English in Danish and the Danes English

Abstract

This article is based primarily on a large-scale investigation into the socio-psychological mechanisms behind the influence of English on Danish. After refuting the commonly held set of beliefs holding that the influence of English can be controlled by the Danish educational institutions (English from above), the article first gives a brief presentation of Danish social domains on which English is having a particularly strong impact, and an overview of the linguistic manifestations of this influence on the Danish language. It then describes the sociolinguistic forces at work in the way English is introduced from below, through the Anglo-American youth subcultures in Denmark. Codeswitching to English in these subcultures is seen to be a value symbol on a par with subcultural styles of clothing and music, being a marker of identity and group solidarity. Thus, through peer-group norm enforcement, codeswitching to English becomes an integrated aspect of youth language in Denmark. As a school subject, English is highly prestigious as a key to participation in the internationalization process. The importance of learning English is recognized even by those whose knowledge of English is limited or nonexistent (the English-have-nots), though the latter are made to experience some of the problems of the functionally illiterate by the increasing use of English words and passages in Danish texts.