How well can Russians understand Croatian, Bulgarian, and Slovenian?
How well can Russians understand?
pretty well, like any other slavic language, probably 60-80% of what is written, oral comprehension is much worse, but if people speak slowly we can communicate without interpriter.
Linguist
These estimations of Linguist are quite optimist. Myself, being a native Czech speaker, I can assure you that we can´t certainly understand any of these languages in written form really well, neither understand the spoken language, except some really basic things. Slavic speakers can understand pretty well only languages within their respective sub-branches (East Slavic, West Slavic and South Slavic), so, for example for us Czechs is very easy to understand Slovak and up to some degree also Polish but other Slavic languages are much more difficult and usually we can understand only a gist of what is said or written in them, certainly not 60-80%.
These estimations of Linguist are quite optimist. Myself, being a native Czech speaker, I can assure you that we can´t certainly understand any of these languages in written form really well, neither understand the spoken language, except some really basic things. Slavic speakers can understand pretty well only languages within their respective sub-branches (East Slavic, West Slavic and South Slavic), so, for example for us Czechs is very easy to understand Slovak and up to some degree also Polish but other Slavic languages are much more difficult and usually we can understand only a gist of what is said or written in them, certainly not 60-80%.
ugh...they keep asking this question. Ok people basically everyone in Eastern Europe is Slavic except Albanians, Greeks, and Romanians(as far as I know). So of course all the slavic languages have similarities, I think like the romance languages Spanish, Italian, French are similar etc.
@ Ayazid
Czech language seems to be the most obscure for me as native Russian, no wonder, why you Czechs can't understand others. In serbo-croatian I even understand sence of songs sometimes, in Polish I can read newspapers, though of course not so quickly and probably without knowing the pecularities, but still grasping the main idea. So your point that Slavs can understand only languages within their group is wrong I would say.
Czech language seems to be the most obscure for me as native Russian, no wonder, why you Czechs can't understand others. In serbo-croatian I even understand sence of songs sometimes, in Polish I can read newspapers, though of course not so quickly and probably without knowing the pecularities, but still grasping the main idea. So your point that Slavs can understand only languages within their group is wrong I would say.
Linguist
I expected that you will answer with something like: "The Czech language lis the hardest one for other Slavs" or "it is different from other ones" or "maybe you don´t understand but I do". I didn´t say that we Czech can´t understand other Slavic languages, only that most Slavs can understand well only languages within their own group, just like I don´t have any problem in understanding Slovak (more than 95%), neither they have problem in understanding Czech, and to lesser extent we can understand also Polish (cca 60-70%). I really don´t know how could a Russian speaker have any advantage in understanding the languages mentioned above in comparison with the Czech one, except that some of them are written in azbuka and also usually retain the "g" sound instead of the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Belarusian "h". It is interesting that you can understand "60-80%" of written Bulgarian, language which diverged from the rest of Slavic languages most, especially as for the grammar. Slavic languages are certainly closer to each other than Germanic or Romance ones, but 60-80% outside of their own subgroup is a nonsense.
Do you know what means this sentence?:
"Posebnost tega Luninega mrka je bil rdečkast sij, ki jo je povzročilo lomljenje sončne svetlobe ob Zemljino atmosfero."
I expected that you will answer with something like: "The Czech language lis the hardest one for other Slavs" or "it is different from other ones" or "maybe you don´t understand but I do". I didn´t say that we Czech can´t understand other Slavic languages, only that most Slavs can understand well only languages within their own group, just like I don´t have any problem in understanding Slovak (more than 95%), neither they have problem in understanding Czech, and to lesser extent we can understand also Polish (cca 60-70%). I really don´t know how could a Russian speaker have any advantage in understanding the languages mentioned above in comparison with the Czech one, except that some of them are written in azbuka and also usually retain the "g" sound instead of the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Belarusian "h". It is interesting that you can understand "60-80%" of written Bulgarian, language which diverged from the rest of Slavic languages most, especially as for the grammar. Slavic languages are certainly closer to each other than Germanic or Romance ones, but 60-80% outside of their own subgroup is a nonsense.
Do you know what means this sentence?:
"Posebnost tega Luninega mrka je bil rdečkast sij, ki jo je povzročilo lomljenje sončne svetlobe ob Zemljino atmosfero."
>>I expected that you will answer with something like: "The Czech language lis the hardest one for other Slavs" or "it is different from other ones" or "maybe you don´t understand but I do".
geee, you have so bad opinion about linguists :(((( and too much think about CZech ;-)
>>I really don´t know how could a Russian speaker have any advantage in understanding the languages mentioned above in comparison with the Czech one, except that some of them are written in azbuka and also usually retain the "g" sound instead of the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Belarusian "h"
aplhabet doesnt play any role, words do play, and some extralinguistical factors. first of all Serbian, Bulgarian and all other languages which use cyrillic do share much more words between each other because of Old Church Slavic language which is language of Orthodox chirch and which is ancient Bulgarian actually, many words from this language entered in everyday life speech, so Southern and Eastern languages are closer then let's say Southern and Western. "g" sound is one more strange myth, you really think that "h" makes language less compehensible?
"Posebnost tega Luninega mrka je bil rdečkast sij, ki jo je povzročilo lomljenje sončne svetlobe ob Zemljino atmosfero."
OK, i see it's Slovenian, hope I'm right. My guess:
The need of that moon darkness was.....who(?) verb is past ........the brake of the sun ray against Earth atmosphere.
well, not 100%, but anyway, i got something :)
geee, you have so bad opinion about linguists :(((( and too much think about CZech ;-)
>>I really don´t know how could a Russian speaker have any advantage in understanding the languages mentioned above in comparison with the Czech one, except that some of them are written in azbuka and also usually retain the "g" sound instead of the Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian and Belarusian "h"
aplhabet doesnt play any role, words do play, and some extralinguistical factors. first of all Serbian, Bulgarian and all other languages which use cyrillic do share much more words between each other because of Old Church Slavic language which is language of Orthodox chirch and which is ancient Bulgarian actually, many words from this language entered in everyday life speech, so Southern and Eastern languages are closer then let's say Southern and Western. "g" sound is one more strange myth, you really think that "h" makes language less compehensible?
"Posebnost tega Luninega mrka je bil rdečkast sij, ki jo je povzročilo lomljenje sončne svetlobe ob Zemljino atmosfero."
OK, i see it's Slovenian, hope I'm right. My guess:
The need of that moon darkness was.....who(?) verb is past ........the brake of the sun ray against Earth atmosphere.
well, not 100%, but anyway, i got something :)
"Posebnost tega Luninega mrka je bil rdečkast sij, ki jo je povzročilo lomljenje sončne svetlobe ob Zemljino atmosfero."
The speciality of that Moon's dark (?) was red shine (?), which caused the breaking of Sun's light against the Earth's atmosphere. [How correct am I?] Just a guess =)
As far as the comprehension of other Slavic languages is concerned...
Here is my take. I believe that if you can speak (but I mean, REALLY speak, i.e. no rudimentary-like knowledge; if you can speak to an extent of being able to attend university classes, read literature, discuss just about any topic and write theses in those languages) two Slavic languages from different groups (say, a combination of an Eastern & Southern one), that you can read other Slavic languages with 60-80% of comprehension, as Linguist said, AND communicate without an interpret with speakers of other Slavic languages if needed (of course, given that you 'modify' the speed of the speech a bit). Those were at least my experiences.
I cannot, though, put myself into a position of somebody who can speak only one Slavic language and say how understandable the other ones are from that perspective.
The speciality of that Moon's dark (?) was red shine (?), which caused the breaking of Sun's light against the Earth's atmosphere. [How correct am I?] Just a guess =)
As far as the comprehension of other Slavic languages is concerned...
Here is my take. I believe that if you can speak (but I mean, REALLY speak, i.e. no rudimentary-like knowledge; if you can speak to an extent of being able to attend university classes, read literature, discuss just about any topic and write theses in those languages) two Slavic languages from different groups (say, a combination of an Eastern & Southern one), that you can read other Slavic languages with 60-80% of comprehension, as Linguist said, AND communicate without an interpret with speakers of other Slavic languages if needed (of course, given that you 'modify' the speed of the speech a bit). Those were at least my experiences.
I cannot, though, put myself into a position of somebody who can speak only one Slavic language and say how understandable the other ones are from that perspective.
How well can Russians understand?
Well, I think they can understand simple commands, like: sit down, go away, eat food, run, come back, jump, jump higher, etc...oh wait a minute...did you mean other languages? Oh, I'm sorry...I don't know anything about it, I'm Greek.
Well, I think they can understand simple commands, like: sit down, go away, eat food, run, come back, jump, jump higher, etc...oh wait a minute...did you mean other languages? Oh, I'm sorry...I don't know anything about it, I'm Greek.
I asked once a russian woman to do something for me and she did. I think she had a good understanding.
You're right Vasilis. They'll do that too...very nice...yes...I like...very nice...let's buy pubic hair in Red Square...I like...yes...very nice...
Do you make fun of their languages, for example in English we make fun of people with other accents depending on where you are from.