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Mutual Intelligibility of Slavic Languages
Interesting article, I have posted it elswhere before. Read and share some toughts. Many things are correct imo...
''There is much nonsense said about the mutual intelligibility (MI) of the various languages in the Slavic family. It’s often said that all Slavic languages are mutually intelligible with each other. This is simply not the case.
Let us look first of all at Serbo-Croatian, since there is much nonsense floating around about this language. The main dialects of Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin and Bosnian are mutually intelligible.
However, Croatian has strange lects that Standard Croatian (Štokavian) cannot understand.
For instance, Čakavian Croatian is not intelligible with Standard Croatian. It consists of at least two languages, Ekavian Croatian spoken on the Istrian Peninsula, and Ikavian Croatian, spoken in southwestern Istria, the islands of Brač, Hvar, Vis, Korčula, Pelješac, the Dalmatian coast at Zadar and Split, and inland at Gacka. Čakavian differs from the other nearby Slavic lects spoken in the country due to the presence of many Italian words.
In addition, Kajkavian Croatian, spoken in northwest Croatia and similar to Slovenian, is not intelligible with Standard Croatian. However, Chavakian and Kajkavian have high, but not full, MI. But since Chavakian is not even intelligible within itself, it is doubtful that Chavakian and Kajkavian are one language. Kajkavian differs from the other Slavic lects spoken in Croatia in that it has many Hungarian loans. Kajkavian is probably closer to Slovenian than it is Chavakian.
Nevertheless, although intelligibility with Slovenian is high, Kajkavian lacks full intelligibility with Slovenian. Yet there is a dialect continuum between Slovenian and Croatian. The Kajkavian dialect of Croatian, especially the Hrvatsko Croatian dialect around Zagreb, is close to the Shtajerska dialect of Slovene. However, leaving aside Kajkavian speakers, Croatians have poor intelligibility of Slovenian.
Molise Croatian is a Croatian language spoken in a few towns in Italy, such as Acquaviva Collecroce. The Croatians left Croatia and came to Italy around 1300. Molise Croatian is not intelligible with Standard Croatian.
Burgenland Croatian, spoken in Austria, is intelligible to Croatian speakers in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, but it is not intelligible with Croatian spoken in Croatia. Therefore, there are six separate Croatian languages: Shtovakian Croatian, Kajkavian Croatian, Istrian or Čakavian Croatian, Brac-Hvar Croatian, Molise Croatian and Burgenland Croatian.
Serbian is made up to two languages. Shtovakian Serbian and Torlak Serbian. Torlak Serbian is spoken in the south and southwest of Serbia and is transitional to Macedonian. It is not intelligible with Shtovakian, although this is controversial.
It’s also said that Serbo-Croatian can easily understand Slovenian, Bulgarian and Macedonian, but this is not true. However, the Torlak Serbians can understand both Macedonian and Bulgarian well, as this is a Serbian dialect transitional to both languages.
Intelligibility in the Slavic languages of the Balkans is much exaggerated.
Slovenian finds it hard to understand most of the others except for Kajkavian Croatian. Serbian intelligibility of Slovenian is around 25-30%.
Bulgarian and Macedonian can understand each other to a great degree (80%), but not completely. However, the Ser-Drama-Lagadin-Nevrokop dialect in northeastern Greece and southern Bulgaria and the Maleševo-Pirin dialect in eastern Macedonia and western Bulgaria are transitional between Bulgarian and Macedonian. The Aegean Macedonian dialects mostly spoken in Greece, such as the Lerinsko-Kostursko and Solunsko-Vodensko dialects, sound more like Bulgarian than Macedonian.
Bulgarians have an intelligibility of Russian of up to 75-80%, but Russian intelligibility of Bulgarian may be lower, at ~50%. Bulgarian and Russian are close because the Ottoman rulers of Bulgaria would not allow printing in Bulgaria. Hence, many religious books were imported from Russia, and these books influenced Bulgarian. Russian influence only ended in 1878.
Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian have about 10-15% oral intelligibility, however, there are transitional Bulgarian dialects that are transitional with Torlak Serbian. Written intelligibility is higher at 25%. This difference is because Bulgarian is not spoken the same way it is written as Serbo-Croatian is. However, Bulgarians claim to be able to understand Serbo-Croatian better than the other way around. There is a group of Bulgarians living in Serbia in the areas of Basilograd and Dimotrovograd who speak a Bulgarian-Serbo-Croatian transition dialect, and Serbs are able to understand these Bulgarians well.
Serbs and Croats have variable intelligibility of Macedonian, averaging around 55%, while Nis Serbians have ~90% intelligibility with Macedonian. Part of the problem between Serbian and Macedonian is that so many of the basic words – be, do, this, that, where – are different, however, much of the rest of the vocabulary is the same. Serbs can often learn to understand Macedonian well after some exposure. Most Macedonians already are able to speak Serbian well. This gives rise to claims of Macedonians being able to understand Serbian very well, however, much of this may be due to bilingual learning. In fact, many Macedonians are switching away from the Macedonian language towards Serbo-Croatian.
The Macedonian spoken near the Serbian border is heavily influenced by Serbian and is quite a bit different from the Macedonian spoken towards the center of Macedonia. The two languages would be much closer together except that in recent years, Macedonian has been heavily influenced by Serbian, and Bulgarian has been heavily influenced by Russian. One way to look at Macedonian is that it is a Serbian-Bulgarian transitional lect. The intelligibility of Serbian and Macedonian is highly controversial, and intelligibility studies are in order.
Croats say Macedonian is a complete mystery to them.
Czech and Polish are incomprehensible to Serbo-Croatian (Czech 10%, Polish 5%), but Serbo-Croatian has some limited comprehension of Slovak, on the order of 25% or so. Serbo-Croatian MI with Russian is 15-20% intelligibility of Russian and 20% with Ukrainian, yet written intelligibility of Russian is higher at 25%.
Slovenians have a very hard time understanding Poles and Czechs and vice versa. Slovenian-Russian MI is ~10%.
It’s often said that Czechs and Poles can understand each other, but this is not so. Czech and Polish have some MI, but it’s hard to say how much – possibly on the order of 40%. It’s definitely less than Portuguese and Spanish. Much of the claimed intelligibility is simply bilingual learning.
The MI of Polish and Russian is very low, maybe on the order of 5-10%.
Polish is not intelligible with Kashubian, a language related to Polish spoken in the north of Poland, but figures are not known. Kashubian itself is two different languages, South Kashubian and North Kashubian, as the two have difficult intelligibility.
Silesian is also a separate language spoken in Poland, often thought to be halfway between Polish and Czech. It may have been split from Polish for up to 800 years, where it underwent heavy German influence. Polish lacks full intelligibility of Silesian, although this is controversial (see below). Some Poles say they find Silesian harder to understand than Belorussian or Slovak, which implies intelligibility of ~20-25%. The more German the Silesian dialect is, the harder it is for Poles to understand. In recent years, many of the German words are falling out of use and being replaced by Polish, especially by young people.
Many Poles insist that Silesian is a Polish dialect, but this is based more on politics than reality. In fact, people in the north of Poland regard Silesian as incomprehensible. 40% of Silesian vocabulary is different from Polish, mostly Germanisms. The German influence is more prominent in the west; Polish influence is greater in the east.
Silesian itself appears to be more than one language, as Opole Silesian speakers cannot understand Katowice Silesian, so Opole Silesian and Katowice Silesian than are two different languages.
Cieszyn Silesian or Ponaszymu is a dialect of Silesian spoken in Czechoslovakia in the far northeast of the country near the Polish and Slovak borders. It differs from the rest of Silesian in that it has undergone heavy Czech influence. Some say it is a part of Czech, but more likely it is a part of Polish like Silesian. Cieszyn Silesian is often intelligible with other Silesian dialects, so it is apparently not a separate language. Ponaszymu also has many Germanisms which have been falling out of use lately, replaced by their Czech equivalents. Ponaszymu appears to lack full intelligibility with Czech. In fact, some say the MI between the two is near zero.
Lach is a Czech-Polish transitional lect with a close relationship with Cieszyn Silesian. However, it appears to be a separate language, as Lach is not even intelligible within itself. Instead Eastern Lach and Western Lach have difficult intelligiblity and are separate languages. Lach is not fully intelligible with Czech; indeed, the differences between Lach and Czech appear to be 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.
Czechs say Lach is a part of Czech, and Poles say Lach is a part of Polish. The standard view among linguists seems to be that Lach is a part of Czech. However, another view is that Lach is indeed Lechitic, albeit with strong Czech influence.
It is often said that Ukrainian and Russian are intelligible with each other or even that they are the same language (Russian nationalists say the latter). It is not true at all that Ukrainian and Russian are mutually intelligible, as Ukrainian and Russian may have ~55% MI. For example, all Russian shows get subtitles on Ukrainian TV. Yet some say that the subtitles are simply put on as a political move due to Ukraine’s puristic language policy. Ukrainian and Russian only have 60% lexical similarity. Polish and Ukrainian have higher lexical similarity at 72%, and Ukrainian intelligibility of Polish is ~50%+.
However, there are dialects in between Ukrainian and Russian such as the Ukrainian Eastern Polissian and Slobozhan dialects that are intelligible with both languages. Complicating the picture is the fact that many Ukrainians are bilingual and speak Russian also. Ukrainians can understand Russian much better than the other way around.
In addition, the Slobozhan dialects of Ukrainian and Russian (Slobozhan Ukrainian and Slobozhan Russian) spoken in the Kantemirovka (Voronezhskaya oblast, Russia) region right over the eastern border of Ukraine are very close to each other. Slobozhan Russian is very close to Ukrainian, closer to Ukrainian than it is to Russian, and Slobozhan Ukrainian is very close to Russian, closer to Russian than to Ukrainian. Slobozhan Ukrainian speakers in this region find it easier to understand their Russian neighbors than it is to understand the Upper Dniestrian Ukrainian spoken in the far west in Lvov. Upper Dniestrian is influenced by German and Polish.
The Russian language in the Ukraine has been declining recently mostly because since independence, the authorities have striven to make the new Ukrainian as far away from Russian as possible. Hence, Russians understand the colloquial Ukrainian spoken in the countryside pretty well, but they understand the modern standard heard on TV much less. This is because colloquial Ukrainian is closer to the Ukrainian spoken in the Soviet era, which had huge Russian influence.
The intelligibility of Belorussian with both Ukrainian and Russian is a source of controversy. On the one hand, Belorussian has some dialects that are intelligible with some dialects of both Russian and Ukrainian. For instance, West Palesian is a transitional Belorussian dialect to Ukrainian. Whether or not West Palesian then qualifies as a separate language is not known. Some say that West Palesian is actually a separate language. However, MI between Belorussian and Ukrainian is very high – possibly 80-85%. Belorussian and Ukrainian have 85% similar vocabulary.
Nevertheless, Russian and Belorussian have high MI, possibly on the order of 75%. Belorussian is nonetheless a separate language from both Ukrainian and Russian.
From some reason, the Hutsul, Lemko, Boiko dialects of the Rusyn language are much more comprehensible to Russians than Standard Ukrainian is. Intelligibility may be on the order of 85%. Rusyn-Ukrainian MI is described as similar to Czech-Slovak MI – therefore, the MI between Rusyn and Ukrainian may be on the order of ~82%. Rusyn-Ukrainian MI is said to be the same as Ukrainian-Belorussian MI, so Ukrainian and Belorussian may also have ~82% MI.
At least the Lemko dialect of Rusyn has only marginal MI with Ukrainian. 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.
The Rusyn language is composed of ~ 50% Slovak roots and ~50% Ukrainian roots, so some difficult intelligibility with Ukrainian might be expected. It has also been described as a transitional dialect between Polish and Slovak. Eastern Slovak has ~80% intelligibility of Rusyn.
Pannonian Rusyn is spoken by a group of Rusyns who migrated to northwestern Serbia (the Bachka region in Vojvodina province) and Eastern Croatia from eastern Slovakia and western Ukraine 250 years ago. Pannonian Rusyn is actually a part of Slovak, and Rusyn proper is really a part of Ukrainian. Pannonian Rusyn lacks full intelligibility of Rusyn proper. Not only that, but it is not even fully intelligible with the Eastern Slovak that it resembles most.
The intelligibility of Czech and Slovak is much exaggerated. It is true that West Slovak dialects can understand Czech, but Central, East and Extraslovakian dialects cannot. It is also said that West Slovak (Bratislava) cannot understand East Slovak, so Slovak is actually two different languages, but this is controversial. West Slovak speakers say Eastern Slovak sounds idiotic and ridiculous, and some words are different, but other than that, they can basically understand it. Other Western Slovak speakers (Bratislava) say that Eastern Slovak (Kosice) is hard to understand. Bratislava speakers say that Kosice speech sounds 1/2 Slovak and 1/2 Ukrainian and uses many odd and unfamiliar words.
Much of the claimed intelligibility between Czech and Slovak was simply bilingual learning. Since the breakup, young Czechs and Slovaks understand each other worse since they have less contact with each other. In the former Czechoslovakia, everything was 50-50 bilingual, media, literature, etc. Since then, Slovak has been disappearing from the Czech Republic, so the younger people don’t understand Slovak so well.
MI of Czech and Slovak is around 82% and varies from 70-95% depending on the dialect. Intelligibility problems are mostly on the Czech end because they don’t bother to learn Slovak while many Slovaks learn Czech. There is as much Czech literature and media as Slovak literature and media in Slovakia, and many Slovaks study at Czech universities. When there, they have to pass a language test. Czechs hardly ever study at Slovak universities. Czechs see Slovaks as country bumpkins – backwards and folksy but optimistic, outgoing and friendly. Czechs are more urbane. The written languages are much more different than the spoken ones.
The languages really split about 1,000 years ago, but written Slovak was based on written Czech, and there was a lot of interlingual communication. A Moravian Czech speaker (Eastern Czech) and a Bratislavan Slovak (Western Slovak) speaker understand each other very well.
However, in recent years, there has also been quite a bit of bilingual learning. Young Czechs and Slovaks talk to each other a lot via the Internet. There are also some TV shows that show Czech and Slovak contestants untranslated (like in Sweden where Norwegian comics perform untranslated), and most people seem to understand these shows.
All foreign movies in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia are translated into Czech, not Slovak. Far Northeastern Slovak (Saris Slovak) near the Polish border is close to Polish and Ukrainian. Intelligibility data for Saris Slovak and Polish and Ukrainian is not known. Southern Slovak on the Hungarian border has a harder time understanding Polish because they do not hear it much.
Russian has low intelligibility with Czech and Slovak, maybe 30%, and Russian intelligibility of Slovenian is near zero.''
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Originally Posted by Feodora
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