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Use of word "Polyglot" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 11 26 March 2005 at 12:13am | IP Logged | ||
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There is not standard set in stone for the eternal question of 'afer how many languages are you a polyglot', so I will volunteer my own usage of the word to try to work out a definition of polyglot for the use of this board.
When somebody speaks like his or her mother tongue two languages, he is bilingual. I think it is abusive to use the term bilingual for somebody who speaks a second language with non-native fluency. The same applies to trilingual, quadrilingual and so forth. When somebody speaks several languages (more than 4) I say that 'he is polyglot' (adjective). Probably that in the US you would be 'polyglot' already after two languages, but here in Europe this is not so rare. When somebody speaks more than 6 or 8 languages, I would agree to call this person 'a polyglot', in the sense of somebody whith really exceptional linguistic achievements. I do not think it is all that good to call anybody who speaks more than one language 'a polyglot'. Many people do and if we want the word to retain some meaning, it should be reserved to people who really speak many languages. The linguist Richard Hudson tried to coin the word 'hyperpolyglot' with the idea that already with 6 languages you would be such a thing. The same person tried to find a brain condition that would explain this 'phenomenon'. I think this is quite ridiculous. Perhaps you could call somebody who speaks 15 or 30 languages a 'hyperpolyglot', but after only 6 languages this does not make sense. This word never made it into regular dictionaries anyway and I think unless we discuss this gentlemen's genetic theories, we should stay clear of it. Edited by administrator on 26 March 2005 at 12:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7194 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 11 26 March 2005 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Some good points. I wonder how many polyglots there are out there. It wouldn't surprise me if five to ten percent of the adult population spoke at least two languages relatively well, which would put the number of these people in the hundreds of millions. But how many speak three languages? Maybe ten percent of that? And maybe ten percent of that number speak a fourth language?
By the time you get to ten languages, I would be suprised if more than a few thousand people in the world could make that claim. And how many speak twenty languages? Five people? Ten? Obviously, I'm just pulling numbers out of my hat. Anyone else have any guesses? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7318 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 3 of 11 26 March 2005 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I like to think of polyglots as speaking five or more languages. However, if the languages are difficult and unrelated, I would lower this standard to four languages. For example, an American who speaks English, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese (without any family background) would be more of a polyglot to me than someone who speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
However, I think the standard for a polyglot depends on the number of language you speak. For example, Francois speaks 6 languages and defines a polyglot as 5+ languages. The guys as wikipedia have a much lower standard probably because they haven't learned a lot of languages themselves. Furthermore, it seems that Ardaschir's standards are quite high, though he has yet to give us an exact number. KingM: I'd guess that there are less than 500 people in the world who speak 20+ languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ujoe Diglot Newbie Malaysia Joined 7211 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Malay, English* | Message 4 of 11 27 March 2005 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
In Malaysia it is quite common for people to speak three unrelated languages. The languages here are totally different in all aspects - writing system, cultural background, grammatical structure, vocabulary and language family. It is tough to be able to speak all fluently, more so to be able to write them. Common combinations are: Malay + English + one Chinese dialect Malay + English + one Indian language This being the case, I'd consider someone who speaks four difficult unrelated languages to be a polyglot. Examples of some real-life Malaysians: Malay + English + Mandarin + Tamil (a Tamil who went to a Chinese school) Malay + English + Punjabi + Cantonese + Tamil (a Punjabi Sikh who grew up surrounded by people of different ethnic backgrounds) Malay + English + Thai + Mandarin + Hokkien (a Chinese living near the Thai border) Malay + English + Arabic + Urdu (a Malay Muslim religious teacher who studied theology in India) Malay + English + Cantonese + Japanese (a Chinese from Kuala Lumpur) Edited by ujoe on 27 March 2005 at 2:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7379 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 11 27 March 2005 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||
No, I would not consider myself as 'a polyglot', as I said this term for me is for people who speak more than 6 or 8 languages. I only speak 5 and am learning my sixth. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Malcolm Triglot Retired Moderator Senior Member Korea, South Joined 7318 days ago 500 posts - 515 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 6 of 11 28 March 2005 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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FX: I misread your original post. Still, I think the standards for being a polyglot increase with the number of languages one speaks. A monoglot is bound to consider someone who speaks 3+ languages as a polyglot.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7194 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 11 28 March 2005 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
Maybe the definition of a polyglot is anyone who speaks more languages than you do. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7259 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 8 of 11 29 March 2005 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Administrator, this is another one of the crucial points that needs to be made clear in the discussion of polyglottery. I believe that the distinction between being -lingual and being a -glot is fundamental. You are -lingual if you are lucky enough to be raised speaking several langauges instead of one. You are a -glot if you learn several languages as an adult.
I find it fascinating that while "bilingual" and "trilingual" are actual words, quadrilingual and up are not. There are certainly quadrilingual and even quinilingual communities in the world, but I do not believe there are sexilingual ones, though there are certainly such individuals. Another fascinating aspect of this discussion is that, while it seems as if being multilingual should be a great headstart towards becoming a polyglot, the biographies I have read in Russell and compiled on my own simply do not bear this out, and surprisingly few polyglots are multilingual. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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