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Kenneth Hale (1934 - 2001), Linguist MIT | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6867 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 1 of 16 11 May 2006 at 12:32am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm starting this thread in honor of a great American linguist, Kenneth Hale. He was a professor of linguistics at MIT and had a passion for preserving endangered languages. He discovered at 14 he had an ability for easily picking up languages when he heard some spoken Navajo and realized he could understand it. Since that time he went on to learn and speak over 50 languages, unfortunately I have not been able to find a list of what all he spoke.
His death is certainly a major loss to linguistics, among other things, I'm sure. But I felt that he deserved a thread on this forum. I love his opinions about language: the clear respect he has for each individual language and how it's tied into culture, and how they are all works of art, with each speaker as an artist. For me, Hale's story is one of the most inspiring that I've read, and I try to keep it in mind when I study language. Here are some links: an article/ obituary and some more information about him. I think he may be our most photographically-documented polyglot here. :-) Edited by Fasulye on 23 January 2012 at 7:00am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hokusai77 Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 7151 days ago 212 posts - 217 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1 Studies: GermanB1, Japanese | Message 2 of 16 11 May 2006 at 2:11am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for the links, they are very interesting. I had never heard about him before.
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| tmesis Senior Member Mayotte Joined 6647 days ago 154 posts - 146 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 16 12 September 2006 at 5:15am | IP Logged | ||
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- Edited by tmesis on 17 February 2008 at 3:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6867 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 4 of 16 12 September 2006 at 11:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Tmesis, welcome. :-)
I feel exactly the same way about Kenneth Hale. It is a shame I'll never be able to correspond with him, but of all the polyglots I've heard about, he has struck me perhaps the most profoundly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6683 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 5 of 16 12 September 2006 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Indeed. He's definitely my favorite polyglot. I figured I might as well post another anecdote from the site created on MIT when he retired:
http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/ken/posted/posted.html Edited by lengua on 12 September 2006 at 1:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6683 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 6 of 16 15 September 2006 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't found a list of the languages he had a speaking knowledge of, but what if we tried to make a list ourselves? Here's my stab at it, from reading the three links posted thusfar on this page:
English, Spanish, Hopi, Hebrew, Navajo, Wampanoag, Warlpiri, Jemez, French, Polish, Papago, Ulwa, Miskitu, Aranda, Kaitish, Warramunga, Loritja, Lardil, Yiddish, Maori, Paiute, Winnebago, Igbo, Dagur, Japanese, Irish, Pachuco, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Nggoth, Sumu, Amazigh, and Norwegian. ^ That's 34. edit: adding Danish, Arabic, Turkish, Aranda, and Kaitish. ^ That's 39. Edited by lengua on 24 September 2006 at 12:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6867 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language | Message 7 of 16 15 September 2006 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think you can include Arabic, as well. Perhaps Danish as well; after all, he
said he had spent a week in Denmark, and he as picked up Norwegian so quickly, maybe he had a good amount of Danish under his belt. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7014 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 16 16 September 2006 at 2:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that the most remarkable things about Mr Hale was that he was a linguist who was actually fluent in lots of languages and that he enjoyed acquiring uncommon (from a learner's point of view) languages.
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