I've already commented on how the Danish language is a massacre of letters. An exercise in the one Danish class I attended was to go through with a pen and slash out the useless letters -brutally taking out about one-third of the characters. What's the point of having them there in the first place?
Well my favorite German, Sybille, and I had a brief discussion about this, and I wanted to jot it down before it's forgotten.
The language seems odd, yet oddly appropriate for a society of people who, stereotypically (yes, there are always exceptions -I'm friends with at least a few) don't just say it all, but perhaps withhold, and similarly stifle and massacre about half of the things they otherwise would say, you wish they would say, would open up about. She had a particularly personal experience with this that I will not divulge, but can safely say that she is a scholar on the matter.
The language as substituted metaphorically for the people. Describes, gives greater insight into the people. To be a Dane, choke half of your words.
Perhaps they're onto something.
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