Norwegians are generally better at understanding swedish than vice versa. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. Why some speakers cant understand speakers who understand. 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. Danish swedish mutual intelligibility black lake series 1 episode 2. The present study investigates the crosslinguistic intelligibility of malayaccented english and swedishaccented english, regarding the three phonetic features word stress pattern, consonant. It may be orthography, morphologylexicon, or phonetics. I understand these three are, to an extent, mutually intelligible.
It is a north germanic language and quite similar to its sister scandinavian languages, danish and norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forming a dialect continuum. The study looks at the intelligibility of auditory and written material and concludes that. Im danish and i read norwegian with no problem at all ive often mistaken norwegian for badly spelled danish before i realized that it wasnt actually my language while swedish is a little harder, but there is still no problem. I am aware of the mutual intelligibility of the languages. Unfortunately, the mutualintelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. A result of swedens cultural influence in scandinavia and that tv shows and movies tend to flow out of sweden and into neighboring denmark and norway more than the opposite.
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. Are danish, norwegian, and swedish mutually intelligible. Dialects of english not mutually intelligible with. It should be realized that the amount of work involved in establishing mutual intelligibility among a set of. 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. Is norwegian as mutually intelligible with danish and. Its a graphical representation of how close european languages are. 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. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally tested. 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.
This paper reports on an investigation of the mutual intelligibility of the three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. Lets talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the germanic languages. Also, there is an article on wikipedia called mutual intelligibility, and it has a nice list of mutually intelligible languages. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic.
Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of inter. Understanding of spoken language will vary greatly from per. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte gooskens. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert lindsay. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Internetonderzoek naar onderlinge verstaanbaarheid van.
Reading tends to be significantly easier in my experience. True, given enough time and goodwill, mutual intelligibility can be achieved without too much effort. If this is true it may be because, as scandinavians sometimes say, norwegian is pronounced like danish is spelt, while danish pronunciation bears a rather more. Swedish and norwegian, are more readily understood by danish listeners. Are norwegian, finnish, danish, icelandic and swedish. The bestdocumented case of asymmetric intelligibility is danish swedish. Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning. 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. To what degree do neighbouring languages share mutual intelligibility. Duolingo is annoying because 99% of the time it is just slightly altered swedish, so i was hoping there was something geared more towards people who speak swedish. Pdf conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. The source that was cited clearly doesnt show this in my opinion. To what degree do neighbouring languages share mutual. 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.
Swedish is the official language of sweden and is spoken by the vast majority of the 10 million inhabitants of the country. Pdf mutual intelligibility of malay and swedishaccented. Other languages consist of dialects which are in fact so different that. For those who speak at least one of the three, is there a particular order to learn these languages. Like between the slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between germanic languages. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert. Generally, speakers of the three largest scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish can read each others languages without great difficulty. Conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects. As noticed, there are several aspects by which linguistic distances ld between a certain pair of languages may differ.
Even though the three west germanic languages dutch, frisian and afrikaans are also closely related, semicommunication is not usual between these languages. Jun 07, 2019 whats the difference between swedish, danish and norwegian. Kajkavian has higher mutual intelligibility with slovene than the national varieties of shtokavian, while chakavian has a low mutual intelligibility with either, in part due to large number of loanwords from venetian. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from. They are subdivided into east danish, swedish and westscandinavian norwegian, icelandic languages.
If compared with other languages, are german and swedish closer to each other than french and spanish are to each other. This strategy is widely used for communication among speakers of the three mainland scandinavian languages, i. The article states that mutual intelligibility means mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without intentional study or special effort. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages introduction.
In internordic contexts, texts are today often presented in three versions. They are all very similar that most people from the three countries can understand each other. 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. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. These languages are so closely related that the speakers mostly use their own lan. My wife is from the western part of norway and dont understand swedish half as well as i do.
How can the mutual intelligibility between closely related languages be measured. However, more recent analyses divide the north germanic languages into two groups. I do know that, from a linguistichistoric perspective rather than a mutual intelligibility perspective, norwegian is more closely related to icelandic and faroese than swedish or danish. 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.
The muchdiscussed mutual intelligibility between the scandinavian languages. Its easier for danish speakers to understand swedish than the other way around. Here danish has the reputation of being poorly intelligible to other scandinavian listeners, whilst the other scandinavian languages, i. This holds especially true of danish and norwegian. Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely.
Are scandinavian languages mutually understandable. Scandinavian countries, swedish, danish and norwegian, which are mutually intelligible. Recordings by native speakers from southern sweden, norway, and denmark. Comparison of norwegian bokmal and standard danish wikipedia. Swedish and norwegian languages versus chinese dialects. Oct 23, 2019 unfortunately, the mutual intelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. Just that words that are the same in finland swedish are also spelled the same as in. Pdf experimental methods for measuring intelligibility of closely. If you know one of the scandinavian languages, do you know them all.
Previous studies have indicated that mutual intelligibility between closely related language pairs is sometimes asymmetric. They are so closely related that they are sometimes considered dialects of a common, nonexistent, language maurud 1976, braunmuller 2002. An intriguing case of nonreciprocal intelligibility is found in northern europe. Pdf the influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual intelligibility. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. Asymmetry has been observed, for example, between spanish and portuguese and between czech and slovak. The clearest linguistic criteria that we have mutual intelligibility is ruled out by your question, because that would make the question selfcontradictory. Sep 23, 2009 are german and swedish mutually intelligible. What is the level of mutual intelligibility of closely related languages in europe. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in pronunciation. Today i want compare swedish, danish and norwegian with each other. Mutual intelligibility may also not be equal in both directions. Germanic language mutual intelligibility people, england, english, swedish user name.
What factors play a role in mutual intelligibility. In the present investigation, results from intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. Linguistic and extralinguistic predictors of interscandinavian. It is often said, for instance, that danes understand norwegians better than norwegians understand danes. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility of. Observed semicommunication zeevaert 2004 danish norwegian swedish haugen 1966, maurud 1976. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. Germanic language mutual intelligibility people, england. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country.
Pdf the languages danish and swedish are so similar to each other that they are partially mutually intelligible. My question relates to language mutual intelligibility, specifically for norwegian, swedish, and danish. 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. I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. Othman, 2017 looked at mutual intelligibility between malaysianaccented english and swedish accented english. Finnish, being completely different, belongs to the finnougric language family. Hi, im a secondlanguage learner of swedish and i want to actually learn to speak norwegian. The languages spoken in scandinavia are called north germanic languages and include danish, swedish, norwegian, icelandic, and faroese. Faroese, icelandic faculty of arts university of groningen mutual intelligibility for the mainland scandinavian languages, mutual intelligibility is in. Like to know more about the history and culture of the northic countries, especially sweden. How mutually intelligible are the finnish language and the.
One sign of that that i know of is that norwegian, icelandic and faroese have the classical indoeuropean gender system of malefemaleneuter, while swedish. Hence, the present study examined the distance and the mutual intelligibility between amharic and two tigrigna varieties together with the effect of the attitude on the mutual. I would say that swedish, danish and norwegian can be to a fairly high degree mutually intelligible, but it depends a lot on dialects, and there are a lot of dialects spread out across the region. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian are so closely related that the speakers mostly communicate in their own languages semicommunication. Languages of sweden wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. There are a lot of swedes here, so swedish is a language i understand very well.
But again, this is a separate discussion from mutual intelligibility. Their mutual intelligibility varies greatly, both between the dialects themselves as well as with other languages. Internet experiment testing swedishdanish mutual intelligibility at the word level. Delsing and lundina u kesson, 2005 who determined mutual intelligibility among scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish using a comprehension test with just. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. Linguistic determinants of mutual intelligibility in.
Mutual intelligibility of scandinavian languages archive. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish constitute an interesting linguistic community with respect to mutual intelligibility. Introduction this paper reports on an investigation of the mutual intelligibility of the three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian. 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. In earlier investigations on interscandinavian intelligibility, mutual intelligibility has often been tested in the capitals only e. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. It is a north germanic language and quite similar to its sister scandinavian languages, danish and norwegian, with which it maintains partial mutual intelligibility and forming. May 31, 2009 norwegian sounds like swedish and looks like danish, due to a complex history. Danish is a language you need to be exposed to to understand, because of the pronunciation. How well do speakers of closely related european languages understand each other in nonnative english compared to semicommunication.
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. But you might like this map, its one of my favourites and i find it oddly fascinating. 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. Having a large body of recognizable vocabulary is a necessary condition for mutual intelligibility, but it is nowhere near sufficient. Mutual intelligibility between speakers of north and west. The north germanic languages are national languages in denmark, iceland, norway and sweden, whereas the nongermanic finnish is spoken by the majority in finland. English scots frisian german luxembourgish yiddish dutch afrikaans north germanic. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, but swedes in the oresund region including malmo and helsingborg. Thus scots english may at first be quite unintelligible to speakers of the various varieties of standard american english, and vice versa.
These listeners came from nine different towns in denmark, norway, sweden and the swedish speaking part of finland see figure 2. Closely related languages a and b have lower mutual. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic and. 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.
Swedish and norwegian have higher mutual intelligibility than swedish and danish. It belongs to the finnougric family along with estonian and hungarian. Thus on grounds of mutual intelligibility, we might consider some of these languages to be dialects of a single language. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. All of those are germanic except finnish which belongs to the uralic language family and is therefore more related to hungarian and estonian. Finnish, icelandic, and one of the three languages danish, norwegian and swedish. How close is the norwegian language to the swedish language.