|
 |
Guinnes record for polyglottery? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Ponape Pentaglot Groupie Spain Joined 5774 days ago 42 posts - 58 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Greek, Basque, Swahili, Tagalog, Arabic (classical), Quechua, Vietnamese, Turkish, Korean, Serbo-Croatian, Hindi | Message 1 of 32 21 December 2008 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
|
Hello everybody.
I was wondering if someone knows which is the Guinness world record for the person who speaks more languages. I have done some research, but I have found nothing, although I remember to have read an article about this in a Guinness world record book of the early nineties. I wonder what the organization would demand now from someone who is able to break that record... I mean, what is "knowing a language"? Would somebody of you try to break the record, in ... some dozens of years? ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5762 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 2 of 32 21 December 2008 at 4:46pm | IP Logged |
|
Looks like you're running for it, eh? Good luck...
I don't know about the current Guinness record, but I guess that by contemporary standards somewhere between 30 and 40 languages would be a minimum requirement. You're right, such a figure might be hard to quantify, as "speaking a language" is not a yes/no matter. If I was to run the test I'd suggest a communicative situation for each language and let an odd number of natives evaluate the guy. Stuff like: you've landed in Athens and your baggage has been lost. Show us how you'd handle the case. Or, here's a copy of today's NY Times, summarize the main story in Arabic. He gets three thumbs up and two thumbs down from natives, he "knows" the language as far as the test goes. This would involve more than a hundred people, in the end, but the internet would make it possible, if not easy to handle. Just phantasizing 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6721 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 32 22 December 2008 at 10:01am | IP Logged |
|
In most older Swedish editions (1970s-1980s) a certain (UN interpreter) Georges Henri/Henry Schmidt was said to speak 12 languages fluently and translate 66. I have not seen any list of those languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5762 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 4 of 32 22 December 2008 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
|
In the older annals of polyglot lore there are guys who are said to have "known" up to 100 languages and more, but that's kind of preposterous. After so much time and without a standard there's no way to put some order in this jungle of claims. On the other hand, a lot of today's most skilled polyglots have some kind of relationship with this forum, so it would be nice to discuss the matter among us and agree on a conventional standard by which we're going to measure things. Some kind of informal "summit"... As a collective subject we definitely have the know-how and the perception of problems it takes to sketch out a standard. Then, if we like the result, we might even submit it to the Guinness committee as a working tool. It would be a compromise, of course, but it might cut the gordian knot of those eternal discussions about what it means to speak a language. If we guys can't reach an agreement on these matters, I wonder who could and should try... I mean this seriously enough
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gorkem_turkish Triglot Newbie TurkeyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5628 days ago 25 posts - 26 votes Speaks: Turkish*, English, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 32 24 December 2008 at 3:51am | IP Logged |
|
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Mezzofanti
maybe... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5762 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 7 of 32 24 December 2008 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
|
I'd rather say you can't claim to speak a language unless you have all tenses and moods under your control, at least theoretically! Assimil-level courses and grammar books are so to speak a negative condition: the real trouble begins once those notions have been acquired. Would you take somebody seriously if he said: "I can speak French but I left past tenses out"? The way to put it is: you can make yourself understood in French, in certain situations, and need to work some more if that's your plan. There's a world to conquer after you have your grammar down, so that part can be assumed, really. That's when you can begin to think about moving a language fron the "studying" column to the "I speak" column.
As for imperatives, there are languages where that would be way too easy. You might know the bare infinitive form of English verbs and a couple of 4-letter words and express yourself very eloquently at intersections, but fail to order a meal on the phone. The same goes for Germanic languages, to an extent. On the other hand, a language like Japanese has a load of imperative forms ranging from submissive to totally rude, and a mistake in the choice might be deadly if accompanied by unfriendly gestures... I agree with the last part: "if...then" constructions are always a hard bone to chew. Mastery of hypotetical clauses might really be a parameter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| FrancescoP Octoglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5762 days ago 169 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Italian*, French, English, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian, Norwegian Studies: Georgian, Japanese, Croatian, Greek | Message 8 of 32 24 December 2008 at 3:59am | IP Logged |
|
And now for a goondnight story (found on many websites):
Sir John Bowring (17 October 1792 – 23 November 1872) was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer and polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong.. Bowring ranked with Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti and Hans Conon von der Gabelentz among the world's greatest hyperpolyglots — his talent enabling him at last to say that he knew 200 languages, and could speak 100. The first fruits of his study of foreign literature appeared in Specimens of the Russian Poets (1821–1823). These were followed by Batavian Anthology (1824), Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain (1824), Specimens of the Polish Poets, and Serbian Popular Poetry, both in 1827. By the way, Von der Gabelentz was a pro and gave countless proofs of his skills. Here's what the Wiki page about him has to say: "The number of languages which Gabelentz more or less thoroughly researched and which he was the first to have scientifically worked on numbers over 80" I'm sure they both lived happily ever after Edited by FrancescoP on 24 December 2008 at 4:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
