Spoken Italian against Spanish

Hello everyone,

This is not going to be one of the many "this language is better than this language" posts I have been reading on this website. I ask that all who reply try to keep it from turing into one. Thanks

I know that on paper, the Italian and Spanish languages seem very similar. For example, it is easy to see that there are some common vocabulary traits between them that might allow a speaker of both languages to get a brief conceptual understanding of the material. But written language is very different from spoken language.

If we break it down to the very basics, it seems to me that a speaker of Spanish or Italian shouldn't be able to understand the other language because the foundations of the language are very different.

English Italian Spanish

the man l'oumo el hombre
the men gli oumi los hombres

the cat il gatto el gato
the cats i gatti los gatos

A person seeing this written down might be able to guess the meaning because the words look similar, however, would a person be able to understand the spoken words if a cat or man were not present when they said them?

Are there any native Italian speakers here, who have never studied the Spanish language, and can still understand spoken Spanish? And are there any native Spanish speakers, who have never studied the Italian language, and can still understand spoken Italian?

And what about accents? Is there a difference in accents that is so strong it causes problems in understand the language?

<<l'oumo, gli oumi>>-perhaps l'uomo,gli uomi in Italian?

Todo lo que un hispanohablante entiende del italiano escrito lo entiende cuando es hablado. Si no entiende algo del Italiano hablado es porque escrito tampoco lo hace

oops...

I typed too quickly. Yes, I meant to type " l'uomo , gli uomi."

Thanks eastlander.

The reason I ask is that I work in a small local retail store in my city. We have many people of Hispanic heritage, the majority of which are Mexican with some Puerto Rican mixed in. There is one customer in particular that likes to cause trouble by only speaking the Spanish language.

I say "likes to cause trouble" because he can speak the English language very well. He just preferes to speak Spanish, and knows that it annoys us. But he is a regular who gets the same stuff everytime, so he really doesn't have to speak anymore because we know his routine.

Recently, there was a funny situation between this man and a recently hired Italian boy from the university.

I will assume that from his physical description, the man assumed Anthony of Hispanic origins, and began to speak to him in the Spanish language. Anthony came to me and asked if I could tranlate for him. When I told him about the man, Anthony said, "I will handle this."

Anthony then began to only speak the Italian language with the man. It was funny for me to watch because the man was physically becoming annoyed with Anthony. And he kept asking me to translate Anthony's Italian. The man became so annoyed, he switched to English and told Anthony that he "needs to speak English."

When I look on the internet, I always see people say that the languages are very similar, and that intercommunication is possible. But when I saw first hand that it did not work, I began to wonder if this was just people being a little too optimistic and not realistic about the linguistic difference between the two languages.

That's why I was wondering if there were any native speakers who could share their stories.

l'uomo = the man
gli uomini = the men

el hombre = the man
los hombres = the men

The only major Romance languages that are reasonably mutually intelligible are Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish.

Well, I guess that not all can be understood by native people from one and other language. Personally I've undestood a lot from Italian TV shows this far being a native Spanish speaker but as usual there are grammatical structures and vocabulary which is out of my understanding.

Pronunciations are for me the most similar among romance languages. That helps a lot. And for Tony, tell him don't worry, I can't understand Puerto Ricans either...;-)

Spoken Italian: the gist is usually understood by Spanish speakers. It depends, naturally.

Spoken Spanish: the gist is usually understood by Italian speakers.

gli uomini e le donne fanno il mondo girare!
los hombres y las mujeres hacen el mundo girar!

Generally, Italians can understand Spanish more than the other way around? Or Spaniards can understand Italian better? (I don't think so)...

Tocca qui !

Guarda, non so cosa tu voglia fare, sono una tipa intellettuale e certe cose non le faccio, un uomo per potermi conquistare deve avere un grande carisma, cerco un maschio con una grande personalità, che sappia scovare le mie particolarità, deve essere istruito, intelligente, acuto, a un uomo così darei persino il cuore. - Italian

Mira, no se que te guste hacer, soy una intellectual y ciertas cosas no hago, un hombre para poderme conquistar debe tener un gran carisma, busco un macho con una gran personalidad, que sepa hallar mis paricularidades, debe ser culto, inteligente, agudo, con un hombre así daría incluso el corazón. - Spanish

Well, my experiencie says Italian and spanish are not mutually intelligible.
You can understand a bit if you speak, you can understand a bit more if you write but they are not so closed as they used to be 1500 years ago.

It's worse with French that it's more.... germaned. And Romanian that it's more far away it's more... slaved (¿russian?).

A good thing is if you learn a latin lenguage next latin lenguages you'll learn will be easier becouse they have a common background.

A tip: if you get used of their accent you will understand more words and more italian or French using spanish.

And yes american spanish and american portuguese are reasonably mutually intelligible. An american portuguese speaker can comunicate with an american spanish speaker (but not 100%).

Your experience is limited Harman. Spanish and Italian are (or have been) mutually intelligible to a degree since the Middle Ages; nowadays, they are thus far mutually compatible upon understanding eachother due to both being equally sonorous - clear in enunciation. Also possessing similar vocabulary, somewhat in grammar and last but not least transitive verbs more or less linear. Suffice to say, if we look at the following paragraph
- in both the aforementioned languages - we can see how one follows suit; is similar, or has evolved

Guarda, non so cosa tu voglia fare, sono una tipa intellettuale e certe cose non le faccio, un uomo per potermi conquistare deve avere un grande carisma, cerco un maschio con una grande personalità, che sappia scovare le mie particolarità, deve essere istruito, intelligente, acuto, a un uomo così darei persino il cuore. - Italian

Mira, no se que te guste hacer, soy una tipa intelectual y ciertas cosas no las hago, un hombre para poderme conquistar debe tener un gran carisma, busco un macho con una gran personalidad, que sepa hallar mis paricularidades, debe ser culto, inteligente, agudo, con un hombre así daría incluso el corazón. - Spanish

Italian has leaved considerable influence on Spanish. For example Spanish superlative -isimo comes from Italian.

My brother, who is fluent in Spanish, understands a lot of Italian. To him it is obvious that they are similar and intelligible to a high degree.

I think you have to have a high level in Spanish or Italian before you can see this, though.

French shares a lot of lexical similarity with Italian, but the sound system is so different that it's difficult to cut through it to the cognates.

"it is obvious that they are similar and intelligible to a high degree."

- Yes and no, it's a matter of speaking registers:

. When at a very basic register (grazie, por favor, si, no, meno male, diga etc.) Italian and Spanish sound like dialects of each other.

. At an upper register, a lecture about organic chemistry or constitutional law is 100% intelligible in both ways.

. On the other hand, in everyday life, mutual intelligility is very low. Youths from Madrid and Milan chatting in their own slangs about sex and booze have no chance to understand each other. Italian and Spanish housewives can't exchange cooking recipes.