Lexical similarities between French-Spanish-Italian

ok if Italian & French are 89% lexical similar Can they understand each other in a conversation...?

and if Spanish & Portugese are 89% in Lexical Similar, both can understand each other when a text is writin, and people claim that "both can understand each other in a conversation"



why can Spanish & Portugese people understand each other, dispite that they are 89% alike, and French & Italian cant, dispite they are 89% too.



Spanish is my mother toung, I can not understand Porugese even if they spoke to me as slow as oat meal running down a pan, and I wont understand it, when someone speaks to me in italian I can grasp whats being told to me...? Why is that...?

Maybe because you're understanding of lanugages is not broad enough, or you're more biased toward one and not the other.

Recently a Brazilian lady told me that Portuguese speakers can understand spoken Spanish, but Spanish speakers cannot understand spoken Portuguese. Opinions?

I thought the lexical similarity between Italian and French was 79%, not 89%. Still, it's very close.

I think knowing TWO romance languages fairly well was probably the key for me to rapidly understand almost any romance language I've encountered with little or no study-that's just understanding, not speaking, of course.

Port. has nasal sounds and I wonder if that's why Spanish speakers have trouble.

OOPS! I found two sources for 89%, not 79%. My bad.

That's a good question.

How many French or French and English only speakers can understand Italian at say, 75% comprehension?

My brother, fluent only in Spanish and English, indicated that he can understand Italian for the most part. I'm sure that he cannot understand French.

So,

While some Spanish speakers with no or little study can understand Italian, this does not mean that French comes free of study.

I've said this before. I'd like a lexical calculator.

If you learned Spanish, how long will it take to learn Italian? If you proceed to French afterward, THEN how long will it take? What would be the next language with decreasing study time? Could one travel around the world deciphering languages with decreased studying time because the connections would become obvious, the cognates would make it easier?

I was not surprised completely when I started looking at Korean and my brain thought, "Hey, this feels like Japanese"...

Is there a step by step language map around the world and we just don't know about it yet?

K.T. you make some interesting points. Again, language intelligibility all depends on who is doing the talking and who is doing the listening.

But generally speaking, it goes like this: For Spanish,

Portuguese is next closest, then Italian, then French

There is a movement in Spain and Portugal going on right now that calls for the unification of Iberia, particularly the unification of Portugal and Spain. Whether or not this ever happens is another story. However, in the main discussion board the Spaniards and Portuguese write in their own language and understand each other almost perfectly. This also applies to the spoken side of things. Portugal and Spain have always been very closely connected both in Europe and Latin America - inseparable really. These languages are spoken in Africa too, Portuguese by far the most though. In the big cities of Angola, i.e., Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda, Caxito, Huambo, etc., 75% of Angolans already claim Portuguese as their national tongue for example. Mozambique is not far behind.

Spanish and Portuguese will continue to become closer linguistically than they already are, this is inevitable, while growing further away from Italian as time goes by. Globalization means that only the major world languages, in this case Spanish, Portuguese, will continue to be important. A language needs more than popularity to survive - it needs lots of speakers, and also to be geographically widespread which Portuguese and Spanish are. While these two things alone alone don't guarantee immortality, they do guarantee longevity. In Latin America Spanish and Portuguese speakers are already learning one anothers language at school because of the economic Mercosur agreement. In Europe, Spain and Portugal are closer than ever culturally, liguistically, economically and otherwise, thus the movement for the unification of "Iberia".

Having said all of this, Portuguese and Spanish are the true 'brother' languages, always were, always will be. This is an undisputable fact. All things being equal, which they are not, the Portuguese and Spanish speakers will always understand one another the easiest of all Romance language speakers.

<<There is a movement in Spain and Portugal going on right now that calls for the unification of Iberia, particularly the unification of Portugal and Spain.>>

Where did you hear this?? That movement didn't reach Portugal yet...


<<Recently a Brazilian lady told me that Portuguese speakers can understand spoken Spanish, but Spanish speakers cannot understand spoken Portuguese. Opinions? >>

Being European Portuguese and having traveled a bit, I totally agree with this.
However, I'm not sure about Brazilian Portuguese; when I lived in Brazil, at the beginning, they didn't understand me at all (unless I changed my way of speaking), much less spoken Spanish. Spanish classes were a laugh...
But think it also depends where in Brazil you are, if it is touristic city or not, more to the south or to the north...

Guest, what do you mean Spanish classes were a laugh? With all due respect, somehow I'm not convinced you're a European Portuguese. Anyhow, as I said, it all depends on who is doing the speaking and who is doing the listening. If you read the posts here from the beginning, you will have seen that many, many Spanish speakers understand spoken Portuguese well. The fact that your experiences betray this doesn't prove anything. One must arrive at conclusions based on evidence at hand. As such, this forum is, as I said, one place where the majority of Spanish speakers would disagree with you, as I do. By the way, I myself am a Portuguese, and all the Spanish people I have ever spoken with understood me quite well, and I have been to several Spanish speaking countries over the years.

I am agree with Alredo. I from Chile and undertstand Portugues very good from Portugal and Brazil. Almost all words are same and way of speak is so close. Sorry for my bad inglish.

<<Guest, what do you mean Spanish classes were a laugh? >>

Spanish classes were a laugh because, surprisingly enough, it was very hard for everyone to understand Spanish, even if it was written.


<<With all due respect, somehow I'm not convinced you're a European Portuguese.>>

Really?
Well, I'm not kidding. Are you?


<<If you read the posts here from the beginning, you will have seen that many, many Spanish speakers understand spoken Portuguese well. The fact that your experiences betray this doesn't prove anything. One must arrive at conclusions based on evidence at hand. As such, this forum is, as I said, one place where the majority of Spanish speakers would disagree with you, as I do.>>

Aha. You must be all happy and gleeing.
Everyone is sharing their own experiences, I did the same; it counts as much as any other.
Actually, many found Spanish is phonologically closer to Italian than Portuguese.


<<I from Chile and undertstand Portugues very good from Portugal and Brazil. Almost all words are same and way of speak is so close.>>

There were a couple of students from Chile in my high school, and it wasn't that easy for them to understand people and communicate (neither for us). But of course, we eventually reached a midway.

Wow guys! Easy up! I am so sorry if I offended anyone. I thought this was a page where one could express ideas. I was just trying to add something to your comments in a friendly way. That's all.... I wasn't shooting for anything. And as I wrote in my comments, " I speak..." I never said I am a writer. In fact, that's not my forte. However, during my traveling to different countries, people have said (maybe out of being too kind, or being appreciative of my efforts to express myself in their languages) that I spoke perfectly well. And, my redundance, namely, "perfectly well" is definitely wrong in all 5 languages. But, I can assure you that I have heard it many times in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. (I would not dare to say that I heard it during my 3 years in France!) Anyway, I talk as I heard other people speak. I am not a college graduate, in fact, I come from a very poor family and did not even attend high school in my country. I came to the USA to improve my life and all I wanted to share is the fact that I learned those languages by osmosis, beginning with my native Spanish, then listening to my Italians and Brazilians friends in Venezuela, and then working in France for 3 years. I have heard Brazilians saying lhes+verb, while in Portugal they say verb+Indirect object. There are differences between the French spoken in Haiti and the one spoken in France. Yhe same way with the Portuguese spoken in Brazil and the one in Portugal. Castillian Spanish is different than the one we speak in Venezuela. Someone once told me that the main reason for a language to stand is for communication. That is an anthropological necessity. Poetry and excellent grammar is not, even though Literature is the ultimate gift to any language. Nevertheless, I stand corrected and thank you for bringing to my attention those errors. But the fact remains that I learned first without any grammar book (and you will probably say, "it shows"). Nevertheless, I should've given you my background before getting too excited to share my happiness of "believing myself" to speak those 5 languages perfectly (well). For the past ten years ( I am now a senior citizen fighting alzheimer's ) I have forced myself to learn how to write those languages. So, again, accept my apologies if I sounded too conceited. I thought that the enjoyment of speaking those 5 languages, which were learned almost effortless, in a passive way thanks to their similarities was the topic of your comments in this site. Hence, my up-loading comments. I just wanted to share with other people who love foreign languages, as myself.
About the Italian correction, now I got some doubts. I have always read that the conjunction and ("e" in Italian) must change to "ed" when is followed by a word beginning in a vowel. I looked it up again in my Italian grammar book, and it's true. Is it optional, since you did not use it? Thanks for your help.

Moderator, please delete posts by dennys, thank you

Why should the moderator delete what I posted?

I see no wrong in on dennys' message. He was hust expressing his personal onpinion on this thread's topic.

A person does't have to get hurt by another one's opinion.

You gotta be out of your mind, sir. This offense you wrote is the one that should be deleted by the moderator. This is a friendly and serious page. Your insolence should be kept in the trashy pages you are accustomed to enter. And by the way, even if I were what you called me -which is not true- I would still be a human being and should deserve respect. Live and let live, is my motto. It shows you have never been anywhere, other than your filthy surroundings. Italy is a great country to visit with much culture for one to learn and enjoy. Walking on their streets is like an open Art book. So, if I were what you called me, I would not waste my time depriving myself of a wonderful learning opportunity to do what your squalid mind is capable of thinking. In no instance did I insult anyone, for an individual as low as yourself to make such indecent accusations. I guess these are the times we are living now. Having to cope with people like you, is distressingly enough. Thank goodness for an educated and polite humanity. Something you should further investigate. Please do not corrupt this page by posting your obscenes commentaries.

If what I said wasn't true, then you wouldn't be so offended. Now that the truth is out for everybody to see, I think it is in your best interest to leave this forum. Good bye.