Editing Danish language (section)

=== Vocabulary ===
[[File:VW Passat of the Danish military police.jpg|thumb|Danish label reading {{lang|da|militærpoliti,}} "military police", on a police vehicle]]
Approximately 2,000 uncompounded Danish words are derived from [[Old Norse language|Old Norse]] and ultimately from [[Proto Indo-European]]. Of these 2,000, 1,200 are nouns, 500 are verbs and 180 are adjectives.{{sfn|Haberland|1994|pp=346–347}} Danish has also absorbed many [[loanwords]], most of which were borrowed from [[Low German]] of the [[Late Middle Ages]]. Out of the 500 most frequently used Danish words, 100 are loans from Middle Low German; this is because Low German was the second official language of Denmark–Norway.<ref name=Sproget>{{cite web|url=http://sproget.dk/raad-og-regler/artikler-mv/svarbase/SV00001479|title=Antal arveord og låneord|first=Anita Ågerup|last=Jervelund|publisher=Dansk Sprognævns svarbase|year=2008|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-date=4 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404215753/http://sproget.dk/raad-og-regler/artikler-mv/svarbase/SV00001479|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 17th and 18th centuries, [[German language|standard German]] and [[French language|French]] superseded Low German influence, and in the 20th century, English became the main supplier of loanwords, especially after [[World War II]]. Although many old Nordic words remain, some were replaced with borrowed synonyms, for example {{lang|da|æde}} (to eat) was mostly supplanted by the Low German {{lang|da|spise}}. As well as loanwords, new words can be freely formed by compounding existing words. In standard texts of contemporary Danish, Middle Low German loans account for about 16–17% of the vocabulary, Graeco-Latin loans 4–8%, French 2–4% and English about 1%.<ref name=Sproget/>

Danish and English are both Germanic languages. Danish is a North Germanic language descended from Old Norse, and English is a West Germanic language descended from Old English. Old Norse exerted a strong influence on Old English in the early medieval period.

The shared Germanic heritage of Danish and English is demonstrated with many common words that are very similar in the two languages. For example, when written, commonly used Danish verbs, nouns, and prepositions such as {{lang|da|have}}, {{lang|da|over}}, {{lang|da|under}}, {{lang|da|for}}, {{lang|da|give}}, {{lang|da|flag}}, {{lang|da|salt}}, and {{lang|da|arm}} are easily recognizable to English speakers.{{sfn|Bredsdorff|1958|pp=6–10}} Similarly, some other words are almost identical to their [[Scots language|Scots]] equivalents, e.g. {{lang|da|kirke}} (Scots {{lang|sco|kirk}}, i.e., 'church') or {{lang|da|barn}} (Scots and northern English ''bairn'', i.e. 'child'). In addition, the word {{lang|da|by}}, meaning ‘village’ or ‘town’, occurs in many English place-names, such as ''Whitby'' and ''Selby'', as remnants of the [[Danelaw|Viking occupation]]. During that period English adopted ‘are’, the third person plural form of the verb ‘to be’, as well as the personal pronouns ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’ from contemporary Old Norse.