They include polish, czech, slovak, silesian, kashubian, upper sorbian and lower sorbian. Polish and sorbian also differ quite considerably from czech and slovak in upper registers, but nontechnical and lower register speech is readily intelligible. Generally, the hindustani languages have a higher degree of mutual intelligibility with punjabi, gujarati, sindhi, and the rajasthani languages like marwari than the other ia. Second, there are some really funny ways that czech and polish intersect. The measurement of mutual intelligibility between west. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the slavic. Pdf in the present study we tested the level of mutual intelligibility between three west slavic czech, slovak and polish and three south. Polish s best mutually intelligibility is with the other slavic languages based in poland, followed by slovak, ukrainian, belarusian and czech. Although czech and slovak are mutually intelligible, czech and polish are not. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent.
It is expected to be intelligible to speakers of these languages. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages. I would honestly say they are dialects of the same language. Czech is nearly as hard as polish and is probably not worth your time and effort. Personally though, i must admit that i once read a scientific paper in czech about the mutual intelligibility of it and slovak, and i understood quite a bit more than just the gist. Pdf mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages similarities to.
Croatian slovene bulgarian czech slovak polish participantsnativelanguage croatian 43. As an example, consider a czech native speaker reading a polish text while never having learned polish. The mutual intelligibility of l2 speech volume 28 issue 1 murray j. Czech is mostly intelligible with slovak, significantly less with polish, a bit less than that with serbocroatian. To what extent are polish, czech and slovak languages. Request pdf the measurement of mutual intelligibility between westslavic. Jun 03, 2009 the slovak language has been influenced by many languages, including czech, polish, and german. Czech, slovak and polish are related both genetically and typologically they are. Pdf mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic. In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which.
This thesis explores mutual intelligibility in the slavic language area how to measure it, how to predict it and how to increase it. Mutual intelligibility is a situation in which two or more speakers of a language or of closely related languages can understand each other. Its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. If two languages, a and b, are mutually intelligible and are closely historically related, linguists say that a and b are dialects, a is a dialect of b, or b is a dialect of a all of these statements are equivalent. Accounting for mutual intelligibility of lexis availability of lexical alternatives leads to asymmetric intelligibility. As such they are not mutually intelligible actually spoken czech and polish are not very mutually intelligible, yet they are in the same group. Mutual intelligibility chart for the slavic languages posted on the 18 december 20 by calvinthedog.
Orthographic and morphological correspondences between. West slavic mutual intelligibility skippy wed may 14, 2008 9. Polish is quite intelligible with slovak and probably more than czech with the eastern slavic languages. May 14, 2008 west slavic mutual intelligibility skippy wed may 14, 2008 9. Polish forum is to support both current and new common initiatives within the civil societies of both countries.
Mutual intelligibility among the slavic languages by robert lindsay the mutual intelligibility mi of the languages of the slavic family is an interesting topic because many are mutually intelligible to one degree or another. May 28, 2014 mutual intelligibility hovers at around the 90% mark both ways, with a very slight advantage held by the slovaks in understanding czech. Mutual intelligibility between languages coursefinders. The slavic mutual intelligibility is that time, newspapers and magazines in sorbian. Mutual intelligibility is a continuum that is, a gradient concept, marked by degrees of intelligibility, not by sharp divisions.
The mutual intelligibility of closely related languages micrela. Even though poland borders both czechia and slovakia, i have heard that poles and slovaks, on average, get along better linguistically than poles and czechs. It is commonly believed that all slavic languages are fully mutually intelligible, which implies that they are close. Conditional entropies were the lowest between czech and slovak. The measurement of mutual intelligibility between westslavic. Orthographic and morphological correspondences between related slavic languages as a base for modeling of mutual intelligibility andrea fischer, klara jagrova, irina stenger, tania avgustinova, dietrich klakow, and roland marti saarland university, collaborative research center sfb 1102. Slovak is closely related to czech, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree, as well as polish.
Mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic family. Some mutual intelligibility occurs with spoken rusyn, ukrainian, and even russian in this order, although their. Mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in europe pdf. Polka, commonly referred to as the polish people, are a nation and west slavic ethnic group native to poland in central europe who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and are native speakers of the polish language. Jul 23, 2009 as a czech just having to return from poland vacation, these two languages are not mutually understandable. The intelligibility of polish and russian is very low, maybe on the order of 510%.
This advantage is exposurerelated and would be completely erased by one evenings worth of conversation, i should think. The slovak language has been influenced by many languages, including czech, polish, and german. In this video, we discuss items in the kitchen and polish and czech. But we did not test the mutual intelligibility between, for example, spanish and czech or between portuguese and polish. Your opinions on mutual intelligibility of slavic languages. Most likely we can capture up to 12 of their vocabulary and rethink the rest to understand the meaning of the speech. Some linguists use mutual intelligibility as a primary criterion for determining whether two speech varieties represent the same or different languages. There is also some mutual intelligibility with spoken polish, however polish orthography is very different. I am a casual student of czech with no fluency whatever, but i find that my very small vocabulary and grammar knowledge is almost as useful in comprehending every western and. Mutual intelligibility wikimili, the best wikipedia reader.
First, polish seems to me like a sound stew of czech, russian, and italian. Mutual intelligibility occurs mostly amongst languages of the same origin like among the scandinavian languages, germanic languages etc. Languages of the world department of computer science. Like other slavic languages, slovak is a fusional language with a complex system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic languages.
Most dialects of czech and slovak are mutually intelligible. Request pdf the measurement of mutual intelligibility between westslavic languages the west slavic languages are close enough for their speakers to use their mother tongues when communicating. How much information will this reader be able to decode. Languages as a base for modeling of mutual intelligibility. Czech and polish are incomprehensible to serbocroatian speakers czech 10%, polish 5%, but serbocroatian has some limited comprehension of slovak, on the order of 25%. Polish minority in the czech republic wikimili, the free. The language contacts of czech and polish or slovak and polish were not so intense in the past. We consider mainly national languages spoken in countries which belong to the european union. Like other slavic languages, czech is a fusional language with a rich system of morphology and relatively flexible word order.
Are slovak, czech, and polish all mutually intelligible. Since ive been back in the us, i have had only two opportunities to ever use czech, whereas polish or russian is easy to find speakers of here. Polish and sorbian also differ from czech and slovak in upper registers, but nontechnical and lower register speech is readily intelligible. Mutual intelligibility in slavic language specific. What is the level of intelligibility among czech, slovak, polish. I think that in these mutual intelligibility debates you all mix several distinct features together. 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. Pdf modeling mutual intelligibility between slavic language.
Swedish danish mutual comprehension 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100. Pdf the mutual intelligibility of slavic languages as a source of. Slovakian is a case where it is a west slavic language but has some south slavic features and many slovaks claim to have an easier time understanding others all over the slavophone world. I met a bosnian woman last week and talked to her about serbocroatian, she said she actually understands even czech and slovak much better than slovenian. Feb 06, 2017 from what i have heard anecdotally, not as mutually intelligible as slovak and polish. The mutual intelligibility with other dialects of polish is generally higher.
Mutual intelligibility chart for the slavic languages. In answering this question, i will honour a soviet tradition that i always hated starting a book, an article, a lecture, whatever, with a citation from marx or engels. Mutual intelligibility in the slavic language area. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Czech is closely related to slovak, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree. Just like andrew wrote, there is sort of a linguistical continuum from cottbus to vladivostok, and. Degree of mutual intelligibility between indoaryan languages. These two languages are related, but i cannot speak czech to polish and expect that he will understand me. Lexical and orthographic distances between germanic, romance.
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. In this way we may talk of the parisian dialect of french, the lancashire dialect of english, the bavarian dialect of german, and so on. Dec 10, 2016 in this video you can listen to a bilingual conversation in polish and slovak. In contrast, as to the mutual intelligibility of contentfunction words and various.
The mutual intelligibility of l2 speech studies in second. University of groningen mutual intelligibility in the. English czech polish bulgarian russian preliminary results. Serbocroatian and russian have 1015% intelligibility, if that, yet written intelligibility is higher at 25%. In this video, we discuss items in the kitchen and polish and czech words related to the kitchen. If a language is an official language in more than one country, we only included the variety from the country with the largest number of speakers. Mar 01, 2018 in the prospective thesis, we seek to quantitatively model the mutual intelligibility between the language pairs bulgarianrussian and czech polish at the orthographic as well as phonological level.
Between both the languages and polish they were much higher. Czech and polish have some intelligibility, but its hard to say how much possibly on the order of 40%. The strength of foreign accent in czech english under adverse listening conditions. I find the poles are also more easygoing and friendly, and the czechs tend to be a bit snobbish and standoffish. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a. As indicated, slovenian and polish are from different subgroups of slavic languages south slavic and west slavic respectively. Northern germanic languages spoken in scandinavia form a dialect continuum where two furthermost dialects have almost no mutual intelligibility. I am a pole, i have never learnt the other 2 languages in a formal way, but over the years i have had much exposure to them and i can communicate at lea. Lexical and orthographic distances between germanic, romance and slavic languages and their. The calculations are realized on the phonetic and graphemic planes of czech, slovak, and polish. We are testing here to what extent polish and slovak are.
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. In this polish czech conversation, we compare polish and czech vocabulary related to pets. Mutual intelligibility between slavic languages happier. Dialects, that is, can be regarded as subdivisions of a particular language. How mutually intelligible are the czech and polish languages. The asymmetry of the mutual intelligibility was confirmed for every studied relationship. Polish czech conversation our pets slavic languages. In contrast, as to the mutual intelligibility of contentfunction words and various styles of material, di. Based on this chart, bulgarian and macedonian surely appear to be separate languages, as far apart as polish and slovak. These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take its important to note that mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. To what extent are different slavic languages mutually. Neither of us studied each others languages before. Mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic.
For the most part mutual intelligibility is highest between indoaryan languages that are of the same branch, that is, descended from the same ancient vernacular. The mutual intelligibility of l2 speech studies in. 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. Likewise with polish vs czech, and slovenian vs standard croatian these pairs are the most commonly mistaken as mutually intelligible. Pdf mutual intelligibility between west and south slavic languages. How mutually intelligible are the various slavic languages. Serbocroatian has only 20% intelligibility of ukrainian. The two varieties have a long history of interaction and mutual influence well before the creation of czechoslovakia in. Cieszyn silesian is a transitional dialect, located roughly at the midpoint of a dialect continuum connecting the czech, slovak and polish languages. Orthography in language modeling of mutual intelligibility.
These mutually intelligible languages will make you do a double take. Sep 18, 2015 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. Pdf mutual intelligibility of languages in the slavic family robert. Czech, slovak, polish, croatian, slovenian and bulgarian on the level of lexicon, orthography. This is a polish and czech lesson based on slavic languages mutual intelligibility phenomena. The results show that in most cases, a division between west and south slavic languages does exist and that west.
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