The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes

Charlotte Gooskens; Sebastian Kürschner; Vincent J. Van Heuven

doi:10.1017/S0332586521000111

The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes

Charlotte Gooskens, Sebastian Kürschner, Vincent J. Van Heuven

Fryske Akademy (FA)

Research output: Contribution to journal/periodical › Article › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

We investigated the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular the role of inherited words compared to non-Germanic loanwords. To assess whether shared loanwords are easier to understand than inherited words, we conducted two experiments. First, we tested the intelligibility of isolated Danish words (inherited words and loanwords) among Swedes. Second, we constructed two versions of a reading test, one with a large percentage of loanwords and one with few loanwords. Our results show that it is easier for Swedish listeners to identify and understand Danish cognate loanwords than inherited words and that texts with many loanwords are easier to read than texts with few loanwords. We explain these results by the fact that (recent) loans in Swedish have diverged less and are therefore more similar to the Danish counterparts than inherited words.

Original language	English
Journal	Nordic Journal of Linguistics
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0332586521000111
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 2021

Keywords

Danish and Swedish
intelligibility of loanwords versus inherited words
intelligibility testing
Keywords:
level of integration of loanwords
orthographic distances
receptive multilingualism

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10.1017/S0332586521000111

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title = "The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes",

abstract = "We investigated the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular the role of inherited words compared to non-Germanic loanwords. To assess whether shared loanwords are easier to understand than inherited words, we conducted two experiments. First, we tested the intelligibility of isolated Danish words (inherited words and loanwords) among Swedes. Second, we constructed two versions of a reading test, one with a large percentage of loanwords and one with few loanwords. Our results show that it is easier for Swedish listeners to identify and understand Danish cognate loanwords than inherited words and that texts with many loanwords are easier to read than texts with few loanwords. We explain these results by the fact that (recent) loans in Swedish have diverged less and are therefore more similar to the Danish counterparts than inherited words. ",

keywords = "Danish and Swedish, intelligibility of loanwords versus inherited words, intelligibility testing, Keywords:, level of integration of loanwords, orthographic distances, receptive multilingualism",

author = "Charlotte Gooskens and Sebastian K{\"u}rschner and {Van Heuven}, {Vincent J.}",

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year = "2021",

doi = "10.1017/S0332586521000111",

language = "English",

journal = "Nordic Journal of Linguistics",

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T1 - The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes

AU - Gooskens, Charlotte

AU - Kürschner, Sebastian

AU - Van Heuven, Vincent J.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Nordic Association of Linguistics.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - We investigated the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular the role of inherited words compared to non-Germanic loanwords. To assess whether shared loanwords are easier to understand than inherited words, we conducted two experiments. First, we tested the intelligibility of isolated Danish words (inherited words and loanwords) among Swedes. Second, we constructed two versions of a reading test, one with a large percentage of loanwords and one with few loanwords. Our results show that it is easier for Swedish listeners to identify and understand Danish cognate loanwords than inherited words and that texts with many loanwords are easier to read than texts with few loanwords. We explain these results by the fact that (recent) loans in Swedish have diverged less and are therefore more similar to the Danish counterparts than inherited words.

AB - We investigated the intelligibility of written Danish for Swedes, and in particular the role of inherited words compared to non-Germanic loanwords. To assess whether shared loanwords are easier to understand than inherited words, we conducted two experiments. First, we tested the intelligibility of isolated Danish words (inherited words and loanwords) among Swedes. Second, we constructed two versions of a reading test, one with a large percentage of loanwords and one with few loanwords. Our results show that it is easier for Swedish listeners to identify and understand Danish cognate loanwords than inherited words and that texts with many loanwords are easier to read than texts with few loanwords. We explain these results by the fact that (recent) loans in Swedish have diverged less and are therefore more similar to the Danish counterparts than inherited words.

KW - Danish and Swedish

KW - intelligibility of loanwords versus inherited words

KW - intelligibility testing

KW - Keywords:

KW - level of integration of loanwords

KW - orthographic distances

KW - receptive multilingualism

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JO - Nordic Journal of Linguistics

JF - Nordic Journal of Linguistics

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The role of loanwords in the intelligibility of written Danish among Swedes

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Keywords

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