Consideraciones no lingüísticas sobre las distancias lingüísticas entre dialectos

This study explores the relative contribution of geographic and objective linguistic distances to the perceived and estimated linguistic distances between Norwegian dialects as judged by non-linguists. The perceived linguistic distances were quantified by playing recordings of fifteen Norwegian dialects to groups of subjects from the same fifteen places and having them judge the linguistic distance of each dialect to their own dialect. The estimated linguistic distances were collected by asking the subjects to judge the distances on the basis of the place names only. Geographic distances were quantified as straight line distances and as traveling times from the year 1900. The objective linguistic distances were computed by means of the Levenshtein algorithm. The results show that non-linguists’ preconceived ideas about linguistic distances are based mainly on geographic information while both linguistic and geographic information play a role when they judge distances on the basis of dialect samples.Este estudio explora la contribución relativa de las distancias geográficas objetivas en la percepción y estimación que tienen no lingüistas sobre las distancias lingüísticas que existen entre los dialectos noruegos. Las distancias lingüísticas percibidas fueron cuantificadas a través de la escucha de grabaciones de quince dialectos noruegos que hicieron grupos de sujetos que pertenecían a los mismos lugares y que emitían juicios sobre la distancia lingüística que existía entre cada dialecto y su propia variedad. Las distancias lingüísticas estimadas se han obtenido pidiendo a los sujetos que valoraran las distancias únicamente a partir de los nombres de las localidades. Las distancias geográficas se cuantificaron como una línea recta y aplicando los tiempos de viaje desde el año 1900. Las distancias lingüísticas objetivas se calcularon mediante el algoritmo de Levenshtein. Los resultados muestran que las ideas preconcebidas de los no lingüistas sobre las distancias lingüísticas se basan principalmente en la información geográfica mientras que las informaciones lingüísticas y geográficas tienen un papel relevante cuando las distancias se valoran a partir de muestras dialectales

Testing mutual intelligibility between closely related languages in an oral society

This paper describes a new methodology for testing intelligibility across closely related languages and dialects in a traditional oral society in Vanuatu. There are many reasons why it could be useful to establish how well speakers of related varieties can understand one another: such knowledge is relevant to language planning and policy making, and it can shed light on the dynamics of language contact. However, conventional approaches to intelligibility testing, such as ‘recorded text testing’ (Hickerton et al. 1952; Pierce 1952; Voegelin & Harris 1951), are time consuming to score, and difficult to implement consistently. In Europe, fast and efficient intelligibility testing has been successfully carried out across closely related varieties (cf. Vanhove 2014; Gooskens forthcoming; Schüppert & Gooskens 2011a, 2011b, inter alia). However, these methods assume that test subjects are literate and computer-savvy. The methodology discussed in the present paper adapts European methods to conventional ‘fieldwork’ conditions. In Vanuatu we piloted a picture task and a translation task. Although some words had to be removed from the final analysis, the experiment was successful overall and we anticipate that this method can be fruitfully applied in other oral language communities.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

How well can intelligibility of closely related languages in Europe be predicted by linguistic and non-linguistic variables?

We measured mutual intelligibility of 16 closely related spoken languages in Europe. Intelligibility was determined for all 70 language combinations using the same uniform methodology (a cloze test). We analysed the results of 1833 listeners representing the mutual intelligibility between young, educated Europeans from the same 16 countries. Lexical, phonological, orthographic, morphological and syntactic distances were computed as linguistic variables. We also quantified non-linguistic variables (e.g. exposure, attitudes towards the test languages). Using stepwise regression analysis the importance of linguistic and non-linguistic predictors for the mutual intelligibility in the 70 language pairs was assessed. Exposure to the test language was the most important variable, overriding all other variables. Then, limiting the analysis to the prediction of inherent intelligibility, we analysed the results for a subset of listeners with no or little previous exposure to the test language. Linguistic distances, especially lexical distance, now explain a substantial part of the variance

Mutual Intelligibility of Finnish and Estonian Vocabulary

Peer reviewe

Hvad forstår unge svenskere og nordmænd bedst – engelsk eller dansk?

The Scandinavian languages are so alike that their speakers often communicate, each using their own language, which Haugen (1966) dubbed 'semicommunication'. This kind of communication is, however, sometimes problematic, especially when it involves Danish. For this reason some Scandinavians prefer to communicate in English. This tendency has been claimed to have become stronger during the last decades and some people see this as a threat to the use of the Scandinavian languages in a Scandinavian context. It is, however, unknown how well Scandinavians understand English in comparison to the neighboring languages. In the present investigation it was investigated how well young Swedes and Norwegians understand English in comparison to Danish by means of written and spoken language tests. The results are explained by means of linguistic and extralinguistic factors