Copenhagen

Danish democracy in English

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This is an English translation of Dorte Lønsmann and Jacob Thøgersen’s article. Read the Danish article here.

During the recent election campaign for municipal and regional elections in Denmark, we encountered a new linguistic phenomenon: although the election campaign was conducted predominantly in Danish, the English language – and other languages – also played a significant role, at least in some places. This has led us to consider: what role does English actually play in the Danish democracy?

Unlike in parliamentary elections, foreign nationals residing in Denmark have the right to vote in local elections if they are EU citizens or if they have lived in Denmark for at least 4 years. Kommunernes Landsforening (Local Government Denmark) estimates that … ↪

Eli Fischer-Jørgensen (1911-2010)

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Lingoblog continues to provide you with suggestions for your summer readings on various linguistic topics. This week we have found a biography of language researcher Eli Fischer-Jørgensen (1911-2010).

In January 1999, a few years after I had moved to Denmark, I was astounded to come across an interview in the Danish weekly Weekendavisen with the renowned Danish phonetician Eli Fischer- Jørgensen (henceforth EFJ) and marveled: She is still alive! Having made her name in publications as early as the first half of the past century, in the interview EFJ still appeared intellectually unabated, and full of new writing plans yet. She even remarked that she hoped soon to finish a major work on a special liturgic form of Danish!

In … ↪