Romance Languages Mutual Intelligibilty

strainul   Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:25 pm GMT
yes. Romanian!
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:33 pm GMT
A person from Argentina and a person from Brazil can communicate with ease. A person from Portugal and a person from Spain less so.

This means Argentinian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are closer in phonetics/usage than Continental Portuguese and Castillian Spanish.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:34 pm GMT
This means Argentinian Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are closer in phonetics/usage than Continental Portuguese and Castillian Spanish.

That means nothing because it is false.
Oma   Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:44 pm GMT
I strongly believe that Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, Spanish are mutual intelligibly. I think that French isn't. French written is, but not spoken French. I believe that French was strongly influenced by Germanic languages. French phonetically is like English and German. I know this because I study languages. French does not drop the subject like Italian, Spanish and other romance languages. Where the present participle in French? I am criticizing French. French is unique. I Love French, it is a beautiful and traditional language, but people cannot be fooled with the notion that French is mutual intelligible with other romance languages.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:49 pm GMT
If the rolled r dissapeared from French in the XIX century how come the guttural r is always put as an example of the Germanic influence on spoken French?. I believe that French sounds peculiar because its Celtic substratum. If you look at Portuguese they sound a bit similar,and Portuguese also has a Celtic substratum. Italian and Spanish haven't and thus preserved better the Latin sounds.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:34 pm GMT
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:28 pm GMT
''Italian and Spanish haven't and thus preserved better the Latin sounds.''

We have no recollection of Latin phonetics, only guessing.
That's why they are numerous readings of Latin.
PARISIEN   Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:31 pm GMT
<< I believe that French was strongly influenced by Germanic languages. French phonetically is like English and German. >>
-- Please refrain from always deciphering any phonetic or grammatical phenomenon in terms of "influence", "substrate", "superstrate".
It's much safer to assume that every language is a system of it's own and is primarily shaped by its own internal evolution.

<< If the rolled r dissapeared from French in the XIX century how come the guttural r is always put as an example of the Germanic influence on spoken French? >>
-- Well, some German scholars have supposed that the uvular 'r' became prevalent in Northen Germany under French influence... We're not going anywhere with such speculations.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:32 pm GMT
We have no recollection of Latin phonetics, only guessing.

In fact we don't know how English sounded before the XIX century, but more or less we do know how Latin was pronounced.

That's why they are numerous readings of Latin.

NO there arent, but since it is a dead language people who study it pronounce Latin the way they want.
PARISIEN   Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:44 pm GMT
That being said, there are some reasons to suppose that French and Dutch used to belong to some kind of 'Sprachbund' (like the strange Balkanic family, made of unrelated languages like Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian, following similar patterns).
French and Dutch originally emerged on a widely bilingual area between the rivers Seine and Rhine and share an intriguing number of converging features.
Guest   Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:26 pm GMT
I strongly believe that Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, Spanish are mutual intelligibly. I think that French isn't.

I strongly believe you have to give up with alchoolics
CTR   Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:08 pm GMT
PARISIEN Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:44 pm GMT
That being said, there are some reasons to suppose that French and Dutch used to belong to some kind of 'Sprachbund' (like the strange Balkanic family, made of unrelated languages like Romanian, Bulgarian, and Albanian, following similar patterns).
French and Dutch originally emerged on a widely bilingual area between the rivers Seine and Rhine and share an intriguing number of converging features.
_____________________________


That makes sensse, the Franks of Clovis were Dutch and Flamish.
Guest   Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:06 pm GMT
"I strongly believe you have to give up with alchoolics "

>>Why, he was right, no one understands the French, and it's your fault for bastardizing Latin so much.
Colette   Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:21 pm GMT
French sounds absolutely nothing like any of the Romance languages. It is beautiful and unique. Granted, I can read a lot of Italian because I know French. However, visiting Italy and trying to get by with French was not a success. Neither was it with English -- I actually had the best luck with German, believe it or not.
Guest   Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:30 pm GMT
Colette, In Italy only 5% of people know German while on the other hand 35% know French . Maybe you visited Friul where there is a Germanophone community.