In addition to being a native Spanish speaker, I'm interested in this thread because, having visited Brazil a couple of times last year, I've been trying to pick up some Portuguese. I also hear Italian being spoken on occasion as many of my students are of Italian extraction. My mother's side of the family is from northwestern Spain where Gallego is spoken, a one time Spanish dialect now recognized as an official language that borders between Spanish and Portuguese. My father's side of the family is Catalan, a language that seems like a mixture of Italian and Spanish with some French thrown in. I speak neither Gallego nor Catalan but understand the former better than the latter.
I've always thought that there was greater similarity between Portuguese and Spanish than between Italian and Spanish. But, Paul's response about lack clear differences between Romance languages did not correspond with my own experience, particularly given that I find French to be much more difficult to understand than the other 3 Romance languages and even more difficult to pronounce. So, I did a little internet search and came up with an interesting table that describes the degree of 'Intellegibility' between Romance languages. It is from a Wikipedia article in Spanish, and you can find it about 4/5 of the way down this URL: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenguas_romances . The table is titled: " Grados de inteligibilidad mutua entre las lenguas románicas". Alas, the degree of intellegibility between Portuguese and Spanish and Italian and Spanish is identical. Go figure. Miguel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Brandon" <[email protected]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 10:33:52 AM Subject: Re: [tips] Skinner's Business,behaviorism,and the bottom line Having spent a couple of weeks in Brasil, and having studied Spanish, I can say from personal experience that Portuguese and Spanish are no more (or less) similar than any other two Romance languages. I heard Brasilians ay that Portuguese sounds like a drunken sailor trying to speak French. Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] On May 31, 2011, at 8:47 AM, Mike Palij wrote: > On Tue, 31 May 2011 05:43:38 -0700, Michael Sylvester wrote: >> Now that Paul has failed to discriminate between Spanish and >> Portuguese in Brazil, > > I was the one who said that I was unable to discriminate between > Spanish and Portuguese. And not only in Brazil but everywhere. > >> it is my understanding that Portuguese is closer to classical Latin >> than Spanish.Is that true? > > I'm not sure what you mean by the statement above. For a history > of the development of Portuguese, see this Wikipedia (yadda-yadda) > entry: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Portuguese_language > > The entry claims that it is part of the Romance languages (i.e., based > on the Latin which was spread by the Roman conquests) but appears > to be based on "Vulgar Latin". See the Wikipedia entry: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgar_Latin > > Though based on vulgar Latin, Portuguese has commonalities with > Spanish. See the Wikipedia entry: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differences_between_Spanish_and_Portuguese > > Quoting the article: > > |Although Portuguese and Spanish are closely related, to the point > |of having a considerable degree of mutual intelligibility, there are > |also important differences between them, which can pose difficulties > |for people acquainted with one of the languages who attempt to > |learn the other. Both are part of a broader group known as West > |Iberian Romance, which also contains several minor languages or > |dialects with fewer speakers, all of which are mutually intelligible > |among themselves to some degree. > | > |There are also some significant differences between Brazilian Portuguese > |and European Portuguese as there are between British and American > |English or Spanish in Spain and Spanish in Latin America. > >> Any psychoinguist on Tips? Stuart McKelvie perhaps? > > Maybe, but some psycholinguists are hiding in plain sight. > > -Mike Palij > New York University > [email protected] > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a64900b&n=T&l=tips&o=10795 > > or send a blank email to > leave-10795-13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a649...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c74e&n=T&l=tips&o=10796 or send a blank email to leave-10796-13482.917fac06d4daae681dabfe964ca8c...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=10799 or send a blank email to leave-10799-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
