|
 |
Most similar language to Italian | ||
Tags: Linguistic relationships | Italian | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| XGargoyle Bilingual Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 5957 days ago 42 posts - 93 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan*, EnglishB2 Studies: GermanA2, Japanese, Russian | Message 9 of 25 18 May 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm a bilingual native speaker of Spanish and Catalan, and I've always found it easier to understand Italian than French. I must also mention, that even after taking an elementary course of basic French (that was 15 years ago), I still understand Italian better even with no previous knowledge of it.
So, based on my experience, I would dare to say, that Catalan (more) and Spanish (less) are closer to Italian than French. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kerateo Triglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5647 days ago 112 posts - 180 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, French Studies: Italian | Message 10 of 25 19 May 2010 at 1:05am | IP Logged | ||
|
What I find really interesting, is that the easiest language to learn for either a French, Spanish or Romanian speaker is Italian, perhaps because is closer to the source. The only exception is Portuguese which the easiest language for them is Spanish.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SPQR Etruria Diglot Newbie Italy Joined 5308 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Italian*, English | Message 11 of 25 19 May 2010 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
well I've never tried listening to it. Could you post here some videos in Catalan and in Spanish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SPQR Etruria Diglot Newbie Italy Joined 5308 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Italian*, English | Message 12 of 25 19 May 2010 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, I think it's because maybe Italian has more words of direct Latin derivation, and it's easy to find the similar word in another Romance language, while French has less words of latin origin 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 13 of 25 19 May 2010 at 7:43pm | IP Logged | ||
You can find clips in Catalan on Catalan public broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya's web site:http://www.tv3.cat/. Similarly you can find clips in Spanish on the Spanish public broadcaster's Televisión Española's web site: http://www.rtve.es/. I don't know if there's anywhere on the net where they offer the same clips in both languages so you can compare them side by side. However, it's easier with the written language. The newspaper El Periódico is available in both languages: http://www.elperiodico.com/ (Spanish edition) and http://www.elperiodico.cat/ (Catalan edition). Edited by tractor on 19 May 2010 at 7:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SPQR Etruria Diglot Newbie Italy Joined 5308 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Italian*, English | Message 14 of 25 20 May 2010 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
surprisingly I understand more of Spanish than Catalan, on the written form maybe more Catalan; the way Catalans speak remind me of southern French dialects (they are both "Occitan") and some Northern Italian dialects obviously those near France (like Ligurian?, Eastern Piedmontese?) where there is an Occitan influence. Edited by SPQR Etruria on 20 May 2010 at 2:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5348 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 15 of 25 20 May 2010 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Like SPQR Etruria, I too find spoken Spanish much easier to understand than spoken Catalan. As far as the written form is concerned, thanks to the above-mentioned links (thanks tractor!) I’ve just found out that reading is equally easy in both languages. I’d like to make an observation and raise a question: as most people in Italy (and probably around the world) I’ve been exposed to Spanish before, whereas today was the very first time—that I am aware of—that I’ve heard Catalan. Even though it was immediately clear that as a Romance language I could understand much and get the gist of what I was listening, overall I felt that many details were simply beyond my reach. But how much of this is due to the fact that spoken Catalan is not as mutually intelligible with either Italian or my local dialect as Spanish is and how much is due to the fact that one needs a little time to get used to the accent, the prosody and the general structure of a language—to get one’s bearing, so to speak? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SPQR Etruria Diglot Newbie Italy Joined 5308 days ago 14 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Italian*, English | Message 16 of 25 20 May 2010 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Good point Emme.. I too belive it could be like that
1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
