Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/25

Rh {|
 * Köbmanden er i Kökkenet, Kjöbmanden er i Kjökkenet, Kjöbmanden er i Kjökkenet, ||   || The merchant is in the kitchen.
 * }
 * }

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