Old Danish spelling: Aa, Å and capitalised nouns

When you read old Danish documents, you quickly come across spellings that look wrong to modern eyes: »Aar« instead of »år« (year), and nouns such as »Manden« (the man) and »Huset« (the house) written with a capital. These are not mistakes - they are the correct spelling of the time. This article explains the most important differences.

»Aa« instead of »Å«

The letter Å was first officially introduced into Danish with the spelling reform of 1948. Before that, the sound was written with a double a: »Aar« (year), »Maal« (measure/goal), »paa« (on). So when you decipher a text from before 1948, you should expect »Aa« - and a good transcription preserves it, so the text stays true to the original.

Nouns with a capital first letter

Until the reform of 1948, all nouns were written with a capital first letter - just as in German today. »Manden gik over Marken til Kirken« (the man walked across the field to the church) would therefore appear with three capital letters. This is one of the clearest markers that a text is old, and it is important to know, so that you do not misinterpret it as random spelling.

The reform of 1948

The spelling reform of 1 October 1948 changed written Danish markedly: nouns received a lowercase first letter, »Aa« became »Å«, and a few verb forms were modernised. Texts from before and after therefore look strikingly different - a useful point of reference when you have to date an undated document.

Would you like an old text made readable without having to keep track of the rules yourself? MormorsBreve deciphers the Gothic script and preserves the historical spelling - upload a photo and see the first pages for free.