Is there mutual intelligibility among Slavic languages? Hi. I have a fundamental knowledge of Polish, I know how to use seven cases, conjugate verbs and decline nouns, and agree in number and gender.

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Is there mutual intelligibility among Slavic languages?

Hi. I have a fundamental knowledge of Polish, I know how to use seven cases, conjugate verbs and decline nouns, and agree in number and gender. With knowledge in Polish.

I would like to ask, how is it possible to learn Czech with the knowledge of Polish? What methods should I use to learn Czech, based on Polish? Is there mutual intelligibility among Slavic languages?

How about the following Slavic languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Silesian, Kashubian, Sorbian(Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian), Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Montenegrin?

i would love to hear responses from native speakers of those languages.

if I know Polish can I learn these easily? Thanks.

24 июня 2018 г., 8:53

Комментариев · 14

Polish and Czech are similar, but I do not think, that is an advantage. I think that if your level of Polish is not very high, Czech and Polish will be mixing up with each other. Maybe it will be easy for you to understand Czech. However, I think, that you will be not very sure if you speak Czech or Polish. I would recommend improving your Polish and then starting learning Czech.

28 июня 2018 г.

There is some mutual intelligibility, but a very basic knowledge of one Slavic language won't get you very far in another. Basically, with an A2 level in Polish (which is what you have in your profile), you'll still be struggling to understand native speakers speaking Polish. Other Slavic languages will be way over your head at this point. (You can learn them, of course, and then they won't be way over your head. :-) But if you just want to understand one based on A2-level knowledge of another, it won't really work.)

There are three subfamilies of Slavic languages: East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic. Wikipedia's article on Slavic languages has a nice chart, so you can see what languages belong where:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_languages ;

Mutual intelligibility is greater between languages from the same subfamily. As it happens, Polish and Czech are West Slavic, so mutual intelligibility between them will be greater than between, say, Polish (West Slavic) and Russian (East Slavic). Still, with A2 level Polish, you won't understand much of anything in Czech. Well, you might understand an isolated word here and there, but that's about it.

24 июня 2018 г.

Being a Czech myself, I can understand Slovaks almost perfectly, and they can understand me, without either of us ever studying the other's language. Although bear in mind that I am Moravian, so I live close to Slovak borders. I think that the closer to the borders we are, the more we can understand each other. A Czech from Ostrava and a Slovak from Bratislava will understand each other as if they spoke the same language. A Czech from Plzeň and a Slovak from Prešov will most likely run into trouble understanding each other. And then you have those weirdos in Prague who speak their own dialect, making it very difficult for any foreign Czech speaker to catch on.

Polish is a bit worse. If you go very close to the northern borders of Czech Republic, you may find people who understand Polish, but it is not a common skill. The old generation of Czechs understands Russian, but that is because they learned it at school, not because the languages are mutually intelligible. The best I can do with these two languages is occasionally catching a word or deciphering a phrase. I can't follow a conversation by any means.

I would recommend not to try and mix languages. Trying to learn another Slavic language would only contaminate your Polish at this point, wait until you are at least B2. Also fair warning, Czech is super hard.

7 июля 2018 г.

As a native speaker of Polish I can say I understand Slovak enough to talk about simple things. I have a friend from Slovakia and we sometimes talk (each one his own language). It's not a problem even on the phone.
Czech seems to be more difficult. I have sometimes problems with understanding what I hear. We sometimes write to each other with my Czech friend and it's possible though I often come across completely unfamiliar words which I have to guess. There is also the great number of 'false friends'.
My understanding of Russian doesn't count, because I had it at school. So I have no problem with it. I understand most of Ukrainian (at least what's written), but I think I base on both Polish and Russian.
The South Slavic languages are not so easy to understand. I understand a lot of Serbian and Croatian written text (I've learned some basic vocabulary before my holidays a few years ago, and it helps for sure), but I have more problems with Slovenian.

So I would say there is some level of mutual intelligibility, but usually not satisfactory. It depends on the language abilities of both people who talk, and on how many Slavic languages they learned. My friend from Slovakia has South Slavic origins and speaks a few languages. He told me he came across one Czech person who couldn't (or didn't want to) understand his Slovak - he was extremely angry about that.

28 июня 2018 г.