Mutual intelligibility in the Slavic language area

Jelena Golubovic

Mutual intelligibility in the Slavic language area

Jelena Golubovic

Research output: Thesis › Thesis fully internal (DIV)

6987 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In the globalized world we live in today international cooperation is extremely important, but not all Europeans can speak English very well. If the languages in question belong to the same family, each person might be able to speak their native language and understand the language of their interlocutor. Thus type of communication has proved to be effective between native speakers of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian; Dutch and German; as well as between the speakers of Czech and Slovak.
This thesis aims to discover how well speakers of different Slavic languages can understand each other and which factors influence this. About 12 000 speakers of six Slavic languages took part in a web-based intelligibility experiment. The findings show that the most important thing is how similarly words that have the same root are pronounced in two languages. Also, the more exposed you are to the language you are trying to understand, the better you will be at it. How words are formed and combined into sentences also matters, the more similar the processes, the more you are likely to understand. And in case that the level of intelligibility is relatively low, we showed that it is possible to teach people to understand a related language better in a relatively short time.

Original language	English
Qualification	Doctor of Philosophy
Awarding Institution	University of Groningen
Supervisors/Advisors	Nerbonne, John, Supervisor van Heuven, Vincent, Supervisor, External person Gooskens, Charlotte, Co-supervisor
Award date	2-May-2016
Place of Publication	[Groningen]
Publisher	University of Groningen
Print ISBNs	978-90-367-8804-5
Electronic ISBNs	978-90-367-8803-8
Publication status	Published - 2016

Access to Document

Title and contents Final publisher's version, 3.18 MB
Chapter 1 Final publisher's version, 4.9 MB
Chapter 2 Final publisher's version, 3.48 MB
Chapter 3 Final publisher's version, 3.77 MB
Chapter 4 Final publisher's version, 3.33 MB
Chapter 5 Final publisher's version, 4.68 MB
Chapter 6 Final publisher's version, 3.23 MB
Chapter 7 Final publisher's version, 3.17 MB
Chapter 8 Final publisher's version, 2.94 MB
ReferencesFinal publisher's version, 2.99 MB
Appendices Final publisher's version, 5.7 MB
Nederlandse samenvatting Final publisher's version, 2.87 MB
Groningen dissertations in linguisticsFinal publisher's version, 2.9 MB
About the authorFinal publisher's version, 2.85 MB
Complete thesisFinal publisher's version, 8.73 MB
PropositionsFinal publisher's version, 100 KB

Handle.net

Persistent link

Cite this

@phdthesis{19c19b5ba43e47bfaf6ef68c0713342b,

title = "Mutual intelligibility in the Slavic language area",

abstract = "In the globalized world we live in today international cooperation is extremely important, but not all Europeans can speak English very well. If the languages in question belong to the same family, each person might be able to speak their native language and understand the language of their interlocutor. Thus type of communication has proved to be effective between native speakers of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian; Dutch and German; as well as between the speakers of Czech and Slovak.This thesis aims to discover how well speakers of different Slavic languages can understand each other and which factors influence this. About 12 000 speakers of six Slavic languages took part in a web-based intelligibility experiment. The findings show that the most important thing is how similarly words that have the same root are pronounced in two languages. Also, the more exposed you are to the language you are trying to understand, the better you will be at it. How words are formed and combined into sentences also matters, the more similar the processes, the more you are likely to understand. And in case that the level of intelligibility is relatively low, we showed that it is possible to teach people to understand a related language better in a relatively short time.",

author = "Jelena Golubovic",

year = "2016",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-90-367-8804-5",

publisher = "University of Groningen",

school = "University of Groningen",

}

TY - BOOK

T1 - Mutual intelligibility in the Slavic language area

AU - Golubovic, Jelena

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - In the globalized world we live in today international cooperation is extremely important, but not all Europeans can speak English very well. If the languages in question belong to the same family, each person might be able to speak their native language and understand the language of their interlocutor. Thus type of communication has proved to be effective between native speakers of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian; Dutch and German; as well as between the speakers of Czech and Slovak.This thesis aims to discover how well speakers of different Slavic languages can understand each other and which factors influence this. About 12 000 speakers of six Slavic languages took part in a web-based intelligibility experiment. The findings show that the most important thing is how similarly words that have the same root are pronounced in two languages. Also, the more exposed you are to the language you are trying to understand, the better you will be at it. How words are formed and combined into sentences also matters, the more similar the processes, the more you are likely to understand. And in case that the level of intelligibility is relatively low, we showed that it is possible to teach people to understand a related language better in a relatively short time.

AB - In the globalized world we live in today international cooperation is extremely important, but not all Europeans can speak English very well. If the languages in question belong to the same family, each person might be able to speak their native language and understand the language of their interlocutor. Thus type of communication has proved to be effective between native speakers of Danish, Swedish and Norwegian; Dutch and German; as well as between the speakers of Czech and Slovak.This thesis aims to discover how well speakers of different Slavic languages can understand each other and which factors influence this. About 12 000 speakers of six Slavic languages took part in a web-based intelligibility experiment. The findings show that the most important thing is how similarly words that have the same root are pronounced in two languages. Also, the more exposed you are to the language you are trying to understand, the better you will be at it. How words are formed and combined into sentences also matters, the more similar the processes, the more you are likely to understand. And in case that the level of intelligibility is relatively low, we showed that it is possible to teach people to understand a related language better in a relatively short time.

M3 - Thesis fully internal (DIV)

SN - 978-90-367-8804-5

PB - University of Groningen

CY - [Groningen]

ER -