Linguistic distance

Linguistic distance is like how far apart two languages are from each other. Imagine you and your friend speak different languages, like you speak English and your friend speaks Chinese. These two languages have a big linguistic distance between them because they are very different from each other.

Now, let's say you also have a friend who speaks Spanish. Spanish and English have a smaller linguistic distance because they are more similar to each other. You might even be able to understand some words in each other's languages.

It's like when you play a game of "telephone" with your friends. The first person whispers a message in your ear and then you whisper it to the next person, and so on. By the time the message gets to the last person, it might be different than the original message. That's kind of like how languages change and evolve over time.

Linguistic distance can affect how easy or hard it is for people to learn a new language or communicate with people who speak different languages. The bigger the linguistic distance, the harder it might be to understand each other. But even if two languages have a big linguistic distance between them, people can still learn to communicate and understand each other with practice and patience.