Which language is the closest lexically to Spanish?Worldwide map or data for linguistic...

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Which language is the closest lexically to Spanish?


Worldwide map or data for linguistic distance?Focus-marking in different varieties of SpanishTeaching children Spanish and Esperanto at home from non-native speakersBefore being borrowed by Europeans, was “hurricane” ever pronounced with an initial “f”?Are Spanish “que” clauses following “parece” complements or postponed subjects?Spanish Stem ChangeAre the Spanish numbers “seis” and “siete” phonetically similar?Can anybody recommend some textbooks/articles that deal with the adaption of loan words into Spanish?What came first: «starboard» or «estribor»?Are the English words “essence” and “essential” related to the Spanish word “ser”?Is the phoneme /a/ in Castilian Spanish pronounced differently in “pan” than in “papa”?






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I've found this Worldwide map or data for linguistic distance here when looking for a way to know if Portuguese is the most similar language to Spanish. Unfortunately neither of these languages are in the marked answer. Is it know through this mean or another, which language is the most similar to Spanish?










share|improve this question




















  • 2





    I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

    – jknappen
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

    – jlawler
    10 hours ago


















1















I've found this Worldwide map or data for linguistic distance here when looking for a way to know if Portuguese is the most similar language to Spanish. Unfortunately neither of these languages are in the marked answer. Is it know through this mean or another, which language is the most similar to Spanish?










share|improve this question




















  • 2





    I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

    – jknappen
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

    – jlawler
    10 hours ago














1












1








1








I've found this Worldwide map or data for linguistic distance here when looking for a way to know if Portuguese is the most similar language to Spanish. Unfortunately neither of these languages are in the marked answer. Is it know through this mean or another, which language is the most similar to Spanish?










share|improve this question














I've found this Worldwide map or data for linguistic distance here when looking for a way to know if Portuguese is the most similar language to Spanish. Unfortunately neither of these languages are in the marked answer. Is it know through this mean or another, which language is the most similar to Spanish?







spanish portuguese






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked 12 hours ago









PabloPablo

2661 silver badge14 bronze badges




2661 silver badge14 bronze badges











  • 2





    I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

    – jknappen
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

    – jlawler
    10 hours ago














  • 2





    I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

    – jknappen
    12 hours ago






  • 1





    As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

    – jlawler
    10 hours ago








2




2





I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

– jknappen
12 hours ago





I'm afraid this will break down to a definition of "language". Does South American Spanish count? What about Aragonese or Asturian? Does Valencian count?

– jknappen
12 hours ago




1




1





As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

– jlawler
10 hours ago





As pointed out in the previous question, where you found the map, the data in this map is suspect and certainly not definitive. And as @jknappen points out, "closest" is a matter of opinion and definition, neither of which is certain.

– jlawler
10 hours ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















3















The map you have doesn't pass the sniff test for me. I don't imagine anyone realistically saying Catalonian being closer to Spanish than Galician. I can't speak for other Romance groups, but for Iberian languages, the chart on Wikipedia is in line with my experience (I speak Asturian, Castilian, and Portuguese, and regularly consume media in Galician and Aragonese).



The problem, however, when doing a lexical analysis is how you handle words that exist in both languages but have different frequencies of use, or with pronunciations that line up closer in one than another.



For example, cerrar (to close) exists in Portuguese, but fechar is used infinitely more. On the other hand, in both Asturian and Aragonese, the verb is zarrar. Which is closer? You can argue for Portuguese because cerrar is identical — but should the comparison really be with fechar which is more used and thus you could argue for Asturian or Aragonese with zarrar?



Or looking at Spanish’s despertar to Asturian's espertar, Portuguese and Catalan's despertar and Mirandese’s spertar which one is closer? Do we count them all the same since it's a direct etymological link and the only difference is the morphological form of *des ? How do we factor in Asturian's esconsoñar and Portuguese and Mirandese’s acordar? Do we link Asturian more closely because the two are about equally common in it but (de)spertar is rare in PT/MWL?



Do we let pronounciation factor in because some languages like Mirandese indicate vowels that would be spoken (but not written) in others like Portuguese? If you do, how do you decide which spoken variant to use? Gato in Portuguese/Mirandese is gato which might make them look closer to Spanish, but oftentimes the pronunciation will trend closer towards /u/ (Mirandese) or even silent (Portuguese) in which case … are they really closer to Spanish than Asturian’s gatu?



If you don't establish a clear methodology for how you're comparing things, then the numbers are meaningless. Most likely I would say that Ladino would be the language closest, but it has a modern writing system that probably obscures that closeness and I'm not familiar enough with it to say definitely. Otherwise, any of the West Iberian languages would be good candidates and I'm not sure you can say confidentally which one is lexically closer than the others for the reasons above.






share|improve this answer


























  • Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago






  • 1





    @Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

    – guifa
    8 hours ago



















1















If you read closely the map in the marked answer (not only the numbers displayed as text answer which focus only on Germanic languages), inside the part related to Italic-Romance languages, you'll notice it seems it is the Catalan language which is the closest to Spanish.



Galician and Portuguese seems to have the same distance with Spanish, but both are more distant than Catalan.



Besides, looking at the other answer, in the original map in Russian by Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko there is:




  • Catalan completely next to Spanish,


  • Galician and Occitan/Provencal CLOSER to Spanish than Portugese




I have no clear idea about the validity and the methods used for the two maps.



An extremely rapid look skimming the answers mentions Levenstein distance, as a systematic method for computing the distance between two sentences. Maybe it is used on the same sentences translated in two languages. Check those answers more carefully for detailled informations. It is beyond my knowledge.



What the marked answer suggests, is that the author Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a simialr metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short ! Only a hundred of words.





As stated in the comments related to your question: in which way South American Spanish, or even Mexicano or Boliviano or Chileno for instance, is considered another language ?



Namely, a clear example is Vos, a different person from Vosotros.
It is a person which is not used in Spanish (Castillano), isn't it ? This link explains when to use vos, compared to usted and tu in Chileno.



As a metaphor, it is a bit as if people of New-Zealand were using Thu (just invented, not related to reality), as a word that would have derived from Thou, to express informal singular You.






share|improve this answer




























  • This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago











  • @Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

    – Stephane Rolland
    8 hours ago
















Your Answer








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2 Answers
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2 Answers
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active

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3















The map you have doesn't pass the sniff test for me. I don't imagine anyone realistically saying Catalonian being closer to Spanish than Galician. I can't speak for other Romance groups, but for Iberian languages, the chart on Wikipedia is in line with my experience (I speak Asturian, Castilian, and Portuguese, and regularly consume media in Galician and Aragonese).



The problem, however, when doing a lexical analysis is how you handle words that exist in both languages but have different frequencies of use, or with pronunciations that line up closer in one than another.



For example, cerrar (to close) exists in Portuguese, but fechar is used infinitely more. On the other hand, in both Asturian and Aragonese, the verb is zarrar. Which is closer? You can argue for Portuguese because cerrar is identical — but should the comparison really be with fechar which is more used and thus you could argue for Asturian or Aragonese with zarrar?



Or looking at Spanish’s despertar to Asturian's espertar, Portuguese and Catalan's despertar and Mirandese’s spertar which one is closer? Do we count them all the same since it's a direct etymological link and the only difference is the morphological form of *des ? How do we factor in Asturian's esconsoñar and Portuguese and Mirandese’s acordar? Do we link Asturian more closely because the two are about equally common in it but (de)spertar is rare in PT/MWL?



Do we let pronounciation factor in because some languages like Mirandese indicate vowels that would be spoken (but not written) in others like Portuguese? If you do, how do you decide which spoken variant to use? Gato in Portuguese/Mirandese is gato which might make them look closer to Spanish, but oftentimes the pronunciation will trend closer towards /u/ (Mirandese) or even silent (Portuguese) in which case … are they really closer to Spanish than Asturian’s gatu?



If you don't establish a clear methodology for how you're comparing things, then the numbers are meaningless. Most likely I would say that Ladino would be the language closest, but it has a modern writing system that probably obscures that closeness and I'm not familiar enough with it to say definitely. Otherwise, any of the West Iberian languages would be good candidates and I'm not sure you can say confidentally which one is lexically closer than the others for the reasons above.






share|improve this answer


























  • Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago






  • 1





    @Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

    – guifa
    8 hours ago
















3















The map you have doesn't pass the sniff test for me. I don't imagine anyone realistically saying Catalonian being closer to Spanish than Galician. I can't speak for other Romance groups, but for Iberian languages, the chart on Wikipedia is in line with my experience (I speak Asturian, Castilian, and Portuguese, and regularly consume media in Galician and Aragonese).



The problem, however, when doing a lexical analysis is how you handle words that exist in both languages but have different frequencies of use, or with pronunciations that line up closer in one than another.



For example, cerrar (to close) exists in Portuguese, but fechar is used infinitely more. On the other hand, in both Asturian and Aragonese, the verb is zarrar. Which is closer? You can argue for Portuguese because cerrar is identical — but should the comparison really be with fechar which is more used and thus you could argue for Asturian or Aragonese with zarrar?



Or looking at Spanish’s despertar to Asturian's espertar, Portuguese and Catalan's despertar and Mirandese’s spertar which one is closer? Do we count them all the same since it's a direct etymological link and the only difference is the morphological form of *des ? How do we factor in Asturian's esconsoñar and Portuguese and Mirandese’s acordar? Do we link Asturian more closely because the two are about equally common in it but (de)spertar is rare in PT/MWL?



Do we let pronounciation factor in because some languages like Mirandese indicate vowels that would be spoken (but not written) in others like Portuguese? If you do, how do you decide which spoken variant to use? Gato in Portuguese/Mirandese is gato which might make them look closer to Spanish, but oftentimes the pronunciation will trend closer towards /u/ (Mirandese) or even silent (Portuguese) in which case … are they really closer to Spanish than Asturian’s gatu?



If you don't establish a clear methodology for how you're comparing things, then the numbers are meaningless. Most likely I would say that Ladino would be the language closest, but it has a modern writing system that probably obscures that closeness and I'm not familiar enough with it to say definitely. Otherwise, any of the West Iberian languages would be good candidates and I'm not sure you can say confidentally which one is lexically closer than the others for the reasons above.






share|improve this answer


























  • Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago






  • 1





    @Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

    – guifa
    8 hours ago














3














3










3









The map you have doesn't pass the sniff test for me. I don't imagine anyone realistically saying Catalonian being closer to Spanish than Galician. I can't speak for other Romance groups, but for Iberian languages, the chart on Wikipedia is in line with my experience (I speak Asturian, Castilian, and Portuguese, and regularly consume media in Galician and Aragonese).



The problem, however, when doing a lexical analysis is how you handle words that exist in both languages but have different frequencies of use, or with pronunciations that line up closer in one than another.



For example, cerrar (to close) exists in Portuguese, but fechar is used infinitely more. On the other hand, in both Asturian and Aragonese, the verb is zarrar. Which is closer? You can argue for Portuguese because cerrar is identical — but should the comparison really be with fechar which is more used and thus you could argue for Asturian or Aragonese with zarrar?



Or looking at Spanish’s despertar to Asturian's espertar, Portuguese and Catalan's despertar and Mirandese’s spertar which one is closer? Do we count them all the same since it's a direct etymological link and the only difference is the morphological form of *des ? How do we factor in Asturian's esconsoñar and Portuguese and Mirandese’s acordar? Do we link Asturian more closely because the two are about equally common in it but (de)spertar is rare in PT/MWL?



Do we let pronounciation factor in because some languages like Mirandese indicate vowels that would be spoken (but not written) in others like Portuguese? If you do, how do you decide which spoken variant to use? Gato in Portuguese/Mirandese is gato which might make them look closer to Spanish, but oftentimes the pronunciation will trend closer towards /u/ (Mirandese) or even silent (Portuguese) in which case … are they really closer to Spanish than Asturian’s gatu?



If you don't establish a clear methodology for how you're comparing things, then the numbers are meaningless. Most likely I would say that Ladino would be the language closest, but it has a modern writing system that probably obscures that closeness and I'm not familiar enough with it to say definitely. Otherwise, any of the West Iberian languages would be good candidates and I'm not sure you can say confidentally which one is lexically closer than the others for the reasons above.






share|improve this answer













The map you have doesn't pass the sniff test for me. I don't imagine anyone realistically saying Catalonian being closer to Spanish than Galician. I can't speak for other Romance groups, but for Iberian languages, the chart on Wikipedia is in line with my experience (I speak Asturian, Castilian, and Portuguese, and regularly consume media in Galician and Aragonese).



The problem, however, when doing a lexical analysis is how you handle words that exist in both languages but have different frequencies of use, or with pronunciations that line up closer in one than another.



For example, cerrar (to close) exists in Portuguese, but fechar is used infinitely more. On the other hand, in both Asturian and Aragonese, the verb is zarrar. Which is closer? You can argue for Portuguese because cerrar is identical — but should the comparison really be with fechar which is more used and thus you could argue for Asturian or Aragonese with zarrar?



Or looking at Spanish’s despertar to Asturian's espertar, Portuguese and Catalan's despertar and Mirandese’s spertar which one is closer? Do we count them all the same since it's a direct etymological link and the only difference is the morphological form of *des ? How do we factor in Asturian's esconsoñar and Portuguese and Mirandese’s acordar? Do we link Asturian more closely because the two are about equally common in it but (de)spertar is rare in PT/MWL?



Do we let pronounciation factor in because some languages like Mirandese indicate vowels that would be spoken (but not written) in others like Portuguese? If you do, how do you decide which spoken variant to use? Gato in Portuguese/Mirandese is gato which might make them look closer to Spanish, but oftentimes the pronunciation will trend closer towards /u/ (Mirandese) or even silent (Portuguese) in which case … are they really closer to Spanish than Asturian’s gatu?



If you don't establish a clear methodology for how you're comparing things, then the numbers are meaningless. Most likely I would say that Ladino would be the language closest, but it has a modern writing system that probably obscures that closeness and I'm not familiar enough with it to say definitely. Otherwise, any of the West Iberian languages would be good candidates and I'm not sure you can say confidentally which one is lexically closer than the others for the reasons above.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 9 hours ago









guifaguifa

7214 silver badges11 bronze badges




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  • Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago






  • 1





    @Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

    – guifa
    8 hours ago



















  • Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago






  • 1





    @Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

    – guifa
    8 hours ago

















Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

– Pablo
9 hours ago





Can you give me your personal feeling about it here in the commentaries? If you speak those languages, and I'm pretty sure you have a good idea of catalan since it's from the area of the languages you know, which one sounds more closer to spanish for you?

– Pablo
9 hours ago




1




1





@Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

– guifa
8 hours ago





@Pablo not all of the similarity is purely lexical though. I don't believe Catalonian to be the closest by any stretch of the imagination. From a pure "if I listen to it do I understand it" it absolutely would need to be Ladino: youtube.com/watch?v=6q323m0RRPU . You can compare it to Aragonese ( youtube.com/watch?v=SkBIv78gEMk ) or to Asturian ( youtube.com/watch?v=AkSzEtbX9Wo ), Eonaviego/Fala ( youtube.com/watch?v=TGIVhHJ6e8U ), Mirandese ( youtube.com/watch?v=-gnJtZFyzZA ) or Galician youtube.com/watch?v=WDgxTUwEXes

– guifa
8 hours ago













1















If you read closely the map in the marked answer (not only the numbers displayed as text answer which focus only on Germanic languages), inside the part related to Italic-Romance languages, you'll notice it seems it is the Catalan language which is the closest to Spanish.



Galician and Portuguese seems to have the same distance with Spanish, but both are more distant than Catalan.



Besides, looking at the other answer, in the original map in Russian by Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko there is:




  • Catalan completely next to Spanish,


  • Galician and Occitan/Provencal CLOSER to Spanish than Portugese




I have no clear idea about the validity and the methods used for the two maps.



An extremely rapid look skimming the answers mentions Levenstein distance, as a systematic method for computing the distance between two sentences. Maybe it is used on the same sentences translated in two languages. Check those answers more carefully for detailled informations. It is beyond my knowledge.



What the marked answer suggests, is that the author Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a simialr metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short ! Only a hundred of words.





As stated in the comments related to your question: in which way South American Spanish, or even Mexicano or Boliviano or Chileno for instance, is considered another language ?



Namely, a clear example is Vos, a different person from Vosotros.
It is a person which is not used in Spanish (Castillano), isn't it ? This link explains when to use vos, compared to usted and tu in Chileno.



As a metaphor, it is a bit as if people of New-Zealand were using Thu (just invented, not related to reality), as a word that would have derived from Thou, to express informal singular You.






share|improve this answer




























  • This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago











  • @Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

    – Stephane Rolland
    8 hours ago


















1















If you read closely the map in the marked answer (not only the numbers displayed as text answer which focus only on Germanic languages), inside the part related to Italic-Romance languages, you'll notice it seems it is the Catalan language which is the closest to Spanish.



Galician and Portuguese seems to have the same distance with Spanish, but both are more distant than Catalan.



Besides, looking at the other answer, in the original map in Russian by Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko there is:




  • Catalan completely next to Spanish,


  • Galician and Occitan/Provencal CLOSER to Spanish than Portugese




I have no clear idea about the validity and the methods used for the two maps.



An extremely rapid look skimming the answers mentions Levenstein distance, as a systematic method for computing the distance between two sentences. Maybe it is used on the same sentences translated in two languages. Check those answers more carefully for detailled informations. It is beyond my knowledge.



What the marked answer suggests, is that the author Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a simialr metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short ! Only a hundred of words.





As stated in the comments related to your question: in which way South American Spanish, or even Mexicano or Boliviano or Chileno for instance, is considered another language ?



Namely, a clear example is Vos, a different person from Vosotros.
It is a person which is not used in Spanish (Castillano), isn't it ? This link explains when to use vos, compared to usted and tu in Chileno.



As a metaphor, it is a bit as if people of New-Zealand were using Thu (just invented, not related to reality), as a word that would have derived from Thou, to express informal singular You.






share|improve this answer




























  • This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago











  • @Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

    – Stephane Rolland
    8 hours ago
















1














1










1









If you read closely the map in the marked answer (not only the numbers displayed as text answer which focus only on Germanic languages), inside the part related to Italic-Romance languages, you'll notice it seems it is the Catalan language which is the closest to Spanish.



Galician and Portuguese seems to have the same distance with Spanish, but both are more distant than Catalan.



Besides, looking at the other answer, in the original map in Russian by Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko there is:




  • Catalan completely next to Spanish,


  • Galician and Occitan/Provencal CLOSER to Spanish than Portugese




I have no clear idea about the validity and the methods used for the two maps.



An extremely rapid look skimming the answers mentions Levenstein distance, as a systematic method for computing the distance between two sentences. Maybe it is used on the same sentences translated in two languages. Check those answers more carefully for detailled informations. It is beyond my knowledge.



What the marked answer suggests, is that the author Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a simialr metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short ! Only a hundred of words.





As stated in the comments related to your question: in which way South American Spanish, or even Mexicano or Boliviano or Chileno for instance, is considered another language ?



Namely, a clear example is Vos, a different person from Vosotros.
It is a person which is not used in Spanish (Castillano), isn't it ? This link explains when to use vos, compared to usted and tu in Chileno.



As a metaphor, it is a bit as if people of New-Zealand were using Thu (just invented, not related to reality), as a word that would have derived from Thou, to express informal singular You.






share|improve this answer















If you read closely the map in the marked answer (not only the numbers displayed as text answer which focus only on Germanic languages), inside the part related to Italic-Romance languages, you'll notice it seems it is the Catalan language which is the closest to Spanish.



Galician and Portuguese seems to have the same distance with Spanish, but both are more distant than Catalan.



Besides, looking at the other answer, in the original map in Russian by Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko there is:




  • Catalan completely next to Spanish,


  • Galician and Occitan/Provencal CLOSER to Spanish than Portugese




I have no clear idea about the validity and the methods used for the two maps.



An extremely rapid look skimming the answers mentions Levenstein distance, as a systematic method for computing the distance between two sentences. Maybe it is used on the same sentences translated in two languages. Check those answers more carefully for detailled informations. It is beyond my knowledge.



What the marked answer suggests, is that the author Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a simialr metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short ! Only a hundred of words.





As stated in the comments related to your question: in which way South American Spanish, or even Mexicano or Boliviano or Chileno for instance, is considered another language ?



Namely, a clear example is Vos, a different person from Vosotros.
It is a person which is not used in Spanish (Castillano), isn't it ? This link explains when to use vos, compared to usted and tu in Chileno.



As a metaphor, it is a bit as if people of New-Zealand were using Thu (just invented, not related to reality), as a word that would have derived from Thou, to express informal singular You.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 8 hours ago

























answered 10 hours ago









Stephane RollandStephane Rolland

5463 silver badges15 bronze badges




5463 silver badges15 bronze badges
















  • This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago











  • @Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

    – Stephane Rolland
    8 hours ago





















  • This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

    – Pablo
    9 hours ago











  • @Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

    – Stephane Rolland
    8 hours ago



















This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

– Pablo
9 hours ago





This is very strange. Even though I can understand something of catalan by speaking spanish, I can't understand as much of it as portuguese. Could there be other factors to consider that those maps aren't counting?

– Pablo
9 hours ago













@Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

– Stephane Rolland
8 hours ago







@Pablo I have edited with what I understood from the original answer: the original author of the maps, Prof. Konstantin Tishchenko used only a limited set of very usual words to calculate the Levenstein distance, or a similar metric. If you look at the Swadesh list that could have been used, then you notice it is really short a list! Only a hundred of words. I have been told Galician has also a Keltic tradition heritage, maybe that changes the accent very much ? Same for Catalan, the accent is probably closer to French ? Just assumptions on the fly. Don't take my word for it :-) Not my domain

– Stephane Rolland
8 hours ago




















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