Editing Danish language (section)

=== Mutual intelligibility ===
Danish is largely [[mutually intelligible]] with [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]]. A proficient speaker of any of the three languages can often understand the others fairly well, though studies have shown that the mutual intelligibility is asymmetric: Norwegian speakers generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand each other. Concomitantly, Swedes and Danes understand Norwegian better than they understand each other's languages.{{sfn|Åkesson|2005}}

Norwegian occupies the middle position in terms of intelligibility because of its shared border with Sweden, resulting in a similarity in pronunciation, combined with the long tradition of having Danish as a written language, which has led to similarities in vocabulary.{{sfn|Torp|2006|pp=70–72}} Among younger Danes, Copenhageners are worse at understanding Swedish than Danes from the provinces. In general, younger Danes are not as good at understanding the neighboring languages as the young in Norway and Sweden.{{sfn|Åkesson|2005}}