Intelligibility in Germanic languages

[pa-integral]

Does anyone knows the answer to any of these questions?

1. Does a Dutch understand slow Frisian?
2. Does a Dutch understand fast Frisian?
3. Does a Dutch understand written Frisian?

4. Does a Flemish understand slow Frisian?
5. Does a Flemish understand fast Frisian?
6. Does a Flemish understand written Frisian?

7. Does a western German* understand slow Frisian?
8. Does a western German understand fast Frisian?
9. Does a western German understand Written Frisian?

10. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand slow Afrikaans?
11. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand fast Afrikaans?
12. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand written Afrikaans?

13. Does a western German understand slow Afrikaans?
14. Does a western German understand fast Afrikaans?
15. Does a western German understand written Afrikaans?

16. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand Austrian German? (slow/fast/written)
17. Does an Austrian understand Swiss German? (slow/fast/written)

18. Does a western German understand slow Dutch?
19. Does a western German understand fast Dutch?
20. Does a western German understand written Dutch?

21. Does a southwestern German understand slow Alsatian German?
22. Does a southwestern German understand fast Alsatian German?
23. Does a southwestern German understand written Alsatian German?

24. Does an Alsatian understand Swiss German? (slow/fast/written)
25. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand Alsatian? (slow/fast/written)

26. Does an Alsatian understand Luxembourgish? (slow/fast/written)
27. Does a Luxembourgish understand Alsatian? (slow/fast/written)
28. Does a southwestern German understand Luxembourgish? (slow/fast/written)

29. Does a Frisian understand Danish? (slow/fast/written)
30. Does a Dutch understand Danish? (slow/fast/written)
31. Does a Danish understand Dutch? (slow/fast/written)
32. Does a Danish understand Frisian? (slow/fast/written)

33. Does a southTirol understand Austrian? (slow/fast/written)
34. Does an Austrian understand southTirol? (slow/fast/written)
35. Does a southTirol understand a German-speaking Swiss? (slow/fast/written)
36. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand southTirol? (slow/fast/written)


I guess most of these questions will be hard to answer.

[proycon]

I can obviously only answer the questions for dutch, from a personal perspective:

The percentages are a wild guess as to how much I understand

Frisian? slow - 60% , fast - 40%, written - 70%

Afrikaans? written - 70%

Danish? slow - 10%, fast - 0%, written - 20%

These are of course highly subjective and inaccurate numbers...

[Saaropean]

7. Does a western German* understand slow Frisian?
8. Does a western German understand fast Frisian?
9. Does a western German understand Written Frisian?

Why western German? Frisian is linguistically closer to Low German, which is spoken in the north. I grew up in the center and south of Germany (linguistically speaking), so I can't really tell...

13. Does a western German understand slow Afrikaans?
14. Does a western German understand fast Afrikaans?
15. Does a western German understand written Afrikaans?

I've never heard Afrikaans spoken. I can understand written Afrikaans partly. I don't understand as well as Dutch, but much better than Scandinavian languages...

16. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand Austrian German? (slow/fast/written)
17. Does an Austrian understand Swiss German? (slow/fast/written)

I partly grew up with the Swabian dialect, which belongs to the same dialect group as Swiss German. Austrian German belongs to the same group as Bavarian. Both are Upper German dialects.
Nevertheless, I'd say Austrian German is much easier to understand than Swiss German...

I can understand Austrian German quite well. If I really concentrate, I can understand Swiss German more or less, but not everything...

18. Does a western German understand slow Dutch?
19. Does a western German understand fast Dutch?
20. Does a western German understand written Dutch?

Written Dutch is not hard to understand, except for some words that are different. Spoken Dutch is quite hard for me...

21. Does a southwestern German understand slow Alsatian German?
22. Does a southwestern German understand fast Alsatian German?
23. Does a southwestern German understand written Alsatian German?

Alsatian is an Alemannic dialect, close to Swabian and Swiss German. I can understand that because of my experience with the Swabian variant spoken in Stuttgart.

The dialects of Lorraine belong to the Rhine Franconian and Moselle Franconian groups of Central German dialects, which are very close to my native dialect. I can understand that very well. Note that those dialects contain more French words than their cousins spoken in Germany...

24. Does an Alsatian understand Swiss German? (slow/fast/written)
25. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand Alsatian? (slow/fast/written)

It should work more or less. Or at least a German-speaking Swiss who knows some French should be able to understand Alsatian...

26. Does an Alsatian understand Luxembourgish? (slow/fast/written)
27. Does a Luxembourgish understand Alsatian? (slow/fast/written)
28. Does a southwestern German understand Luxembourgish? (slow/fast/written)

Alsatian is an Upper German dialect/language, Luxembourgish is a Central German dialect/language. I'd say Alsatian and Luxembourgish are not mutually intelligible. But the dialects of Lorraine (at least the Moselle Franconian dialects) are quite close to Luxembourgish.

33. Does a southTirol understand Austrian? (slow/fast/written)
34. Does an Austrian understand southTirol? (slow/fast/written)
35. Does a southTirol understand a German-speaking Swiss? (slow/fast/written)
36. Does a German-speaking Swiss understand southTirol? (slow/fast/written)

As far as I know, the dialects spoken in South Tyrol are very very close to those spoken in Austria and Bavaria, but quite different from what is spoken in Switzerland.

[Saaropean]

Low German (spoken in northern Germany) is close to Dutch, which in turn is close to Afrikaans and (West/East/North) Frisian.

Central German dialects are spoken in central Germany, Luxembourg and Lorraine.
They can be further divided into a western and an eastern group. The border follows approximately the border between Hesse and Thuringia.
Western Central German dialects consist of the following groups:
- Ripuarian, spoken around Cologne
- Moselle Franconian, spoken along the Moselle in Lorraine, Luxembourg, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate
- Rhine Franconian, spoken in Palatinate, the Rhine-Neckar region and parts of Lorraine and Saarland
- Hessian, spoken mainly in Hesse

Upper German dialects are spoken in southern Germany, Alsace, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol.
One Upper German dialect group is Alemannic, spoken in Alsace, Baden-Württemberg, Liechtenstein, Swabia (district of Bavaria) Switzerland and Vorarlberg. Another group is Bavarian, spoken in Old Bavaria (which comprises the Bavarian districts Lower Bavaria, Upper Bavaria and Upper Palatinate) and Austria (except Vorarlberg). The third group is (East) Franconian, spoken in Franconia (which comprises the Bavarian districts Lower Franconia, Central Franconia and Upper Franconia as well as parts of north-eastern Baden-Württemberg).

Even the dialects within one group are not mutually intelligible. But it's of course easier to understand a dialect of the same group...

[pa-integral]

Interesting
Thanx for the information

[elgrande]

I either can't understand the languages you've mentioned (Dutch, Swiss German, Austrian German etc.) or I've never heard them (Afrikaans).
Of course, I can understand some words in written Dutch and a few ones in spoken Dutch, but that doesn't mean I can really understand the language.

[Daniel]

You left English (it's a Germanic language ) out!

[VF Static]

The Romance influences in English don't really allow it to compare in intelligibility to other Germanic languages nearly as much as German compares to Dutch or Dutch to Afrikaans...

Perhaps if we were comparing Anglo-Saxon to old Germanic languages...

If it adds at all to the survey: With non-native knowledge of German, when I listen to Dutch I can catch bits and pieces of what sounds like a "slurred" German. But this is usually limited to single words.

[Car]

I could basically read written Dutch. Ok, I didn't get a word here or there, but always got what the text is mainly about. Of spoken Dutch, I can understand some words. I don't understand Swiss German and can't comment on the rest.

[pa-integral]

The Romance influences in English don't really allow it to compare in intelligibility to other Germanic languages nearly as much as German compares to Dutch or Dutch to Afrikaans...

Perhaps if we were comparing Anglo-Saxon to old Germanic languages...

If it adds at all to the survey: With non-native knowledge of German, when I listen to Dutch I can catch bits and pieces of what sounds like a "slurred" German. But this is usually limited to single words.

Yes, but English also helps to understand some Dutch words, doesn't it?

[Blake]

You left English (it's a Germanic language ) out!

And not the less important one .

I myself can understand some of the other Germanic languages, but mostly it are only a couple of words that are similar to Dutch.

Afrikaans is really easy to understand, even when it's spoken rather fast... As is German and English (but that's probably because I've studied German in high school and because I'm studying English and Dutch at university).

[Leviwosc]

I've given the same answers for the Belgians about the Frisian language, I asume there's no difference between the understanding of this language.

1. Does a Dutch understand slow Frisian? 40%
2. Does a Dutch understand fast Frisian? 20%
3. Does a Dutch understand written Frisian? 60%

4. Does a Flemish understand slow Frisian? 40%
5. Does a Flemish understand fast Frisian? 20%
6. Does a Flemish understand written Frisian? 60%

10. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand slow Afrikaans? 80%
11. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand fast Afrikaans? 60%
12. Does a Dutch/Flemish understand written Afrikaans? 99,99%

Understanding Afrikaans is pretty easy, sometimes it can be a little confusing when the word order is really different from the Dutch order, but it's pretty easy to understand. Fast spoken Afrikaans is harder and may be a problem to have a conversation, though you can understand big parts of what the other person say. Written Afrikaans is very easy for a Dutchman or a Belgian, you understand nearly everything.


29. Does a Frisian understand Danish? (slow/fast/written) 20% / 10% / 40%

This is what a Frisian told me by chat...

Ron.

[Leviwosc]

And Yiddish is a germanic language also.....

Ron.

[jumichlo]

I speak a dialect from Central-Austria, I can understand most of the dialects Austria in the flat area. But as soon I come in the area of the Alps (especially in the West but also in the South) I quit.
I just don’t understand a word.
Even people who live in Innsbruck, the main city in North-Tyrol have often problems with many dialects in the different valleys around.

[Mulder-21]

29. Does a Frisian understand Danish? (slow/fast/written)
30. Does a Dutch understand Danish? (slow/fast/written)
31. Does a Danish understand Dutch? (slow/fast/written)
32. Does a Danish understand Frisian? (slow/fast/written)

I'd say no to all questions.

Maybe, a Dane could recognize the similar words, that Danish has with Dutch, due to the long German influence on Danish, and since Dutch and German are pretty similar, Danes with some skill in German, shouldn't have too much difficulties with Dutch.

I myself am fluent in Danish and English, and I consider myself pretty good in German too. I don't fully understand a Dutch conversation, but I get some bits and pieces from listening. When it comes to written Dutch, my German skills help me alot.

I can't say anything about Frisian, since I've no experiences with it what so ever, but from what I've seen, I'd say no, to these questions.

PA-Integral, why do you only have Western Germanic languages in your list, Danish not included?

Síggjast,

Johan Petur