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 largest problems are found in the mutual intelligibility between swedes and danes. The investigations just mentioned measured the overall intelligibility of. The finnish woman piped up in swedish most finns can speak swedish because there is an area of finland that is swedish speaking, so we were having a mutually intelligble conversation in norwegian, swedish, and danish. A little bit of danish plus a lot of german and i can understand a surprising amount of norwegian and swedish. 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 the proximity of the region to danishspeaking areas. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the slavic. 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 the proximity of the region to danishspeaking areas see mutual intelligibility in north. 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. Like to know more about the history and culture of the northic countries, especially sweden.
Speech intelligibility in swedish forests an example of good classroom acoustics jonas christensson 1 1 saintgobain ecophon ab, box 500, 265 03 hyllinge, sweden abstract for thousands of years we have developed our hearing in an outdoor environment full of natural sounds, as babbling brooks, wind from trees, bird songs and human voices. 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. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. Are norwegian, finnish, danish, icelandic and swedish.
It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Unfortunately, the mutualintelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. Explaining danishswedish asymmetric word intelligibility rug. They are all very similar that most people from the three countries can understand each other. It may be due, alternatively or additionally, to more speci. Linguistic factors of danish swedish intelligibility 3. Insular scandinavian faroese and icelandic, and continental scandinavian danish, norwegian, and swedish, based on mutual intelligibility due to heavy influence of east scandinavian particularly danish on norwegian during the last millennium and divergence. Understanding of spoken language will vary greatly from per. Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects. Other languages consist of dialects which are in fact so different that. Swedish and danish for example is just as germanic as german is, and so is. Thus on grounds of mutual intelligibility, we might consider some of these languages to be dialects of a single language. Therefore, we also administered the test crosslinguistically, by having swedes respond to the danish version of the materials and danes to the swedish version. May 28, 2014 but again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility.
Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. 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. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. Pdf mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic. 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. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country, people, english user name.
Scandinavian countries, swedish, danish and norwegian, which are mutually intelligible. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. 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. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, 7 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 the proximity of the region to danishspeaking areas. Finnish, icelandic, and one of the three languages danish, norwegian and swedish. Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning. Some forums can only be seen by registered members. Of course, we also needed to ascertain that the mutual intelligibility between swedish and danish is asymmetrical, as has traditionally been claimed see above. Jun 07, 2019 whats the difference between swedish, danish and norwegian.
These factors are hypothesized to influence mutual intelligibility asymmetrically, for example, because swedish is more prevalent in the media than danish asymmetrical contact and danish is. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. So, even if you try to define a language as mutual intelligibility, then you run into problems such as the. We tested the mutual intelligibility of 15 chinese dialects functionally at the level of isolated words wordintelligibility and the level of sentences sentence intelligibility. Jeong, thoren, and othman, mutual intelligibility of malay and swedishaccented english. An experimental study hyeseung jeong1 bosse thoren2 juliana othman3 department of language and literacy education at the faculty of education, university of malaya1,3. The investigations just mentioned measured the overall intelligibility of complete texts by means of open questions. Danish and swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but german and dutch are also mutually intelligible.
Conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. Oct 23, 2019 unfortunately, the mutual intelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. Nov 23, 2010 in the present investigation, results from intelligibility tests measuring the mutual intelligibility of danish, norwegian and swedish were compared with results of similar tests of mutual intelligibility between speakers of dutch, frisian and afrikaans. There are certain sounds in both languages that to the untrained ear does not manifest themselves as anything recognizable. It appeared that mutual intelligibility is highest between norwegians and swedes, whereas danish is relatively hard to understand, especially for swedishspeaking subjects perridon 2000. Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in europe. I can speak swedish with danes and norwegians on conversational level because of. In the experiment, the intelligibility of 384 frequent swedish words was tested among danish. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages.
In the present investigation, results from intelligibility. Icelandic is related all are north germanic languages, but if icelanders and swedes, danes, norwegians want to talk, they need to use a language they have studied nowadays it is often english. Jul 08, 2012 swedish from uni and beyond after university, swedish was one of the languages i guessed i would never use. It is largely mutually intelligible with norwegian and danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the. We argue that mutual intelligibility testing is an adequate way to determine how different two languages or language varieties are. Danes perform better in tests developed to investigate. In the present investigation, results from intelligibility tests measuring the mutual intelligibility of danish, norwegian and swedish were compared with results of similar tests of mutual intelligibility between speakers of dutch, frisian and afrikaans. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians, country. The finnish woman piped up in swedish most finns can speak swedish because there is an area of finland that is swedishspeaking, so we were having a mutually intelligble conversation in norwegian, swedish, and danish. Why do the nordic countries have different languages. 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. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with norwegian and swedish. In internordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions.
Finnish, being completely different, belongs to the finnougric language family. But most i talk with speaks danish only, and that works fine too. Are danish, norwegian, and swedish mutually intelligible. Thus scots english may at first be quite unintelligible to speakers of the various varieties of standard american english, and vice versa. Pdf experimental methods for measuring intelligibility of closely. They are subdivided into east danish, swedish and westscandinavian norwegian, icelandic languages. May 31, 2009 norwegian sounds like swedish and looks like danish, due to a complex history. We correlated the results of an experiment on word intelligibility with eleven linguistic factors and carried out logistic regression analyses. These languages are mutually intelligible to a certain extent, more so in written than in spoken form. 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. Swedish from uni and beyond after university, swedish was one of the languages i guessed i would never use.
It should be realized that the amount of work involved in establishing mutual intelligibility among a set of. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert lindsay. Sep 23, 2009 are german and swedish mutually intelligible. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. It appeared that mutual intelligibility is highest between norwegians and swedes, whereas danish is relatively hard to understand, especially for swedish speaking subjects perridon 2000. The languages spoken in scandinavia are called north germanic languages and include danish, swedish, norwegian, icelandic, and faroese. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians. Internetonderzoek naar onderlinge verstaanbaarheid van.
So if youre looking for maximal mutual intelligibility, norwegian is probably your best bet. 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. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian are so closely related that the speakers mostly communicate in their own languages semicommunication. However, more recent analyses divide the north germanic languages into two groups. Lenition and the asymmetry in mutual intelligibility of. In their study on swedishdanish intelligibility, delsing and lundin akesson 2005 cite the differences in language attitudes and language exposure as the main reason for the asymmetric intel ligibility between swedish and danish, but they do not report correlations between these factors and intelligibility.
Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country. An example of a lexical asymmetry is the word for room which is rum in both danish and swedish but can also be v. That was true for a year or so, but then i started working with scandinavians and i began to familiarise myself with the danish and norwegian languages, so i could better understand the slight differences to join in fully with. Whats the difference between a language and a dialect. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of interscandinavian. 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.
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. This paper reports on an investigation of the mutual intelligibility of the three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian. The muchdiscussed mutual intelligibility between the scandinavian languages leaves much to be desired, though between norwegian and the rest, it is higher. Having a large body of recognizable vocabulary is a necessary condition for mutual intelligibility, but it is nowhere near sufficient. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the. Delsing and lundina u kesson, 2005 who determined mutual intelligibility among scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish using a comprehension test with just. This thesis focuses on the asymmetrical mutual intelligibility relation of danish and swedish, combining production and perception of native and nonnative sounds to investigate the role of lenition and phonetic dissimilarities between languages in mutual intelligibility.
The asymmetry in intelligibility between swedish and danish has often been explained as the result of a difference in attitudes. But swedish, danish, and norwegian are official languages of separate countries, and there are separate spelling conventions for some of the sounds in the languages. It would be great if i could also learn icelandic, although danish, swedish, and norweigan sound alot more interesting. It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important. Intelligibility of germanic languages underestimated. The intelligibility of the same swedish text by danes tested in six different test conditions doetjes 2007. Internet experiment testing swedishdanish mutual intelligibility at the word level.
Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely. From what ive heard, written danish and norwegian are closest, and spoken swedish and norwegian are closest. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte. Previous research has shown that the danishswedish mutual intelligibility is asymmetric at the text level. Mutual intelligibility will also depend, it appears, on other factors such as listeners degree of exposure to the other. In the present investigation we aim to determine to which degree various linguistic factors contribute to the intelligibility of swedish words among danes. Are scandinavian languages mutually understandable. If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. True, given enough time and goodwill, mutual intelligibility can be achieved without too much effort. Nov 16, 2014 its rare to meet a dane who speaks swedish, but it does happen sometimes, i can very much imagine thats around % or so. Spoken by more than 10 million people, swedish is a scandinavian language that has mutual intelligibility with danish and norwegian, and has the status of an official language in sweden as well as in finland. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members its free and quick. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. People, especially older, from southern sweden and eastern denmark communicate reasonably well face to face. Dutch, german, english, swedish and danish are all germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, but swedes in the oresund region including malmo and helsingborg. Linguistic determinants of the intelligibility of swedish. I can speak swedish with danes and norwegians on conversational level because of the mutual intelligibility. If you know one of the scandinavian languages, do you know them all. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. Swedish, danish and norwegian would almost certainly be considered dialects of a common language. But again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. Pdf the influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual intelligibility.
Testing mutual intelligibility between closely related. Even though the three west germanic languages dutch, frisian and afrikaans are also closely related, semicommunication is not usual between these languages. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages 2712009 2 introduction. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility.
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