Denmark and Danes
Denmark
Denmark (i/ˈdɛnmɑrk/; Danish: Danmark, pronounced [ˈd̥ɛnmɑɡ̊]), officially the Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈd̥ɛnmɑɡ̊]), is a state in the Scandinavian region of Northern Europe with the two autonomous constituent countries in the north Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden, south of Norway and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and the Danish archipelago of 407 islands, which includes Zealand, Vendsyssel-Thy, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm.[9] The national language, Danish, is closely related to Swedish and Norwegian.
The Kingdom of Denmark is a unitary constitutional monarchy, organised in a parliamentary democracy. Ending absolute monarchy introduced in 1660, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, only to be rewritten four times; the latest revision in 1953. Women's right to vote was granted in 1915. The unicameral parliament, the Folketing, resides in Copenhagen, together with the judicial, executive, and legislative powers. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving political powers to handle internal affairs to the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark became a member of the European Union in 1973, maintaining four opt-outs from European Union policies, as outlined in the 1992 Edinburgh Agreement. Both the Faroe Islands and Greenland remain outside the Union.
Home of the Vikings, Denmark emerged as a unified kingdom in the 8th century as a proficient seafaring nation to be the centre of the mutual struggle for the control of the Baltic Sea. Establishing the personal Kalmar Union in 1397, it ended with Swedish secession in 1523; one year later, Denmark entered union with Norway until its dissolution in 1814. Several cessions of Danish territory had begun in the 17th century caused a surge of nationalist movements that gained momentum in the 1830s, concluded with a defeat in the 1864 Second Schleswig War. Hereafter, a new European outlook was sought, resulting in adjustment and cooperation. Denmark remained neutral during World War I and the German invasion in April 1940 saw brief, military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement remained active until the German surrender in May 1945.
An industrialized exporter of agricultural produce in the second half of the 19th century, Denmark introduced social and labour-market reforms in the early decades of the 20th century, making the basis for the present welfare state with a highly developed mixed market economy. The Danish krone has been pegged to the euro since since 1 January 1999. Denmark ranks as having the world's highest level of income equality,[10] and has one of the world's highest per capita income. For 2013, Denmark is listed 15th on the Human Development Index[11] and 9th on the inequality-adjusted HDI. Denmark ranks highly positive on the Corruption Perceptions Index and the Legatum Prosperity Index, and as a full democracy on the Democracy Index.[12][13][14] It is frequently ranked as the happiest country in the world.[15][16][17][18]
Denmark is among the founding members of the NATO, Nordic Council, OECD, OSCE and the United Nations. There are three Danish heritage sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in Northern Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark
Danes
The terms Danes (Danish: danskere) and Danish people refer to the nation and ethnic group that is native to Denmark, and who speak Danish.
The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century.[21] Denmark has been continuously inhabited since this period and although much cultural and ethnic influence and immigration from all over the world has entered Denmark since then, Danes tend to see themselves as ethnic descendents of the early Danes mentioned in the sources.
Since the formulation of a Danish national identity in the 19th century the defining criteria for being Danish has been speaking the Danish language and identifying with Denmark as a homeland. Danish national identity was built on a basis of peasant culture and Lutheran theology, theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig and his popular movement played a prominent part in the process.[22]
Today the main criterion for being considered a Dane is having Danish citizenship, although also people with a Danish ancestral or ethnic identity, living outside of Denmark such as emigrants, descendants of emigrants or members of the Danish ethnic minority in Southern Schleswig, can be considered Danes under a wider definition taking into consideration cultural self-identification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_people
Danish language
Danish (dansk, pronounced [d̥anˀsɡ̊]; dansk sprog, [ˈd̥anˀsɡ̊ ˈsb̥ʁɔʊ̯ˀ]) 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.[2] 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.[3]
Along with the other North Germanic languages, Danish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. Danish, together with Swedish, derives from the East Norse dialect group, while the Old Norwegian dialects before the influence of Danish and Norwegian Bokmål is classified as a West Norse language together with Faroese and Icelandic. A more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility separates modern spoken Danish, Norwegian and Swedish into a Mainland Scandinavian group while Icelandic and Faroese are placed in a separate category labelled Insular Scandinavian.
Danish has a relatively large vowel inventory consisting of 16 phonemes and is distinguished by the many pharyngealized sounds, including both vowels and consonants. Written Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are particularly close, though the phonology (that is, the system of relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of the language) and the prosody (the patterns of stress and intonation) differ somewhat.
Danish is a mandatory subject in school in the Danish dependencies of the Faroe Islands (where it is also an official language after Faroese) and Greenland (where, however, the only official language since 2009 is Kalaallisut and the language[clarification needed] is now spoken as lingua franca), as well as the former crown holding of Iceland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_language
Danish proverbs
Beginning
¶ Af god begyndelse haabes god endelse.
Idiomatic translation: A good beginning makes a good ending.
References
Denmark
[10]^ "1997–2001". GINI index. The World Bank. 1997. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
[11]^ "Denmark Country Profile: Human Development Indicators". United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
[12]^ Burnett, Stephy. "Denmark". Transparency International. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
[13]^ Scandinavian countries top the list of world's most prosperous nations... but U.S. drops out of top ten for the first time. Daily Mail. 3 November 2012
[14]^ Kavitha A. Davidson. Democracy Index 2013: Global Democracy At A Standstill, The Economist Intelligence Unit's Annual Report Shows. The Huffington Post. March 21, 2013.
[15]^ Francesca Levy, "The World's Happiest Countries", Forbes 14 July 2010
[16]^ Francesca Levy, "Table: The World's Happiest Countries", Forbes 14 July 2010
[17]^ Michael B. Sauter The Happiest Countries in the World. Yahoo! Finance. May 22, 2012.
[18]^ Happiest place on earth. 20/20, ABC. 16 September 2008 (on YouTube).
Danes
[21]^ a b http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Danmarks_geografi_og_historie/Danmarks_historie/Danmark_f%C3%B8r_Reformationen/daner?highlight=Daner
[22]^ Ostergard, Uffe , Peasants and Danes: The Danish National Identity and Political Culture. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 3-27
Danish language
[2]^ The Federal Ministry of the Interior of Germany and Minorities in Germany
[3]^ "> Nordmenn forstår nabospråkene best". forskning.no. Retrieved 2010-10-02.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_language
