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A pair of languages is said to be mutually intelligible if speakers of one language can readily understand the other language. A group of languages is said to be mutually intelligible if all the language-pairs in the group are mutually intelligible.
It usually requires considerable time and effort to learn or understand a new language. However, many languages are similar in their grammar and vocabulary to other related languages. Speakers of these languages find it relatively easy to read or to understand the related language or languages.
However, the intelligibility among languages can vary from individuals, according to their knowledge of their own tongue, their interests on other cultures, their broadmindedness and other factors.
List of mutually intelligible languages
- Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
- English and Lowland Scots
- Spoken Hindi and spoken Urdu
- Written Mandarin and written Cantonese (but not if the vernacular is written)
- Punjabi, Seraiki, and Hindko.
- Slovak,Czech, and Polish.
- Spoken Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Slovenian.
- Afrikaans, Dutch-Flemish, Frisian and Low Saxon.
- Finnish (Suomi) and Estonian (Eesti).
- Russian, Belarussian, and Ukrainian
- Ukrainian and Polish
- Bulgarian and Macedonian
- Turkish and Azeri
- Spoken Uzbek and Uygur
- Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia
- Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian
- French, Walloon, Romansh, and Occitan
- Occitan and northern Italian dialects
- Sardinian and Italian
- Cornish, Breton, and Welsh
- Samoan and Tongan
- Zulu and Xhosa
- Thai and Laotian
- Icelanders can read Old Norse with little difficulty
Related languages that are not mutually intelligible
List of mutually intelligible languages in ancient times
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