Re: [tied] Linguistic measurements

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 09:53:49 -0500, Paul Alesu <rpales@...>
> wrote:
>
> >Is there any kind of method to measure the differences between
> >languages?
> >Anything like "linguistic distance"?
>
> Not in any exact sense.
>
> A curious feature of linguistic distance (or at least '"mutual"
> intelligibility') is that it's not commutative: it's easy for a
> Portuguese-speaker to understand Spanish, but for an untrained
> Spanish-speaker, it's relatively difficult to understand

Portuguese.

> So the distance between Spanish and Portuguese is greater than the

distance

> between Portuguese and Spanish...
>
> I suppose that rules out any _simple_ formulas for calculating

linguistic

> distance.
>

But the whole point of the Portuguese language is not to be understod
by the Spanish. Similarly the point of Danish is not to be understood
by the Germans. Sea peoples are wary of their continental neighbors.

Torsten