Danish
Indo-European family · Germanic branch · Eurasia
Danish is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Weight-Sensitive Stress, WALS codes Danish as “Combined: Both Right-edge and unbounded”, a value held by 8 of the 500 languages coded, Alamblak and Iraqw among them.
On Polar Questions, WALS codes Danish as “Interrogative word order”, a value held by 13 of the 955 languages coded, English and Spanish among them.
Contrast Danish with Swedish or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Danish, rarest first.
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLong vowel + Coda: long vowels or closed syllables35 of 500
Inside the Indo-European family
Danish matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 30 of the 43 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (70%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 16th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Danish; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Finnish (Uralic), with 27 of 43 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Danish for 43 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 39 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Danish shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Definite Articles | Definite affix on noun | 92 of 620 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | 102 of 534 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | 210 of 500 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Obligatory pronouns in subject position | 82 of 711 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
Vocabulary 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Hybrid vigesimal-decimal | 22 of 196 |
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |