Who is your favourite polyglot? (Polyglots) Language Learning Forum

Who is your favourite polyglot?
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Language Learning Forum : Polyglots

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joaopferrao
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Message 1 of 30

14 January 2009 at 2:49pm | IP Logged

This may seem like a strange question, but what is your favourite polyglot (or linguist)? I mean, the one you admire the most or you think is most inspiring.

I believe mine is Joseph Wright, a linguistics teacher in Oxford. Here is his bio from Wikipedia:

Quote:

Joseph Wright FBA (1855–1930) rose from humble origins to become Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University.

Born in Thackley, near Bradford in Yorkshire, the seventh son of a navvy, he started work as a "donkey-boy" (carriage driver) at the age of six, became a "doffer" (remover of full bobbins) in a Yorkshire mill, and never had any formal schooling. He learnt to read and write at the age of 15, becoming fascinated by languages. He studied in Germany and completed a Ph.D. on Qualitative and Quantitative Changes of the Indo-Germanic Vowel System in Greek at the University of Heidelberg in 1885. From 1891 to 1901 he was Deputy Professor and from 1901 to 1925 Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford.

He specialised in the Germanic languages and wrote a range of introductory grammars for Old English, Middle English, Old High German, Middle High German and Gothic which were still being revised and reprinted 50 years after his death. He also published a historical grammar of German.

He had a strong interest in English dialects and claimed that his 1893 Windhill Dialect Grammar was "the first grammar of its kind in England." Undoubtedly, his greatest achievement was the editing of the six-volume English Dialect Dictionary, which he published between 1898 and 1905, initially at his own expense. This remains a definitive work, a snapshot of English dialect speech at the end of the 19th century. In the course of his work on the Dictionary, he formed a committee to gather Yorkshire material, which gave rise in 1897 to the Yorkshire Dialect Society, which claims to be the world's oldest surviving dialect society. He was the author of the Dialect Test. Wright had been offered a position at a Canadian university, which would have paid £500 per year, which was then a very generous salary. However, Wright opted to finish the Dialect Dictionary and undertook this task without any financial backing from any sponsor.

In 1896 he married Elizabeth Mary Lea (1863-1958), and she was the co-author of his Old and Middle English Grammars. She also wrote the popular book, Rustic Speech and Folklore (Oxford University Press 1913), in which she makes reference to their various walking and cycle trips into the Yorkshire Dales, as well as various articles and essays. She survived him and wrote a biography, The Life of Joseph Wright.

Wright was an important early influence on J. R. R. Tolkien, and was one of his tutors at Oxford: studying the Grammar of the Gothic Language with Wright seems to have been a turning-point in Tolkien's life. In the course of editing the Dictionary he corresponded regularly with Thomas Hardy. Wright was greatly admired by Virginia Woolf, who writes of him in her diary that, "The triumph of learning is that it leaves something done solidly for ever. Everybody knows now about dialect, owing to his dixery." He was the inspiration for the character of Mr Brook in The Pargiters, an early draft of The Years.

Wright's papers are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

I think it's a really inspiring life-story, that he grew out of nothing to became a Professor in Oxford.

Another contestant for the podium would be Champollion.

Edited by joaopferrao on 14 January 2009 at 2:51pm
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Garaidh
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Message 2 of 30

15 January 2009 at 10:59am | IP Logged

What an inspiring story!

Despite growing up in Yorkshire I had not heard of Wright til now.

The study of dialects is a fascinating one and really helps puts the Germanic languages in context. It's just a pity that dialect studies seems to have fallen out of fashion since the 40s/ 50s.

In reply to your post though, I think the above is a good example as he not only was a polygot but helped to further the study of languages.

May I also suggest Thomas Young who competed with Champillon to transcribe the Rosetta Stone? Not only was he a linguist , he was also an eminent scientist and is best known for the wave theory of light
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Young_(scientist)
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Marc Frisch
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Message 3 of 30

15 January 2009 at 11:11am | IP Logged

My favourite polyglot would be Friedrich Rückert, mainly because he made such wonderful translations of Oriental literature (especially poetry).
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maya_star17
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Message 4 of 30

15 January 2009 at 6:23pm | IP Logged

Khatzumoto (the AJATT guy), because:

a) he developed a method of language learning that can be effective for your average person on the street who's got stuff to do

b) he has a very in-depth knowledge of the (relatively) few languages he does speak... I think this is better than speaking 20 languages poorly

I also have respect for Luca (Lucca?), the Italian guy I saw on youtube recently who has amazing English and French skills, and good Russian :)

Last but not least, Wendy Vo (the 8 year-old American-Vietnamese girl who speaks 11 languages and composes music) is my heroine :)
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taKen
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Message 5 of 30

17 January 2009 at 12:46pm | IP Logged

Hands down, Steven Kaufmann created what probably is the most effective language-learning tool on the internet with LingQ (www.lingq.com). Besides English he speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Swedish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. What makes LingQ so unique and efficient is that it was developed by an experienced polyglot who among other things studied at Sciences PO and was sent to China and Japan as a diplomate in order for him to learn their respective languages.

Edited by taKen on 17 January 2009 at 12:52pm
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Juan M.
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Message 6 of 30

17 January 2009 at 4:37pm | IP Logged

For me at the moment it would have to be the Colombian philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila. He devoted his entire life to study and reflection, and it is said his magnificent library of thousands of volumes features some 13 languages.
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jimbo baby!
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Message 7 of 30

17 January 2009 at 10:36pm | IP Logged

I envy C-3PO for his ability to speak millions of languages. :-)

I enjoyed reading Barry Farber's book on language learning. It was an interesting biographical account of how he acquired many different languages and it made learning multiple languages seem like it was within everyone's potential.
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Serpent
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Message 8 of 30

18 January 2009 at 6:22am | IP Logged

jimbo baby! wrote:

I enjoyed reading Barry Farber's book on language learning. It was an interesting biographical account of how he acquired many different languages and it made learning multiple languages seem like it was within everyone's potential.

Same here. He's probably my second favourite polyglot - the first one being Erik V. Gunnemark, who also wrote a wonderful book on language learning which I by lucky chance came across back in the beginning of my Finnish studies - I even didn't know quite a few words from his basic list then, and I've been using this list a lot when studying other languages. Apart from the priceless advice he gave in the book, another important criterion for me is that he spoke Finnish (unlike Prof.Arguelles, who somewhat arrogantly dismissed it as not having valuable literature... btw I'm surprised no one has mentioned him - he's not my favourite but I still think he's great).

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