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 intentional study or special 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. When it is relatively symmetric, 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.
Read more about Mutual Intelligibility: Intelligibility, Mutually Intelligible Languages or Varieties of One Language, Asymmetric Intelligibility
Other articles related to "mutual intelligibility, intelligibility":
... cluster in Chinese, the proposer made the following statement on mutual intelligibility A colleague has talked with speakers of a number of these closely-related lects in the US, in Thailand and in China ... this colleague believes that many of these lects are likely to have high inherent mutual intelligibility within the cluster ... scattered and mixed over a broad land area, and comprehensive intelligibility testing would be required to confirm reports of mutual intelligibility ...
... Generally, speakers of the three largest Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) can read each other's languages without great difficulty ... This holds especially true of Danish and Norwegian ...
... The Min Nan varieties of Teochew and Amoy are 84% phonetically similar and 34% lexically similar, whereas Mandarin and Amoy Min Nan are 62% phonetically similar and 15% lexically similar ... In comparison, German and English are 60% lexically similar ...
... linguists' assessment of the degree of mutual intelligibility between Arvanitika and Standard Tosk range from fairly high to only partial (Ethnologue) ... The Ethnologue also mentions that mutual intelligibility may even be problematic between different subdialects within Arvanitika ... Mutual intelligibility between Standard Tosk and Arvanitika is higher than that between the two main dialect groups within Albanian, Tosk and Gheg ...
Famous quotes containing the word mutual:
“I have overlived the generation with which mutual labors & perils begat mutual confidence and influence.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)