Imagine you are on a trip throughout South America. You speak Spanish pretty well, but have a hard time understanding Portuguese. However, as you reach the border of Colombia and begin to cross into Brazil, you realize that you are still able to understand many of the native speakers better than you expected. What linguistic phenomenon are you experiencing?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The linguistic phenomenon that the traveler is experiencing is the language continuum, which refers to the gradual and incremental changes in language as one moves from one region to another. In South America, there exists a language continuum between Spanish and Portuguese, where the two languages blend together and share some vocabulary and grammar structures. As such, the traveler may be able to understand some of the Brazilian Portuguese because of the similarities between the two languages.

Imagine You Are on a Trip Throughout South America