Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe charlotte gooskens department of applied linguistics, university of groningen in europe a large number of languages are spoken. The intelligibility and comprehensibility of world englishes. According to the mutual intelligibility page on wikipedia, scots is the only language that is relatively mutually intelligible to english. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent.
True, given enough time and goodwill, mutual intelligibility can be achieved without too much effort. The scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with english. Hes the site administrator and i am waiting for him to give me some site tools i. English is distinct from german, dutch, and swedish. Cairn, an academic journal focused on scots and written in scots. The muchvaunted mutual intelligibility between spanish and portuguese leaves much to be desired. Auld norse is a north germanic leid that wis spoken bi indewllers o scandinavie an indewllers o thair owerseas settlements in the viking age, till aboot 0 the chyngin processes that distinguish auld norse frae its aulder form, protonorse, wis maistly concludit aroond the 8t century, an anither transitional period that led up til the modren descendants o auld norse i. In england, the sound v, as in sun svn, is a typical southern sound, found in southern england and in south midland, while this. Does anyone here know of any sort of objective measure that has been taken to compare how well english especially nonbritish speakers can understand the scots language as opposed to, say, danish and norwegian, italian and sicilian, or even german and. Jun 09, 2015 how to classify a variety of speech as either a language or a dialect is one of those neverending linguistic debates. A case study of exogamous sui clans by james norris stanford this study investigates dialect contact and identity by examining the systematic patterns of clan contact and immigration found among the exogamous clans of the sui people, an ethnic minority concentrated in rural parts of guizhou, china.
Bilingual diglossia is a type of diglossia in which one language variety is used for writing and another for speech. Another problem occurs in the case of diglossia, used to describe a situation in which, in a given society, there are two closely related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. Old english mutual intelligibility post by mulder21 20061117, 17. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. Scots in the scottish curriculum bilingualism matters. First of all, once you make yourself aware of mutually intelligible languages. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other. Not scottish english, which is a variety of english, or scottish gaelic, which is actually a celtic rather than a germanic language, but lowland scots.
Some linguists claim that mutual intelligibility is, ideally at least, the primary criterion separating languages from dialects. Terminology most scots today speak english, or scottish english which is a variety of english with a distinct accent and some vocabulary and grammar differe. Irish gaelic and scots gaelic are a bit like italian and spanish fluency in one goes a long way to understanding the other. Is there a language that is mutually intelligible with. Germanic language mutual intelligibility best, country. Oct 23, 2019 unfortunately, the mutual intelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. A catalogue record for this book is available from the british library.
Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert lindsay. Intercomprehension and mutual intelligibility among. Here is a poem by egill skallagrimsson in, icelandic, old english, english and old icelandic. Scots may be considered partially mutually intelligible, but it would likely be asymmetric, as most if not all scots speakers also have a goodtonative. Mutual intelligibility as well as questions of power and. This language should not be mixed up with either the celtic language or scottish gaelic. Scottish english resulted from language contact between scots and the standard english of england after the 17th century. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other to a fair degree. The only language mutually intelligible with english is scots, but its disputed whether that is a language or not, but scots is recognized as a language under the european charter for regional or minority languages.
The intelligibility and comprehensibility of world englishes 145 2. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. Heres a nice chart showing lexical distance between european languages. The legitimate and illegitimate offspring of english yorkspace. Respect for linguistic diversity is a core eu value but the. Recognising and celebrating the differences between english and scots can help. Sep 02, 2019 since mediaeval times long before england and scotland were under the same government. How mutually intelligible are scots and english linguistics.
The scots language has germanic roots and is spoken widely in lowland scotland and some regions of ulster. Frisian is often cited as the language that is closest to english, but scots is actually closer i. Hence, the highlander has never spoken scots and hardly recognizes any distinction between it and. 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. Languages vary from one place to another, from one social group to another, and from one situation to another, and these are the main topics of this chapter.
How mutually intelligible are scots and irish gaelic. It is important for learners to know the differences between the languages and the times when they might want to use one rather than the other. The norse element in the orkney dialect university of aberdeen. I think that the answer should be more nuanced and that it depends on several factors. The paper deals with a complex situation of english in scotland. Language varieties dialects and languages 2712009 4 mutual intelligibility between. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader. Thus scots english may at first be quite unintelligible to speakers of the various varieties of standard american english, and vice versa. By this time, scots was declasse and statusless, and highlanders learned english as a second language with limited to no scots interference murison 1979. In sociolinguistics, diglossia is a situation in which two distinct varieties of a language are spoken within the same speech community.
Mutual intelligibility the reader wiki, reader view of. Personally, as an anglophone, i can concur with that. Most scottish people command a whole series of increasingly englishlike varieties between. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages intelligibility. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which.
Thus as norman french became the ruling language across the nation, and withit all largescaletrade ventures, english settled down again to a local fermentation ofdialects. Intercomprehension and mutual intelligibility among southern malagasy languages article in language matters 382. Testing mutual intelligibility between closely related. Apr 15, 2014 frisian is often cited as the language that is closest to english, but scots is actually closer i.
But how distinct are english and scots or dutch and low german spoken across the border from the netherlands in parts of germany or swedish and danish. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Sizesize mutual intelligibilitymutual intelligibility autonomy and heteronomy autonomy and heteronomy prestige prestige a language is a dialect with an army and a. So far ive only been able to learn is that english is highly intelligible among its different dialects, but no actual statement that all dialect are mutually intelligible. Unfortunately, the mutualintelligibility test does not always lead to clearcut results. On the mutual intelligibility of spanish and portuguese a.
Languages understandable to englishspeakers without learning. Latin also held prominence in the literature ofscience, philosophy and theology. Scots and english are sister languages, in the same way that the languages of norway and denmark are. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double. Is there mutual intelligibility between scottish gaelic and. 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. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable pdf that you. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. Scots that seeks to be the first authoritative grammar book of scots. Mutual intelligibility wikipedia republished wiki 2. Are there any mutually unintelligible english dialects. The greatest mutual intelligibility is between ulster irish and southern scottish. Their mutual intelligibility varies greatly, both between the dialects themselves as well as with other languages.
Nov 26, 2018 the scots language has a significant level of mutual intelligibility with english. In vanuatu we piloted a picture task and a translation task. The degree to which a speaker of one variety understands the speech of another closely related variety can be expressed in a single number closely related languages. Is there a language that is mutually intelligible with english. How mutually intelligible are scots and english relative to other closelyrelated languages. Mutual intelligibility and the contact history of english. I am learning scots gaelic and can read some irish with a bit of difficulty, but fluent speakers of scots gaelic can more or less understand most irish indeed irish gaelic is often broadcast on scots gaelic radio. How to classify a variety of speech as either a language or a dialect is one of those neverending linguistic debates. But in spite of all that, much work still needs to be done if scots is to become the true national language of scotland or. Others said that they couldnt understand a word of dutch afrikaans the first time they heard it. Therefore the scots itself was under siege from the indigenous dialects and later on from the standard english taught in schools and the modern usage of transatlantic english by the younger generation. There is not any standard germanic language allthough english is the most widely spoken germanic language in the world. Sep 01, 2017 john hodgart, a former english teacher and a member of the scottish governments working group on scottish studies gave a presentation in musselburgh in 2011 on the place of scots in the scottish curriculum. A perceptual study of scottish dialects b005772 msc.
Scots gaelic gaidhligirish gaeilgemanx gaelg the three here are all linked and are mutually intelligible gaeilge is the main language from which gaidhlig came and then lastly gaelg. There are also other difficulties with the criterion of mutual intelligibility. In a european context, scots, low german, and occitan. I recently saw a video on youtube explaining the mutual intelligibility between russian and ukrainian. Pdf some scientific intelligibility studies robert. Language, dialect what are the varieties that make up a. Language variation 2 if you take a look at a dialect atlas of england,2 you will find that roughly, the word child is used in southern england and in midland, while bairn is used in northern england. Mutual intelligibility definition and examples thoughtco. Mutual intelligibility between german and dutch i am a native dutch speaker who also knows a bit of german. Thus scots english may at first be quite unintelligible to. Are there any languages that are mutually intelligible with english. The resulting shifts to english usage by scots speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of scottish english. Mutual intelligibility among the slavic languages beyond.