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Bahasa Inggris = English language
Bahasa Korea = Korean language
Bahasa Arab = Arabic language
Bahasa Tamil = Tamil language
Also, between Malay and Cebuano there's practically no mutual intelligibility.
When I said Bahasa, I was pertaining to Indonesian.
And these 3 languages have some similar vocabulary.
Do you know our numbers?
In Indonesian & Malay, we said dua (2), empat (4), lima (5), enam (6) and sepuluh (10). In Cebuano, duha (2), upat (4), lima (5), unom (6) and napulo (10). And eventhough, Malay & Indonesian has no mutual intelligibility with the Filipino languages and dialects. It is applied and true to many people, that they have no problem learning each others languages due to some similar vocabulary and similar sounds and tones.
German-Dutch-Afrikaans
English-Frisian (Old Germanic language; the closest to English)
Spanish-Portuguese
Turkish-Azeri/Azerbajani-Turkmen-Uighur-all other Turkic languages
Urdu-Hindi-Panjabi
Czech-Slovak-Polish
Croatian-Serbian-Bosnian (I guess all three are nearly the same)
Finnish-Hungarian-Estonian (they differ a lot; however, they are all Uralic languages)
I don't really hear the similarity between Dutch and German but maybe that's because I speak both languages so I'm more aware of the differences. Afrikaans is definitely very close to Dutch, it could easily be like one of the regional dialects in the Netherlands. In terms of vocabulary, it reminds me of Old Dutch (which it evolved from) because they use words that sound very Dutch but that are no longer used here (like "snaaks" for "funny"). Afrikaans is often considered a "childish" version of Dutch - not in a condescending way - as many words are translated literally into Dutch. In the Netherlands (and to a lesser extent, Belgium) we use a lot of loanwords from other languages without translating them into Dutch (like computer, team, show, etc.) whereas Afrikaans translates these words into Dutch (I know computer means "rekenaar" in Afrikaans, for example) as a child would do. Afrikaans also uses a very simplified grammar.
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English-Frisian (Old Germanic language; the closest to English)
Frisian and English are indeed very closely related, I have heard one linguistic expert say that Frisian is what English used to sound like before the French influences. However, I think it applies more to Old English, I don't think the languages sound very similar nowadays in terms of pronunciation (obviously, the vocabulary shows some similarities as both languages are from the same branch of Germanic). I think that the closest relative to modern English is standardized Dutch, as spoken in the West (and increasingly in other parts) of the Netherlands. I have heard several people say that Dutch sounds like "German spoken by an American" or "English spoken by a German", I think you can even find an anecdote like that on the English Wikipedia page about Dutch.
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Croatian-Serbian-Bosnian (I guess all three are nearly the same)
If I'm not mistaken, they all speak the same language (Serbo-Croatian), just with slightly different accents and some different words.
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Finnish-Hungarian-Estonian (they differ a lot; however, they are all Uralic languages)
Finnish and Estonian sound almost identical to me (just in terms of pronunciation). Hungarian sounds different though, I don't really hear the similarities.
When I said Bahasa, I was pertaining to Indonesian.
And these 3 languages have some similar vocabulary.
Do you know our numbers?
In Indonesian & Malay, we said dua (2), empat (4), lima (5), enam (6) and sepuluh (10). In Cebuano, duha (2), upat (4), lima (5), unom (6) and napulo (10). And eventhough, Malay & Indonesian has no mutual intelligibility with the Filipino languages and dialects. It is applied and true to many people, that they have no problem learning each others languages due to some similar vocabulary and similar sounds and tones.
I speak Indonesian and I had a close friend who spoke Cebuano.
I went to her church and listened to her speaking the language with other people.
You're right about similar sounds and tones, also the vocabulary to some extent. But the grammar is so different that mutual intelligibility is extremely low.
Btw, saying Bahasa to refer to the Indonesian language sounds very awkward for the reason mentioned.
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Originally Posted by Neutre
bahasa = language
Bahasa Inggris = English language
Bahasa Korea = Korean language
Bahasa Arab = Arabic language
Bahasa Tamil = Tamil language
Nobody would say in English: "Language*, Dutch and German share a lot of similarities."
*referring to the English language
Speaking it and understanding is/can be difficult due to the pronunciation of certain words (ie, r, lh, nh, l, j) are completely different in how you would pronounce them compared to the other language.
Now reading is a different story. If you can read Spanish you can read Portuguese for the most part and vice versa. For instance carro means the exact same thing in both languages but the prunciation in one language like Spanish sounds like (Kah-rro) and in Portuguse (Kah-who).
I heard that Portugese is somewhat intelligible with Spanish and Spanish is somewhat intelligible with Italian, but what about Italian to Portugese? Would that be too great of a continuum?
I heard that Portugese is somewhat intelligible with Spanish and Spanish is somewhat intelligible with Italian, but what about Italian to Portugese? Would that be too great of a continuum?
It's probably easier for spaniards and italians to understand each other than Portuguese and Italian.....
It's probably easier for spaniards and italians to understand each other than Portuguese and Italian.....
I think these languages are not that similar to be honest. I mean, I speak Spanish fluently and when I was younger with little knowledge in Italian, I found it hard to converse in Italian so I spoke all in Spanish thinking the Italians would understand me. LOL. Several times they understood almost nothing and spoke in English. Now I discovered Italian and Spanish can be quiet different. Not at all extremely alike. Thats my experience.
There is no answer to this question because languages can be similar to each other in some ways and not in others.
Examples:
French and Romanian are very similar to each other, because if you can read one, you can probably read the other with a fair comprehension, since there is a large number of Latin-root cognates, but a person who speaks one would have no chance of understanding anything at all spoken in the other language, because many of the letters that are prnounced in Romanian are silent in French.
Meanwhile, Urdu and Hindi are easy for speakers to mutually understand, as being almost the same spoken language, but an person whose language is Urdu would not be able to read a single word in a Hindi text, because they use a different alphabet. The same with Serbian and Croatian, basically the same language, but not mutually readable.
So, is the OP asking which languages SOUND similar when spoken, or which languages READ similar when in text?
What languages are extremely similar to each other? Not only related or some words, but very similar that people in both language understand each other for the most part.
I know some:
Swedish - Norwegian
Norwegian - Danish
Swedish - Danish (but not as close as to Norway)
What other languages?
I think it's hard to beat Swedish and Norwegian for extreme similarity. Either of those could understand the Danes if only the Danes would take the porridge out of their mouths, haha. (Old joke.) Spanish speakers and Portugese are able to understand each other (I've observed this), but those aren't as close as Swedish and Norwegian. Actually, Danish is considered by linguists to be the same language as Norwegian.
Apache and Navajo are pretty similar. How about Australian, British and American? (joke)
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Now I discovered Italian and Spanish can be quiet different. Not at all extremely alike. Thats my experience.
