I know I've come to this party very late, but I'm trying hard to catch up. I've looked on this board for answers, and I can see that Danes seem to understand Swedes better than the other way around. But is the whole of the series in just one language, or does it switch according to which side of the border they are?
shareAll actors/characters speaks their native language, even to each others. Swedish and Danish are mutually intelligible languages, meaning that its possible to have conversations without learning the other language. In the Copenhagen-Malmö region its actually Swedes who understands Danes better than Danes understands Swedes.
The characters does not switch language across the border. As it says on the language section on the IMDB page, this series is spoken in Swedish/Danish. I can confirm its kind of like this in real life, cause I live in southern Sweden less than 2 hours from the border to Denmark, and I always speak Swedish (local southern dialect) whenever I'm in Denmark. Of course with a few misunderstandings and a few "what did you say?" but all in all it works. People who lives more north in Sweden like the capital Stockholm finds it more hard to understand Danish, but they also find it hard to understand us southern Swedes many times.
The characters in this series never misunderstands each others, which is not 100% realistic cause when there is conversations between Swedes and Danes there is also midunderstandings then and then, that you have to repeat what you said but a bit slower and more clearly sometimes, but all in all it works.
As for Scandinavian languages, Norwegian is also mutually intelligible with Swedish, on an even larger scale than Danish (allthough Danish is more similar to Southern Swedish dialect than Norwegian is).
I heard there is linguistic scientists who actually suggests that Swedish, Danish and Norwegian are dialects of the same language in a linguistic point of view, but such views are controversial mostly due to national pride, and because of official language policies since these 3 languages or whatever you may call them has 3 seperate language councils, with 3 standard written versions (4 if you include Nynorsk Norwegian)
In my personal opinion (some will disagree with this) its often like talking to someone who speaks a distinct accent or dialect of your own language. Like a Londoner having a conversation with a Glaswegian.
Forget about Icelandic and especially Finnish though, cause those can't be understood by any Swedes/Danes/Norwegians unless they learnt them. But its often possible to have conversations with them as well, cause many Finns understands Swedish, and many Icelanaders understands Danish, cause they learnt it in school. There is also a minority around 300,000 people in Finland who speaks Swedish as their native language. The Finnish language itself is totally unrelated to the other Nordic languages.
I hope this explains a few things for you.
In my personal opinion (some will disagree with this) its often like talking to someone who speaks a distinct accent or dialect of your own language. Like a Londoner having a conversation with a Glaswegian.
[deleted]
Really enlightening - and thanks to the OP because I had wondered the same myself throughout both series but never got around to asking! I knew I recognised some of the Danish language from addictions to The Killing and Borgen but I am not well versed enough to distinguish who was speaking Swedish and who Danish etc...
But just to clarify, if there is a conversation between say Martin and Saga, is Martin always speaking Danish and Saga is always replying in Swedish?! Or have I misunderstood you?!
Thanks!
But just to clarify, if there is a conversation between say Martin and Saga, is Martin always speaking Danish and Saga is always replying in Swedish?!
Many thanks for a really helpful response; I learnt a lot from it.
shareRealy helpfull post! Thanks for that.
I guess it's a bit like German and Dutch? (I am Dutch).
Most Dutch people perfectly understand German. (I don't know if it's vice-versa)
As for understanding Danish/Swedish: without the subtitles it's hard for us Dutch, but with them, it's sometimes surprisingly similar to Dutch. The sound however is really different.
Great series by the way. We're halfway through season 2 now. Interaction between Saga and Martin is really great!
Yeah have to agree there, being a Swede I can't understand spoken Dutch but if I see it written it's surprising how many words are very similar in spelling.
shareThank you, OP, from me as well. I was also wondering the same thing and I was glad when at some point in the series, the writers managed to squeeze in a word that both Saga and Martin said so it was possible to compare the accents (in the second season, when they find the breast implant and Saga pronounces it "implantAt" and Martin pronounces something like "implantEt").
I am replying to this post because of joske's question about German and Dutch. I'm not sure about the German reply you've received because I don't speak German but I have many Dutch friends who told me that while they easily understand German, Germans have quite a lot of difficulties the other way around - mostly because of the way the language sounds; when it's written it's quite similar. I'm Slovenian and I experience similar with Croatian and Serbian. We mostly can understand those languages but they mainly cannot, I'm not sure why. However, Croatians, Serbians, Bosnians etc. have a language that is almost completely equal (with only small differences that could be attributed as accents). So yeah, language families are interesting. I was once at an international student meeting and me, a Croatian and a Serbian girl were chatting along effortlessly each in our own language (all Southern-Slavic languages), a Polish girl (Eastern-Slavic) understood every tenth word, whereas the Hungarian guy (a country that borders on all three of our countries) was standing nearby all confused because he couldn't grasp the concept of how people speaking different languages could just understand each other. :D
Thank you for explaining this so clearly to a London Cockney, you managed to answer all my questions in your very professional statement, like you I come to this late after watching the Tunnel an inferior English/France attempt, thanks again, From London..
shareFrom what I know Swedish, Danish and Norwegian languages all share a common linguistical germanic lineage.
Finnish is a bit of an oddity in the region. It is actually more closely related to many eastern european and central asia languages. They also share a more distant connection to turkish, japanese and mongolian.
Icelandic is probably unintelligible to Scanadinavians due to 1000 years of separation.
Magnus Petersson,
I want to compliment you on the singlemost useful and enlightening post I have ever read on IMDB. Terrifically informative. Kudos.
This whole "speak your own language" thing can also be seen in other parts of the world, even where the languages are not especially similar. In the province of Quebec in Canada, many people can speak both English and French. But, like with most languages, it is far easier to understand a second language than to speak it. So it is not unusual to see an Anglophone and a Francophone communicating with each other, each speaking their own language. They are only able to do so, however, if they are adequately skilled in the second language.
I wonder if people from England and France ever elect to communicate in this way. I know that with each passing generation, English is becoming more broadly used and it is the non-native English speakers who end up turning to their second (or third, or fourth) language to accommodate the English speakers.
That said, how is language handled in the English/French version of the show? In the American version of the show, the Mexican, of course, is forced to speak English.
I wonder if people from England and France ever elect to communicate in this way.
The average Brit has no knowledge of the French language.
Many Brits of my generation (educated in 1960s) learned French at school.
Can I ask Magnus an unrelated question?
Sometimes watching the show, it is not always easy for non-Scandinavians to know which country is being featured at a given time. I presume that the stock footage of the smoking chimneys is Sweden and that the more "folksy" photos are Denmark? I must confess that, occasionally, I completely lost track of which country we were supposed to be in and I do think the producers of the show could have made this clearer for foreigners.
Well, actually hard to tell really indeed. The Swedish parts takes place in and around Malmö, there is not much of a visible difference between Denmark and that southern part of Sweden. As Malmö (along with the rest of the Skåne province) was a part of Denmark from ancient times until the 17th century, the architecture is more or less the same. Malmö largly feels like a Danish city.
There is significant differences between Swedish and Danish architecture, but Southern Sweden (cities like Malmö, Lund, Helsingborg and Kristianstad) has largely Danish architecture for historical reasons.
The only obvious thing I can tell is that signs on the Swedish side has the letters Ö and Ä, while on the Danish side they instead have Ø and Æ. Registration plates on Swedish cars is an EU flag with an S on it, and registration plates on Danish cars is an EU flag with DK on it.
Swedish registration plates has 3 letters and 3 digits, while Danish registration plates has 2 letters and 5 digits.
"Polis" is police in Swedish, and "politi" is police in Danish.
I do not agree I am Danish and I have hard time understanding swedish.
if I talk to a swede I am most likely to switch to English.
I agree, I'm Swedish and I couldn't understand more than half of the Danish without the Swedish subtitles. There are small things with the pronounciation that makes it harder than when reading Danish. And also some words are completely different. Like wife - "fru" in Swedish, "kone" in Danish. Same with the numbers, saying "3 and 20", for twenty three for instance.
I'm from Stockholm, and I believe people from Southern Sweden would recognise these words and pronounciation differences easier than most Swedes. (With exceptions of course). I know that when I've been in Denmark it gets easier with time, so after a few days the numbers become familiar again (that 70 is said like "half 4x20"), same with the words like eat, "äta" in Swedish, "spise" in Danish, as well as the pronounciation. But each time I've been to Denmark it's been almost like starting from scratch. People in southern Sweden have Danish tv like someone mentioned, and this keeps it alive for them more than for us who live further up north, also there are a lot of Danes working in southern Sweden and vice versa in Copenhagen, due to the proximity. Which probably makes them more used to hearing the other language.
It should be noted though that many words that seems different, also exists in similar Swedish words, but words that are not used very much anylonger. You can say "spisa" for eating in Sweden as well, its just not many who says that anylonger. You can also say äde (æde) for eating in Danish, but most says "spise".
Grina means crying in Swedish, and grine means laughing in Danish, and it also means laughing in Southern Sweden. People from other parts of Sweden may not be familar with the Danish word for pocked "lomme", but we in Southern Sweden are, here its actually even a common slang to say "lommman" for the pocket. Here in Western Blekinge some Danish numbers also still exists, like for example saying "fem å tjuge" (five and twenty) instead of the Standard Swedish "tjugofem" (twentyfive). Saying Danish "have" instead of "trädgård" is also common in south-western Blekinge.
Yeah, I know. And most southerners will be familiar with all that you mentioned. I actually do know spisa and a few more, which is why I used it as an example ;) I really wish I could understand it better though, if I moved to Denmark, or even Malmo it would probably come naturally, but right now it's just a pain in the *ss. I am an accountant, and I work with all Nordic countries, which requires quite a bit of communication, which is fine and well in writing, but I always feel like an idiot having to switch to English when I speak to Danish people on the phone (and sometimes Norwegians as well). I may have to move south haha
shareThank you magnuspetersson72 for the information. as an Australian I was also wondering about the languages. I have also noticed that the Danes have very good English accents when speaking English. Their accents are almost flawless.
shareAs an Australian I also thank magnuspetersson72 for the information about the languages. I have also noticed the Danes have very good English accents when speaking English, almost flawless.
shareOf more than 100.000 Words in Danish, Swedish and Norwegian, only 300 have a different meaning. Norwegian is not closer to Swedish, compared to Danish. Until 1814 in general ppl in Norway spoke Danish, ofc with a strong norwegian dialect, but Danish nonetheless. Bokmål was made so norwegians could have a language of their own. Stil to this day Southern norwegians are very easy to understand for Danes and vice versa. One issue of understanding inbetween the 3 languages, is also different use of synonymous Words. As of your Skåne, all the way up to the early 20th Century, ppl who spoke the old scanic (skånsk)version of Danish, could still be found. That a side scanic (Skånsk) dialekt can be hard in the beginning to understand for Danes, whereas Rikssvensk (official dialect)is at first easier to understand for most Danes. However if a Dane get used to the Scanic dialect, it will become much easier to understand.
As a Little side note for you English speaking folks; more than 2000 of everyday Words in English origins from Old Norse, which was called, Danish tongue, even though there was no difference from Danish and Swedish back then, both spoke the same dialect of old norse. Norwegians spoke a different dialect then, but that died out during the more than 500 year Danish dominance up untill 1814, when Norway was ceded to Sweden after Danish defeat in the French wars against England.
Thanks...!! thanks so much...!
I love swedish and danish movies..! and try to watch as much as possible.
I remember in the firsts chapters some about "do you understand me ?" but them all the dialogues are very fluids.
Also probably the police need to understand both language because they need it for their work.
I don´t know nothing about Swedish and Danish language but I realized the diferent sound of the Saga name in swedish and danish.
The danish say Saga with "a" more open simliar to english sound.
But swedish say Saga with "a" more close so similar to our spanish "o".
Thanks again..!
Oscar
Hablo mejor español :)
Hi Magnus:
I want to ask about swedish and danish relationship.
This not for any special reason, it is only because I´m so curious.
In the serie it show like a very very close relationship between swedish and danish.
This look like a very integrated countries.
This is completelly real or it is only for the serie plot....??
Thanks in advance...!
Oscar
Hablo mejor español :)
I am Danish and I think you described the whole thing really well.
Also about it not being 100 % realistic. I would say I understand Swedish fairly well - and most of the time I don't look at the subtitles when I watch the show (in DK there are subs for the Swedish parts and I imagine vice versa) but there are definitely a few moments in each episode when I struggle to understand a piece of Swedish dialogue and have to look at the subtitles (even though it would often probably be possible for me to figure it out based on context if I had the chance - but of course it's not possible to rewind when you don't catch the meaning on the get-go). In the show we never see someone (not even outside of the the police/"professionel field" when it could be an obligation to know Danish/Swedish fluently) for a question or something to be repeated which I find differs from real life.
Isn't Norwegian the language that is "in the middle" meaning is the closest to both Swedish and Danish? I know for sure that most Danes (including myself) have an easier understanding of spoken Norwegian than Swedish.
I have lived in both copenhagen and now I live in Aarhus, Jutland, and in Jutland there are not as many Swedes as in Copenhagen, so people are not used to Swedish. Born and bread Copenhageners are much better at understanding Swedish, just like Southern Swedish people are much better at understanding Danish than people from ex Stockholm.
I have always spoken Danish, when I've met people from Norway and Sweden, but I have friends that prefer just switching to English. They don't want to bother with the "Sorry, can you say that again" and "What?" and "Please, a little slower".
In Stockholm, I've found that I was much better at understanding Swedish people than they were at understanding me. I would try to switch out some Danish words with Swedish words. In school, we did learn some of the differences in our everyday language. Like "roligt" means fun in Swedish and calm in Danish. And I would say "Bra" instead of "Godt" which means "Fine; Good". And so on.
When I studied at University of Copenhagen I had a Swedish professor one semester and she was quite easy to understand because she spoke "Scandinavian" as she herself called it. She changed some words or sentences to Danish but she still mostly spoke with a Swedish accent. I hear Swedish and Norwegian Footballers playing in Denmark do the same.
Not everybody is born with equal sensitivity towards language, so not everybody found the lectures easy to understand at all.
We did a lot of Swedish and Norwegian reading. Reading Norwegian is like reading Danish written by someone who can't spell. They write more like the words exactly sounds than Danish do. The words are much the same but Norwegians sort of sings when they speak and Danish people.. well, we mumble.
One of the actors in Broen/the Bridge season 2 is Norwegian but speaks Danish perfectly (Jakob Oftebro). I've heard him call Danish more sexy than Norwegian. I wouldn't call Danish sexy, but compared to Norwegian, maybe. Norwegian is super cute and really funny sounding to us Danes.
Swedish and Norwegian are very similar in the sound, but in writing Norwegian and Danish are more similar. In culture, the Danes and Swedes compete a lot and tease each other. Norway is like a little sister we both adore.
I don't have any close Swedish friends, but a lot of Swedish are studying in Denmark - also in Jutland, and I see them on the streets with their Danish friends, and they communicate with each other like in Broen - in their own tongue, fast and with no misunderstandings.
I do look at the subtitles when the Swedes speak in Broen. Otherwise I would have to concentrate a little to much on language and I wanna concentrate on the mystery. My mum actually prefer to have subtitles in many all Danish productions, too, because a lot of Danish actors mumbles a lot (Mads Mikkelsen, Pilou Asbæk).
In Broen, I personally find the Danish actors are pronunciating the words too much, like they are acting in a theater. It annoys the crap out of me. I would not be able to judge the Swedish actors the same way.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one watching thinking this! Thanks magnuspetersson72!
shareThis uneducated Aussie is also very thankful to OP and magnuspetersson72!
shareI'm Danish and I've worked for years in northern Sweden but it was with an international company so they had Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish employees. It was the norm to just switch to English all the time. I learned pretty much no Swedish working there sadly.
I watched all the episodes with subtitles enabled and they were REALLY poor. I can't even grasp how people who understand neither language could enjoy the show. You're missing out on tons of details, imho.
I hope they're not stupid enough to repeat this mistake for season 3.
Can you describe at least one detail that i've lost?
I really enjoyed the show even with portuguese subtitles made by a group that used english subtitles.