What is the most mutually intelligible Slavic language? Macedonian is a little easier, since its more a transitional dialect between Bulgarian and Serbian. It is commonly believed that all Slavic languages are fully mutually intelligible, which implies that they are close Mutual intelligibility mostly applies to the educated, standardized forms of these languages, not to the various sub-standard dialects. It may have been split from Polish for up to 800 years, where it underwent heavy German influence. Silesian, which can be heard in the southwest (sometimes also considered a separate language). Do you speak Ukrainian. I must confess that as a Czech, I understand only little, what the Macedonian reporter is saying, and when I was listening to the first guy from Bosnia (Izetbegovi), I was often lost, understanding only slightly more, maybe 20-30%. In other cases, I had to rely on the context. It has also been described as a transitional dialect between Polish and Slovak. Its mainly in the weird Bulgarian grammar! Upper Dnistrian is influenced by German and Polish. The reason there are subtitles on Russian-language shows in Ukraine is because of Ukraines puristic state language policies. I understood perfectly him, but not her. Still others (for example, Voegelin and Voegelin 1977) recognize just two main dialect groups: Eastern and Western Ukrainian. Traditionally, dialects are regional variations of one main language. Why not look em up on his site. And when islanders respond back in akavian they are puzzled: What? Hag_Boulder 9 mo. Because they use different alphabets, German and Yiddish are only mutually intelligible when spoken. Intelligibility between languages can be asymmetric, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understanding the first. Feb 22, 2020. An example of equal treatment of Malaysian and Indonesian: the, List of dialects or varieties sometimes considered separate languages, List of languages sometimes considered varieties, North Germanic languages Mutual intelligibility, Learn how and when to remove this template message, considered separate languages only for political reasons, "Listening instruction and patient safety: Exploring medical English as a lingua franca (MELF) for nursing education", "The Contribution of Linguistic Factors to the Intelligibility of Closely Related Languages", "Taking taxonomy seriously in linguistics: Intelligibility as a criterion of demarcation between languages and dialects", "uvalar: The Internal Classification & Migration of Turkic Languages", "Mutual Comprehensibility of Written Afrikaans and Dutch: Symmetrical or Asymmetrical? & relat.)) Pei Mario (1949). 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). Thank you very much for this. Spoken Bulgarian is very difficult to understand for other Slavs due to phonology and unique syllable stress. Intelligibility testing between East and West Slovak would seem to be in order. It is not true that Shtokavian which I speak is not mutually intelligible with Torlakian of southern Serbia. The latter is heavily mixed with Shtokavian. 2. Usually, they can even write their theses in Slovak. A Slovenian person that has never lived in the east of the country understands only about 60 70 % of the dialect (Prekmurski dialect). Not everyone within each of the three broad dialect areas speaks Yiddish in the same way -- there are sub-dialects, but they are mutually intelligible. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. Having lived in Moscow and being married to a Russian, I now speak Russian well enough to be mistaken for a Russian-speaking tourist from Poland or Lithuania when in Moscow. For Macedonian without knowledge of other Slavic languages is also difficult to understand all the words which come from Russian and which are not current in Macedonian. I have friends from Bulgaria and I can tell you that they have problems by understanding some things. I am really sorry, but if you are speaking about science, you cannot just say. How do they arrive at these estimates? Rusyn ~ Ukrainian . What if akavian person is from dalmatian coastal village which is now half tokavised and tokavian speaker is from Dalmatian city which still has some elements of akavian, ikavian yat and is full of romanisms? In the case of transparently cognate languages officially recognized as distinct such as Spanish and Italian, mutual intelligibility is in principle and in practice not binary (simply yes or no), but occurs in varying degrees, subject to numerous variables specific to individual speakers in the context of the communication. Serbo-Croatian has only 20% intelligibility of Ukrainian. Likewise with Polish vs Czech, and Slovenian vs Standard Croatian (these pairs are the most commonly mistaken as mutually intelligible). Most Macedonians already are able to speak Serbo-Croatian well. Therefore, for the moment, there are five separate Croatian languages: Shtokavian Croatian, Kajkavian Croatian, Chakavian Croatian, Molise Croatian, and Burgenland Croatian. After all, you can look at the study that I listed above and check the results of the written translation task (translation of 50 individual words), which illustrates the similarity of lexicons: Czechs best understand Slovak words (96,52%), then Polish (64,29%), then Bulgarian (57,00%), Croatian (55,38%) and Slovene (49,73%). This difference is because Bulgarian is not spoken the same way it is written like Serbo-Croatian is. However, in terms of vocabulary Ukrainian is closer to Polish, from which it has borrowed a large number of words. All South Slavic languages in effect form a large dialect continuum of gradually mutually intelligible varieties depending on distance between the areas where they are spoken. Classifications may also shift for reasons external to the languages themselves. However, Bulgarian-Russian written intelligibility is much higher. This is great. Yet we speak of Kai/Cha as of Serbo-Croatian dialects, while Slovenian is totally foreign. Contents1 Can Slovenians understand Croatian?2 What languages are mutually intelligible with Croatian?3 What is the closest language to Slovenian?4 Which two . Albeit, Scots dialect is far more pronounced than English, and at times, can be unintelligible. The intelligibility of Czech and Slovak is much exaggerated. So they speak Macedonian to me and I speak Serbian to them, and we understand each other perfectly. Yes of course. Lemko is spoken heavily in Poland, and it differs from Standard Rusyn in that it has a lot of Polish vocabulary, whereas Standard Rusyn has more influences from Hungarian and Romanian. . Jeff Lindsay estimates that Russian has 85% intelligibility with Rusyn (which has a small number of speakers in Central and Eastern Europe). English professor. Im of the Yugoslav variety by rearing, and a Serb by select bits of culture, by most of my native language and by all of where my tax money goes. Russian is partially mutually intelligible with Ukrainian, Rusyn and Belarusian. I speak Slovenian and Croats think that I can speak Kaikavian. Basically, you only hear a series of consonants with hardly recognizable vowels. The Answer, and Examples for 8 World Languages. Czech and Polish are incomprehensible to Serbo-Croatian speakers (Czech 10%, Polish 5%), but Serbo-Croatian has some limited comprehension of Slovak, on the order of 25%. Russian is also 85% mutually intelligible with Belarusian and Ukrainian in writing. Polish is not intelligible with Kashubian, a language related to Polish spoken in the north of Poland. Map; Russia's Periphery* Baltic States. In this week's Slavic languages comparison we talk about animals in Polish and Ukrainian. As a result, I, who spoke fluent Ukrainian when I moved from Ukraine 18 years ago, have problems following modern speech on TV. Other factors that one has to keep in mind is recent (and not so recent, too) history and its linguistic implications on speakers for instance, Slovaks older that about 20 dont have much trouble understanding Czech because Czech was pretty intrusive if not dominant in official and intercommunal use in Czechoslovakia until its collapse. Understanding the connection between mutually intelligible languages, can make it easier to learn an additional language. Ponaszymu also has many Germanisms which have been falling out of use lately, replaced by their Czech equivalents. Ikavian Chakavian has two branches Southwestern Istrian and Southern Chakavian. Also, I can only understand a small bit of Russian, and Ukrainian is even more far off for me(the pronunciation is easier but understanding is harder) and I can understand quite a bit of bulgarian(especially when written). Writing in Chakavian started very early in the Middle Ages and began to slow down in the 1500s when writing in Kajkavian began to rise. Reactions: So far there have been few reactions to the paper. But still Slovene and Dalmatian akavian speaker can talk if they stick to old slavic part of their respective languages. Bosnian and Montenegrin are also just dialects of Serbian language. Shtokavian is simply the same Serbo-Croatian language that is also spoken in Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia. Then she asked me to go do something useful, so this is all I can contribute with. OMG! WORD. Click here to get a copy. Some say it is a part of Czech, but more likely it is a part of Polish like Silesian. NATO EU. However, any suggestions that Kajkavian is a separate language are censored on Croatian TV (Jembrigh 2014). I have also friends from Central Macedonia (Prilep, Bitola) and I can tell how different they speak from the Skopjian dialect. Spanish is also partially mutually intelligible with Italian, Sardinian and French, with respective lexical similarities of 82%, 76% and 75%. Czechs are more urbane. The Russian language in the Ukraine has been declining recently mostly because since independence, the authorities have striven to make the new Ukrainian as far away from Russian as possible by adopting the Kharkiv Standard adopted in 1927 and jettisoning the 1932 Standard which brought Ukrainian more in line with Russian. An inherent pure inherent intelligibility test would involve a a speaker of Slavic lect A listening to a tape or video of a speaker of Slavic Lect A. Istorieskoto mu razvitie se charakterizira s etiri glavni perioda. Furthermore, there is a dialect continuum between Kajkavian and Chakavian as there is between Kajkavian and Slovenian, and lects with a dialect continuum between them are always separate languages. The reason Macedonian appears not very intelligible to a Serbian speaker is because many basic words (be, do, this, that, where, etc) are completely different, however most of the rest of the vocabulary is similar or the same. Standard Czech and standard Slovak is almost totally intelligible (I would say about 90%) only very few words are of different origin. You can pick up the gist of thats being said in any sentence. But other results that included Czech and Bulgarian were very poor. Burgenland Croatian, spoken in Austria, is intelligible to Croatian speakers in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, but it has poor intelligibility with the Croatian spoken in Croatia. Or when I heard the word pobrzajte (hurry up (plural)) it was very interesting to me. As far as grammars are concerned (declension and conjugation), they are so similar that there is almost no effort in understanding that this noun is, for example, in dative plural, and that verb is imperfective past. Polish is spoken outside of Poland by Polish diaspora groups in countries like Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, Kajkavian being the most mutually intelligible. Scots and English are considered mutually intelligible. The intelligibility of Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian is highly controversial, and intelligibility studies are in order. @AJ Another similar example would be varieties of Arabic, which additionally share a single prestige variety in Modern Standard Arabic. However, many of these dialects are at least partially mutually intelligible. a person with Virgin ears from any where in the Czech republic and west and central Slovakia will understand each other fairly well. For example we chakavians use a lot of words used in Polish, Ukrainian, Slovak etc but in standard Croatian those words are described as archaisms and instead words used in tokavian come from Turkish. Silesian or Upper Silesian is also a separate language spoken in Poland, often thought to be halfway between Polish and Czech. At some point he probably became a rogue or double agent, General Musharraf says. We in Serbia even had some comic movies that was making fun of south Serbian dialects (that are more related to Bulgarian and Macedonian) with very mocking or even rude comments for someone who make mistakes in the word cases. Yes and if you could more than one listener, it would be great. Civis Illustris. There is a big problem with this. His level of understanding might be 90%, or 82%, 85%. For instance, in 1932, Ukrainian g was eliminated from the alphabet in order to make Ukrainian h correspond perfectly with Russian g. After 1991, the g returned to Ukrainian. [1] Maltese. Ukrainian and Russian only have 60% lexical similarity. The translation is not very problematic. Much of the claimed intelligibility is simply bilingual learning. So if you believe the fantastic conspiracy theory that 19 hijackers some have been discovered to be still alive were able to hijack 4 commercial planes for hours uninterrupted armed only with boxcutters and crash them into US largest and with the Pentagon most well guarded which has its own missile defence and radar system buildings on US? You are wrong about Slovenian and Croatian languages. You get 0%. 2 Ukrainian Phrasebook And Dictionary Paperback 1-03-2023 Mutually Intelligible? I also run a YouTube channel where I try to put the differences within the Croatias borders online since many whove seen them were surprised (or shocked). And, as it was already sad, all Slovaks understand czeh better than czech slovaks thanks to hostory and politics. In the Kievan Rus', Russian and Ukrainian were dialects of the same language, meaning that they were largely mutually intelligible with only minor vocabulary or grammatical differences. The Torlakian spoken in the southeast is different. According to Ethnologue, there are more than 7,000 languages in the world, with some being more difficult to learn than others. There is just a little problem to understand east Slovaks for Czechs from naywhere. Usama Bin Laden is wanted in connection with the August 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya. Go back to your kennel. Belic) maybe do not understand Macedonian so well as Macedonian the Serbian language do (because of the according to you Bilingual learning . Macedonian and Bulgarian are fairly similar but they are not close to being fully mutually intelligible. How come you have not done a post about 9/11 before Robert? Only nationalists and fanatics disagree. Linguistic distance is the name for the concept of calculating a measurement for how different languages are from one another. (j/k) http://ifaq.wap.org/society/voweldeployment.html. Download: My gues. Its true that Slavic languages are not intelligible in the taking-the-first-person-from-the-street-and-making-them-listen-to-a-random-conversation way, that is, an average Slavic speaker with an untrained ear and little to no exposure to other Slavic languages will have difficulty understanding other Slavic languages. A koine is currently under development. Much of the claimed intelligibility between Czech and Slovak was simply bilingual learning. General Musharraf says that Sheikh, who orchestrated the abduction, was recruited by MI6 while he was studying at the London School of Economics and sent to the Balkans to take part in jihad operations there. In addition, Balachka language associations believe it is a separate language. There is as much Czech literature and media as Slovak literature and media in Slovakia, and many Slovaks study at Czech universities. But thats politics for you. The Polish and Ukrainian languages come from the same Slavic roots, but are not so close that they are mutually intelligible. I am a native Macedonian and I totally dont agree with you. The more the better. Czech-Polish is not at 12% anymore, a new study has found it is 32%. I also have formal training in several Slavic languages, which make most of them, except some of the Balkan ones, pretty much comprehensibe to me. Do Ukrainians and Polish like each other? What language is this? http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1289113786/last-1289113786/British+intelligence+links+to+African+Emabssy+bombings. Slovak 50 % spoken, 70 % written Ive yet to see a speaker of BCS that recognizes the obvious: these three languages are just the same. Do you speak Boyko or Hutsul? She introduces her and her two friends from the Czech republic and Spain, Because she speaks very clearly and slowly, I understand everything between 0:25-0:32, but then she starts a fast flood of words and between 0:32-0:36 I basically hear only s. This makes Polish a much much easier language to learn than Russian. Intelligibility problems are mostly on the Czech end because they dont bother to learn Slovak while many Slovaks learn Czech. Polish and Ukrainian mutual intelligibility question. Even little kids who watch the show understand. Most people in Slovenia learn Serbian language so it is hard to estimate the real mutual intelligibility between Slovenian and Serbian language. Here are the estimates about inteligebility with other Slavic languages from a person thats fluent in Slovenian and Serbo-Croatian: > Intelligibility problems are mostly on the Czech end, because they dont bother to learn Slovak, while many Slovaks learn Czech. Nevertheless, the ISO has recently accepted a proposal from the Kajkavian Renaissance Association to list the Kajkavian literary language written from the 1500s-1900 as a recognized language with an ISO code of kjv. Jen. Its specific czech and many foreiner has problem spelling it. Actually the way it is spoken sometimes sounds more like Slovak to me than Czech or polish does, however past really basic speech it is pretty hard to understand. Furthermore, not only does this app provide small lessons that can be expanded into full-on courses, but it also allows you to interact with native speakers of the target language. Im gonna estimate 40% for Bulgarian, cant really say what the difference between written and spoken Bulgarian would be for me. If you choose to learn a language which is at least to some extent mutually intelligible to a language you already know . That is ~90% our language. Part of the problem between Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian is that so many of the basic words be, do, this, that, where are different, however, much of the rest of the vocabulary is the same. Problem is the spoken form, as Bulgarians dont speak as it is written, which is the case with serbian or croatian. The distance of Slovene may seem unlikely, but I think that it is still rather optimistic, because Czech and Slovene are quite distant, despite geographical closeness. We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe. I cannot understand that much of kajkavski nor akavski, but I can understand more akavski than I can kajkavski. Hello everyone, The differences to me are like New England English versus English in the deep South versus Australian. Im Slovenian, my mother tongue is Slovenian, however I have also learnt Serbo-Croatian from a very early age. Or maybe you are just a gatekeeper. Belarussian has 80% intelligibility of Ukrainian and 55% of Polish. The Mutually Intelligible Languages of 8 Popular World Languages 1. Also, the question is: -did this Serb speak other Slavic languages? Answer (1 of 16): I'm neither Polish nor Ukrainian but I know Polish to a good level and basic Ukrainian; I can comment on the understandability of Ukrainian for Poles. It is also said that West Slovak (Bratislava) cannot understand East Slovak, so Slovak may actually two different languages, but this is controversial. I can give you an example of how I can read Bulgarian: Additionally, Norwegian assimilated a considerable amount of Danish vocabulary as well as traditional Danish expressions. FluentU is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.