ON

NATIONALITY AND LANGUAGE

IN

THE DUCHY OF SLESWICK

OR

SOUTH JUTLAND.

COPENHAGEN.

PRINTED IN THIELES OFFICE.

1848.

ON THE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PEOPLE IN THE DUCHY OF SLESWICK OR SOUTH JUTLAND.

L

Ir is first during the latest time that a consciousness of the signification of what is characteristic and peculiar to a people and which is found in every real nation, has been properly awakened. This peculiarity has its foundation, partly in that stamp which a people, from its first beginning, has received from the creator, partly in that series of influences which the people during its historical development has been the object for, either from the exterior nature under which it has grown up, or from the general historical events that have had an influence thereon. Both together form by their operations what is called the nationality of a people. This nationality reveals itself in all the different ways in which the manners and customs of a people express themselves: in habits and customs, domestic life, laws and public institutions, literature and language, and particularly in the last, as the nearest and most direct expression of the public mind. These peculiarities, on the whole, give a certain character to a people, whereby they distinguish themselves from all other nations.