The degrees for intelligibility changes from one turkic language to the other, and they also have different accents in their own countries. Lets talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the germanic languages. Published online by royal danish ministry of foreign affairs, version 1 november 2003. Mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic family. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested tang chaoju a,b, vincent j. Mutual intelligibility of the scandinavian languages depends mostly on previous exposure. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, but swedes in the oresund region including malmo and helsingborg, across a strait from the danish capital copenhagen, understand danish somewhat better, largely due to. Danish is a germanic language of the north germanic branch. They are not mutually intelligible with what are known as the mainland nordic languages, i. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely.
To what degree are turkic languages mutually intelligible. Predicting the mutual intelligibility of germanic languages from linguistic and. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country. Is there a language that is mutually intelligible with. Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in europe. The higher the similarity the greater likelihood of mutual intelligence. Nov 16, 2014 romance languages mutual intelligibility. Although not a true test of mutual intelligibility, blairs 1990. Language and intercultural communication, 9 4, 217229. That is, there is some intelligibility between most of the turkic languages, but generally below 90%.
Mutual intelligibility for the mainland scandinavian languages, mutual intelligibility is in principle possible semicommunication haugen 1966. In addition, kajkavian croatian, spoken in northwest croatia and similar to slovenian, is not intelligible with standard croatian. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of inter. Mutual intelligibility is the extent to which speakers from two or more speech communities can understand each other. In scandinavia, the term scandinavian languages refers specifically to the mutually intelligible modern languages of the three continental scandinavian.
This is often the case in the real world and in this paper, we present an analysis of this situation. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. Learning one of these languages is definitely an advantage, both for a traveler and in business life, that is for sure. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. Finnish, icelandic, and one of the three languages danish, norwegian and swedish.
The main difference between danish and norwegian is the spelling of and pronunciation of words the words are the same words, just spelled very slightly differently. Swedish and german have a lexical similarity rating of 0. Pdf conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. However as i said it all depends on previous exposures. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of interscandinavian intelligibility charlotte gooskens university of groningen. Oct 23, 2019 mutual intelligibility is a situation in which two or more speakers of a language or of closely related languages can understand each other. Along with swedish, danish descends from the eastern dialects of the old norse language. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested. Turkic languages mutual intelligibility post by mongol 20110516.
Mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic languages article pdf available in russian linguistics 393 november 2015 with 1,010 reads how we measure reads. Sep 23, 2009 the main influence on mutual intelligibility between languages is what is called lexical similarity an indication of the degree of overlap in vocabulary. The truth is that the mutual intelligibility in turkic is much less than proclaimed. There was a question on quantifying mutual intelligibility a while ago, in which i pointed to blairs lexical similarity quantification as one way of assessing mutual. The dialects close to either side of the norwegianswedish border bring the two languages very close together. Also, there is an article on wikipedia called mutual intelligibility, and it has a nice list of mutually intelligible languages. It may be orthography, morphologylexicon, or phonetics. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. These languages are almost extinct, gutnish is spoken only by a few hundred, and elfdalian by a few thousand. The scandinavian languages, danish, norwegian and swedish, are an. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages intelligibility. This is discussed in more but still possibly insufficient detail on the website. The germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups.
These languages are so closely related that the speakers. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte gooskens, vincent j. But even in the standard languages of the capital cities, understandability is not too difficult. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte gooskensa, vincent j. Romance languages, etymology, cognates, string similarity 1. The language group is sometimes referred to as the nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among danish, swedish, icelandic and norwegian scholars and. For many languages it lists other languages which share intelligibility and lexical similarity. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. The nordic dialect corpus is a speech corpus with natural speech from informants from five nordic countries. The scots language has germanic roots and is spoken widely in lowland scotland and some regions of ulster.
The level of mutual intelligibility is not as high as amongst romance or slavic languages, though. North germanic languages wikipedia republished wiki 2. Mutual int elligibility of languages in the slavic family hvar, vis, korcula, peljesac, the dalmatian coast at zadar and split, and inland at gacka. To answer the question if those are languages mutually understandable. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. It is largely mutually intelligible with norwegian and danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of.
If a procedure could be developed by which mutual intelligibility between any two languages could be established, we would have a powerful instrument, a. In some cases, a specific word will be used in norwegian and another in danish. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible posted by kari on nov 30, 2010 in language most people give me a very strange look when i tell them that i speak norwegian. Examples of mutual intelligibility can be found for instance between czech and slovak significantly, between dutch and afrikaans and partially between finish and estonian all both in written and spoken forms. The north germanic languages are national languages in denmark, iceland, norway and sweden, whereas the nongermanic finnish is spoken by the majority in finland. The main influence on mutual intelligibility between languages is what is called lexical similarity an indication of the degree of overlap in vocabulary. Given the high degree of mutual intelligibility between the three mainland scandinavian languages, is there a benefit in constructing a single. The scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with english. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the. An overview will be given of the intelligibility structure of a large number of languages established by means of language tests that make it possible to compare intelligibility of various language pairs in their. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians, country. All nordic languages come from old norse apparently icelandic and faroese are the closest thing to preserving that language and are known for the incredible amount of dialects within each language relative to population. We view languages as probabilistic associations between form and meaning and developa naturalmeasure of intelligibility, fl1,l2, between two.
As noticed, there are several aspects by which linguistic distances ld between a certain pair of languages may differ. Ma robert lindsay mutual intelligibility among the turkic. The language group is also referred to as the nordi c languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among danish, faroes e, icelan dic, norwegian, and swedish scholars. About mutual intelligibility of european languages. Im told that those who live in border areas speak a dialect of their own language that is very close to the dialect spoken over the border. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility of. The scandinavian languages, danish, norwegian and swedish, are an example of languages which are so closely related that they are mutually intelligible. The north germanic languages or scandinavian languages, the languages of scandinavians, make up one of the three branches of the germanic languages, a subfamily of the indoeuropean languages, along with the west germanic languages and the extinct east germanic languages. The north germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the germanic languages, a subfamily of the indoeuropean languages, along with the west germanic languages and the extinct east germanic languages. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can often understand the others fairly well, though studies have shown that speakers of norwegian generally understand both danish and swedish far better than swedes or danes understand each other. Mutual intelligibility in slavic language learning languages. The language group is also referred to as the nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among danish, faroese. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent.
Pdf mutual intelligibility among the romance languages. The nordic languages are now divided into insular nordic and mainland scandinavian languages. Slavonic languages there is much nonsense said about the mutual intelligibility of the various languages in the slavic family. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. Danish and swedish are also classified as east scandinavian or east nordic languages scandinavian languages are often considered a dialect continuum. Norwegian is now grouped with danish and swedish because of its mutual intelligibility with those languages due to its heavy influence from them over the last millennium, particularly from danish. Various studies have shown norwegian speakers to be the best in scandinavia at understanding other languages within the language group. About 125 inscriptions dated from ad 200 to 600, carved in the older runic alphabet futhark, are chronologically and linguistically the oldest evidence of any germanic language. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible posted by kari on nov 30, 2010 in language. Other names for this group are the nordic or scandinavian languages. A research report on how well young people understand danish, swedish and. Optimizing the mutual intelligibility of linguistic agents.
Most are from scandinavia, but enough have been found in. It depends on the combinations of slavonic languagesdialects under consideration. Its often said that all slavic languages are mutually intelligible with each other. Anecdotally, as a speaker of english and french, i understand about as much spanish as i do frisiansay 5080% as well as the languages in which im fluent. In the case of language and mutual intelligibility, deriving a precise history of the social interaction of these two people plays a key role. Its sometimes joked about how norwegian is danish vocabulary with swedish pronunciation, and in general ive found norwegians having an easier time understanding written danish but spoken swedish. Mutual intelligibility also occurs in a wide variety of degrees, ranging from none, to partial, to full mutual intelligibility. It is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakersof different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. Introduction and related work determining degrees of similarity between the worlds languages is an intensely debated issue lebart and rajman, 2000, many of the controversies in historical and com. So, even if you try to define a language as mutual intelligibility, then you run into problems such as the above. Are scandinavian languages mutually intelligible to any. Language archived 15 august 2004 at the wayback machine.
Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. The languages are closely related to each other, and three of them are. This understanding can be in spoken or written communication. Aug 06, 2016 mutual intelligibility occurs mostly amongst languages of the same origin like among the scandinavian languages, germanic languages etc. Mutual intelligibility is a situation in which two or more speakers of a language or of closely related languages can understand each other. However i would like to add that there exists other languages in scandinavia as well, mostly in isolated areas. Pdf the contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility of. Mutual intelligibility refers to whether speakers of one language can understand speakers of another language. English scots frisian german luxembourgish yiddish dutch afrikaans north germanic. Mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic languages. Scandinavian with dutch, frisian, and afrikaans, where mutual intelligibility is also possible. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the slavic. North germanic languages wikimili, the best wikipedia reader.
You are advised to consult the publishers version publishers pdf if you wish. Request pdf lexical inferencing and the mutual intelligibility of estonian and finnish several factors affect the comprehension of a text written in a language related to the readers first. Yes, at least swedish danish norwegian are more or less mutually intelligible. Mutual intelligibility is a continuum that is, a gradient concept, marked by degrees of intelligibility, not by sharp divisions. Why is finland not exactly good friends with nordic countries like sweden, norway, denmark and iceland but all these countries get along so we. Germanic languages derivation of germanic languages from protogermanic. Pdf the scandinavian languages are so alike that their speakers often. The main purpose of the corpus is to facilitate the study of the dialects of the north germanic languages, i. Nov 30, 2010 norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible posted by kari on nov 30, 2010 in language most people give me a very strange look when i tell them that i speak norwegian. This strategy is widely used for communication among speakers of the three mainland scandinavian languages, i.
If you are looking to learn a new language such as one of the scandinavian languages, there are several free online resources, and there may be language classes available near you as well although these languages are not among the most popular to be taught at local colleges. In inter nordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions. Lexical inferencing and the mutual intelligibility of. It depends on the combinations of slavonic languages dialects under consideration. Turkic languages mutual intelligibility post by mongol. Language varieties dialects and languages 2712009 4 mutual intelligibility between. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Bulgarian and macedonian are mutually intelligible between 80% and 90%, as are czech and slovak. Vincent van heuven, anja schuppert, wilbert heeringa, renee van bezooijen, jelena. Like between the slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between germanic languages. They give me an even stranger look when i say that one of my majors was norwegian.
Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. Mutual intelligibility among the romance languages. They originate from old norse, a language that was spoken. The language group is sometimes referred to as the nordic languages, a direct. Why do the nordic countries have different languages. Introduction this paper reports on an investigation of the mutual intelligibility of the three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. For example, an azerbaijani can understand istanbul turkish and general turkish easily, but heshe cannot. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians. The reason behind their mutual intelligibility is that they all originated from north germanic language family and have similar roots. Mutual intelligibility in the germanic language area. However, in nearly all cases, both words will exist in the other language and have pretty much the. Optimizing the mutual intelligibility of linguistic agents in.
The degree to which a speaker of one variety understands the speech of another closely related variety can be expressed in a single number closely related languages. The mutual intelligibility between the continental scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. The language group is sometimes referred to as the nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among danish, swedish. Mutual intelligibility in slavic language specific languages. An international handbook of the history of the north germanic languages. Mutual intelligibility occurs mostly amongst languages of the same origin like among the scandinavian languages, germanic languages etc. Apr 12, 2019 swedish, norwegian, and danish, the three major scandinavian languages, are examples of languages mutually understandable. Let us look first of all at since there is much nonsense floating. Most people give me a very strange look when i tell them that i speak norwegian. Languages understandable to englishspeakers without learning.
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