What language is easiest for Spanish Speakers to understand?

*CarloS*   Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:56 pm GMT
If it's listening it's Portuguese... Probably Italian as well. In the Italian case, Spanish speakers would probably understand the main topic but would probably miss many details. I can't say anything about Romanian because I actually haven't heard it.
Gian Rosso   Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:50 pm GMT
italian is too different
JGreco   Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:04 pm GMT
Brazilian Portuguese (Specifically around Sao Paulo and Florianopolis), Galician Portuguese (gallego), eh.. Italian kinda..., same with catalan (kinda...), I would debate about the unintelligability of Romanian because I have heard a little bit and seems as unintelligable as Italian can be. French, Algarve, azorian portuguese completely unintelligable by far....
Latin   Thu Jan 26, 2006 1:42 am GMT
>>Probably Italian as well. In the Italian case, Spanish speakers would probably understand the main topic but would probably miss many details. I can't say anything about Romanian because I actually haven't heard it. <<

Spanish..."fumar reduce considerablemente el riesgo de cancerpulmonar.
Romanian…"fumatul reduce considerabil riscul de cancer pulmonar.

Spanish>Se discuten los factores de riesgo y las barreras de prevención."
Romanian>Se discuta factori de risc si alte bariere de preventie"
Ben   Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:47 pm GMT
Spanish
Franco   Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:57 pm GMT
Eres un madre de perro! Por qué vienes a este sitio si no puedes mantener cerrada la boca?
Latino   Fri Jan 27, 2006 8:11 am GMT
Wow, I never knew Romanian possess some much similarity to spanish in word conjuctions...

Spanish..."fumar reduce considerablemente el riesgo de cancerpulmonar.
Romanian…"fumatul reduce considerabil riscul de cancer pulmonar.

Spanish>Se discuten los factores de riesgo y las barreras de prevención."
Romanian>Se discuta factori de risc si alte bariere de preventie"

Brennus --------------->


'En mi casa no se fuma. (spanish)

'În casa mea nu se fumã. (romanian)

I've added this......

"Nella mia casa non si fuma." (italian)

"Em casa mea nao se fuma." (portuguese)

"In domus meam non fumat." (Latin)

Basically all languages have something similar in certains sentances structure and pronounciation. Thus, that's why their called neo-latin languages.

"Non placet, ispus quid facto."

"No me place, eso que has hecho." (old sp. fecho)

"Nao me praze, isso que has feito."

"Non me piace, esso che far fatto."

as you can see from this sentance....

SOME DETAILS ON THE SENTANCES ABOVE^

Italian and spanish possess the "no(n)" mutual win.

Spanish has perserved "placet" spanish (plase/plathe) and italian "piace" (Italian too, just that it changed 'l' to 'i') spanish is the victor in this word.

ispus "portuguese and italian have well perserved this one" port. "isso" italian "esso" portuguese being the victor. Italian second. spanish third place; "eso."

Spanish,italian & portuguese are victors in this...though portuguese and spanish have a MORE look-alike to writing it "quid" latin spanish/portuguese "que" WHILE Italian is pronounced the same...but
spelled "che"

Italian has definitely WON this word..."fatto" for facto" portuguese being second "feito" and spanish third "hecho"


Hence, all the languages described above are spelled similar but pronounced somewhat differently. Spanish & Italian have perserved Latin
phonology,inflection,pronounciation of all words expect of h, while spanish perserves the "h" in all words, italian does not. Example

Humana (spanish,portuguese)

umana (italian)

historia (spanish, portuguese accent on the 'o')

storia (italian)

humana (latin)

historia (latin)

PRAISES TO ALL!!!
Franco   Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:28 am GMT
Madre mía que te pasa! Hijo de son! Te has vuelto loco!
a.p.a.m.   Mon May 01, 2006 7:06 pm GMT
Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, and Occitan are the closest to Spanish. Not necessarily in that order.
Sigma   Tue May 02, 2006 8:45 pm GMT
Romanian? French? No way José! They are completely unintelligible!

Solo si eres retardado mental con dislexia sera incomprensibles para ti.
Alex   Thu May 04, 2006 8:15 pm GMT
A correction to what Latino has written.
The phrase "Em casa mea nao se fuma" is incorrect. "mea" is not the right Portuguese form, but "minha". The word order is also wrongly inverted. The correct phrase thus is

"Em minha casa não se fuma".

Cheers,

Alex
Guest   Thu May 04, 2006 9:00 pm GMT
a.p.a.m

If Occitan and catalan can be understand by spanish natives, so you forgot to mention french which is closer to occitan and french.
Juan   Sun May 21, 2006 6:30 pm GMT
As a native Spanish speaker, Portuguese is the easiest Latin language to understand hands down. Even if the pronunciation is sometimes a little tricky, the Portuguese vocabulary, grammar, phrasing and sentence structure is so very similar to Spanish. Contrary to what many people wrongly believe, Italian is not closer to Spanish - even if the similar accent makes it seem that way. Portuguese is without a doubt the brother language of Spanish - they are almost totally compatible. Thus, educated Portuguese and Spanish speakers can converse with one another in their respective languages effortlessly.
AndiJM   Sun May 21, 2006 9:33 pm GMT
Alot of people seem surprised that Romanian and Spanish in written language bear many similarities, it doesnt surprise me at all, both languages are derived from vulgar latin so there are bound to be similarities, however the pronounciation of words and regional dialects have developped over centuries, so it is much harder to understand modern spoken language i.e. between spanish and italian or portuguese and romanian to a spanish ear would be completely unitelligible
Juan   Mon May 22, 2006 2:18 pm GMT
As a native Spanish speaker, Portuguese is the easiest Latin language to understand hands down. Even if the pronunciation is sometimes a little tricky, the Portuguese vocabulary, grammar, phrasing and sentence structure is so very similar to Spanish. Contrary to what many people wrongly believe, Italian is not closer to Spanish - even if the similar accent makes it seem that way. Portuguese is without a doubt the brother language of Spanish - they are almost totally compatible. Thus, educated Portuguese and Spanish speakers can converse with one another in their respective languages effortlessly.