M the spine of every western European government. The Danish antiMaastricht camp was a curious alliance of the reformed Marxists of the People's Socialists, the rightwingers of the Progress Party, and assorted environmentalists and peace campaigners an indication of how fears of an European Superstate and a loss of national sovereignty were spread across a broad crosssection of the papulation. With each of the twelve Maastricht signatories needing to ratify the treaty for it to come into effect, the Danish rejection appeared to put pay to a united Europe. Swift to limit the damage, Schliiter set about seeking an amendment of the Maastricht treaty to make it more palatable to the Danish population, while other pro Maastricht elements began wearing down public resistance by speculating on the damage a relegation to Europe's second tier (with the pro Maastricht nations in the first tier) would have on the country. While the real impact of the Danish "No" vole on the future of the country and on the future o) Europe remains to be seen, it seems likely tW a watereddown version of the Maastricht treat) will eventually be approved by the Danish electorate, if only to avoid the risk of Danish econom isolation in an increasingly integrated Europe community. THE DANISH LANGUAGESi A BRIEF GUIDE TO DANISH Danish in some ways is similar to Gennan, but there are significant differences in pronunciation, Danes tending to swallow the ending of many words and leave certain letters silent English is widely understood, as is German; young people especially often speak both fluently. And if you can speak Swedish or Norwegian then you should have little problem making yourself understood all three languages share the same root A handy phrasebook to take is Traveller's Scandinavia (Pan) which, as well as Danish, covers Norwegian and Swedish. PRONUNCIATION In pronunciation, unfamiliar vowels include: m when long between air and tailor. When short like get. When next to "r" sounds more like hat. i when long like saw, when short like on. 0 like fur but with the lips rounded, e, when long, is similar to plate, when short somewhere between plate and hit; when unstressed it's like above Consonants are pronounced as in English, except: d at the end of a word after a vowel, or between a vowel and an unstressed "e" or "i", like this. Sometimes silent at the end of a word. g at the beginning of a word or syllable as in go. At the end of a word or long vowel, or before an unstressed e, usually like yet but sometimes like the Scottish loch. Sometimes mute after an a, e, or o. hv like view hj like yet ะบ as English except between vowels, when it's as in go. p as English except between vowels, when it's as in bit r pronounced as in French from the back of the throat but often silent sj as in sheet t as English except between vowels, when it's as in do. Often mute when at the end of a word.