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Let's talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the Germanic languages. Like between the Slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between Germanic languages:
West Germanic:
English
Scots
Frisian
German
Luxembourgish
Yiddish
Dutch
Afrikaans
North Germanic:
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Icelandic
Faroese
Elfdalian
Modern Gutnish
East Germanic:
Gothic (extinct)
As a speaker of Swedish (North Germanic) I understand both Norwegian and Danish. However Icelandic and Faroese is much harder but there is many similarities there as well, allthough not intelligeble. Out of the West Germanic languages, I would say that Swedish is the most similar to German which is not intelligible with Swedish but if I hear people speaking German I can at least get a good hint about what they are talking about. German and Dutch is said to be partially intelligeble with eachothers, and Dutch is mutally intelligible with Afrikaans. There is also several dialects within in Germany that may or may not be considered as languages, most noteably Low German (Plattdeutsch). Also Swiss German is very different from High German (Standard German).
Note to English speakers: For a language to be Germanic it does not have to be like German, which is a common misconception in the English speaking world just cause they named the country Deutschland as "Germany". Swedish and Danish for example is just as Germanic as German is, and so is English. There is not any standard Germanic language allthough English is the most widely spoken Germanic language in the world. The only language mutually intelligible with English is Scots, but it's disputed whether that is a language or not, but Scots is recognized as a language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 11-14-2013 at 08:23 PM..
Here is the Scots language for those who are intrested, the only language that is considered as mutually intelligible with English, both belonging to the Anglo-Frisian family, along with Frisian.
West Germanic:
English - Native Speaker
Scots - No problem.
Frisian - Not familiar.
German - Second Language Speaker of High German. After some coaching can read Low German, but still have some problems with spoken Plattdüütsch. It is difficult for me to understand people from eastern Germany. It is worse than Swiss German for me. I was watching a documentary about cops in Leipzig and I wanted to break the coffee table with my head.
Luxembourgish - Not familiar.
Yiddish - Intelligible for the most part.
Dutch - About 60% intelligible spoken with cues. Can read it pretty well. Flemish is the dialect I understand the best.
Afrikaans - Not familiar.
North Germanic:
Swedish - Nope.
Danish - Nope.
Norwegian - It definitely sounds like I should know it but don't.
Icelandic - After a recent trip to Iceland, that is a definite nope. I'd say 5-10% at best.
Faroese - Not familiar, but after Iceland, I'm guessing nope.
Elfdalian - Not familiar.
Modern Gutnish - Not familiar.
It's said that if you understand Dutch and maybe even German, you should also be able to understand Afrikaans (the language spoken by white South Africans)
It's said that if you understand Dutch and maybe even German, you should also be able to understand Afrikaans (the language spoken by white South Africans)
Backwards. German is my second language. Dutch is a good part intelligible through German.
After listening to the video, I'd rank Dutch in order of intelligibility like this:
For those who wonders what Modern Gutnish and Elfdalian is, they are very small North Germanic languages, both from Sweden. Modern Gutnish is spoken in parts of the Swedish island of Gotland, and can be described as a mix between Low German (Plattdüütsch) and archaic Swedish and Danish, with influences of Old Gutnish.
Elfdalian is an ancient North Germanic language that has not evolved much in the last 800 years or so, spoken by around 3,000 people in Älvdalen in Sweden. They used Runic script until as late as early 20th century.
I'm a native Swedish speaker, but I don't understand these 2 languages except a few words, mabye 5 or 10%. They are not intelligible with other North Germanic languages
Last edited by Helsingborgaren; 11-14-2013 at 10:24 PM..
West Germanic:
English - first language 100%
Scots - 75%
Frisian - even though it's the language closets to old English, hard to understand - 25%
German - 20% (understand it better in text)
Luxembourgish - 15%
Yiddish - N/A
Dutch. - 20%
Afrikaans - 20%
North Germanic:
Swedish - 25-30% (listen to Swedish radio)
Danish - 20%
Norwegian - 20%
Icelandic - 20%
Faroese -N/A
Elfdalian -N/A
Modern Gutnish 15%
East Germanic:
Gothic (extinct) N/A
I would say that the Scandinavian languages are generally the easiest to understand at least in my case. I can hear words quite clearly through the accents or words that are similar to a word in English, but a lesser used English word e.g. hund = hound / dog, spöke = spook / ghost and barn = similar to how the Scots say "bairn" to refer to a child or lastly mörk = murky / dark (I'm sure the same applies to many other Germanic languages but using the OP's native language as an example).
When it comes to numbers, I can say at least 75-80% for both Swedish and German and this would most likely apply to the other Germanic languages if I heard numbers in those languages on a regular basis.
German is easier to read than to hear. I guess they have a lot of regional accents that make it more difficult to understand.
Still all Germanic languages are easier for me to understand and potentially communicate in than any of the Romance languages, including Spanish which I learned at school but never could master. In general as an English speaker, if you really listen a couple of tomes you can pick out certain words or expressions or even understand entire sentences.
Let's talk about the mutual intelligibility and similarities of the Germanic languages. Like between the Slavic languages, there is also many similarities and in some also mutual intelligibility between Germanic languages:
West Germanic:
English
Scots
Frisian
German
Luxembourgish
Yiddish
Dutch
Afrikaans
North Germanic:
Swedish
Danish
Norwegian
Icelandic
Faroese
Elfdalian
Modern Gutnish
East Germanic:
Gothic (extinct)
As a speaker of Swedish (North Germanic) I understand both Norwegian and Danish. However Icelandic and Faroese is much harder but there is many similarities there as well, allthough not intelligeble. Out of the West Germanic languages, I would say that Swedish is the most similar to German which is not intelligible with Swedish but if I hear people speaking German I can at least get a good hint about what they are talking about. German and Dutch is said to be partially intelligeble with eachothers, and Dutch is mutally intelligible with Afrikaans. There is also several dialects within in Germany that may or may not be considered as languages, most noteably Low German (Plattdeutsch). Also Swiss German is very different from High German (Standard German).
Note to English speakers: For a language to be Germanic it does not have to be like German, which is a common misconception in the English speaking world just cause they named the country Deutschland as "Germany". Swedish and Danish for example is just as Germanic as German is, and so is English. There is not any standard Germanic language allthough English is the most widely spoken Germanic language in the world. The only language mutually intelligible with English is Scots, but it's disputed whether that is a language or not, but Scots is recognized as a language under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
It's interesting to notice, that in spite of such relatively small territory in Europe that it covers, Germanic language has so many varieties ( I'm talking about all these Swedish-German dialects that you've mentioned before, plus Norwegian and whatever other languages are close there,) yet through the whole span of Russian territory, Russian language is pretty much monolithic and the same, with no particular dialects ( that's why probably Ukrainian and Belorussian come as close as it gets to idea of "Russian dialect.")
It's clearly a very different picture when it comes to Germanic group of languages.
I wonder why.
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German is my second language. Dutch is a good part intelligible through German. 
