a “simple” letter like A can be pronounced in many different ways you have to account for all/most variations.

i tried pronouncing it and it made my tongue twist in a way it does NOT like 😂 i did end up getting it close enough in the end but holy hell i have to elaborate so much movement to get there to the point i genuinely wonder how danish babies managed to replicate this sound... anyway, great video as always!! 💜

A fourth thing that is weird with Danish is the use of “r” after vowels and especially the many -ere endings, like “videre” People always mention “rødgrød med fløde” but for me a much more difficult one is saying “røgede ørreder” (smoked trouts).

This video is incredible helpful!!! Thank you so much !!! As a Spanish (Spain) person learning Danish 2 years now, is the first time that I can see why many things does not even make sense when you learn this language. They don’t really have “rules” for make the language and many things you need to learn with using them (like the “et” - “en” for the articles when you make a phrase…). This really helps me to understand more the language and how to pronounce correctly. Again: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 🙌🏻❤

I am a fan of Danish specifically because of blødt d. That consonant is so precious to me and I love it with every fiber of my being, so thank you for explaining it so everyone can bask in its majesty!

As a half dane I always knew that the soft d was weird, but I didn't know how complicated it was or that it was unique

As a foreigner living in Denmark and learning Danish I get around the soft D in spoken Danish by smuggling in a bit muffled L, and even though it is far from perfect it gets the meaning across.

What fun to randomly come across this video as a Dane :D I had no idea that my language was so effed up. Very interesting and thorough explanations, though. I really enjoyed that.