lucy24 - 1:21 am on Jul 9, 2011 (gmt 0)

German and Scandinavian languages, how close are in terms of people understanding each other? Like Portuguese and Spanish or...?

Like English and German. Or Swedish and English. Or any other two Germanic languages you can name. If you know German you can guess at written Dutch, but that's the only overlap within the Germanic family except the Scandinavian cluster. The mainland ones, that is: nobody can understand Icelandic. And vice versa. Even spoken Danish is borderline if your own language is Norwegian or Swedish.* The three can read each other's languages just fine if they have to.


* "Dansk er ikke et språk, det er en halssykdom."