Köbmanden er i Kökkenet, Kjöbmanden er i Kjökkenet, Kjöbmanden er i Kjökkenet, |
The merchant is in the kitchen. |
Kapteinen, Kaptejnen, or Captejnen, Kaptejnen, or Captejnen, |
The captain. |
Vinen er ikke Sùr, Viinen er ikke suur, or sur, Viinen er ikke ſuur, |
The wine is not sour. |
It may be observed that cumbrous as is the older system of doubling e, i and u, it helps to mark the long sound of the vowel, as Green (Grēn), 'twig;' Sviin (Svīn), 'swine;' Huus (Hūs), 'house'. And this is specially important to foreigners, as these vowels, together with y, ö and ø, have two distinct sounds, one short and open; as, let, 'easy;' lidt, 'little,' godt, 'good;' Grund, 'foundation;' Tryk, 'pressure;' gör, 'does;'—and the other long and close; as, led, 'tiresome;' lide, 'to suffer;' god, 'good;' Gud, 'God;' tyk, 'thick;' gøer, 'barks.'
Accentuation, or stress, plays an important part in Dano-Norwegian, but is dependent on so many arbitrary rules that it requires a prolonged acquaintance with the tone in which the language is spoken by Danes and Norwegians to enable a stranger to acquire the various modifications of stress, characteristic of their mother-tongue.
As a general rule, it may be stated that where the word is of genuine Northern origin, the stress rests on the radical syllable, as, rēnlig (ren, 'clean'); urēnlig, ' 'uncleanly.' In