They are all very similar that most people from the three countries can understand each other. Danish is largely mutually intelligible with norwegian and swedish. In the present investigation, results from intelligibility. Nov 30, 2010 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.
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. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. 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. Previous research has shown that the danishswedish mutual intelligibility is asymmetric at the text level. Norwegian sounds like swedish and looks like danish, due to a complex history. There are certain sounds in both languages that to the untrained ear does not manifest themselves as anything recognizable.
Are norwegian, finnish, danish, icelandic and swedish. Other languages consist of dialects which are in fact so different that. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. 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. Of course, we also needed to ascertain that the mutual intelligibility between swedish and danish is asymmetrical, as has traditionally been claimed see above. Pdf mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic. Scandinavian countries, swedish, danish and norwegian, which are mutually intelligible. Swedish from uni and beyond after university, swedish was one of the languages i guessed i would never use.
I can speak swedish with danes and norwegians on conversational level because of the mutual intelligibility. This paper reports on an investigation of the mutual intelligibility of the three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian. It should be realized that the amount of work involved in establishing mutual intelligibility among a set of. Swedish, danish and norwegian would almost certainly be considered dialects of a common language. Why do the nordic countries have different languages. Therefore, we also administered the test crosslinguistically, by having swedes respond to the danish version of the materials and danes to the swedish version. Jun 07, 2019 whats the difference between swedish, danish and norwegian. Finnish, being completely different, belongs to the finnougric language family. 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 asymmetry in intelligibility between swedish and danish has often been explained as the result of a difference in attitudes.
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. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians. The north germanic languages are national languages in denmark, iceland, norway and sweden, whereas the nongermanic finnish is spoken by the majority in finland. Dutch, german, english, swedish and danish are all germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. Delsing and lundina u kesson, 2005 who determined mutual intelligibility among scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish using a comprehension test with just. Danish and swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but german and dutch are also mutually intelligible. Swedish and danish for example is just as germanic as german is, and so is. So if youre looking for maximal mutual intelligibility, norwegian is probably your best bet. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. Its rare to meet a dane who speaks swedish, but it does happen sometimes, i can very much imagine thats around % or so. People, especially older, from southern sweden and eastern denmark communicate reasonably well face to face.
Are scandinavian languages mutually understandable. May 31, 2009 norwegian sounds like swedish and looks like danish, due to a complex history. 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. 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. I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. 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. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members its free and quick. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility. Sep 23, 2009 are german and swedish mutually intelligible. It would be great if i could also learn icelandic, although danish, swedish, and norweigan sound alot more interesting.
Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. 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 best, country. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. 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. In the experiment, the intelligibility of 384 frequent swedish words was tested among danish. 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. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages 2712009 2 introduction. Mutual intelligibility will also depend, it appears, on other factors such as listeners degree of exposure to the other. The investigations just mentioned measured the overall intelligibility of. A little bit of danish plus a lot of german and i can understand a surprising amount of norwegian and swedish.
Even though the three west germanic languages dutch, frisian and afrikaans are also closely related, semicommunication is not usual between these languages. In the present investigation we aim to determine to which degree various linguistic factors contribute to the intelligibility of swedish words among danes. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important. Like to know more about the history and culture of the northic countries, especially sweden. 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. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. 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. Explaining danishswedish asymmetric word intelligibility rug. Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects.
The intelligibility of norwegianaccented english which phonetic features of. The investigations just mentioned measured the overall intelligibility of complete texts by means of open questions. Conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. If you know one of the scandinavian languages, do you know them all. Thus on grounds of mutual intelligibility, we might consider some of these languages to be dialects of a single language. Germanic language mutual intelligibility austrians, country. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf.
Internet experiment testing swedishdanish mutual intelligibility at the word level. 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. 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. Having a large body of recognizable vocabulary is a necessary condition for mutual intelligibility, but it is nowhere near sufficient. An example of a lexical asymmetry is the word for room which is rum in both danish and swedish but can also be v. 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. Lenition and the asymmetry in mutual intelligibility of. 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. Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning.
From what ive heard, written danish and norwegian are closest, and spoken swedish and norwegian are closest. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country, people, english user name. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely. Pdf the influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual intelligibility.
Linguistic determinants of the intelligibility of swedish. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the. Are danish, norwegian, and swedish mutually intelligible. Whats the difference between a language and a dialect. Some forums can only be seen by registered members. We tested the mutual intelligibility of 15 chinese dialects functionally at the level of isolated words wordintelligibility and the level of sentences sentence intelligibility. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of interscandinavian.
The intelligibility of the same swedish text by danes tested in six different test conditions doetjes 2007. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the slavic. So, even if you try to define a language as mutual intelligibility, then you run into problems such as the. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. 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. 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. 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. Jul 08, 2012 swedish from uni and beyond after university, swedish was one of the languages i guessed i would never use. 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.
These languages are mutually intelligible to a certain extent, more so in written than in spoken form. But again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. 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. Translation for intelligibility in the free englishswedish dictionary and many other swedish translations. Understanding of spoken language will vary greatly from per. The languages spoken in scandinavia are called north germanic languages and include danish, swedish, norwegian, icelandic, and faroese. 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.
It may be due, alternatively or additionally, to more speci. They are subdivided into east danish, swedish and westscandinavian norwegian, icelandic languages. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. Danes perform better in tests developed to investigate. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. True, given enough time and goodwill, mutual intelligibility can be achieved without too much effort. The largest problems are found in the mutual intelligibility between swedes and danes. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian are so closely related that the speakers mostly communicate in their own languages semicommunication. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, but swedes in the oresund region including malmo and helsingborg. Swedish is a descendant of old norse, the language spoken in scandinavia during the viking era. Internetonderzoek naar onderlinge verstaanbaarheid van.
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. 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. We argue that mutual intelligibility testing is an adequate way to determine how different two languages or language varieties are. May 28, 2014 but again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. However, more recent analyses divide the north germanic languages into two groups. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert lindsay. Unfortunately, the mutualintelligibility 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. Linguistic factors of danish swedish intelligibility 3. In internordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent.
Finnish, icelandic, and one of the three languages danish, norwegian and swedish. 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. Intelligibility of germanic languages underestimated. 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. We correlated the results of an experiment on word intelligibility with eleven linguistic factors and carried out logistic regression analyses. 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. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested. Testing mutual intelligibility between closely related. An experimental study hyeseung jeong1 bosse thoren2 juliana othman3 department of language and literacy education at the faculty of education, university of malaya1,3. I can speak swedish with danes and norwegians on conversational level because of. But most i talk with speaks danish only, and that works fine too.
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