Norwegian and swedish are closer in terms of pronunciation, but the words differ. Danish swedish mutual intelligibility black lake series 1 episode 2. The reason behind their mutual intelligibility is that they all originated from north germanic language family and have similar roots. Once you learn swedish, it will open the door to the danish and norwegian, thanks to a high level of mutual intelligibility between three. It should be realized that the amount of work involved in establishing mutual intelligibility among a set of.
With more than 10 million native speakers, swedish is the most widely spoken among the family of north germanic. 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. Internetonderzoek naar onderlinge verstaanbaarheid van. Pdf conditional entropy measures intelligibility among related. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. In some cases, a specific word will be used in norwegian and another in danish. 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. Overview of the number of subjects, per intelligibility test and town shaded cells and total, percentage of boys and girls, and mean age per town. Germanic language mutual intelligibility place, best. Swedish and norwegian speakers get subtitles on danish tv. Mutual intelligibility occurs mostly amongst languages of the same origin like among the scandinavian languages, germanic languages etc.
In the scandinavian languages swedish norwegian danish its called tysk for german, and germansk for germanic. The languages spoken in scandinavia are called north germanic languages and include danish, swedish, norwegian, icelandic, and faroese. Whats the difference between a language and a dialect. 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. I like to think of the scandinavian languages like three sisters. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and norwegian are so closely related that the speakers mostly communicate in their own languages semicommunication. The muchdiscussed mutual intelligibility between the scandinavian languages leaves much to. For those who speak at least one of the three, is there a particular order to learn these languages. Are danish, norwegian, and swedish mutually intelligible.
Determinants of mutual intelligibility between closely. Danish and swedish are the most mutually comprehensible, but german and dutch are also mutually intelligible. Danish is a language you need to be exposed to to understand, because of the pronunciation. I understand these three are, to an extent, mutually intelligible. For example, danish tourists travelling to sweden will often speak their. In a few of these areas, swedish is the predominant language. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in pronunciation.
These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. Scandinavian countries, swedish, danish and norwegian, which are mutually intelligible. Even though the three west germanic languages dutch, frisian and afrikaans are also closely related, semicommunication is not usual between these languages. 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.
However, in nearly all cases, both words will exist in the other language and have pretty much the. Which of the following pair or set of languages can be considered as single languages based on the extent of mutual intelligibility therefore similar to each other. Made this thing on the unique letters of the north. Examples of mutual intelligibility can be found for instance between czech and slovak significantly, between dutch and afrikaans and partially between finish and estonian all both in written and spoken forms. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert lindsay. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert. Intelligibility of germanic languages underestimated.
The main difference between danish and norwegian is the spelling of and pronunciation of words the words are the same words, just spelled very slightly differently. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. This is a subreddit for anybody interested in the pursuit of languages. Pdf the influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual intelligibility. Danish, swedish and norwegian are said to have very high mutual intelligibility to the point that everyone just speaks in their own language in the scandinavian countries, with icelandic and faroese constituting another branch which is not as much as mutually intelligible. Norwegian, danish, and swedishmutually intelligible. They are all very similar that most people from the three countries can understand each other. Germanic language mutual intelligibility poland, country. Interscandinavian intelligibility mutual intelligibility is often imperfect alternative for a lingua franca or active command of l2 scientific knowledge is lacking about determinants of mutual intelligibility.
Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe. The similarity and mutual intelligibility between amharic. They are subdivided into east danish, swedish and westscandinavian norwegian, icelandic languages. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. Iceland has to a very large degree regulated the change introduced to its language, as opposed to norwegian, swedish and danish. Til danish, norwegian and swedish are mutually intelligible.
Some preliminary results from danish and swedish preschoolers article pdf available january 2010 with 2,555 reads. 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. The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility of. Mutual intelligibility may also not be equal in both directions. 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. How mutually intelligible are the finnish language and the. While norway was under danish rule, the bokmal written standard of. Swedish, the eldest sister, is certainly the tallest.
I have read some discussions about the mutual intelligibility between the two languages, but people seem to have different opinions. The three mainland scandinavian languages danish, swedish and. Danish and norwegian are very similar, or indeed almost identical when it comes to vocabulary, but they sound very different from one another. On the other hand, the most hindering factor in the swedish norwegian communication is the differences in vocabularies, while the phonetic similarities are an advantage for the mutual intelligibility. 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. The influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual intelligibility. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which. Swedish, norwegian, and danish, the three major scandinavian languages, are examples of languages mutually understandable.
Generally, speakers of the three largest scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish can read. Why, and which nordic or scandinavian languages to learn. Generally, speakers of the three largest scandinavian languages danish, norwegian and swedish can read and speak each others languages without great difficulty. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. There are a lot of swedes here, so swedish is a language i understand very well. In written form, danish, swedish and norwegian are quite good understandable for dutch and germans who have some feeling for languages. My norwegian friend informs me that danish is closest to norwegian, but that swedish can usually be worked out as its not hugely different. Taiwanese all speaking chinese but varieties are so different they are mutually unintelligible. As a nonscandinavian so take with a grain of salt, i was under the impression that while all three languages have high levels of mutual intelligibility, its especially swedish and norwegian that are really similar.
As a norwegian, i can understand swedish perfectly well, with the exception of some regional accents and some words. Mutual intelligibility between languages coursefinders. Comparison of danish, norwegian bokmal, norwegian nynorsk and. 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.
In the present investigation, results from intelligibility. My question relates to language mutual intelligibility, specifically for norwegian, swedish, and danish. The primary obstacles to mutual comprehension are differences in. Pdf the influence of extralinguistic factors on mutual. Finnish, being completely different, belongs to the finnougric language family. Dutch, german, english, swedish and danish are all germanic languages but the degree of mutual intelligibility between these languages differs. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages 2712009 2 introduction. Thus, they are closely related, and largely mutually intelligible. With scandinavian languages in hand, well think about the terms mutual intelligibility and asymmetric intelligibility. Pdf communication between speakers of the closely related scandinavian. Mutual intelligibility of chinese dialects experimentally. According to statistics norway, as of 2015, a complete of 260,868 individuals residing in norway incurred sanctions. Mutual intelligibility between speakers of german and dutch will highly depend on the interlocutors dialects.
Comparison of danish, norwegian bokmal, norwegian nynorsk. Danish is the odd duck because of some pronunciation innovations, but as written languages i think theyre all very much alike. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. 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. 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. I have both norwegian and swedish friends and they frequently change languages mid conversation when the british friends complain about them speaking one of the languages. Other languages consist of dialects which are in fact so different that. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. Germanic language mutual intelligibility poland, country, place, people user name. Mutual intelligibility of scandinavian languages archive. 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. Swedens economy is the largest and most diversified economy in the nordics.
Can native german and swedish speakers understand each other without learning. 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. It belongs to the finnougric family along with estonian and hungarian. Pdf the scandinavian languages are so alike that their speakers often. I can easily germanic language mutual intelligibility place, best, people, work europe page 19 citydata forum. Understanding of spoken language will vary greatly from per. 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. The languages are mutually intelligible, with the primary differences being in pronunciation and in the sound system as a whole mutual intelligibility. As such, spoken danish and swedish normally have low mutual intelligibility, but. My wife is from the western part of norway and dont understand swedish half as well as i do. It is often said, for instance, that danes understand norwegians better than norwegians understand danes.
1601 1516 1585 1529 1289 524 1106 85 1356 1328 1222 1179 1155 391 280 259 1465 672 1448 1528 29 524 1121 203 894 673 19 406 1390 77 1155 919 937