Without DDO, the politicians will be the bosses of a molbo country

So. Now there are only about 6 weeks until the new year, and thus the year when Den Danske Ordbog only has 1½ million. DKK available – which can basically only be used to close and switch off the update work that is in progress. It must be strange to sit at Det Danske Sprog- og Litteraturselskab as a dedicated dictionary employee and not know if you will have a job after the New Year – especially when you have been knocking on the door of the politicians for years and especially the past six months, not least with the Minister of Culture.

But not a sound comes. On the contrary, he has started a spin that DSL’s director has not communicated clearly (read truthfully) about DSL’s money. It’s a lie, but probably intended to lower expectations even further. (The first time DDO was counted down was when the government and K came out of finance bill negotiations with nothing). DSL handles many projects, in fact the projects they were created for. For that they get money from the state, and have always done so. Money that can only be stretched to cover those things. She has for good reasons not mentioned them in connection with DDO, but they can hardly be a secret for a Ministry of Culture. And then DSL also takes care of Den Danske Ordbog, so far with 1½ million. from the state and just over 2½ million from the Carlsberg Foundation, but the foundation and foundations in general have called it quits, announced already 4 years ago, because they believe it is the state’s task. They are right: an up-to-date dictionary of meanings is something banal, something basic. It is critical infrastructure. Sweden and Norway spend 11 million DKK on each of their meaning dictionaries. Germany 8.

DSL estimates that a good 8 million is needed. per year if the dictionary is to be updated, repaired and expanded sensibly. In financial law language, it is well and truly 0.008 billion. Perhaps the requested amount has disappeared from their papers because it is so small that it has been rounded down to 0? That is slightly less than the deposit on a half-litre plastic bottle per Dane per year – just to be able to recognize itself as a cultural society. But the politicians seem strangely silent and cynical about DDO, at the same time as they allow themselves to talk about spiritual rearmament, and this does not least apply to the 4 parties that made that financial law completely undisturbed. Even Konservative Ungdom has not been able to call out Mona Juul.

DDO is used by everyone, from school students to professional linguists (also abroad when they translate into Danish). If we want to ensure that the language of school students and the language of the public, yes, language memory as such and our culture as a whole, weathers, then we just have to close the update or the free access. Then AI can define new words and concepts while our common reference point languishes (for example, the sentence examples under “car” are still about gearbox and gasoline, and the very definition of “television” (understood as a device) was until very recently a square box with picture tubes and speakers).

Some indications are that the politicians would like to be the leaders of a molbo country.

The counter on the citizens’ proposal, which was created to call out the politicians, has come to a standstill. Hence this post. I hope that more people will see the writing on the wall, namely that this citizen’s proposal (regardless of what others have thought about it) is an incredibly important signal to send. In addition, its demand that DDO be included permanently in the Finance Act and the size of the amount itself will be relevant to put forward, regardless of whether the Minister of Culture gives a little hand before Christmas, because we already know that DDO did not make it into the Finance Act, and we can be absolutely sure that DDO will not get the requested 8 million. (6½ for 2026) at the last minute.

https://www.borgerforslag.dk/se-og-stoet-forslag/?Id=FT-21420