Special Sub-Topic: Indo-European Languages Click Here To Play: Indo-European Languages

Two languages, A and B, are said to be mutually intelligible if a native speaker of A can understand most of what a native speaker of B says, and vice versa, with no special training outside of their native language. For instance, Spanish and Portuguese are considered to be mutually intelligible, but Italian and German are not. Which of these languages is mutually intelligible with English?

None of the above; there is no language that is mutually intelligible with English. Although all of these languages are related to English by virtue of being members of the Germanic language family, none are mutually intelligible. Because of all the influences on English from other languages, there is no language which is mutually intelligible with English (much to the dismay of the English-speaking student of modern languages.)

English is a member of the language family known as Germanic languages. What is the closest linguistic relative to modern English?

Frisian. Frisian, spoken in the Frisian Islands (between the UK and the Netherlands), parts of the Netherlands and Germany, is the closest linguistic relative to English. If you want to test whether or not it is mutually intelligible with English, do a web search for Frisian radio… as of this writing it is available on the web and is worth a listen if you are curious about what our closest linguistic relative sounds like.

Which of the Indo-European languages below is still being learned as a native language in the 21st century? (It doesn't count if it is learned as a second language only.)

Welsh. Gothic is of the East Germanic branch of Germanic languages, none of which have survived to modern times. Old Church Slavonic continues in use in some forms of the Eastern Orthodox Liturgy, but has no native speakers. Cornish, one of the Brythonic Celtic languages is a relative of Welsh but is no longer spoken natively and has not been since the mid-18th century. Welsh, like Irish Gaelic, has undergone a renaissance and currently is a vibrant living language in its native land.

Romany, the language of the Rom people or Gypsies, is most closely related to which of these modern languages?

Punjabi. Romany is of the Indic language group and, like Punjabi, is descended from Sanskrit. I am told that it is mutually intelligible with Punjabi and possibly Urdu as well, although scholarship on the subject is scarce. Many Rom people speak Russian, Romanian, or other languages of the lands where they live, but their own language is not closely related to these.

Finnish is not an Indo-European language. True or False?

t. Finnish is one of a handful (about 16) languages that make up the Finno-Ugric language group, which are not Indo-European although the areas where they are spoken are primarily surrounded by Indo-European languages. See the explanation for the next question for further details.

Hungarian is related most closely to which of the following languages?

Estonian. The Finno-Ugric language group consists of about 16 languages, the most well known of which are Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian. The geographical separation of languages in this group is explained by migration of peoples and is in no way indicative of any supernatural influences, contrary to some beliefs.

Of the following Indo-European language families, which of the following has NO modern living descendant?

Anatolian. Modern Greek is of the Hellenic family, modern Albanian (Tosk and Gheg) are in the Albanian family, many languages including German, English, Danish and Dutch (and Frisian, remember?) are in the Germanic family. Only the Anatolian branch, which historically contained such languages as Hittite, Luvian and Lydian, has no modern descendants.

For the last 3 questions, I will give the name of a language group. Of the choices given, pick the language that does NOT belong in the group. Which of the following does NOT belong to the Germanic language group?

Czech. Czech is a Slavic language; the others are Germanic.

Which of the following does NOT belong to the Slavic language group?

Kurdish. Kurdish is a member of the Iranian language group; the others are Slavic.

Which of the following languages does NOT belong to the Celtic language group?

Catalan. Catalan is a member of the Italic language group; the others are Celtic. Thanks for playing! The Unabridged version of the American Heritage Dictionary has a great chart of Indo-European language families at the back, if you want more info.