The Danish language is shaped by the people who have spoken it for thousands of years. We see especially in the loanwords how the world of Danes has changed. The lecture takes us from the present to the deepest roots of language.

We all know the Arabic 'shawarma' and English 'stress'. In the Middle Ages, 'trade' was borrowed from Dutch. In the Iron Age 'iron' from Celtic. And in the Bronze Age, 'mare' (that is, in the sense of horse!) borrowed from an Iranian steppe language.