Talk:Lexical similarity
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This table is really interesting. Is there any source that we can add? Also, why is sard used as a code for Sardinian when srd exists as the proper ISO/DIS 639-3? GringoInChile 10:49, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
- Other than Ethnologue I couldn't find any reliable source. I'm sure there must be, I just wasn't lucky.
- The problem with Sardinian is that the numbers for the lexical similarity do not specify to which Sardinian dialect they refer. Ethnologue lists four such dialects [1], mentioning that they are quite distinct. The info about "Sardinian" similarity with other Romance languages comes from here:
- Logudorese is quite different from other Sardinian varieties. Lexical similarity 68% with Standard Italian, 73% with Sassarese and Cagliare, 70% with Gallurese. 'Sardinian' has 85% lexical similarity with Italian, 80% with French, 78% with Portuguese, 76% with Spanish, 74% with Rumanian and Rheto-Romance.
- As you can see, nothing clear. One more reason to find the original source of all these numbers. The other important reason is to find out exactly how the coefficients were calculated. — AdiJapan ☎ 11:41, 31 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Question about English and Spanish
Does a dash on the table mean there is no lexical similarity between the languages? I can think of a couple dozen words between Spanish and English that are similar - things like "interesante" (interesting), "rata" (rat) and "tren" (train) - even one or two very common words like "no" (no) and "es" (is). Apparently I've misunderstood the concept of lexical similarity - why does the table report zero similarity? --203.206.56.201 10:56, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Dialects above 85%
hey, where'd this come from? Hence, wouldn't French be a dialect of Italian?Domsta333 14:17, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
- It came from this page at Ethnologue (lower half of the page): "Percentages higher than 85% usually indicate a speech variant that is likely a dialect of the language being compared." So it is a question of likelyhood, not certainty. Besides the concept of dialect doesn't have a clear-cut, linguistic-only, definition. France and Italy both have armies, that's why they are not just dialects... — AdiJapan ☎ 10:36, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
