Mutually intelligible languages
(Redirected from Mutually intelligible)
Categories: Incomplete lists | Languages | Linguistics
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a property exhibited by two or more distinct languages when speakers of one or more of the languages can readily understand at least one or more of the other language(s) without intentional study or extraordinary effort. Mutually intelligibility can be asymmetric between the languages, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understand of the first. It exists in differing degrees among many related or geographically proximate languages of the world, often in the context of a dialect continuum.
Contents |
Intelligibility
For individuals to achieve moderate proficiency or understanding in a language (called L2) other than their mother tongue or first language (L1) typically requires considerable time and effort through study and/or practical application. However, for those many groups of languages displaying mutual intelligibility, namely, those, usually genetically related languages, similar to each other in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, or other features, speakers of one language usually find it relatively easy to achieve some degree of understanding in the related language(s). Languages mutually intelligible but not genetically related may be creoles and parent languages, or geographically adjacent variants of two unrelated languages.
However, intelligibility among languages can vary between individuals or groups within a language population, according to their knowledge of various registers and vocabulary in their own language, their interest in or familiarity with other cultures, psycho-cognitive traits, and other factors.
Asymmetry
Asymmetries often exist in the natural mutual intelligibility between languages. For example, in the case of speakers of Spanish and Portuguese, Spanish-speakers almost universally report substantially greater difficulty in attempting to understand Portuguese (especially in spoken form) than is true of Portuguese-speakers attempting to understand Spanish.
Mutually intelligible languages or variants of one language?
According to some definitions, two or more languages that demonstrate a sufficiently high degree of mutual intelligibility should properly not be considered two distinct languages but, in fact, multiple variants of the same language. Conversely, it is sometimes the case that different varieties of what is considered the same language—according to popular belief, governmental stance, or historical convention—are not, in fact, mutually intelligible in practice. (For more on this, see Dialect, and Dialect continuum——as well as Diasystem and Diglossia for two closely related but distinct language forms.)
Selected list of mutually intelligible languages
Written and spoken forms
Indo-European
- Germanic
- Afrikaans, Dutch, Frisian and Low Saxon.
- German and Yiddish, both rooted in West Germanic vocabulary
- Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The three are considered to comprise the Mainland Scandinavian group. Written Danish and the Bokmål form of Norwegian are particularly close, though the phonology and prosody of all three languages differ somewhat. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can understand the others, though studies have shown that speakers of Norwegian generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand any of the other languages. See also Scandinavia#Languages
- English and Lowland Scots ("Doric")
- Slavic
- Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian - the East Slavic branch
- Bulgarian and Macedonian - the eastern group of the South Slavic branch
- Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian (also previously classified as just one language: Serbo-Croatian) - the western group of the South Slavic branch
- Polish, Slovak, Slovene and Czech, ethnically and politically close - the Czech-Slovak group of the West Slavic branch
- Romance
- Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian
- Catalan, Occitan,self-defined as separate languages only since 1934, and Friulian
- French, Walloon, Romansh, and Occitan
- French and its Norman-descended cousins the Channel Island languages of Sercquiais (Sarkese), Dgèrnésiais, and Jèrriais
- Italian (Standard) and various regional languages/dialects of Italy
- Occitan and northern Italian dialects
- Portuguese, Galician to a large degree with Spanish.
- Portuguese and Galician self-defined as separate languages. Portuguese evolved out of Galician (Gallego).
- Portuguese, Spanish, Italian are to some degree mutually intelligible.
- Romanian and Moldovan, which are actually the same language differentiated due to political reasons.
- Romanian and Aromanian
- Indo-Iranian
- Punjabi, Seraiki, and Hindko.
Austronesian
- Samoan and Tongan
- Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia (linguistically two slightly different variants of the same language, distinguished for political-cultural reasons). See also Differences between Malay and Indonesian
Tai-Kadai
- Thai and Laotian
- Lao and the Isan Thai language. The two are extremely similar and may in fact be variants of one language.
Turkic
Finno-Ugric
Bantu
Spoken form only
- Uzbek and Uyghur
- Indo-European
Written form only
- Mandarin and Cantonese (but not if the vernacular is written)
- Written Chinese can usually be read to a limited degree by those proficient Japanese; the reverse is also true but to a less-extensive degree because of the wide use of graphs in Japanese that have no easily discernable relation, if any, to those used in Chinese.
- Those proficient in Icelandic can read Old Norse with little difficulty.
- College-educated Modern Greeks can read Classical Greek with little difficulty.
- Scottish Gaelic and Irish, sister variants of the Goidelic Celtic branch
Selected list of related languages not mutually intelligible
- Many Germanic languages, though related, are generally not mutually intelligible.
- English and Low German including Dutch
- Levantine Arabic and Maghreb Arabic
- Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes have difficulty understanding Icelandic
- Spoken Mandarin and spoken Cantonese
- Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia are not mutually intelligible with Tagalog.
- Romance languages:
- French is not mutually intelligible with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Romanian.
- Romanian is not mutually intelligible with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or French.
- Slavic languages, are related and to various degrees mutually intelligible. Asymmetrical mutual intelligibility exists between Bulgarian and Macedonian on one hand and the other Slavic languages on the other. That is because Bulgarian and Macedonian have distinctly different grammar. Bulgarian speakers understand other Slavs easier than the other way round.
- Russian and Polish are largely not mutually intelligible but Ukrainian is mutually intelligible to some degree to both, being believed by many to be an intermediary form in the dialect continuum.
- Finnish and Estonian, have almost no mutual intelligibility, although Estonian speakers can understand some Finnish with difficulty.
Selected list of mutually intelligible languages now extinct
- Biblical-era Hebrew, Moabite, Edomite, Ammonite and Phoenician. The first four of these formed the closely-related south Canaanite language language group and are sometimes termed "Hebrew languages".
- Various Germanic languages in Antiquity and early Middle Ages, including Old Norse, Old English, Old Saxon, Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic.
- Faroese and Norn (extinct)
- Old Avestan and Vedic Sanskrit
- Latin and Faliscan
- Dalmatian and eastern Italian variants may have had some intelligibility