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A pretty interesting explanation. I had never thought of the distinction - Danish seems to have roughly the same principle as English.
by biehl 5y ago
A pretty interesting explanation. I had never thought of the distinction - Danish seems to have roughly the same principle as English.
- Svip 5y agoIn Danish there is no distinction. "I Ukraine" is the only option available in Danish. Danish only has a distinction for distinct territory, such as a hill or an island. One is "i Odsherred", but "på Sjælland". But it's overruled by countries, e.g. "i Grønland", not "på Grønland". Since Ukraine is not an island, the potential distinction does not exist in this case. It's awkward in Danish to make proper nouns definitive.
- School-Cotton 5y agoI don’t speak any Danish, so correct me if I’m wrong, but maybe the situation with islands is parallel to English. “I’m on Manhattan” and “I’m in Manhattan” both sound like fine English to me, the former having the connotation that you are specifically referring to the physical island rather than the political subdivision (borough of NYC) that roughly corresponds to it. But nobody would ever say “I’m on Jamaica” unless they were trying to advocate for some extremist political view that it’s not actually an independent country.
- CRConrad 5y agoIn French it's "le Danemark", not just "Danemark". Dunno for sure why, but I think it has to do with "mark" meaning non-specific "borderlands" or something.