We report on a large-scale investigation of the mutual intelligibility between five Germanic languages: Danish, Dutch, English, German and Swedish. We tested twenty language combinations using the same uniform methodology, making the results commensurable for the first time. We first tested both written and spoken language by means of cloze tests. Next we calculated linguistic distance at the levels of lexicon, orthography, phonology, morphology and syntax. We also quantified exposure and attitudes towards the test languages. Finally, we carried out a regression analysis to determine the relative importance of these linguistic and extra-linguistic predictors for the mutual intelligibility between Germanic languages. The extra-linguistic predictor exposure was the most significant factor in predicting intelligibility in the Germanic language area. The effect of attitude was very small. Lexical distance, orthographic and phonetic distances were the most important linguistic predictors of intelligibility.

中文翻译：

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日耳曼语言之间相互可理解性的语言和语言外预测因子

我们报告了对五种日耳曼语言之间相互可理解性的大规模调查：丹麦语、荷兰语、英语、德语和瑞典语。我们使用相同的统一方法测试了 20 种语言组合，首次使结果具有可比性。我们首先通过完形填空测试测试了书面和口语。接下来，我们在词汇、正字法、音系学、形态学和句法层面计算了语言距离。我们还量化了对测试语言的曝光度和态度。最后，我们进行了回归分析，以确定这些语言和语言外预测因子对日耳曼语言之间相互可理解性的相对重要性。语言外预测因子暴露是预测日耳曼语区域可理解性的最重要因素。态度的影响很小。词汇距离、正字法和语音距离是可懂度的最重要的语言预测指标。