So Danish and Swedish are an example of languages that are mutually intelligible, apparently, yet if thats the case, how are they not considered the same language? If a Danish speaker can understand a Swedish speaker, then what makes the two separate languages and not just like… really distant dialects (like a Scottish accent + slang vs an English accent + slang)?
I’m very confused!
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But mutual intelligibility is not the only requirement in distinguishing languages and isn’t a simple binary. Rather it is a spectrum that relates to the level of effort a person that knows one language has to expend in order to understand someone of the second language.
Also there are different kinds of intelligibility, notably “lexical” (being able to understand the language in writing) and “phonetic” (being able to understand the language verbally).
With respect to Danish and Swedish specifically, while there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility, there are enough lexical and phonetic differences for them to be considered different languages.
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