Mutually Intelligible Information

In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important.

Intelligibility between languages can be asymmetric, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understand of the first. It is when it is relatively symmetric that it is characterized as 'mutual'. It exists in differing degrees among many related or geographically proximate languages of the world, often in the context of a dialect continuum.

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.

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, the domain of discussion, psycho-cognitive traits, the mode of language used (written vs. oral), and other factors.

Mutually intelligible languages or variants of one language?

According to some definitions^[which?], 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 varieties of the same language.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Asymmetric intelligibility

Asymmetric intelligibility is a term used by linguists on two languages that are considered mutually intelligible, but one group would find it harder to understand the other. Portuguese and Spanish have a relationship like this, as Portuguese speakers would find it easier to understand Spanish than vice versa. Russian and Ukrainian also have a relation like this, as Russians may not understand Ukrainian very well, while Ukrainians could understand Russian much better, possibly due to more exposure of the other language. Norwegian Bokmål, Standard Danish and Standard Swedish also have a relationship like this, as speakers of Danish can understand Norwegian and Swedish better than vice versa.^[1]

List of mutually intelligible languages

Written and spoken forms

• Afrikaans: Dutch (partially)^[2]
• Azerbaijani: Turkish^[3]
• Belarusian: Russian and Ukrainian^[4]
• Bosnian: Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian (when written in Latin script)^[5]
• Bulgarian: Macedonian^[6]
• Croatian: Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian (when written in Latin script)^[5]
• Czech: Slovak^[7]
• Danish: Norwegian and Swedish^[8]
• Dutch: Afrikaans (partially)^[2], West Frisian (partially)^[2], and German (partially)^[9]
• English: Scots^[10]
• Galician: Portuguese^[11] and Spanish^[12]
• German: Dutch (partially)^[9]
• Indonesian: Malay^[13]
• Kinyarwanda: Kirundi^[14]
• Kirundi: Kinyarwanda^[14]
• Macedonian: Bulgarian^[6]
• Malay: Indonesian^[13]
• Montenegrin: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian (when written in Latin script)^[5]
• Norwegian: Danish and Swedish^[8]
• Portuguese: Galician^[11] and Spanish^[15][16][17]
• Russian: Belarusian and Ukrainian^[4]
• Scots: English^[10]
• Serbian: Bosnian, Croatian, and Montenegrin (when written in Latin script)^[5]
• Slovak: Czech^[7]
• Spanish: Galician^[12] and Portuguese^[15][16][17]
• Swedish: Danish and Norwegian^[8]
• Tokelauan: Tuvaluan^[18]
• Turkish: Azerbaijani^[3]
• Tuvaluan: Tokelauan^[18]
• Ukrainian: Belarusian and Russian^[4]

Spoken forms only

• Dari: Persian and Tajik^[19] (since Tajik is currently written in Cyrillic alphabet and Persian and Dari in Perso-Arabic script).
• German: Yiddish^[20] (since German is written in Latin script and Yiddish in Hebrew script)
• Hindi: Urdu^[21] (since Hindi is written in Devanagari and Urdu in Perso-Arabic script)
• Lao: Thai^[22] (since Lao is written in Lao script and Thai in Thai script)
• Persian: Tajik^[19] (since Persian and Dari are written in Perso-Arabic script and Tajik is currently written in Cyrillic alphabet)
• Tajik: Persian and Dari^[19] (since Tajik is currently written in Cyrillic alphabet and Persian and Dari in Perso-Arabic script).
• Thai: Lao^[22]
• Torlakian: Bulgarian and Macedonian^[23]
• Urdu: Hindi^[21]
• Uyghur: Uzbek^[24] (since Uyghur is usually written in Uyghur Ereb Yéziqi Arabic script and Uzbek in the Latin script)
• Uzbek: Uyghur^[24]
• Yiddish: German^[20]

Written forms only

• Faroese: Icelandic^[25]
• Icelandic: Faroese^[25]

In ancient times

• Old English and Old Saxon^[26]

See also

• Dialect continuum
• Dialect levelling
• Diasystem
• Lexical similarity
• Multilingualism
• Non-convergent discourse

References

1. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=9bYV43UhKssC&pg=PA3&dq=Mutual+intelligibility&hl=en&ei=MTyVTMyXDYWosAO_6P3ACg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Mutual%20intelligibility&f=false
2. ^ ^{a b c} Gooskens, Charlotte (2007). "The Contribution of Linguistic Factors to the Intelligibility of Closely Related Languages". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (University of Groningen) 28 (6). http://www.let.rug.nl/gooskens/pdf/publ_JMMD_2007.pdf. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
3. ^ ^{a b} Denis Sinor, The Uralic and Altaic Series, p.90
4. ^ ^{a b c} Alexander M. Schenker. 1993. "Proto-Slavonic," The Slavonic Languages. (Routledge). Pp. 60-121. Pg. 60: "[The] distinction between dialect and language being blurred, there can be no unanimity on this issue in all instances..." C.F. Voegelin and F.M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and Index of the World's Languages (Elsevier). Pg. 311, "In terms of immediate mutual intelligibility, the East Slavic zone is a single language." Bernard Comrie. 1981. The Languages of the Soviet Union (Cambridge). Pg. 145-146: "The three East Slavonic languages are very close to one another, with very high rates of mutual intelligibility...The separation of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian as distinct languages is relatively recent...Many Ukrainians in fact speak a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian, finding it difficult to keep the two languages apart...
5. ^ ^{a b c d} Greenberg, Robert David (2004). Language and identity in the Balkans: Serbo-Croatian and its disintegration. Oxford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780199258154. http://books.google.com/books?id=3ZvDJQHaUZkC&pg=PA13&dq=bosnian+serbian+croatian+language+mutual&ei=4zliS_WOMqDsMKDMyf4N&cd=1#v=onepage&q=renamed%20these%20classes&f=false.
6. ^ ^{a b} Language profile Macedonian, UCLA International Institute
7. ^ ^{a b} Trudgill, Peter (2004). "Glocalisation and the Ausbau sociolinguistics of modern Europe". In Duszak, Anna; Okulska, Urszula. Speaking from the Margin: Global English from a European Perspective. Polish Studies in English Language and Literature 11. Peter Lang. ISBN 0820473286. http://www.newjumbo.info/go/nph-go.cgi/000110A/http/web.archive.org/web/20060313102742/http:/=2fwww.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/Jack_Chambers/globalisation.pdf.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Bø, I (1976). "Ungdom od nabolad. En undersøkelse av skolens og fjernsynets betydning for nabrospråksforstålen.". Rogalandsforskning 4.
9. ^ ^{a b} Beerkens, Roos (2010). Receptive Multilingualism as a Language Mode in the Dutch-German Border Area. Waxmann Publishing Co.. p. 51. http://books.google.com/books?id=7LyPMzO2q60C&pg=PA51&dq=Dutch+and+german+mutual+intelligibility&hl=en&ei=kg6-TM3cBYi2sAPivO2aDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Dutch%20and%20german%20mutual%20intelligibility&f=false.
10. ^ ^{a b} Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba 789-1000. Edinburgh University Press. p. 331. ISBN 9780748612338. http://books.google.com/books?id=7d1SP6ztlq0C&pg=PA331&dq=mutual+intelligibility+english+and+scots&hl=en&ei=lRqhTOniJI32tgPFlqSrAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCcQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=mutual%20intelligibility%20english%20and%20scots&f=false.
11. ^ ^{a b} Beswick, Jaine (2005). "Linguistic homogeneity in Galician and Portuguese borderland communities". Estudios de Sociolingüística 6 (1): 39–64.
12. ^ ^{a b} Wright, Sue (1996). Monolingualism and bilingualism: Lessons from Canada and Spain. Multilingual Matters Ltd. p. 80. ISBN 1853593540. http://books.google.com/books?id=a2YtdM1kNOcC&pg=PA80&dq=Galician+and+Spanish+mutual+intelligibility&hl=en&ei=aOaoTOfYKoeisQOEo5iZDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Galician%20and%20Spanish%20mutual%20intelligibility&f=false.
13. ^ ^{a b} Swan, Michael (2001). Learner English: a teacher's guide to interference and other problems. Cambridge University Press. p. 279. http://books.google.com/books?id=6UIuWj9fQfQC&pg=PA279&dq=Indonesian+and+Malay+mutual+intelligibility&hl=en&ei=spvDTOq1NImusAPchqygDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false.
14. ^ ^{a b} Kirundi Language
15. ^ ^{a b} GAVILANES LASO, J. L. (1996) Algunas consideraciones sobre la inteligibilidad mutua hispano-portuguesa In: Actas del Congreso Internacional Luso-Español de Lengua y Cultura en la Frontera, Cáceres, Universidad de Extremadura, 175-187.
16. ^ ^{a b} Comparação Português e Castelhano
17. ^ ^{a b} Algumas observações sobre a noção de língua portuguesa
18. ^ ^{a b} Tokelauan language
19. ^ ^{a b c} Dari/Persian/Tajik languages
20. ^ ^{a b} Avrum Ehrlich, Mark (2009). Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: origins, experience and culture, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 192. ISBN 9781851098736. http://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA192&dq=German+and+Yiddish+mutual+intelligibility&hl=en&ei=I-OoTMKbIpOgsQOq9MHYDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=German%20and%20Yiddish%20mutual%20intelligibility&f=false.
21. ^ ^{a b} Gumperz, John J. (February, 1957). "Language Problems in the Rural Development of North India". The Journal of Asian Studies 16 (2): 251–259.
22. ^ ^{a b} Ausbau and Abstand languages
23. ^ Българският език през ХХ век (The Bulgarian language in the 20th century)
24. ^ ^{a b} Hahn, Reinard F. (1998). "Uyghur". In Lars Johanson, Éva Csató. The Turkic Languages. Taylor & Francis. p. 379. ISBN 9780415082006. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TdsOAAAAQAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA379&dq=uzbek+uyghur+language+mutually+intelligible&ots=1tsdykaYb5&sig=f2e1PD6fagVYFNGinsgtltGONfo#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
25. ^ ^{a b} Barbour, Stephen (2000). Language and nationalism in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 106. ISBN 9780199250851. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1ixmu8Iga7gC&pg=PA106.
26. ^ Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 315. ISBN 1405103167. http://books.google.de/books?id=5hOtPBF6XWwC&pg=PA315&dq=%22old+english%22+%22old+saxon%22+mutually+intelligible&client=firefox-a&hl=en&cd=4#v=onepage&q=%22old%20english%22%20%22old%20saxon%22%20mutually%20intelligible&f=false.

• Vajda, Edward J. Dialectology

External links

• Harold Schiffman, "Linguists' Definition: mutual intelligibility". University of Pennsylvania.

Categories: Languages | Language varieties and styles | Lists of languages | Language comparison

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