mutually intelligible
English
Adjective
mutually intelligible (not comparable)
- (linguistics) Of two or more speech varieties, able to be understood by one another's speakers.
- 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.
- 1860, Alfred R. Wallace, Notes of a Voyage to New Guinea, in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Vol. 30
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.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
of a speech variety, able to be understood by speakers of another variety
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