> Only at the very basic level IMO. A good comparison might be
> German and English, or Polish and Russian, or Spanish and
> Rumanian.
Perhaps the Scandinavian languages come close. We tend to understand each other, at least with a little practice and depending on how close we live to one of the other countries. My cousins from Stockholm think Danish is incomprehensible, I live in Southern Sweden and usually have little problem when I'm in Copenhagen. One the other hand, I have to concentrate a bit more when I speak to a Norwegian. I always speak Swedish, never "Scandinavian" or English. Then again, there are several Swedish dialects that are so far from standard Swedish they are almost like separate languages. People from those areas usually change their language when speaking with non-locals.
Cheers,
Bo
-- Bo Rosen (bo.rosen_at_...) GPG/PGP Public Key at http://www.lodge.f2s.com/bo-rosen.key --
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