Most Danish words are derived
from the Old Norse language, with new words formed by compounding. A large
percentage of Danish words, however, hails from Middle Low German (for
example, betale = to pay, måske = maybe). Later on, standard German and
French and now English have superseded Low German influence. Because English
and Danish are related languages, many common words are very similar in
the two languages. For example, the following Danish words are easily
recognizable in their written form to English speakers:
have,
over,
under, for,
kat. When pronounced, these
words sound quite different from their English equivalents, however. In
addition, the suffix by, meaning "town", occurs in several English
placenames, such as
Whitby and
Selby, as remnants of
the Viking occupation.
