What is the language continuum?

Answer 1

language continuum is the movement of language and one's ability to understand it as they were to move through an area geographically.

in theory following the language continuum one would be able to understand the languages spoken throughout it if they only knew one of the related languages and move through it slow enough.

example: if you were to start at the southern tip of Italy, and move slowly north you'd understand the Italian spoken as you moved. now when you arrived in the north, if you slowly moved west, you'd understand what was spoken there. arriving in Spain you'd understand the spanish spoken to an extent, moreso as you traveled through Spain, and slowly you'd understand all the varieties spoken there, arriving near the border of Portugal and Spain. you'd slowly understand portuguese as you moved through the country until you stopped. you could head north and arrive in northern Spain's galicia, you would understand galician then return to spanish, etc. this is just a romance language example. i'd cite a text but i can't find it.

ds