Re: Newest natlang?

2008/9/29 Chris Peters <beta_leonis@...>:
> > > "Afrikaans was considered a Dutch dialect until the late
> > >  19th century, when it began to be recognised as a distinct language…"
>
> Can native Dutch and Afrikaans speakers still understand each other without an interpreter?
For me personally, it depends on the dialect; it takes only a little
effort to understand a singer like Laurika Rauch or some television
programmes, but other singers or dialogues on youtube are
incomprehensible.

Sometimes a little bit of training to recognize unrounded vowels as
their rounded counterparts  (most notably /i/ as /y/) helps
tremendously.

The written language is even easier to understand than the spoken language.

René