In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a property exhibited by a set of languages when speakers of any one of them can readily understand all the others without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as one criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also important. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used. ...

Intelligibility between languages can be asymmetric, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understand of the first. It is when it is relatively symmetric that it is characterized as 'mutual'. It exists in differing degrees among many related or geographically proximate languages of the world, often in the context of a dialect continuum. A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. ...

Intelligibility

For individuals to achieve moderate proficiency or understanding in a language (called L2) other than their mother tongue or first language (L1) typically requires considerable time and effort through study and/or practical application. However, for those many groups of languages displaying mutual intelligibility, namely, those, usually genetically related languages, similar to each other in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, or other features, speakers of one language usually find it relatively easy to achieve some degree of understanding in the related language(s). Languages mutually intelligible but not genetically related may be creoles and parent languages, or geographically adjacent variants of two unrelated languages. First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ... First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ... Look up Study on Wiktionary, the free dictionary To study means to acquire knowledge, often by memorization or reading. ... A practice refers to a way that something is done. ... In biology, phylogenetics (Greek: phylon = tribe, race and genetikos = relative to birth, from genesis = birth) is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e. ... Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language. ... A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ... Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

However, 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 interest in or familiarity with other cultures, psycho-cognitive traits, and other factors. Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain and behaviour. ... Look up Cognition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Asymmetry

The neutrality of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words". Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Asymmetries often exist in intelligibility between languages. For example, many Spanish speakers report substantially greater difficulty in attempting to understand spoken Portuguese in spoken form than vice versa. Similarly, many Icelandic speakers understand Swedish much more easily than the other way round, because Icelandic has preserved several archaic features of Scandinavian languages that the others have lost. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ...

Mutually intelligible languages or variants of one language?

According to some definitions, two or more languages that demonstrate a sufficiently high degree of mutual intelligibility should properly not be considered two distinct languages but, in fact, multiple variants of the same language. Conversely, it is sometimes the case that different varieties of what is considered the same language—according to popular belief, governmental stance, or historical convention—are not, in fact, mutually intelligible in practice. (For more on this, see Dialect, and Dialect continuum—as well as Diasystem and Diglossia for two closely related but distinct language forms.) A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. ... In linguistics, a diasystem is a term used in structural dialectology, to refer to a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. ... In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often) closely-related languages, one of high prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. ...

Selected list of mutually intelligible languages

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

Image File history File links Circle-question. ...

Written and spoken forms

Indo-European

• Germanic
  • Afrikaans, Dutch, and the most western forms of Low Saxon.
  • German, Yiddish, most Low Saxon dialects, Luxembourgish all rooted in mainly German vocabulary.
  • Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. The three are considered to compose the Mainland Scandinavian group. Written Danish and the Bokmål form of Norwegian are particularly close, though the phonology and prosody of all three languages differ somewhat. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can understand the others, though studies have shown that speakers of Norwegian generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand any of the other languages. See also Scandinavian languages.
  • English and Lowland Scots
• Slavic
  • Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian - the East Slavic branch
  • Bulgarian and Macedonian - the eastern group of the South Slavic branch
  • Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian (also previously classified as one language, Serbo-Croatian) in the western group of the South Slavic branch.
  • Polish, Slovak, Czech, and Sorbian ethnically and politically close - all of them of the West Slavic branch (note: no combination of these languages is truly fully mutually intelligible, especially not all dialects, however Czech and Slovak speakers do not usually need any assistance to fluently communicate)
  • All Slavic languages are mutually intelligible up to a small degree in spoken and/or written form.

• Romance
  • Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian
  • Catalan and Occitan.
  • French, Walloon, Romansh, and Occitan
  • French and its Norman-descended cousins the Channel Island languages of Sercquiais (Sarkese), Dgèrnésiais, and Jèrriais
  • Italian (Standard) and various regional languages/dialects of Italy and Interlingua
    • Sicilian and Italian (Sicilian has no official recognition as a separate language)
  • Occitan and northern Italian dialects
  • Portuguese, Galician to a large degree with Spanish and Interlingua.
  • Portuguese and modern Galician self-defined as separate languages. They evolved out of a common medieval ancestor, Galician-Portuguese.
  • Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and Interlingua are to some degree mutually intelligible.
  • Romanian and Italian show a limited degree of asymmetrical mutual intelligibility: speakers of Romanian seem to understand Italian more easily than the other way round.
  • Romanian and Moldovan, which are actually the same language differentiated due to political reasons.
  • Romanian and Aromanian
  • Spanish with Astur-Leonese, Ladino (now mostly written in the Latin script, but if written in the traditional Hebrew variant, unintelligible), and Galician to a very large degree, Aragonese less so, and Catalan with some difficulty.

• Indo-Iranian
  • Punjabi, Seraiki, and Hindko

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia with smaller numbers of speakers in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia. ... Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Luxembourgish, Luxemburgish, or Luxembourgian (Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuergesch, French: Luxembourgeois, German: Luxemburgisch, Walloon: Lussimbordjwès) is a West Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg. ... BokmÃ¥l (lit. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scots (or Lallans, meaning Lowlands), properly Lowland Scots, is used in Lowland Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans but by speakers simply as Scotch or Scots. On the...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... Rusyn, though by most outsiders considered one language and even having only one SIL code rue, is in fact the name of two independent languages spoken by Rusyns: Carpatho-Rusyn (also called Ruthenian) Pannonian-Rusyn (also called Rusnak) Carpatho-Rusyn (Ruthenian) The Rusyn language of the Carpathian Mountains is an... The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Å tokavian dialect, used primarily in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and by Serbs everywhere. ... Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian (also Croatian or Serbian, Serbian or Croatian) (srpskohrvatski or cрпскохрватски or hrvatskosrpski or hrvatski ili srpski or srpski ili hrvatski), earlier also Serbo-Croat, was an official language of Yugoslavia (along with Slovenian, Macedonian). ... This article or section should be merged with List of Sorbian languages The Sorbian languages are members of the West Slavic branch of languages spoken in eastern Germany. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Megleno-Romanian (known as Vlaheshte by speakers and Moglenitic, Meglenitic or Megleno-Romanian by non-speakers) is a Romance language, similar to Aromanian, spoken in the Moglená region, located in the Kilkis and Serres prefectures in Macedonia, Greece, as well as in the Republic of Macedonia. ... Catalan in Europe Catalan IPA: (català ) is a Romance language, the official language of Andorra and co-official in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Valencia (under the name Valencian) and Catalonia. ... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ... Walloon (Walon) is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Belgium. ... Romansh (also spelled Rumantsch, Romansch or Romanche) is any of the various Rhaetian languages spoken in Switzerland. ... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ... The Norman language is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. ... The Channel Islands are a group of islands off the coast of Normandy, France, in the English Channel. ... Sercquiais also known as Sarkese or Sark-French is the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Sark. ... Dgèrnésiais, also known as Guernésiais, Guernsey French, Guernsey Norman French, or patois is the variety of Norman language spoken in Guernsey. ... Jèrriais is a form of Norman language spoken in Jersey in the Channel Islands. ... Italy currently has one national language: Standard Italian. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The constructed language Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... Sicilian (, Italian: ) is the Romance language spoken in Sicily and southern Italy. ... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ... Galician (Galician: galego) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia. ... The constructed language Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... Galician (Galician: galego) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia. ... Portuguese-Galician (in Portuguese and Galician is known as Galaico-Português) was a Iberian Romance language, spoken in the Middle Ages, in the western area of the Iberian Peninsula. ... The constructed language Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (IAL) published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Astur-Leonese or Bable (Asturianu in Asturian, Llïonés in Leonese) is a Romance language spoken in some parts of the provinces of Asturias, León, Zamora and Salamanca in Spain, and in the area of Miranda de Douro in Portugal (where it is officially recognized as Mirandese). ... This article deals with the Judaeo-Spanish language. ... Galician (Galician: galego) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia. ... Categories: Pages containing IPA | Language stubs | Romance languages | Languages of Spain ... Catalan can refer to: Catalan people Catalan language An inhabitant of Catalonia A Catalan speaker, whether or not from Catalonia proper (see Catalan Countries). ... Indo-Iranian can refer to: The Indo-Iranian languages The prehistoric Indo-Iranian people, see Aryan This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Punjabi (also Panjabi; in GurmukhÄ«, PanjābÄ« in ShāhmukhÄ«) is the language of the Punjabi people and the Punjab regions of India and Pakistan. ... Siraiki is an old language spoken in central Pakistan. ... Hindko is an ancient language spoken in the Indian subcontinent. ...

Austronesian

• Samoan and Tongan
• Malay and Indonesian (linguistically two slightly different variants of the same language, distinguished for political-cultural reasons). See also Differences between Malay and Indonesian
• Most of the Polynesian dialects are mutually intelligible.

The Malay language, also known locally as Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Malaysia, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people who reside in the Malay Peninsula, southern Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, central eastern Sumatra, the Riau islands, and parts of the coast of Borneo. ... The differences between Malay (Bahasa Melayu) and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) are slightly greater than those between British English and American English. ...

Dravidian

• Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada (These languages belong to the subgroup of Southern Dravidian. The only other major Dravidian language is Telugu, but it comes under Central Dravidian subgroup and is heavily Sanskritized. Please note that though Malayalam is also heavily sanskritized (mostly in formal vocabulary and excluding grammatical words such as pronouns, although it has also been influenced byaspects of Sanskrit grammar such as Sandhi rules), it retains many Dravidian roots, especially in colloquial forms. Even though Telugu is largely unintelligible to speakers of South Dravidian languages, some relationship is still obvious - for example, "Rama kicked [the] ball" would be "rāmudu bantini koṭṭaḍu" in Telugu, whereas in Malayalam it would be "rāman pantine koṭṭi" (the verbs in the phrase are there because they are cognate with each other, beginning with "koṭṭ-" in both cases, but koṭṭi has developed a slightly different connotation in Malayalam and "taṭṭi" would normally be used instead).

Tamil (தமிழ் ) is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. ... Malayalam (മലയാളം ) is the language spoken predominantly in the state of Kerala, in southern India. ... Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ ; also, less commonly, Kanarese) is one of the major Dravidian languages of southern India and one of the oldest languages in India. ... Telugu (తెలుగు) (also Telegu) belongs to the Dravidian language family but with ample influence from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. ... The Sanskrit language ( , ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. ... Sandhi is a cover term for a wide variety of phonological processes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. ...

Sino-Tibetan

• Hainanese, Min Nan, Taiwanese, and Teochew

Hainanese is a dialect of the Min Nan group spoken in the southern Chinese province of Hainan. ... Mǐn N n (Chinese: 閩南語), also spelt as Minnan or Min-nan; native name B ; literally means Southern Min or Southern Fujian and refers to the local language/dialect of southern Fujian province, China. ... Template:Dablick Taiwanese (Traditional Chinese: 台語, 台灣話; Pinyin: TáiyÇ”, Táiwānhuà; Taiwanese Pe̍h-oÄ“-jÄ«: Tâi-gí or Tâi-oân-oÄ“) is a dialect of Min Nan spoken by about 70% of the Taiwanese population. ... The Chaozhou language , also called Teochew, Teochiu, Tiuchiu, or Diojiu, is a dialect of the Chinese spoken variant of Minnan 閩南, spoken in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong. ...

Tai-Kadai

• Thai, Shan and Laotian
  • Laotian and the Isan Thai language. The two are extremely similar and may in fact be variants of one language.
• Zhuang and Bouyei

The Shan (Burmese: ) are an ethnic group of Southeast Asia. ... Lao (ພາສາລາວ phaasaa laao) is the official language of Laos. ... Lao (ພາສາລາວ phaasaa laao) is the official language of Laos. ... Isan (also Isaan or Esarn) is the language of the Isan region of Thailand. ... The Zhuang language (autonym: Cuengh or CueÅ‹ÑŒ; Chinese: 壮语; Hanyu Pinyin: ) is used by the Zhuang people in the Peoples Republic of China. ... The Buyi or Bouyei people (Self called: Puyi, Puzhong, Burao, Puman; Chinese: 布依族; pinyin: bùyī zú) are an ethnic group living in southern Peoples Republic of China. ...

Turkic

Oghuz Turkic

• Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar,Gagauz,and Salar
  • Qashqai and Khalaj: closely related to Azerbaijani

Crimean Tatar language (Qırımtatar tili, Qırımtatarca), also known as Crimean (Qırım tili, Qırımca) and Crimean Turkish (Qırım Türkçesi) is the language of the Crimean Tatars. ... The Gagauz language (Gagauz dili) is a Turkic language, used by Gagauz people, official language of Gagauzia, Republic of Moldova. ... Salar is a Turkic language spoken by the Salar people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in China. ... Qashqai (also spelled Ghashghai, Qashqai, Qashqay, and Kashkai) is a Turkic language. ... Khalaj is a language spoken primarily in Iran and Afghanistan. ...

Finno-Ugric

• Finnish, Meänkieli and Karelian.

Meänkieli (lit. ... The Karelian language is a variety closely related to Finnish, with which it is not necessarily mutually intelligible. ...

Bantu

• Zulu, Xhosa and Swati
• Bukusu and Masaaba

Zulu (isiZulu in Zulu), is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. ... Xhosa (IPA: ) is one of the official languages of South Africa. ... Swati (also known as siSwati and Swazi) is a Bantu language of the Nguni Group spoken in Swaziland and South Africa. ... Bukusu (or LuBukusu) is the Bantu language of the Bukusu people of western Kenya. ... The introduction of this article does not provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with the subject. ...

Afro-Asiatic

• Many Berber variants, especially Northern Berber variants (sometimes known collectively as Tamazight)

Afro-Asiatic - Berber The Berber languages (or Tamazight) are a group of closely related languages mainly spoken in Morocco and Algeria. ... The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum across the Maghreb that form a sub-family within the Berber languages. ... Afro-Asiatic - Berber The Berber languages (or Tamazight) are a group of closely related languages mainly spoken in Morocco and Algeria. ...

Constructed Languages

Esperanto and Ido are to a small degree mutually intelligible. Look up Esperanto in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ido (pronounced ), a constructed language, was created to become a universal second language for speakers of different linguistic backgrounds, easier to learn than any ethnic language. ...

Spoken form only

• Uzbek and Uyghur
• Indo-European
  • Tajik and Persian (including Dari)
  • Bukhori (Judeo-Bukhari-Persian) and Tajik
  • Hindi and Urdu (see also Hindustani language), and also Punjabi to a certain degree
  • Bengali, Oriya and Assamese in the standard spoken forms. Not all dialects may be mutually intelligible.
  • Slavic languages - most neighboring languages are mutually intelligible
    • Belarusian and Ukrainian with Polish
    • Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian, and Polish show a limited degree of asymmetrical mutual intelligibility: speakers of these languages seem to understand Polish more easily than the other way round.

Uyghur (ئۇيغۇرچه UyurqÉ™, or ئۇيغۇر تىلى Uyur tili; Simplified Chinese: 维吾尔语; Traditional Chinese: 維吾爾語; Pinyin: WéiwúěryÇ”) is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghuristan), China. ... Tajik or Tadjik (тоҷикӣ, تاجیکی, tojikí) is a descendant of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. ... Persian is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... The word Dari refers to the language that is popularly known as Persian. ... Bukhori, also known as Bukharic or Bukharan, is an Indo-Iranian language. ... Tajik or Tadjik (тоҷикӣ, تاجیکی, tojikí) is a descendant of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. ... Hindi (हिन्दी or हिंदी in DevanāgarÄ«; pronunciation: ), an Indo-European language spoken mainly in northern and central India, is one of the official languages of the Union government of India. ... The phrase Zaban-e Urdu-e Mualla written in () is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family that developed under mainlyPersian influence in Central and South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). ... See also: Hindustani classical music. ... Bangla (বাংলা, IPA: ) or Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language of East South Asia, evolved from Sanskrit and Prakrit. ... Oriya is the official language of the Indian state of Orissa. ... Assamese (অসমীয়া) or Asamiya is the language spoken by some of the natives of the state of Assam in northeast India. ... The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Å tokavian dialect, used primarily in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and by Serbs everywhere. ...

Written form only

• All Chinese languages share the same written standard. However, this is not the case if vernacularisms or direct representations of the spoken forms are used.
• Speakers of any modern Chinese dialects have little difficulty in reading post-Warring States classical Chinese literature usually upon completion of secondary education.
• Written Chinese can be read to some degree by Koreans familiar with hanja, the old style of Korean writing using Chinese characters.
• Written Chinese can usually be read to a limited degree by those proficient in Japanese; the reverse can be true to a lesser extent although the wide use of phonetical characters (kana) in written Japanese hinder this.
• Those proficient in Icelandic can read Old Norse with little difficulty.
• College-educated speakers of Modern Greek can read Classical Greek with little difficulty.
• Modern Hebrew speakers can generally read Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew with little difficulty.
• Scottish Gaelic and Irish, sister variants of the Goidelic Celtic branch
• Cornish, Breton, and some southern Welsh dialects, sister languages of the Brythonic Celtic branch
• Italian and French are intelligible to a small degree when in written form, although speakers of Italian usually find it easier to understand written French than the opposite.
• Native Portuguese speakers usually read Spanish seamlessly, with the help of a dictionary for less common words or words derived from archaic (for Portuguese) root forms. The same is not quite true on the other way around.
• Slavic languages written in Cyrillic alphabet are intelligible to a medium degree. It affects relation between East Slavic languages (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Rusyn) and South Slavic languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Macedonian and Bulgarian).

Spoken Chinese The Chinese spoken language(s) comprise(s) many regional variants. ... Various styles of Chinese calligraphy. ... Alternative meaning: Warring States Period (Japan) The Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代, simplified Chinese: 战国时代 pinyin Zhànguó Shídài) takes place from sometime in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by Qin in 221 BC. It is nominally considered to be the second part of the Eastern... Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of very old forms of Chinese , making it very different from any modern spoken form of Chinese. ... Secondary education - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... It has been suggested that Sino-Korean be merged into this article or section. ... Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Manyogana 万葉仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Rōmaji ローマ字 For other meanings of Kana, see Kana (disambiguation). ... Insert non-formatted text hereõ Japanese writing Kanji 漢字 Kana 仮名 Hiragana 平仮名 Katakana 片仮名 Manyogana 万葉仮名 Uses Furigana 振り仮名 Okurigana 送り仮名 Rōmaji ローマ字 This article describes the modern Japanese writing system and its history. ... Old Norse is the Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. ... Modern Greek (Νεοελληνική, lit. ... The History of Greece extends back to the arrival of the Greeks in Europe some time before 1500 BC, even though there has only been an independent state called Greece since Turkey, Italy and Libya. ... The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. ... Categories: Language stubs | Judaism-related stubs | Canaanite languages | Hebrew language ... The Mishnaic Hebrew language or Rabbinic Hebrew language is the ancient descendant of Biblical Hebrew as preserved by the Jews after the Babylonian captivity, and definitively recorded by Jewish sages in writing the Mishnah and other contemporary documents. ... Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. ... The Goidelic languages (also sometimes called the Gaelic languages or collectively Gaelic) are one of two major divisions of modern-day Insular Celtic languages (the other being the Brythonic languages). ... The Cornish language (in Cornish: Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack) is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages that includes Welsh, Breton, the extinct Cumbric and perhaps the hypothetical Ivernic. ... Breton (Breton: Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh) and Loire-Atlantique (historically part of Brittany) in France. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ... The Brythonic languages (or Brittonic languages) form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family. ... A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... This article or section should be merged with List of East Slavic languages The East Slavic languages constitute one of three regional subgroups of Slavic languages, currently spoken in Eastern Europe. ... Rusyn, though by most outsiders considered one language and even having only one SIL code rue, is in fact the name of two independent languages spoken by Rusyns: Carpatho-Rusyn (also called Ruthenian) Pannonian-Rusyn (also called Rusnak) Carpatho-Rusyn (Ruthenian) The Rusyn language of the Carpathian Mountains is an... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Serbian language is one of the standard versions of the Å tokavian dialect, used primarily in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and by Serbs everywhere. ...

Sign languages

• British Sign Language, Auslan and New Zealand Sign Language are mutually intelligible to some degree.
• Catalan Sign Language, Valencian Sign Language and Spanish Sign Language are mutually intelligible in a very basic degree.

British Sign Language (BSL) is the sign language used in the United Kingdom (UK), and is the first or preferred language of an unknown number of deaf people in the UK (published estimates vary from 30,000 to 250,000 but the actual number is likely to be closer to... Auslan is the sign language used by the Australian Deaf community. ... New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. ... Valencian Sign Language (LSCV or LSPV) is a sign language used by people with hearing impairments in Valencia. ...

Selected list of related languages not mutually intelligible

• Many Germanic languages, though related, are generally not mutually intelligible.
  • The Frisian language is the closest living cousin to English (after Scots), both being descended from the Anglo-Frisian group, but the two tongues are not mutually intelligible.
• Levantine Arabic and Maghreb Arabic.
• Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes have difficulty understanding Icelandic.
• Many spoken dialects of Chinese are not mutually intelligible, such as spoken Mandarin and spoken Cantonese.
• Malaysian and Indonesian are not mutually intelligible with Tagalog.
• Romance languages:
  • French is not mutually intelligible with Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Romanian.
  • Romanian is not mutually intelligible with Spanish, Portuguese or French.
• Slavic languages are related and to various degrees mutually intelligible. Asymmetrical mutual intelligibility exists between Bulgarian and Macedonian on one hand and the other Slavic languages on the other. This is because Bulgarian and Macedonian have distinctly different grammar. Bulgarian speakers understand other Slavs easier than the other way round.
  • Russian and Polish are largely not mutually intelligible although Ukrainian is mutually intelligible to some degree to both, being believed by many to be an intermediary form in the dialect continuum.
• Finnish and Estonian have almost no mutual intelligibility, although Estonian speakers can understand some Finnish with difficulty.
• Hungarian and other languages in the Finno-Ugric family such as Finnish or Estonian are not mutually intelligible to any extent.
• Latvian and Lithuanian, the two biggest surviving Baltic languages, are not mutually intelligible, despite having similar grammar.
• Standard Greek is generally not mutually intelligible with most Greek dialects, especially those developed in isolated communities such as Griko, Cypriot Greek and Pontiac Greek.

The Germanic languages are a group of related languages constituting a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. ... Frisian is a Germanic group of closely related languages, spoken by about half a million members of an ethnic group living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scots is an Anglic variety spoken in Scotland, where it is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic spoken by some in the Highlands and Islands (especially the Hebrides). ... The Anglo-Frisian languages (also known as Ingvaeonic languages or North Sea Germanic languages) are a group of West Germanic languages consisting of Old English, Old Frisian, and their descendants. ... Levantine Arabic is a group of Arabic dialects spoken in the 100 km-wide eastern-Mediterranean coastal strip, i. ... Maghreb arabic is a dialect of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya. ... Tagalog (pronunciation: ) is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. ... The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. ... Distribution of Greek dialects, ca. ... Location map of the Griko-speaking areas in Salento and Calabria Griko, sometimes spelled Grico, is a language combining ancient Greek, Byzantine Greek and Italian elements. ... The Cypriot dialect of Greek (Cypriot Greek or Kypriaka) is spoken by more than half a million people in Cyprus and several hundred thousands abroad. ... Pontic is a Greek language originally spoken on the shores of the Black Sea, the Pontus. ...

Selected list of mutually intelligible languages now extinct

• Biblical Hebrew, Moabite, Edomite, Ammonite and Phoenician. The first four of these formed the closely-related South Canaanite language language group and are sometimes termed "Hebrew languages".
• Various Germanic languages in Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, including Old Norse, Old English, Old Saxon, Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic.
• Faroese (not extinct) and Norn
• Old Avestan and Vedic Sanskrit
• Latin and Faliscan
• Dalmatian and eastern Italian variants may have had some intelligibility

This article refers to the Biblical Hebrew dialect, the Hebrew dialect that flourished between the 12th and 6th centuries BCE and comprises much of the Hebrew Bible The term Biblical Hebrew can also refer to other dialects of Hebrew, all dialects found in the Hebrew Bible, including Archaic Biblical, Biblical... The Moabite language is an extinct Hebrew Canaanite dialect, spoken in Moab (modern-day northwestern Jordan) in the early first millennium BC. Most of our knowledge about Moabite comes from the Mesha Stele, as well as the El-Kerak Stela; this is sufficient to show that it was extremely similar... The Edomite language is the extinct Hebrew Canaanite language of the Edomites in southwestern Jordan in the first millennium BC. It is known only from a very small corpus. ... The Ammonite language is the extinct Canaanite language of the Ammonite people mentioned in the Bible, who used to live in modern-day Jordan, and after whom its capital Amman is named. ... Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region of what is now Lebanon. ... The Germanic languages are a group of related languages constituting a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. ... It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Old Norse is the Germanic language spoken by the inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is a Germanic language. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰, * ) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... Burgundian is either of the following; An extinct language of the Germanic language group spoken by the Burgundians. ... Vandalic was a Germanic language probably closely related to the Gothic language. ... Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on the Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands, off the coast of Scotland. ... Avestan is an Eastern Old Iranian language that was used to compose the hymns of the Zoroastrian holy book, the Avesta. ... Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, which are the earliest sacred texts of India,. The Vedas were first passed down orally and therefore have no known date. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language. ... Falisci, a tribe of Sabine origin or connections, but speaking a dialect closely akin to Latin, who inhabited the town of Falerii, as well as a considerable tract of the surrounding country, probably reaching as far south as to include the small town of Capena. ... Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro. ... A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ...

See also

• Lexical similarity
• Non-convergent discourse
• Multilingualism
• Identification of the varieties of Chinese