Abstract
AbstractWe investigated the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular the role of inherited words compared to non-Germanic loanwords. To assess whether shared loanwords are easier to understand than inherited words, we conducted two experiments. First, we tested the intelligibility of isolated Danish words (inherited words and loanwords) among Swedes. Second, we constructed two versions of a reading test, one with a large percentage of loanwords and one with few loanwords. Our results show that it is easier for Swedish listeners to identify and understand Danish cognate loanwords than inherited words and that texts with many loanwords are easier to read than texts with few loanwords. We explain these results by the fact that (recent) loans in Swedish have diverged less and are therefore more similar to the Danish counterparts than inherited words.
Highlights
The Mainland Scandinavian languages, i.e. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, are so closely related that the speakers often use their own language when communicating with speakers of a neighbouring country (so-called semicommunication (Haugen 1966) or receptive multilingualism (Gooskens & Van Heuven 2021))
Not all groups of loanwords are better understood than the inherited words: the eight High German loans are less well translated than inherited words are (68% correct compared with 73% for inherited words), and the percentage of correct translations of Low German words (72%) is lower than that of inherited words
In the late Middle Ages, Hanseatic tradesmen settled in the Scandinavian trading towns, most of all in Bergen, Stockholm and Copenhagen, and Low German became part of the everyday life of the citizens, followed by large-scale borrowing resulting in language change ‘from below’
Summary
The Mainland Scandinavian languages, i.e. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, are so closely related that the speakers often use their own language when communicating with speakers of a neighbouring country (so-called semicommunication (Haugen 1966) or receptive multilingualism (Gooskens & Van Heuven 2021)). Maurud 1976, Bø 1978, Zola Christensen & Lundin 2001, Delsing & Lundin Åkesson 2005) aimed at getting a general impression of how well Scandinavians understand each other cross-linguistically. They tested spoken as well as written comprehension among speakers of the three languages. We focus on the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular on the role of inherited words compared to loanwords
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