Are german and dutch in their standard forms mutually. The mutual intelligibility is partial and perhaps asymmetric, but one can often discern the meanings of the majority of the words in a sentence, and correctly infer the grammar. We have studied the mutual intelligibility of chinese, dutch and american native speakers of english. Counting languages in dialect continua using the criterion. Sep 03, 2007 spoken dutch and spoken german are not mutual intelligible unless, probably, you speak a german dialect close to the dutch border problem being. German, for instance, would not be considered a single language because some types of german are not intelligible to speakers of other types. Mutual intelligibility is a continuum that is, a gradient concept, marked by degrees of intelligibility, not by sharp divisions. Gooskens 2007 determined mutual intelligibility among three westgermanic languages frisian, dutch, afrikaans. The east germanic branch included gothic, burgundian, and vandalic, all of which are now extinct. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. Standard dutch and standard german show a limited degree of mutual. I recently saw a video on youtube explaining the mutual intelligibility between russian and ukrainian. 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. Processes of increasing mutual intelligibility between language varieties processes of increasing mutual intelligibility between language varieties karam, francis x.
The present study aimed at gaining insight into the phoneticphonological factors playing a role in dutch german intelligibility at the word level for speakers of the respective languages in a. 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. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Germanic language mutual intelligibility travel, people. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. By this i mean, a little bit, usually only with some amount of priming and exposure. 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. In general, i think that dutch natives understand german much better than the other way around, at least in spoken form.
It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important. Similarly, bezooijen and gooskens 2007 investigated the intelligibility of written afrikaans and frisian texts for dutch speakers and reported the association between the levenshtien distance and mutual intelli. Many languages are so closely related that they are mutually intelligible to a certain extent. Mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic family. Standard german was actually not or rarely spoken in family life in most northern german regions, well into the 20th century. Receptive intelligibility of turkish to iranianazerbaijani speakers. Based on an experimental study, haz 2005 reports that mutual. With respect to mutual intelligibility, though, studies regarding the standard languages are rare. Pdf intelligibility of standard german and low german to speakers. House english huis dutch haus german fish english vis dutch fisch german and tons more. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic.
Hi, seeing as though icelandic has stood frozen in time since the middle ages and hasnt changed a single bit from. It may be orthography, morphologylexicon, or phonetics. New zealand new zealand aotearoa old english mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility of dutchgerman cognates by children. Haz 2008 can easily be explained extralinguistically geography, dominance, education, media. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. I have tried to speak to my roommates in dutch sometimes but they just look at me wideeyed, lol. Sep 23, 2009 german and dutch, on the other hand, have a lexical similarity of 0. All germanic languages are derived from protogermanic, spoken in iron. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely. Under colonialism, thailand was an independent kingdom, but laos was under french rule.
Dutch between german and english dutch language blog. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic and. In this way we may talk of the parisian dialect of french, the lancashire dialect of english, the bavarian dialect of german, and so on. Mutual int elligibility of languages in the slavic family hvar, vis, korcula, peljesac, the dalmatian coast at zadar and split, and inland at gacka. One study concluded that when concerning written language, dutch speakers could translate 50.
Dutch, frisian and afrikaans and reported that mutual intelligibility can be predicted based on phonetic and lexical distances. We report on a largescale investigation of the mutual intelligibility between five germanic languages. It may also be the case that dialects belonging to the same language lack mutual intelligibility. German volkssprache as opposed to a possible classical language which may have a position of dominance in cultural or ecclesiastical spheres 4 mutual intelligibility of dialects here one is confronted with the problem of how to distinguish between language and dialect and with the related. Based on experimental studies of sentence and text understanding, haz 2005 reports that mutual intelligibility between standard dutch and standard german is possible to a certain extent.
Danish and swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but german and dutch are also mutually intelligible. Asymmetry has been observed, for example, between spanish and portuguese and between czech and slovak. These similarilities aside, though, it doesnt necessarily make mutual intelligibility so easy. When the set of languages exceeds ten, only opinion tests are employed e. Predicting the mutual intelligibility of germanic languages. The dutch dialects are heteronymous with respect to standard dutch, and the german dialects to standard german, the respective superimposed autonomous standard varieties. Mutual intelligibility in the germanic language area. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages.
Native and nonnative judgments of intelligibility and irritation. If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. Pdf mutual intelligibility of dutchgerman cognates by. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of mutual intelligibility. Im unable to find any resources that commit to an unequivocal percentage of mutual intelligibility between dutch and german, but this paper pdf warning from the university of groningen in the netherlands using german and dutch speaking children seems to indicate that intelligibility is asymetrical dutch speakers tend to understand german more easily than the reverse, and that mutual. Most of my friends said that dutch is relatively easy to read, and i agree. Dialects, that is, can be regarded as subdivisions of a particular language. Lexical and orthographic distances between germanic, romance. While others say that dutch is more like german because like german it is a verb second language and sends the finite.
On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. Pdf this paper reports on the intelligibility of spoken low german and. The present study aimed at gaining insight into the phoneticphonological factors playing a role in dutchgerman intelligibility at the word level for speakers of the respective languages in a. Furthermore, mutual intelligibility may not be equal in both directions. The language intelligibility problem is also mentioned in the report published in 2007 at the european commission by the high level group on multilingualism hlgm, which emphasizes a lack of knowledge about mutual intelligibility between closely re.
Previous studies have indicated that mutual intelligibility between closely related language pairs is sometimes asymmetric. Also swiss german is very different from high german standard german. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested tang chaoju a,b, vincent j. Mutual intelligibility between language pairs is sometimes asymmetric. As for intelligibility, previous research has shown that danish and swedish are mutually intelligible to a large extent. 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 is a situation in which two or more speakers of a language or of closely related languages can understand each other. Mutual intelligibility of american chinese and dutchaccented english. German and dutch mutual intelligibility wordreference. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility post by sillygoose1 mon mar 21, 2016 11. Lexical and orthographic distances between germanic. The most widely spoken germanic language, english, is the worlds most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. 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.
Intelligibility of germanic languages underestimated. 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. In addition, kajkavian croatian, spoken in northwest croatia and similar to slovenian, is not intelligible. Mutual intelligibility of dutch and german cognates by humans and.
I regard the differences only a little bit more pronounced than those between dutch and german on the other hand. While dutch as a language of the group of west german languages is closely related to frisian and low german, standard german is heavily inluenced by all german dialects except frisian, low german and swiss german. German romanian polish swedish spanish slovak slovene present project. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. There is also several dialects within in germany that may or may not be considered as languages, most noteably low german plattdeutsch.
Im unable to find any resources that commit to an unequivocal percentage of mutual intelligibility between dutch and german, but this paper pdf warning from the university of groningen in the netherlands using german and dutch speaking children seems to indicate that intelligibility is asymetrical dutch speakers tend to understand german more easily than the reverse, and that. Dutch has a relatively close genetic relationship to the descendants of old and middle english such as english and scots, though less than the. Also, there is an article on wikipedia called mutual intelligibility, and it has a nice list of mutually intelligible languages. The same methodology has also been used for measuring lexical distances between languages. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Mutual intelligibility of chinese, dutch and american speakers of english. Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility post by sillygoose1. The bestdocumented case of asymmetric intelligibility is danishswedish. Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility a language. German and dutch is said to be partially intelligeble with eachothers, and dutch is mutally intelligible with afrikaans. German deutsch, pronounced is a west germanic language that is mainly spoken in central europe.
Are german and dutch mutually intelligible and to what. Intelligibility, low german, dutch, levenshtein distance, language contact. Spoken dutch and spoken german are not mutual intelligible unless, probably, you speak a german dialect close to the dutch border problem being. The proper term for what youre asking is linguistic distance. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested. Some say that dutch has an overlay of german likeness due to linguistic influence, but that on a basic level, dutch is more like english. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country.
I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. Other studies of mutual intelligibility in the westgermanic dialect continuum deal with either german dialects only cf. Im unable to find any resources that commit to an unequivocal percentage of mutual intelligibility between dutch and german, but this paper pdf warning from. As for mutual intelligibility between dutch and german, all i can say is that living in maastricht, im surrounded by a lot of germans including my roommates and i have never witnessed communication between germans and dutch that was not in english. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte gooskensa, vincent j. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. Mutual intelligibility between german and dutch i am a native dutch speaker who also knows a bit of german. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. Learning german as a native dutch speaker german language. Processes of increasing mutual intelligibility between. Sometimes it is also called lexical distance, if only lexical units have been comparedmeasured also, there is an article on wikipedia called mutual intelligibility, and it has a nice list of mutually intelligible languages as noticed, there are several aspects by which linguistic distances ld between a certain pair of. Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects. Languages understandable to englishspeakers without learning.
Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in europe. In my own experience, i picked up lots of dutch very quickly and was able to have short conversations with people after just a week or two studying dutch. As noticed, there are several aspects by which linguistic distances ld between a certain pair of languages may differ. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. It is the most widely spoken and official or coofficial language in germany, austria, switzerland, south tyrol in italy, the german speaking community of belgium, and liechtenstein. Standard dutch and standard german show a limited degree of mutual intelligibility when written. The devil is in the detail article pdf available in linguistics 532 march 2015 with 307 reads how we measure reads. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in scandinavia. Intelligibility involves a lot of other things, like. Dutch, german, english, swedish and danish are all germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. 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. German students in the netherlands generally learn to understand and speak dutch in a very short period of time.
Alsatian and swiss german mutual intelligibility a. And since dutch and german are just the two literary languages for a single dialect continuum, lots of dutch speakers and lots of german speakers in the border region are also exposed to the respective other literary language and so can at least understand it. Counting languages in dialect continua using the criterion of. As for intelligibility, previous research has shown that danish and swedish are mutually intelligible to a. Mutual intelligibility of dutch and german cognates. It is one of the three official languages of luxembourg and a coofficial language in the opole voivodeship in poland.
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