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Status of leading polyglots | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5044 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes  Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 15 09 May 2015 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed there's a recurring discussion about the extreme claims of great (or, supposedly great) polyglots.
However, there's often a lack of real information about who has done what, and how sure we can be. For the people who are known for learning 30 or more languages, could we build up a list of who they are and a summary of the status of their claims? Wikipedia has poor coverage of this, and I don't know where else to look. Example: Alexander Arguelles Languages: 38 (source: his personal website. Counting archaic forms of modern languages). Families: Mostly Germanic and Romance; 2 non-Indo-European languages. Emphasis: Reading Documentation: Well attested (source?) Giuseppe Mezzofanti Languages: 29 (Russell) -72 (HTLAL). Low estimate is "Languages frequently tested, and spoken with rare excellence." High estimate includes languages studied but not mastered, and several languages that are difficult to match with specific modern languages. Families: Diverse Emphasis: Balanced, although some languages were written-only Documentation: 19th century records confirm he was definitely a great polyglot, but details are uncertain. Can we correct and expand this, or direct me to a place where this information is already compiled? Thanks! Edited by robarb on 09 May 2015 at 10:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6894 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 15 11 May 2015 at 12:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Somewhere on one of the Polyglot Berlin pages (Twitter?) Facebook?), Sprachprofi mentioned that she had met two participiants who had twenty (!) languages in common, plus a handful of other languages the other one didn't speak. I don't know who they were but wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them is an HTLAL member.
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| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5044 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 15 11 May 2015 at 12:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's the spotty information I was able to glean off Wikipedia. Presumably, more is known about many of these
people, and I doubt this handful of people constitutes everyone who's claimed or been cited as knowing 30+ languages. There may be some non-famous individuals out there, or in our community, as well. Perhaps I need to get in contact with Michael Erard? Johan Vandewalle Languages: 31 Documentation: Polyglot of Flanders/Babel Prize judged him as able to speak 31 languages. Ziad Fazah Languages: 59 Families: Diverse Documentation: Controversial. Notorious appearance on Chilean television program Viva el lunes in which he appeared to be unable to understand some of his languages. al-Farabi Languages: 70 Documentation: He lived in the 10th century, so claims may be difficult to establish. Harold Williams Languages: 58 Families: Diverse Rahul Sankrityayan Languages: 36 Families: Primarily South Asian languages Documentation: He published writings in at least five of his languages. Uku Masing Languages: 65 ("Could translate" from 20) George Campbell Languages: 44-64 Ahmad Hasan Dani Languages: 35 Families: Mostly South Asian Kenneth Hale Languages: 50+ Families: Several Native American and Australian Aboriginal, in addition to the popular languages Emil Krebs Languages: 68 (speak) - 100+ (understand), according to his wife Edited by robarb on 11 May 2015 at 12:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4692 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 15 11 May 2015 at 9:23am | IP Logged | ||
You are sure that's not just Richard Simcott and Emanuele Marini? :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| basica Senior Member Australia Joined 3521 days ago 157 posts - 269 votes Studies: Serbian | Message 5 of 15 11 May 2015 at 9:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Relevant to tarvos' post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Deu-ayVcT-k 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4692 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 6 of 15 11 May 2015 at 9:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Marini speaks more languages than that. They're just not shown in that video.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6894 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 15 11 May 2015 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
Actually, I'm quite positive they were the ones... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6688 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 15 11 May 2015 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | ||
How can you be able to speak 65 languages and 'only' be able to translate from 20 of them? Somebody must have used a harsher yardstick for the translations than for his speaking skills. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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