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Number of languages | ||
Tags: Number of Languages | Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Nyerere Triglot Newbie United States Joined 7187 days ago 24 posts - 27 votes Speaks: English*, German, Swahili Studies: French | Message 9 of 21 29 March 2005 at 2:58pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm not sure if I can swallow this definition. The literary tradition part is what I am having a hard time with. I know of many African languages that have no literary tradition at all, but are still considered separate languages because they are mutually unintelligible. I do agree with you, however, that political status is not a good way to judge languages. Edited by administrator on 29 March 2005 at 3:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 7155 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes  7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 10 of 21 03 May 2005 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would consider a language to be different with respect to another if they were uncommutable, for example:
Valencian is the same language as Catalan, because if I answer a Valencian exam in Catalan, my answer shall be correct. But if I answer a French exam in Catalan, my answer will be incorrect, because they are different language. So, we could consider that one language is the same as another if a random sentence in Language A is correct in Language B and has the same meaning. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fanatic Octoglot Senior Member Australia speedmathematics.com Joined 7149 days ago 1152 posts - 1818 votes Speaks: English*, German, French, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Dutch Studies: Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Modern Hebrew, Malay, Mandarin, Esperanto | Message 11 of 21 03 May 2005 at 10:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone seen the movie, The Frisco Kid, with Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford?
In the movie, Gene Wilder, who spoke Yiddish, met some Amish people in the United States. He thought they were Jewish and they thought he was Amish. He spoke to them in Yiddish and they spoke in German. Neither could understand the other. I understood both sides perfectly as the Yiddish sounded like "quaint" German that any German should understand. They definitely qualify as separate languages but they should still have understood each other. Any comments? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jradetzky Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom geocities.com/jradet Joined 7210 days ago 521 posts - 485 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1 | Message 12 of 21 31 May 2005 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | ||
I've heard some Jews talk in Sephardic Spanish (the language they spoke when they were expelled from Spain in 1492) and I can't understand anything in modern Spanish but isolated words and phrases, just like if an Italian or a Portuguese were talking. I think this situation mirrors the Yiddish-Modern German problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7108 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 13 of 21 27 June 2005 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | ||
Well I am often asked this question. I don't like to call myself a polyglot, but others definitely give me that qualification. (See the summary in my profile). So before answering such a question I always say: "it depends on what you mean with 'knowing' a language". In my daily work on a call center, some of my languages are sufficient for giving technical support, in other languages I can handle "callback request" (telling the customer he will be called back and taking his details) and in other languages I can answer emails from the templates we use. In such cases I often use Google to check if my grammar usage is correct. Edited by Martien on 27 June 2005 at 4:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Magnum Bilingual Triglot Retired Moderator Pro Member United States Joined 7120 days ago 359 posts - 353 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian*, French Studies: German Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 21 01 July 2005 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would be loose with the definition of what a polyglot is. I think learning any language is a large accomplishment. I was reading on this website, a post where a person said it is not as impressive to learn 4 languages from the same family as 2 or 3 languages from different families.
Does that mean one polyglot is more impressive than another, if one knows English, French, Mandarin and Russian, and another is less impressive if they know French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese? I think the definition is moot. If someone knows a second language, I tip my hat to them. They made an accomplishment. To make a debate about how impressive the feat is, only belittles it in my mind. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 7148 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 15 of 21 02 July 2005 at 3:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I totally agree with you Magnum. We should aim for quality first and quantity second. We shouldn't be worried about being impressive and being what Farber calls a 'language show off'.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Martien Heptaglot Senior Member Netherlands martienvanwanrooij.n Joined 7108 days ago 134 posts - 148 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, French Studies: Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Swedish, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 21 02 July 2005 at 6:24am | IP Logged | ||
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In my personal (working) situation it always has been very practical that I have some knowledge of a lot of languages. It can have had a somewhat negative influence of my skills in the languages I speak well but I must say I am not really aware of that. E.g. I started to learn some Portuguese when I had got a reasonable knowledge of Spanish but my Spanish kept on improving. However, "showing off" language skills never has been my primary goal. I must admit that now and then I feel the desire to let somebody know I speak a few words of his language but when I know that somebody is, let us say, Albanian, I will never greet him on the street very loudly with "mirė dita, si jeni" :) . In a personal conversation I probably will tell him that I know some words.
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