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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, I’m Becky, and welcome back DanishClass101.com. This is Lesson 4 - Basic Danish Pronunciation. In this lesson, we'll show you how easy it is to start speaking Danish! |
| Anna: That's because we will be focusing on pronunciation. Hi everyone, I’m Anna! |
| Becky: Danish may seem quite similar to English, but to perfect your pronunciation, you should learn a little more about the distinct Danish phonology. Now, before we have a closer look, let’s review the Danish alphabet. How many letters are there in the alphabet again, Anna? |
| Anna: There are 29 letters in total, including 26 letters that are also used in English, and 3 additional vowel letters. |
Lesson focus |
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| Becky: Right! And one more thing, out of 29 letters, there are 20 consonants and 9 vowels. |
| Anna: Exactly. |
| Becky: For more on how these sounds are pronounced, please be sure to check out the Pronunciation series. In this lesson, we’ll be focusing on the phonology found in Danish, since it’s a very important part of pronunciation. |
| Anna: Yes. Most Danish consonants are pronounced the same as in English, but there are a few exceptions. D, for example, is pronounced like the “d” in “door” or the “th” in “the.” G is pronounced like the “g” in “go” or the “sh” in “shy” when used in loan words. J is pronounced like the “y” in “you” or the “j” in “job” when used in loan words. |
| Becky: The most distinct pronunciation is of the letter r. It is pronounced as a uvular trill or uvular approximant. |
| Anna: But in general, the pronunciation of the Danish “r” is like the “r” in the German word “reisen” meaning “to travel.” The best way for beginners to practice these pronunciations is to listen to a native speaker. |
| Becky: The pronunciation of some Danish vowels also differs from English. |
| Anna: For example, i is pronounced like the “e” in “e-mail.” but it’s the letter “i” like at the start of “igloo”. O is pronounced like the “o” in the word “over”. U is pronounced like the “oo” in “hooligan.” And y is pronounced like the “u” … |
| Becky: ...ah! like in the French word “duchesse” meaning “duchess.” Most important are the pronunciations of the additional 3 vowel letters. |
| Anna: Æ is pronounced like the first “e” in “energy.” Ø is pronounced like the “eu” in the French word “deux” meaning “two.” And å is pronounced like the “o” in “oh no.” |
| Becky: Of course, there are many more consonant and vowel phonemes as well as allophones, but they will be covered later in another lesson. |
| Anna: We would like to teach you about two other key parts to speaking Danish: the stress on words and the stød. |
| Becky: Yes, the stress helps distinguish between words that would sound the same if it wasn’t for the emphasis of certain syllables in a word. |
| Anna: Exactly, and the stød is a suprasegmental feature also used to keep words apart like the stress, making it phonemic. Whether or not there is a stød is unpredictable, so it’s one of those things that just has to be learned. |
| Becky: Okay, everyone, how did you do? We’ll leave it there for this lesson. I hope you all found it fun learning about Danish pronunciation! |
| Anna: Keep in mind that listening and repeating is the real key to improving your pronunciation. |
| Becky: Listen to and copy native speakers as much as you can. |
| Anna: Please join us next time when we take a closer look at some must-know Danish phrases. |
Outro |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Anna: Hej hej! |
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