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How many languages to be a polyglot? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 105 of 123 12 September 2012 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
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But who says it's easy for them? They just have no choice most of the time.
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| gales87 Pentaglot Newbie Spain Joined 4772 days ago 12 posts - 20 votes Speaks: Welsh, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: German | Message 106 of 123 22 September 2012 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | ||
I agree. I think people in this thread are quick to put down learners of languages from the same family, especially some comments about Spanish and Porutugese. I´m studying Brazilian Portuguese in Spain and the (Spanish) people in my class have great difficulty not only with the grammatical and vocabulary differences but also with pronunciation. Just because a language is from the same family doesn´t mean it has a similar pronunciation. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4625 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 107 of 123 23 September 2012 at 11:01am | IP Logged | ||
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What about groups of languages that are defined politically but are to all intents and purposes mutually intelligible? I'm thinking of Czech/Slovak, some of the Balkans languages, Danish/Swedish/Norwegian and perhaps Dutch/Afrikaans.
Do we allow polyglots to list these languages separately? If so, surely a German polyglot could add Swiss German to his portfolio? Edited by beano on 23 September 2012 at 11:02am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 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 108 of 123 23 September 2012 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I can understand Afrikaans but that does not mean I do not require study to speak it. It
still takes time to learn a related language, even though I can rush through most of the beginners details and the vocabulary with ease. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| showtime17 Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Slovakia gainweightjournal.co Joined 6087 days ago 154 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Russian, English*, Czech*, Slovak*, French, Spanish Studies: Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch | Message 109 of 123 23 September 2012 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
These languages might be mutually intelligible, however it still takes an effort to actually speak the languages and not to mix them up. For example most Czechs and Slovaks can understand the other language, however they cannot speak it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 110 of 123 23 September 2012 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's all about exposure. Scandinavian kids don't necessarily understand the neighbours' languages, Slovak speakers tend to have more exposure to Czech than vice versa (right?..) and same with Portuguese/Spanish.
And with exposure it's possible to passively learn not THAT closely related languages, like Russian/Polish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6585 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 111 of 123 24 September 2012 at 7:10am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't understand a word of Danish and speaking it is out of the question. During my one trip there I used English to communicate. I do understand (some dialects of) Norwegian, as long as they speak slowly and articulate, but again I would never be able to speak it without study. The mutual intelligibility of Scandinavian languages are, as Serpent points out, a matter of exposure.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6706 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 112 of 123 24 September 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged | ||
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The mutual intelligibility of the Scandinavian languages is certainly a matter of exposure, and exposure may not be symmetrical. Furthermore the mutual intelligibility is eroded by the use of English as a common language, as Ari exemplifies. So the ironical thing is that nowadays where you can travel between the countries as easily as within your own country, you can watch TV programs and access the internet and borrow books at the library (or buy them!) in the other Scandinavian languages, the number of people who claim not to understand those languages seems to be on the rise. And that's both sad and idiotic, given how easy it actually is for a person from one of the Nordic countries to learn to understand the others.
I write in English here at HTLAL even to other Scandinavians because this is the rule here. But I would probably refuse point blank to speak in English to other Scandinavians if I met them in the real world (except Finns). Maybe we could communicate if I spoke my homegrown Norwegian or Swedish, and else that person would have to find a person who was more inclined to undermine our common linguistic heritage. And such people are unfortunately fairly common here, so I wouldn't even feel guilty about drawing a line in the sand. PS: if the other person could speak something more exotic which I also understand that might be a possibility. But not Chinese. Edited by Iversen on 25 September 2012 at 10:57am 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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