In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or special effort. Therefore, we also administered the test crosslinguistically, by having swedes respond to the danish version of the materials and danes to the swedish version. They give me an even stranger look when i say that one of my majors was norwegian. Both are germanic languages, but danish is north germanic and german west germanic. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with norwegian and swedish. Swedish and danish are usually considered, for political reasons, as different languages but speakers of these three languages can readily understand and communicate with each other. Whats the difference between a language and a dialect.
By being able to read some icelandic, i can make out old norse and modern scandinavian languages to a certain extent. The criterion of mutual intelligibility is not entirely successful. Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility post by sillygoose1 mon mar 21, 2016 11. And she loves the swedishdanish crime tv series called, the bridge. But dialect use is strong in switzerland, swiss german is a collective term for the major swiss dialects, and dialects from distant german speaking regions are not mutually intelligible in general. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Previous studies have indicated that mutual intelligibility between closely related language pairs is sometimes asymmetric. This research investigates the mutual intelligibility of danish, dutch, english, german and swedish and the factors that can predict the mutual intelligibility among these languages.
Mutual intelligibility between german and dutch i am a native dutch speaker who also knows a bit of german. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Lets talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the germanic languages. Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning. 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. It is a north germanic language and quite similar to its sister scandinavian languages, danish and norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forming a dialect continuum.
These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. Haz 2008 can easily be explained extralinguistically geography, dominance, education, media. Conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. But of course dutch is not a scandinavian language. Danish and swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but german and dutch are also mutually intelligible. Mutual intelligibility of dutchgerman cognates by children. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. One common problem with this criterion is that some languages like norwegian, swedish and danish are usually considered, for political reasons, as different languages but speakers of these three languages can readily understand and communicate with each other. Mutual intelligibility of dutch and german cognates.
Dutch, german, english, swedish and danish are all germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. Understanding of spoken language will vary greatly from per. 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. Why learn german if you are not going to live in germany or be in business, or the literature or history field, for example. Hes the site administrator and i am waiting for him to give me some site tools i need to help administer the site.
Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility among the slavic languages beyond. 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. Languages understandable to englishspeakers without learning. But again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. Hi, seeing as though icelandic has stood frozen in time since the middle ages and hasnt changed a single bit from old norse, is icelandic mutually intelligible with old english. Crossborder intelligibility on the intelligibility of low german among speakers of danish and dutch abstract deutsch. We argue that mutual intelligibility testing is an adequate way to determine how different two languages or language varieties are. An example of a lexical asymmetry is the word for room which is rum in both danish and swedish but can also be v. By knowing german, i can understand most written dutch. We tested the mutual intelligibility of 15 chinese dialects functionally at the level of isolated words word intelligibility and the level of sentences sentence intelligibility.
I recently saw a video on youtube explaining the mutual intelligibility between russian and ukrainian. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Sep 23, 2009 are german and swedish mutually intelligible. Are german and dutch mutually intelligible and to what extent. Other sources of german, such as newspapers, magazines, web sites, etc. Are german and dutch mutually intelligible and to what. I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. When it comes to mutual intelligibility, it is crucial to distinguish the standard variety of a language and its dialects. Also, many dutch people understand a lot of german, because many german tv showsfilms are shown on dutch tv with the original german sound and subtitles, so they pick up a lot that way. Mutual intelligibility between dutch and german only closely related language pair with commercially available multilingual asr technology asymmetry dutch listeners understand german better than germans understand dutch e. Pdf mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic. 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 see mutual intelligibility in north germanic languages.
Start studying ap human geography chapter 6 language notes. Unfortunately, the criterion of mutual intelligibility is not entirely successful. Like between the slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between germanic languages. Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility post by sillygoose1. It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important. It may also be the case that dialects belonging to the same language lack mutual intelligibility. Predicting the mutual intelligibility of germanic languages. Its because according to mutual intelligibility, even if dialects of a language are spoken, such as spanish and portuguese, they will still not be able to understand each other. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely.
Swedish is the official language of sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the 10 million inhabitants of the country. May 28, 2014 but again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. One common problem with this criterion is that some languages like norwegian, swedish and danish are usually considered, for political reasons, as different languages but speakers of these three languages can. The bestdocumented case of asymmetric intelligibility is danishswedish. We tested the mutual intelligibility of 15 chinese dialects functionally at the level of isolated words wordintelligibility and the level of sentences sentence intelligibility.
Mutual intelligibility of dutchgerman cognates by humans and computers pdf. The main fulani of west africa are dark blue on the map. If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages intelligibility. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. Charlotte gooskens learner language, learner corpora university of oulu, 56 october 2012 determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in scandinavia. I heard that swedish people can understand norwegian and danish without specifically learning them. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country. As for intelligibility, previous research has shown that danish and swedish are mutually intelligible to a large extent.
Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility a. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. Of course, we also needed to ascertain that the mutual intelligibility between swedish and danish is asymmetrical, as has traditionally been claimed see above. Having a large body of recognizable vocabulary is a necessary condition for mutual intelligibility, but it is nowhere near sufficient. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible posted by kari on nov 30. Hence, the present study examined the distance and the mutual intelligibility between amharic and two tigrigna varieties together with the effect of the attitude on the mutual. In the present study we tested the level of mutual intelligibility between three west slavic czech, slovak and polish and three south slavic languages croatian, slovene and bulgarian.
English scots frisian german luxembourgish yiddish dutch afrikaans north germanic. I speak as a native dutch speaker from flanders belgium and as a universitytrained language teacher speaking dutch, german, english and french fluently. Five national minority languages are also recognized by swedish law. Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects. Ap human geography chapter 6 language notes flashcards. Ive wondered for a long time how mutually intelligible the languages are to each other. When i hear yiddish, it sounds almost indistinguishable from german to me but then again, i dont speak german. 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. How easydifficult is it for a native german speaker to. The danish man was so pleased that he could communicate with me in his own language because for the 20 years that he has worked for. Asymmetry has been observed, for example, between spanish and portuguese and between czech and slovak.
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. On the other hand there is also a handful of really good free german textbooks out there, but they can sometimes be hard to find. Does anyone here know of any sort of objective measure that has been taken to compare how well english especially nonbritish speakers can understand the scots language as opposed to, say, danish and norwegian, italian and sicilian, or even german and. The bestdocumented case of asymmetric intelligibility is danish swedish. If a procedure could be developed by which mutual intelligibility between any two languages could be established, we would have a powerful instrument, a. It is a north germanic language and quite similar to its sister scandinavian languages, danish and norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forming. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. If so, we invite you to join our contributor program.
Hes the site administrator and i am waiting for him to give me some site tools i. Youll receive credits toward complimentary access to ethnologue for every contribution that is vetted and accepted by our editors. This is why ive collected my personal top 5 free german textbooks below. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic and. As many have already said, the written forms of swedish, norwegian and danish are easily understood by pretty much everyone in all three countries and the swedish contingent in finland. Languages of sweden wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Language varieties dialects and languages 2712009 4 mutual intelligibility between. Intelligibility of germanic languages underestimated. The language group is also referred to as the nordic languages, a direct translation of the most common term used among danish, faroese, icelandic, norwegian, and swedish scholars.
Pdf mutual intelligibility of dutchgerman cognates by. For a dane it will be rather unproblematic to understand the swedish word because it is similar to the word in danish, while for a swede it will be difficult if the dane uses the. The largest problems are found in the mutual intelligibility between swedes and danes. How mutually intelligible are scots and english relative to other closelyrelated languages. Deutsch im blick deutsch im blick is an excellent free textbook for beginners. The devil is in the detail article pdf available in linguistics 532 march 2015 with 307 reads how we measure reads. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic.
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