Dania transcription

Dania (Latin for Denmark) is the traditional linguistic transcription system used in Denmark to describe the Danish language. It was invented by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen and published in 1890 in the Dania, Tidsskrift for folkemål og folkeminder magazine from which the system was named.

Table of consonant and vowel signs used in Dania, published by Jespersen in 1890.

Jespersen's Dania system differs from the later IPA in particular concerning the Danish vowel letters. There is no official moderation of the standard, and specific phonetic symbols may therefore differ from author to author. Also there are no absolute phonetic references for the standard, and its usage is therefore discouraged by Danish phoneticians and phonologists.

Consonant chart

Dania consonants

	Bilabial			Labio- dental			Dental			Alveolar			Palatalized			Post-alveolar			Palatal			Velar			Uvular		Glottal
Nasal	m	hm	m			ʍ	n	hn	n			ṇ			ᶇ			ꬼ			ꬼ̣			ƞ
Stop	p	b	b				t	d	d	ṭ	ḍ		ƫ, τ	ᶁ		ȶ*	ȡ*		ᶄ*	ꬶ		k	g, gᷱ	g		(gᷱ)	ʼ
Fricative/ approximant	w	ƕ	w				s		z	ς		ζ	ᶊ			ʃ		ʓ
			ƀ	f	v	v	þ	ð	ð	˜ṛ 2		ṛ			δ	c	ꜧ	j	χ		ɣ	x	q	q 3	˜r 2	r	h
Lateral							l	hl	l, ł			ḷ			ᶅ			ȴ*						(ł)
Trill	pʳ						˜ʀ 2	ʀ																	ꭋ	ˏꭋ 2	ɹ˷ 2	ɹ

*These letter shapes are approximations. In Jespersen the loop goes the other way or (with ᶄ) crosses back over the leg of the letter.

 ² The swash joins to these letters as an arm to the left.

 ³ Or perhaps ɋ

For mixed voicing, one normally writes (e.g. for voiced m) mh for final voicelessness and hm for initial voicelessness, with roman-type m for fully voiceless [m̥]. But there are two ligatures: hw > ƕ and hj > ꜧ. Roman-type b, d etc. are fully voiced, sounds which occur in dialects such as Bornholmsk. Note that roman typeface indicates a voiceless sound with sonorants and fricatives/approximants, but a modally voiced sound with plosives.

Vowel chart

A slash separates 'thin/narrow' from 'wide' vowels. A mid dot may be added for length. The comma for sto/d combines with this to form the 'comma-punkt'.

Dania vowels

	Front		Central		Zurück
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Hoch	i	y	ı̣	ü, u̇		u
Near high	ꞁ̇	ɥ				ȣ
High-mid	ė, e	ø̇, ø	ə	ȯ		o, 0
Mid	ɛ	o̤				ꜵ
Low-mid	œ	ꝋ***	ɜ, ɑ̇	ɔ̇	ɑ	ɑ̊
Near-low	æ*	ö
Niedrig	ɑ̈	ɔ̈	ɒ̤	ɒ	a**	ɔ

*This is an italic ⟨æ⟩. It may look the same as italic ⟨œ⟩ in some fonts.
**This is an italic ⟨a⟩. It may look the same as italic ⟨ɑ⟩ in some fonts.
***Or approximately ⟨ᴓ⟩.

External links

• Otto Jespersen: Dansk lydskrift (from Dania, vol. 1 (1890-1892), pp. 33-79) (Danish)
• Marius Kristensen: Vejledning til brugen af Danias lydskrift, Copenhagen, 1924 (Danish)