Intolerant uniformation threatens Danish

[Francis Hult]

The Copenhagen Post

 

Intolerant uniformation threatens Danish

 

Danish is one of the world's strongest languages. By most accounts of the number of people speaking the world's thousand of languages, Danish ranks in the top 100. Danish is also one of the world's most described languages in grammar books, dictionaries and the like. What's more, Danish (for now) is certified by treaty as an official EU language and thus has international status.

 

Danish, then, is far from being in danger. Far more languages will disappear before Danish disappears. Nevertheless, the state of the 'poor little' Danish language is a perennial topic of political discussion. English is typically named as the biggest threat. Sometimes young people's language use is the target of criticism.

 

Kristeligt Dagblad recently published a series of articles focusing on language in Denmark, and identifying problem areas. We have read that Danish is on its way out of the Nordic linguistic community. We have also read that even the European Commission is critical of the Danish government's language education policy for primary, secondary, and tertiary education.

 

Full story:

http://www.cphpost.dk/news/commentary/142-commentary/45012-intolerant-uniformation-threatens-danish.html

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