In brief, there is some mutual intelligibility, enough to have a simple conversation of the 'me Tarzan - you Jane' type, speakin. London Times, 25 September 2006 Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, Kajkavian being the most mutually intelligible. In fact, I cannot often identify any words at all. Ive been following this page and kept coming to it for the past months, actually more than a year (and have noticed some updates). This list focuses on common languages widely thought to be at least partially and mutually intelligible. If you take your 25 (supposedly from Novi Sad) and 90 from Nis, then we come to about 60 percent (from Serbian side). Lets say a young Czech goes to Slovakia without prior exposure to Slovak. Dont let the past politics fool you. Slovenian speakers find it hard to understand most of the other Yugoslav lects except for Kajkavian Croatian. Some Russians and Bulgarians say they understand almost nothing of the other language. When we do intelligiblity studies, we look for virgin ears or people who have not heard the other language much or at all. Some say it is a part of Czech, but more likely it is a part of Polish like Silesian. Is Ukrainian more like . Ekavian Chakavian has two branches Buzet and Northern Chakavian. Re: Rus/Ukr The base of Molise Croatian was Shtokavian with an Ikavian accent and a heavy Chakavian base similar to what is now spoken as Southern Kajkavian Ikavian on the islands of Croatia. When it is relatively symmetric, it is characterized as "mutual". Young czechs and slovaks communicate on internet on daily basis and they understand each other just perfectly. 1996 . If speakers of one language have more exposure to its related language, theyre likely to pick up more of that language. Because they use different alphabets, German and Yiddish are only mutually intelligible when spoken. In contrast, Filipovi is talking slowly, and although some words have a different stress than in Czech, I can identify them pretty well and hence listening to this guy is basically like reading a written text in Serbo-Croatian. Lach is not fully intelligible with Czech; indeed, the differences between Lach and Czech are greater than the differences between Silesian and Polish, despite the fact that Lach has been heavily leveling into Moravian Czech for the last 100 years. Polish uses Latin letters, just like English. Do you speak Ukrainian. Is Ukrainian mutually intelligible with Polish? It should be noted that this division is conditional (actually: arbitrary) (and) names do not reflect the different languages, but only periods in the development of the Bulgarian language, which (have) detectable traits. Northern (Istrian and Kvarner) akavian is closer to kajkavian and Slovene then Southern akavian is ( I understand 95%+ n). Mutual intelligibility between languages can make learning them much easier. Czechs claim only 10-15% intelligibility of Polish. Also sorry for my English. I think that nowadays people from Ni also dont understand that Serbian enough. I think (as a native Serbian speaker from south eastern Belgrade) the main difference between Serbian and Macedonian is that Macedonian doesnt have cases and have definite articles as well. I simply didnt know what for example word iskati (to seek) means when I first watched that movie, I was 14, I understand it from the context like I can understand Macedonian. 2023 Enux Education Limited. But the language isnt problem. Ukrainian 15 % spoken, 25 % written For the south slavic speakers, it is a commonism, almost a joke, for a Serb and a Croat to argue---in a mutually intelligible language---that . Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "ac933fc62d348b183dfc4516edf000ec" );document.getElementById("b83dbe3da2").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Are Polish and Ukrainian mutually intelligible? The revelation comes from General Musharrafs memoir, In the Line of Fire, which begins serialisation in The Times today and will further embarrass the White House at a time when relations between the US and Pakistan are already strained.. Pakistani intelligence chiefs are concerned that General Musharraf may jeopardise their relationship with British intelligence agencies after claiming that a convicted terrorist was once an MI6 informer. Usually, theyre at least partially mutually intelligible with the main language they stem from. However, a Croatian linguist has helped me write part of the Croatian section, and he felt that at least that part of the paper was accurate. And the same problem emerges in other situations. So, when you're learning the Polish alphabet, all you have to pay attention to are the special accents and the pronunciation. 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. I think the OP exagerated a bit. That is good to know. He said if he was there for about a week he could understand probably everything. Macedonian syntax and lexics are more similar to Serbian, even though structures of the language such as articles (no declensions) function as in Bulgarian. Ukrainians seems closer to Slovak than Russian but some words in Russian are almost exactly the same in Slovak but in Ukranian they are completely different. Below is an incomplete list of fully and partially mutually intelligible languages, that are so similar that they are sometimes considered not to be separate, but merely varieties of the same language. I am not saying this to slam Ukrainians, but just an observation. It all adds up, man. It differs from the rest of Silesian in that it has undergone heavy Czech influence. You get 0%. the use of the accusative is nearly identical in Ni Torlak and Kumanovo Macedonian (cannot say the same for standard Macedonian as it has no accusative to begin with) and is, in general, more of an oblique case than anything else If you choose to learn a language which is at least to some extent mutually intelligible to a language you already know . Jen. It was probably in the same ballpark as Polish for me. Mutual intelligibility is highly subjective. 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. But they would learn it quickly if they cared. Therefore . Upper Dnistrian is influenced by German and Polish. There is one factor they dont know about the internet. It is not really either Bulgarian or Serbo-Croatian, but instead it is best said that they are speaking a mixed Bulgarian-Serbo-Croatian language. Molise Croatian is not intelligible with Standard Croatian. Pretty accurate I think. Problem is the spoken form, as Bulgarians dont speak as it is written, which is the case with serbian or croatian. I put it to Google translator and I got this: For me, Serbian and Macedonian are as different as Serbian and Slovene, they sounds somehow the same, but I dont understand them correctly. However, Bulgarians claim to be able to understand Serbo-Croatian better than the other way around. The claim for separate languages is based more on politics than on linguistic science. Instead Eastern Lach and Western Lach have difficult intelligibility and are separate languages, so Lach itself is a macrolanguage. Greg, Kaikavian is dialect of Slovenian language. I can illustrate it on the video posted above Vojnata vo Bosna. While Norway was under Danish rule, the Bokml written standard of Norwegian developed from Dano-Norwegian, a koin language that evolved among the urban elite in Norwegian cities during the later years of the union. I am a native Macedonian and I totally dont agree with you. Croats say Macedonian is a complete mystery to them. And yes, comprehension has suffered since Czechoslovakia broke up, due to lack of exposure. A Slovenian person that has never lived in the east of the country understands only about 60 70 % of the dialect (Prekmurski dialect). Frequency of exposure is one of the main causes of this. Ukrainian has 82% intelligibility of Belarusian and Rusyn and 55% of Polish. Do you speak Boyko or Hutsul? It is very strange when some words are not understood, although the communication is possible. . You are a smart guy. There are distinct regional variations of Arabic. It has been massively updated with a lot of new research from controlled scientific intelligibility studies. Ukrainian and Belarusian are the closest languages, as together with Russian they form the East Slavic group of languages. However, another view is that Lach is indeed Lechitic, albeit with strong Czech influence. It is commonly believed that all Slavic languages are fully mutually intelligible, which implies that they are close I am really sorry, but if you are speaking about science, you cannot just say. Once you pick up those basic 50 words, understanding Macedonian becomes super easy that was my experience with Macedonian friends (the few of them who dont speak Serbian). A primary challenge to these positions is that speakers of closely related languages can often communicate with each other effectively if they choose to do so. NATO EU. by Christine Ro. Polish: 5% According to former Pakistani President Musharraf Omar Sheikh who wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta was recruited during the 90s by British intelligence. How much Slovene can your average Chakavian speaker understand? However, the Torlak Serbians can understand Macedonian well, as this is a Serbo-Croatian dialect transitional to both languages. But being that they are Slavic with the same or similar grammar and structure you pick up different slavic languages and their style very quick. It was for me a bit strange, because Bulgarian science still supports the thesis that Macedonian is Bulgarian. plenty of prepositions are used in a similar, if not identical, manner; to name an example, na is used in both Macedonian and Ni Torlak as a replacement for the Serbian genitive, in addition to its standard use as on(to) Russian. In fact, some say the intelligibility between the two is near zero. You can pick up the gist of thats being said in any sentence. 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. (Jim Morrison). Polish ~ Kashubian . On the other side, i.e. For me having learnt some Slavic languages and watching Bulgarian TV was not very difficult. 12 Dec 2016 #221. http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1284248981/last-1288620675/The+real+9-11+cover+up-+Political+hijacking++was+originally+aimed+at+Russia, http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1289113786/last-1289113786/British+intelligence+links+to+African+Emabssy+bombings, http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/sheikhmedia.htm, http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/wanted_terrorists/usama-bin-laden/view, http://ifaq.wap.org/society/voweldeployment.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Aog4AJdQM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1n9KMawa-8, https://www.academia.edu/4080349/Mutual_Intelligibility_of_Languages_in_the_Slavic_Family, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11185-015-9150-9, https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BA, Alt Left: Ukrainian Nazis Execute Two of Their Own Men for Refusing to Fight, The Conquest of Germany and Japan Never Ended, Protected: Post to Discuss All of the Various POIs and Theories in the Delphi Murders from the Crime to the Present, Protected to Avoid Libel and Character Assassination Part 10, NATO Helped the Ukrainians Fire All Those Drones at Russia, Including all the Way to Moscow, The Conquest and Destruction of Russia Project Goes Way Back to Post World War 2, The Jewish Conspiracy To Subject Humankind. What Are Mutually Intelligible Languages? To some extent, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian, and Belarusian retain a degree of mutual intelligibility. I think that Russian has at least 89% with Belorussian, because I understand all speech in Belorusian. I can randomly pick up another paragraph from that Wikipedia page, and it would be harder: Serbian is a macrolanguage made up to two languages: Shtokavian Serbian and Torlak or Gorlak Serbian. Interesting article It exists in differing degrees among many related or geographically proximate languages of the world, often in the context of a dialect continuum. For true MI testing, we want virgin ears, and it has to be both ways. The Polish alphabet includes certain additional letters formed using diacritics: the kreska in the letters , , , , and through the letter in ; the kropka in the letter , and the ogonek ("little . Slovenian: 20% 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. The written languages differ much more than the spoken ones. Many Turkic languages are mutually intelligible to a higher or lower degree, but thorough empirical research is needed to establish the exact levels and patterns of mutual intelligibility between the languages of this linguistic family. I do hope that you understand the point. Serbo-Croatian and Russian have 10-15% intelligibility, if that, yet written intelligibility is higher at 25%. Hello Mr Lindsay, To my opinion, Macedonian and Bulgarian would be today much closer if Macedonian had not been heavily influenced by Serbian and Bulgarian not influenced so much by Russian. Pronunciation is quite different, but all patterns are easy to catch. "Proto-Slavonic,". Like rano i utro or kanapa dywan kawior. 10%? Mr.Lindsay, He conducts his interviews in Macedonian, and as you can watch , his guests, be they bulgarians, serbs, bosnians, croats have no trouble understanding his questions. Chakavian has a low mutual intelligibility with either, in part due to its large number of loanwords from Venetian. Same question, how much Chakavian can your average Shtokavian speaker understand in percentage? Serbia is large and you should also ask Serbians in other regions. 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. It's also highly intelligible with Portuguese in writing, though less so when spoken. 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 exposure to additional related languages, 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. Spoken Bulgarian is very difficult to understand for other Slavs due to phonology and unique syllable stress. OMG! According to a paper on Mutual Intelligibility of Languages in the Slavic Family (link in comments): Native Belarusian speakers can understand 80% of spoken Ukrainian and 80% of written . The post-1991 reforms of the Ukrainian language were not an introduction of Polish or Western Ukrainian as some Russian nationalists (and non-nationalists, who believe them) claim, but rather a return to a standard adopted in Kharkiv in 1927. Bulgarian and Russian are close because the Ottoman rulers of Bulgaria would not allow printing in Bulgaria. Czech-Polish is not at 12% anymore, a new study has found it is 32%. How much of Ukrainian can these Russians in Canada understand? Belic) maybe do not understand Macedonian so well as Macedonian the Serbian language do (because of the according to you Bilingual learning . Slobozhan Russian can also be called Kuban Russian or Balachka. Vedle hlavn, pouvan v Bulharsku, existuje jet makedonsk norma, kter tak (?) akavian is full of romanisms, kajkavian of germanisms and tokavian of turkish and other orientalisms. Grammar, on the other hand, is a different matter altogether. For example, Dutch speakers tend to find it easier to understand Afrikaans than vice versa as a result of Afrikaans' simplified grammar. Nevertheless, Bulgarian-Russian intelligibility seems much exaggerated. between Ni Torlak and Macedonian than between either of those two and Serbian From some reason, the Hutsul, Lemko, andBoiko dialects of the Rusyn language are much more comprehensible to Russians than Standard Ukrainian is. As a result, I, who spoke fluent Ukrainian when I moved from Ukraine 18 years ago, have problems following modern speech on TV. Ja u da radim is more common to Serbian speakers but ja u raditi is officially more correct. But despite similarities in grammar and vocabulary and almost identical alphabets, they differ sharply in many ways and are not mutually intelligible. Method: It is important to note that the percentages are in general only for oral intelligibility and only in the case of a situation of a pure inherent intelligibility test. I have no idea, what Sledva da se otbelei, e tova means. Young Czechs and Slovaks talk to each other a lot via the Internet. Polish has 22% intelligibility of Silesian, 12% of Czech, 6% of Russian, and 5% of Bulgarian. Hence the figures are averages taken from statements by native speakers of the languages in question. The truth is that a person can often understand other dialects, except his native one. There is an old Kajkavian-Chakavian dialect continuum of which little remains, although some of the old Kajkavian-Chakavian transitional dialects are still spoken (Jembrigh 2014). It consists of at least four major dialects, Ekavian Chakavian, spoken on the Istrian Peninsula, Ikavian Chakavian, spoken in southwestern Istria, the islands of Bra, Hvar, Vis, Korula, and olta, the Peljeac Peninsula, the Dalmatian coast at Zadar, the outskirts of Split and inland at Gacka, Middle Chakavian, which is Ikavian-Ekavian transitional, and Ijekavian Chakavian, spoken at the far southern end of the Chakavian language area on Lastovo Island, Janjina on the Peljeac Peninsula, and Bigova in the far south near the border with Montenegro. It has a very high degree of mutual intelligibility with Galician (spoken in Northwestern Spain), which is a language thats sort of a cross between Portuguese and Spanish. A more updated version of this paper with working hyperlinks can be found on Academia.edu here. However, in terms of vocabulary Ukrainian is closer to Polish, from which it has borrowed a large number of words. http://www.network54.com/Forum/84302/thread/1289113786/last-1289113786/British+intelligence+links+to+African+Emabssy+bombings. slavic mutual newspaper I always aske her about whether she understands Bulgarian and Serbian and she claims Serbian is way closer to her language rather than Bulgarian. Ukrainians and Belarusians understand each other's languages with no problem. Hutsul, Lemko, Boiko speech (small Ukrainian/Rusyn dialects) stangely enough, more comprehensible than standard Ukrainian. In addition, Bin Laden is a suspect in other terrorist attacks throughout the world. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you While not usually considered mutually intelligible, theres also enough similarity between French and Italian that speakers of Portuguese may understand both of these languages. Balgarskijat ezik e pluricentrien ezik ima njakolko kniovni normi. Your English is pretty much ok. Un- or fortunately, you are right about the thesis about Macedonian and Bulgarian. Its grammar is close to that of Russian. Id like to know about written mutual intelligibility, because, about spoken mutual intelligibility, there are people from portugal that cannot understand brazilians and vice-versa, though they speak the same language. Saris Slovak has high but not complete intelligibility of Polish, possibly 85%. She doesn't speak any Polish so it's going to be an interesting challenge. Some people in Croatia asked me if I speak Kajkavian when I spoke Slovenian with my friends. 3. http://ifaq.wap.org/society/voweldeployment.html. Spanish is also partially mutually intelligible with Italian, Sardinian and French, with respective lexical similarities of 82%, 76% and 75%. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Polish and Ukrainian have higher lexical similarity at 72%, and Ukrainian intelligibility of Polish is ~50%+. Belarussian and Ukrainian have 85% similar vocabulary. Nared s osnovnata, izpolzovana v Balgarija, saestvuvat oe makedonska norma, kojato sao izpolzva kirilica, i banatska norma, kojata izpolzva latinica. Is there any particular method to determine this? I must admit that knowing English, German and French also helped me since Polish readily uses borrowings from these languages where Russian prefers Slavic words. But the end of the sentence clarified these words. Pannonian Rusyn lacks full intelligibility of Rusyn proper. Western Slovak speakers say Eastern Slovak sounds idiotic and ridiculous, and some words are different, but other than that, they can basically understand it. Thus, this exposure gives them an edge when trying to understand Czech. You really need to go look at the new version of the paper. In addition, the Slobozhan dialects of Ukrainian and Russian such as (Slobozhan Ukrainian and Slobozhan Russian) spoken in Kantemirov (Voronezhskaya Oblast, Russia), and Kuban Russian or Balachka spoken in the Kuban area right over the eastern border of Ukraine are very close to each other. There is a group of Bulgarians living in Serbia in the areas of Bosilegrad and Dimitrovgrad who speak a Bulgarian-Serbian transitional dialect, and Serbs are able to understand these Bulgarians well. Kids speak both languages, as well as English, fluently. Civis Illustris. Do Ukrainians and Polish like each other? Ukrainian, and Belarusian. Pobrzajte in Serbian means (pourite) but I understand it because brzo means fast and prefix po also exists in Serbian, and the imperative form is the same. Is there an agreed-upon standard? Im a speaker of Torlakian Serbian characteristically closer to Macedonian than Standard Serbian, having three (nom/acc/voc) cases and using a fusional instead of an analytic past tense and, with regards to a certain comment made two years ago on here, can, without issue, understand Zona Zamfirova, a movie about life in Ottoman Ni, without any subtitles. This gives rise to claims of Macedonians being able to understand Serbo-Croatian very well, however, much of this may be due to bilingual learning. Czechs hardly ever study at Slovak universities. Ukranian: 20% . 1993. What is the most mutually intelligible Slavic language? Hello everyone, Ponaszymu also has many Germanisms which have been falling out of use lately, replaced by their Czech equivalents. 0%. I got that figure from a Serb. In other words, Ukrainian speakers can often understand Russian, while Russian speaker doesn't understand Ukrainian, especially Russian speakers from outside Ukraine. They sometimes say that youngsters do not but that is just a myth. . Also akavian has some elements of its own. (I will come to Bulgarian too). Additionally, Norwegian assimilated a considerable amount of Danish vocabulary as well as traditional Danish expressions. 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. In this week's Slavic languages comparison we talk about animals in Polish and Ukrainian. Jembrigh, Mario. As an addendum, Id like to make it known that my own grandmother, who hails from a village some twenty kilometers southwest of Ni, got lost in Belgrade once but has no problem getting around Skopje. 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). I can give you an example of how I can read Bulgarian: Torlakians are often said to speak Bulgarian, but this is not exactly the case. So I understood all but one word (), and Google Translator indeed confirms that my guess was right and it means also. If you're a foreign student, studying russian, it's unlikely you'd be able to understand Ukrainian at all. Between sources, you might find some claiming that two languages are mutually intelligible, while other sources claim those same languages arent. For instance, he and she in Standard Macedonia is toj and taa respectively, very close to Bulgarian toy and tya. Also I have a long article coming up as a chapter in a peer reviewed book being published out of Turkey. Spanish is most mutually intelligible with Galician. But other results that included Czech and Bulgarian were very poor. Russia Invades Ukraine pt XII. 7. And, as it was already sad, all Slovaks understand czeh better than czech slovaks thanks to hostory and politics. It is true that Czech is more urban and less folk and many Slovaks study in Czech republic. Subtitles are absurd when 99% of the audience can already understand whats going on. Macedonian is a little easier, since its more a transitional dialect between Bulgarian and Serbian. Student Authored Website. However, there are dialects in between Ukrainian and Russian such as the Eastern Polissian and Slobozhan dialects of Ukrainian that are intelligible with both languages. There was a lot of past Yugoslav politics that hid the truth. Also, danes and swedes have a hard time understanding each other, but they can read the others language quite well. PS More than half of Slovenian seems to be closely related to Kaikavian and Chakavian Croatian (and probably Old Shtokavian which is almost extinct). Other then that difference is in grammar and accent. How to explain that? Slovak: 20% Or they will say, Well, that is about 70% our language. If it is a dialect, they will say, That is really still our language. 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. Due to no prior exposure to Russian, I could not understand that language, other than a few words and expressions here and there. Postby voron 2018-01-26, 22:33. I cant say that I would understand every word, but it is usually not difficult to guess some missing gaps from the context, so I could read professional books in Bulgarian in the past. Main difference between akavian, kajkavian and tokavian is in vocabulary. I also conclude that in terms of straight linguistic science anyway, Czech and Slovak are simply one language called Czechoslovakian. If you speak Russian, you might be surprised at how much Ukrainian you understand. Personally, I must admit that Serbs from areas above Nis (cf. Interesting when one considers that Ukrainians do not even consider Rusyn a real language. Older people who rembember federation understand everything. Clearly it WAS the Illuminati at workI guess the planes were flown by shapeshifting lizards, toooh, come to think of it, isnt George Bush Junior a lizard, too! As a non-Ukrainian (as well as non-Polish) native speaker, I can understand Ukrainian through Polish more easily than Russian, even though I actually studied Russian formally, but never Ukrainian-:) . Generally, when foreigners say speakers of a certain language speak too fast, speakers of that language can hear that fast speech just fine. But reading a Bulgarian text is surprisingly easy, because the phonology and vocabulary are very similar. Nevertheless, although intelligibility with Slovenian is high, Kajkavian lacks full intelligibility with Slovenian.