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. To what extent are different slavic languages mutually. I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. North germanic languages wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. The mutual intelligibility of romance languages is probably increased hugely by the number of words that have been reimported from latin, after the initial waves of sound change and semantic shift in each language.
Mutual intelligibility in the germanic language area. Nov 26, 2018 the scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with english. It depends on the combinations of slavonic languages dialects under consideration. North germanic languages definition of north germanic. Mutual intelligibility in slavic language specific languages. Romance languages, etymology, cognates, string similarity 1.
England is separated from its germanic neighbors by the channel and received more latin influence than the other germanic languages. 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. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. The language group is also referred to as the nordic languages, a direct translation. Along with the other north germanic languages, danish is a descendant of old norse, the common language of the germanic peoples who lived in scandinavia during the viking era. Feb 18, 2014 linguistic groups the germanic languages today are conventionally divided into three linguistic groups. North germanic languages synonyms, north germanic languages pronunciation, north germanic languages translation, english dictionary definition of north germanic languages. 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. Divisions between subfamilies of north germanic are rarely precisely defined. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. 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. Is there a language that is mutually intelligible with.
Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. Wikimedia commons category north germanic languages. Lets talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the germanic languages. North germanic articles on this topic in other wikimedia projects can be found at. 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. We first present the results of a selection of 1833 listeners representing the mutual intelligibility between young, educated europeans from the same 16 countries where the test languages are spoken. Bulgarian and macedonian are mutually intelligible between 80% and 90%, as are czech and slovak. 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. The north germanic languages are national languages in denmark, iceland, norway and sweden, whereas the non germanic finnish is spoken by the majority in finland. The germanic language family is a part of a larger. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country.
Each subfamily in this list contains subgroups and individual languages. Finnish swedish there are lexical borrowings of swedish into finnish, but they are from different language families, and i dont think mutually intelligible at all. A more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility separates modern spoken danish, norwegian, and swedish as mainland scandinavian, while icelandic and. Most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and the most separated ones not. Scandinavian languages the north germanic languages.
French les langues romanes comme le francais, litalien, lespagnol, le portugais et le roumain sont toutes des langues qui viennent du latin vulgaire, parle par les romains il y a 2000 ans. Unlike most germanic languages and old norse, modern icelandic now contrasts several stops by aspiration and nonaspiration, not voicedness and unvoicedness with aspiration as an allophonic part of that. 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. The germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups. 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. 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. If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. Conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related.
These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. In answering this question, i will honour a soviet tradition that i always hated starting a book, an article, a lecture, whatever, with a citation from marx or engels. The position of frisian in the germanic language area 3. There is a reasonable level of mutual intelligibility across the dialects, but the. Mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic family. Scandinavian countries, swedish, danish and norwegian, which are mutually intelligible. English scots frisian german luxembourgish yiddish dutch afrikaans north germanic. Excepting denmark, scandinavia isnt accessible by land unless traveling an even greater distance than you would across the baltic or north seas.
The north germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the germanic languages. The scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with english. The north germanic languages are majority languages in denmark, iceland, norway and sweden, whereas the non germanic finnish is spoken by the majority in finland. Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning. All germanic languages are derived from protogermanic, spoken. Author robert lindsay posted on april 6, 2019 may 7, 2019 categories applied, baltoslavic, baltoslavicgermanic, indoeuropean, indohittite, language families, language learning, linguistics, slavic. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. All north germanic languages are descended from old. Finnish, icelandic, and one of the three languages danish, norwegian and swedish. In addition, kajkavian croatian, spoken in northwest croatia and similar to slovenian, is not intelligible. The north germanic languages, on the other hand, remained unified until well past ad, and in fact the mainland scandinavian languages still largely retain mutual intelligibility into modern times. Linguistic groups the germanic languages today are conventionally divided into three linguistic groups. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages intelligibility.
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. Finnish hungarian same family, but different languages, no mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility with other germanic languages, while generally low, also varies. Modeling intelligibility of written germanic languages. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. Mutual intelligibility for the mainland scandinavian languages, mutual intelligibility is in principle possible semicommunication haugen 1966.
In internordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions. 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. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish constitute an interesting linguistic community with respect to mutual intelligibil. The mutual intelligibility between the continental scandinavian languages is asymmetrical. This is discussed in more but still possibly insufficient detail on the website. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. The standard division of germanic is into three branches, east germanic languages. English is a germanic language which simply means that it has historical connections to a group of languages which are found primarily in europe. The germanic languages are a branch of the indoeuropean language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in europe, north america, oceania and southern africa. Mutual intelligibility between german and dutch i am a native dutch speaker who also knows a bit of german. There is a thread about mutual intelligibility within the north germanic languages edit 2. The scots language has germanic roots and is spoken widely in lowland scotland and some regions of ulster.
Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect. Like between the slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between germanic languages. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. Is there a language that is mutually intelligible with english. It depends on the combinations of slavonic languagesdialects under consideration. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested tang chaoju a,b, vincent j. Mutual intelligibility among the slavic languages beyond. North germanic languages wikipedia republished wiki 2. The scandinavian languages, danish, norwegian and swedish, are an example of languages which are so closely related that they are mutually intelligible.
The level of mutual intelligibility is not as high as amongst romance or slavic languages, though. Mutual intelligibility in slavic language learning languages. All germanic languages are derived from protogermanic, spoken in iron. I recently saw a video on youtube explaining the mutual intelligibility between russian and ukrainian. Northgermanic languages intense language contact in the middle ages with low german hansetradesmen high number of similar loanwords in all three. Germanic languages wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. North germanic languages are spoken by about 20 million people, chiefly in denmark, the faeroe islands, iceland, norway, and sweden 7. The most widely spoken germanic language, english, is the worlds most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. In addition, the differences between the slavonic dialects are so great that.
Pdf modeling intelligibility of written germanic languages. Languages understandable to englishspeakers without learning. For example, germans can understand danish slightly better than the other languages, whereas englishspeakers can understand swedish or norwegian slightly better than danish. To what extent are different romance languages mutually. Predicting the mutual intelligibility of germanic languages from. Mutual int elligibility of languages in the slavic family hvar, vis, korcula, peljesac, the dalmatian coast at zadar and split, and inland at gacka. Mutual intelligibility o the mutual intelligibility between the continental. Language varieties dialects and languages 2712009 4 mutual intelligibility between. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. The germanic languages are a branch of the indoeuropean language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people nb 1 mainly in europe, north america, oceania and southern africa. Nov 07, 2019 fundamental all languages languages by family indoeuropean germanic north germanic articles on this topic in other wikimedia projects can be found at. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility. The germanic languages include some 58 sil estimate languages and dialects that originated in europe.
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