The Danish Language Authorities* (DLA for this purpose) have the habit of documenting the language rather than leading. This creates a massive grey-zone in what is correct Danish and what is not. As a Danish linguist, this was a challenging situation until the website www.sproget.dk was launched a few years ago. Before then, you had to pay for dictionaries and textbooks that were already out of date by about 10 years when released.
This website has made it easier and a lot more fun to be a Danish linguist based abroad. Providing small, entertaining articles discussing linguistic dilemmas, and providing guidance whenever particularly unusual usage of syntax or grammar has been applied in a text I am checking, this website is brilliant.
And it is a much needed tool because common practice used to be the only guidance in Danish. This becomes a problem; for example, the comma-rules have changed more times than I care to count in my parents' lifetime, making it impossible for generations to agree. Most younger people have entirely given up on learning the correct way to set a comma.
The DLA provide a descriptive science rather than prescriptive. They have tried to lead the path some years back by danifying the spelling of words adapted from other languages; the most discussed example being the French 'Mayonaise'. But the Danish people did not want to adapt their spelling. It was a foreign word, why deny that by spelling it in a Danish way? It is not like Danish is particularly phonetic anyway.
It is in the Danish mentality, that we do not like being told what to do. Also journalists in Denmark are rebellious - it would be nice if they were directing more of that rebellion toward unjust happenings in society, rather than toward spelling and grammar rules, but nothing is perfect.
This seems like an impossible dilemma for the DLA. On one hand, they are criticised for not leading, on the other when they try to lead, people don't follow. So what do they do to be taken seriously?
Well, creating useful, interesting content-based websites with short, interesting articles that are easy to share is a really good start. The way into the Danish people's hearts have always been through debate (if you are interested in the historical view on this, I can recommend some texts by Holberg and Kierkegaard) so let's keep the debate on language going. Then the DLA will have a better chance of getting to know the people - and it is always easier to lead, when you know who you are leading.
*Language Board may be a more accurate translation, but I wanted to make the point that they are an authority, although we don't like to acknowledge those in Denmark.
