English
wikipedia|mutual intelligibility
Adjective
en-adj|pos=mutually intelligible|-
- linguistics Of a speech variety, able to be understood by speakers of another variety.
Usage notes
Linguists use the criterion of mutual intelligibility to determine whether the speech of two different groups represents two distinct languages, or two dialects of a single language.
Related terms
mutual intelligibility
Quotations
1860, Alfred R. Wallace, Notes of a Voyage to New Guinea, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 30
:This language, or mutually intelligible forms of it, is spoken by the coast-dwellers over an extensive area
1917, F. W. H. Migeod, The Racial Elements Concerned in the First Siege of Troy, in Man, Vol. 17
:Another important point is that Homer recognises that the speech of Trojans and Greeks was mutually intelligible.
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