Portal:Denmark

Welcome to the Denmark Portal! Velkommen til Danmarksportalen! Denmark is the smallest and southernmost of the Nordic countries. Unified in the mid 10th century, it is also the oldest. Located north of its only land neighbour, Germany, south-west of Sweden, and south of Norway, it is located in northern Europe. From a cultural point of view, Denmark belongs to the family of Scandinavian countries although it is not located on the Scandinavian Peninsula. The national capital is Copenhagen. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland, which borders Schleswig-Holstein; many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Vendsyssel-Thy, Lolland, and Bornholm; and hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago. Denmark has historically controlled the approach to the Baltic Sea, and those waters are also known as the Danish Straits. Denmark has been a constitutional monarchy since 1849 and is a parliamentary democracy. It became a member of the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1973. The Kingdom of Denmark also encompasses two off-shore territories, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, both of which enjoy wide-ranging home rule. The Danish monarchy is the oldest existing monarchy in Europe, and the national flag is the oldest state flag in continuous use. Selected biography Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe, born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601), was a Danish nobleman astronomer as well as an astrologer and alchemist. He was granted an estate on the island of Hven and the funding to build the Uraniborg, an early research institute, where he built large astronomical instruments and took many careful measurements. As an astronomer, Tycho worked to combine what he saw as the geometrical benefits of the Copernican system with the philosophical benefits of the Ptolemaic system into his own model of the universe, the Tychonic system. From 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler, who would later use Tycho's astronomical information to develop his own theories of astronomy. He is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and the data was used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion. No one before Tycho had attempted to make so many redundant observations, and the mathematical tools to take advantage of them had not yet been developed. He did what others before him were unable or unwilling to do — to catalogue the planets and stars with enough accuracy so as to determine whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system was more valid in describing the heavens. Recently selected: Ludvig Holberg - Karen Blixen - Bertel Thorvaldsen Archive – Read more... Selected picture Nytorv Square in Aalborg, Denmark Photo credit: Tomasz Sienicki Did you know ... that US general Tommy Franks reportedly did not have time to become an expert on the Danish Air Force? ... that the seaweed roofs of houses on the Danish island of Læsø were traditionally constructed by women? ... that the Danish geologist Tove Birkelund received a gold medal for her early work on fossils of Scaphites in Greenland? ... that fire baskets were once used to mark the main route through Danish waters from the North Sea to the Baltic? ... that Danish-born soprano Louise Janssen appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon as Eva in the French premiere of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg? ... that the School for American Crafts recruited faculty from Denmark to teach metalsmithing and woodworking? ... that, between the ages of six and ten, Dorthe Emilie Røssell helped smuggle weapons and propaganda for the Danish resistance movement in her doll's pram? ... that Annie Dove Denmark was offered residency on campus for the rest of her life after resigning as the president of Anderson College? Selected article Scanian (skånska or skånsk) is a closely related group of dialects which formed part of the old Scandinavian dialect continuum, spoken mainly in the province Scania in Southern Sweden. It is by most historical linguists considered to be an East-Danish dialect group, but due to the modern era influence from Standard Swedish in the region and due to the fact that traditional dialectology in the Scandinavian countries normally have not considered isoglosses that cut across state borders, the Scanian dialects have normally been treated as a South-Swedish dialect group in Swedish dialect research. However, many of the early Scandinavian linguists, including Adolf Noreen and G. Sjöstedt, classified it as "South-Scandinavian", and some linguists, such as Elias Wessén, also considered Old Scanian a separate language, classified apart from both Old Danish and Old Swedish. Scanian was previously classified as a regional language by SIL International, but before the latest update, the Swedish representative to ISO/TC-37, the technical committee overseeing ISO 639, required that Scanian be removed from the ISO/DIS 639-3, the draft just prior to the final draft FDIS, or a positive vote from Sweden would not be forthcoming. The prior identifier ISO 639-3:scy, as used in the Ethnologue 15th edition, is reserved for Scanian, and may become active again if a request is submitted to have it reinstated during the annual review process. Within the previous SIL International classification of Scanian were the dialects in the province of Scania, some of the southern dialects of Halland (halländska in Swedish), the dialects of Blekinge (blekingska in Swedish) and the dialects of the Danish island of Bornholm (bornholmsk in Danish). Selected place Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age. Roskilde train station is a major stop between Copenhagen and the regions of Denmark located to its west. With a population of 46,701 (1 January 2010), the city is an important economic center for the region. Roskilde has a pedestrian street running down the center of the city, with many shops, restaurants, and cafés. Several tourist attractions draw visitors from around Denmark and the world. The local university has an education program that invites international students to attend for a year. Categories Category puzzle Select [►] to view subcategories Denmark Denmark-related lists Culture of Denmark Economy of Denmark Education in Denmark Environment of Denmark Geography of Denmark Government of Denmark Health in Denmark History of Denmark Images of Denmark Organisations based in Denmark Danish people Politics of Denmark Society of Denmark Denmark stubs Denmark topics Things you can do TASKS Expand stubs: Geography stubs · People stubs · Denmark stubs in general Help us extend these stubs and make them real articles! Categorize: Help us categorize Denmark-related articles WikiProjects: Have a look at WikiProject Denmark, WikiProject Faroe Islands, WikiProject Greenland and WikiProject Norse history and culture Noticeboard: Have a look at the Danish Wikipedians' notice board Geotag: Find coordinates for these locations and tag them: articles missing geocoordinate data Related portals Northern Europe Other countries Associated WikiMedia The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject: Commons Free media repository Wikidata Free knowledge base Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikisource Free-content library Wikispecies Directory of species Wikiversity Free learning tools Wikivoyage Free travel guide Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus