Mutual intelligibility

Work’s plan:

1- definitionwhat is mutual intelligibility

2 – Problems1_The characterisation of LANGUAGE & DIALECT 2_Degree of Mutual Intelligibility 3_Nonlingustic Criteria

3-Conclusion

Language vs. dialect?

Linguistic criterion: Mutual intelligibility YES? = dialectse.g., British vs. American vs. Irish vs. Australian(= dialects of English) NO? = languagese.g.,Arabic vs. Franch vs. English(= different languages)

Mutual intelligibility: Definition

The first person who had used the term mutual intelligibility was Peter Trudgill in his book “Sociolinguistics : an Introduction” in 1974.

Mutual intelligibility is the extent to which speakers from two or more speech communities can understand each other.

It is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort.

Mutual intelligibility: Definition

It is sometimes used as a criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects.

“ A language is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects”.

This definition has the benefit of characterising dialects as subparts of a language and of providing a criterion for

distinguishing between one language and another.

Mutual intelligibility: Problems

1. The characterisation of ‘language’ and ‘dialect’ is not entirely successful.

Scandinavian languages: Norwegian, Swedish and Danish ( different languages but there is a mutual intelligibility between

them)

German is concedered as a single language but there are some types of German which are not intelligible to speakers of other types.

NORWEGIAN:language spoken in NorwaySWEDISH:language spoken in SwedenDANISH:language spoken in Denmark

Mutual intelligibility: Problems2 . Degree of mutual intelligibility

Dialect continuum: when each dialect is intelligible with contiguous neighbour but not intelligible with the dialects at the opposite end of the continuum.1 2 … 5 … 8 9 10 e.g. Northern Arabic vs Kuwait Arabic

As we move leftward differences increase and mutual intilligibility decrease.

Mutual intelligibility: Problems

Dialect continuum:

A quote from Stephen Anderson in one of thearticles on the Linguistic Society of America (LSA)website:

“Suppose you were to start from Berlin and walk to Amsterdam, covering about ten miles every day. You can be sure that the people who provided your breakfast each morning could understand (and be understood by) the people who served you supper that evening. Nonetheless, the German speakers at the beginning of your trip and the Dutch speakers at its end would have much more trouble, and certainly think of themselves as speaking two quite distinct (if related) languages.”

Mutual intelligibility: Problems

3 . Nonlinguistic criteria (political, historical, geographic etc.) may play a role.

e.g, Mandarin, Cantonese = mutually unintelligible, but considered dialects of Chinese

Serbian and Croatian = mutually intelligible, but considered separate languages

Mutual intelligibility: Problems

• People do not want to recognize that they can understand each other.

eg,A study carried out in Africa shows that one ethnic group A claimed to be able to understand the language of another ethnic group B, ethnic group B claimed not to be able to understand language A. It then emerged that group A, a larger and more powerful group, wanted to incorporate group B’s territory into their own on the grounds that they were really the same people and spoke the same language. Clearly, group B’s failure to comprehend group A’s language was part of their resistance to this attempted takeover.

Mutual intelligibility: conclusion

Mutual intelligibility a criterion used to distinguish between languages

and dialects but it is not always efficient

1. The

characterisation of

‘language’ and ‘dialect’

is not successful.

2 . Degree of

mutual intelligibilit

y.

3 . Nonlinguistic criteria may play a

role.

THANK YOU FOR

YOUR ATTENTION