Languages of Denmark
A large majority (86%) of Danes also speak English as a second language; it is mandatory for Danish students to learn from the first grade in the public elementary schools (), by far the most popular option in the country. In the 1st (or 3rd, depends on the school) grade of folkeskole, a third language option is given, usually German or French. The vast majority pick German (47% of Danes report being able to speak conversational German). The third most widely understood foreign language is Swedish, with 13% of Danes reporting to be able to speak it.
Language shift
In Southern Schleswig, an area that belonged to Denmark until the Second Schleswig War 1864, there was from the 17th and up to the 20th centuries a language shift from Danish and North Frisian dialects to Low German and later High German. Historically, most of the region was part of the Danish and North Frisian Language area, adjacent in the South to the German-speaking Holstein. But with the reformation in the 16th century German became church language and in the 19th century also school language in the southern parts of Schleswig. Added to this came the influence of German-speaking Holsatian nobility and merchants. German was (occasionally) also spoken at the royal court in Copenhagen. This political and economic development led gradually to a German language dominating in the southern parts of Schleswig. Native dialects such as the Angel Danish or Eiderstedt Frisian vanished. In the Flensburg area, there arose the mixed language Petuh combining Danish and German elements. So late as in 1851 (in the period of nationalization) the Danish government tried to stop the Language shift, but without success in the long run. After the Second Schleswig War the Prussians introduced a number of language policy measures in the other way to expand the use of (High) German as the language of administration, schooling and church service.