Predicting intelligibility and perceived linguistic distance by means of the Levenshtein algorithm

  • Beijering K
  • Gooskens C
  • Heeringa W
55Citations
Citations of this article
53Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

To test the capacity of the Levenshtein algorithm to predict intelligibility & perceived linguistic distance between closely related language varieties, nonnormalized & normalized Levenshtein distances were calculated between Standard Danish & 17 other Scandinavian varieties, including Standard Swedish, Norwegian, & Faroese & representative regional dialects of Swedish, Norwegian, & Danish. Calculations were based on cognate pairs among 58 transcribed words of a text translated into each of the varieties under study & read aloud by native speakers of the variety; nonnormalized values consisted of the raw number of differences between symbols within cognate pairs, & normalized values represent %s of alignment slots with differences within pairs. Native speakers of Standard Danish (N = 351, aged 15-19) listened to the recordings of the text in other varieties, translated them into Standard Danish as an intelligibility test, & gave subjective ratings of the linguistic distance between Standard Danish & each other variety. Results indicate that normalized Levenshtein distances are highly predictive of intelligibility & have a significantly lower correlation with perceived distances; the difference between intelligibility & perceived distance correlations is not significant for the nonnormalized Levenshtein distances. J. Hitchcock

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Beijering, K., Gooskens, C., & Heeringa, W. (2008). Predicting intelligibility and perceived linguistic distance by means of the Levenshtein algorithm. Linguistics in the Netherlands, 25, 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.25.05bei

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free