Latest update: 16th of September 2023
Every language has its internal battles and Danish is no exception. But especially one has caused a lot of debate and conflict in Denmark: the so-called comma war (known in Danish as kommakrigen). The first of these discussions lasted almost a decade from 1996 to 2004 after Dansk Sprognævn (the Danish Language Council) first introduced the new comma. Here we take a look into the principles of Danish commas, the differences between the traditional and new commas, and what the current status is.
The Basics of Danish Commas
In Danish – just as in many other languages – commas are an essential punctuation marker that helps clarify sentence structure and convey the correct meaning. However, the Danish language is known for its meticulous use of commas and they're often used in places that are not common practice in other languages. The new comma ("nyt komma") was supposed to imitate comma usage in French, English, and Norwegian – and this, as you might have guessed by now – became the start of the comma wars. Here I'll mention just a few of the basic comma rules in Danish that are relevant to the debate.
The Listing Comma (opremsningskomma)
I want to start out by mentioning that most commas in Danish resemble those you might already be familiar with in English and other Indo-European languages. One such comma is the listing comma, or "opremsningskomma," which can be found under § 46 and is a widely accepted type of comma in Danish. It is used to separate items in a list or enumeration. But notice that there is never a comma in front of "and".
Examples:
🇩🇰 Jeg elsker æbler, bananer og jordbær.
🇺🇸 I bought apples, bananas, and strawberries.
🇩🇰 Byen er flot, spændende og ren.
🇺🇸 The city is beautiful, interesting, and clean.
Between two main clauses (helstæninger)
So now let's move on to some of the commas that might cause a bit more friction. In order to do that, we start out with helsætninger. If you have sentences with two main clauses they need to be separated by a comma. This will look as follows:
Examples:
🇩🇰 Hun er glad, og de er sure.
🇺🇸 She is happy and they're angry.
🇩🇰 Jeg gik forbi parken, og jeg tænkte på dig.
🇺🇸 I walked past the park and I thought of you.
🇩🇰 Han havde glemt sin telefon, så han kunne ikke ringe.
🇺🇸 He had forgotten his phone so he couldn't call.
The Parenthetical Comma and Subordinate Clauses (ledsætninger)
When we talk about parenthetical commas and subordinate clauses, Danish employs the terms "startkomma" (beginning comma) and "slutkomma" (ending comma). This type of comma is used to separate a subordinate clause or a parenthetical sentence from the main clause in a sentence. This comma is crucial for indicating the relationship between different parts of a sentence and ensuring correct comprehension. It appears as follows:
Examples:
🇩🇰 Min søster, der er læge, arbejder altid sent.
🇺🇸 My sister who is a doctor always works late.
🇩🇰 Kaffen, som jeg altid køber fra caféen på hjørnet, er den bedste.
🇺🇸 The coffee I always buy from the café on the corner is the best.
🇩🇰 Når det regner, vil vi gerne være indenfor.
🇺🇸 When it rains, we'd like to stay indoor.
So what's the fuzz about?
With the new comma introduced, it was challenging the already established traditional comma – also known as the grammatical comma or grammatisk komma – that led to the unification of a more streamlined comma agreement in 2004. However, one major comma would still remain up for debate and essentially became optional: the startkomma, which could also be described as how to use the relative clause comma.
Some argue that this comma should be omitted in modern Danish to simplify punctuation rules, while others insist on its importance for clarity.
Those in favor of startkomma insist that it helps avoid ambiguity and misinterpretation. More complex sentences can easily get confusing, and it can be difficult to tell the main clause and subordinate clauses apart. Those who'd like to see the startkomma go say, on the other hand, that it would help streamline the language, so it's easier for both native speakers and Danish learners. They argue that the grammatical structure of modern Danish no longer requires this comma.
With startkomma - grammatical comma | Without startkomma - new comma | Translation in English |
Den kvinde, jeg mødte på banegården, var min lærer. | Den kvinde jeg mødte på banegården, var min lærer. | The woman I met at the train station was my teacher. |
Jeg ved, at hun er intelligent. | Jeg ved at hun er intelligent. | I know (that) she's smart. |
Det team, jeg arbejder med, starter i morgen. | Det team jeg arbejder med, starter i morgen. | The team I work with starts tomorrow. |
How is it used in real life?
It may seem like a little thing, but the debate has going on for decades, and while the Danish Language Council has continued to recommend not using startkomma, it seems like nobody has been listening (or writing it, that is). Media, newspapers, and others continued to prefer the more traditional grammatical comma. At the beginning of June 2023, the Danish Language Council said that they would officially remove the recommendation of the new comma as of November 2024 as the new version of Retskrivningsorden (the orthographic dictionary) goes into print.
The director of the Danish Language Council, Thomas Hestbæk Andersen, said to the Danish newspaper Politiken:
"...Dansk Sprognævn has listened to language users and has noted that the new comma has not caught on widely. We have taken the consequences of that."
It's important to remember that the Danish Language Council has a slightly different function than other official language institutions. Whereas e.g. Académie Française acts as an official authority on the French language, the Danish Language Council is tasked with following the development and then updating the official Danish dictionary. Thus, they don't dictate "correct" language or spelling but instead observe the language as-is – as in the example above.
Conclusion
While the comma war is not entirely over yet, we can say with more certainty that the grammatical comma has far wider acceptance and use in the Danish language, and after decades of debate, even the Danish Language Council had to admit it. However, with two types of commas still allowed in the future, this might not be the last we've heard of it.
This "comma war" is a reminder that language is a living, dynamic entity that is continuously shaped by the culture and preferences of its speakers. Regardless of the outcome, I see this as a testimony to the passion and love that the Danes still have for their language. You agree, right?
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