Inter-Nordic Communication: The Role of Extra-linguistic and Language-inherent Features for the Mutual Intelligibility of Spoken Danish and Swedish

Abstract

This article explores how linguistic and extra-linguistic factors contribute to the asymmetry in mutual intelligibility between spoken Danish and Swedish. Positive language attitudes were found to correlate with higher intelligibility, although causality remains unclear. As the asymmetry turned out not to be present in illiterate pre-schoolers, orthography and spoken language reduction appear to play major roles: Danish speakers benefit more from orthographic cues when decoding spoken Swedish than vice versa. Overall, changes in Danish pronunciation, faster articulation, and conservative spelling combine to reduce intelligibility for Swedish listeners more than the other way around.