The Effect of Word Predictability on Spoken Cross-Language Intelligibility

Cross-language intelligibility refers to how well speakers of language A understand language B without prior learning. While the impact of linguistic and extra-linguistic factors on cross-language intelligibility has been widely studied, the effect of word predictability, known to impact comprehension and speech perception, remains underexplored. This study examines this effect by comparing German and English native speakers translating Dutch words presented in Dutch spoken sentential utterances with varying word predictability. We also investigate whether additional written context would aid cross-language intelligibility. Our results showed that word predictability significantly influences cross-language intelligibility, with German speakers experiencing even stronger effects, whereas only English speakers benefit from the additional written context. These findings suggest that word predictability dynamically shapes cross-language intelligibility, tending to be language-specific.