Icelandic, Faroese, and Greenlandic linguists are currently working, along with Danish computer science linguists, on development of a language tool that is meant to facilitate communication in Danish between these neighbouring countries. “The plan is to strengthen teaching in spoken Danish; especially pronunciation. The speaking aid will make it possible for students to hear Danish pronunciation and hear themselves speak. We will, furthermore, explore whether the speaking aid can be designed so it reacts to the students’ pronunciation and gives feedback on how correctly they speak,” says Auður Hauksdóttir, Associate Professor in Danish, who leads this interdisciplinary project.
The project is in part based on Hauksdóttir‘s study on Icelanders‘ knowledge of Danish, which shows that spoken Danish proves a difficult hurdle to many. She and her colleague, Guðrún Haraldsdóttir et al, have furthermore worked on comparing Danish and Icelandic idioms. The results of that study have been published on the website frasar.net; developed in collaboration with Ola Knutsson, Assistant Professor and Robert Östling, Doctoral student; both at the University of Stockholm, and Peter Juel Henrichsen, Associate Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. “The language tool is open to all on the internet where those interested can find information on the Danish phrases, examples of pronunciation and their use in context as well as meaning, use and declension of the phrases compared to the Icelandic ones. The tool also includes a database of texts to facilitate writing of common texts, such as recommendations, Christmas cards and greeting cards. Our current goal is to examine whether it is possible to add a spoken language component into such a tool,” explains Hauksdóttir, who decided to seek the assistance of students and teachers in the Faroe Islands and in Greenland, as Danish is taught in these three countries.
