The way that you say it

I have the box set of the fantastic Danish crime series, Forbrydelsen, and I am really immersed in it, enjoying it as much if not more the second time round. I am on series 2 and I am utterly riveted, and as with the first series, amazed at the quality of the whole thing, the acting, the music, the plot, the filming… everything. I don’t speak Danish so I am watching the subtitles.

It has occurred to me, that by not understanding the language I am missing out a very subtle aspect of the drama; I have no way of knowing if any of the characters have a particular regional accent. For example, if I was watching an English crime series there could be all sorts of nuances in the fact that one of the characters speakers with a Midlands accent, and another has an Irish accent… it might not have a direct bearing on the plot but it might underline something about the relationship between the two. If someone has a ‘country’ accent the other characters may have an attitude towards them because he or she is a ‘townie’; the townie’ might think of themselves as more sophisticated or canny than the supposed bumpkin. On the other hand if most of the characters are from a rural area, someone who comes from a city with an urban accent might be seen as being untrustworthy or flash. Someone might have a ‘posh’ accent, someone else might sound as if they come from a more ordinary family and this could suggest certain things to the viewer about the characters in the drama.

In Forbrydelsen I, two of the main characters are a husband and wife. He seems to have had a rather rough upbringing, and been in trouble with the police when he was young; he’s obviously very tough and knows how to handle himself, but with his wife who he adores and who is obviously from a different class, he is a lovable bear of a man. Britain has always been judged as  a class-ridden society, and in many ways I guess we still are, and the way people speak denotes their class… so in Danish, in Forbrydelsen are there different ways of speaking which would tell a Danish audience about the characters which I can’t pick up from the subtitles? One of the main characters in series 2 seems to speak differently… is that just his personal way of speaking or has he a particular regional or class or personalty accent which a Danish viewer would understand which escapes me?

Talking of country accents… watch this: