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Polyglot Historic Ranking | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5148 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes  Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 1 of 17 02 December 2010 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||
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This topic will seem hard, but it wasn´t still done. In this forum, polyglots are
frequently spoked. But, with the our fonts, is possible make a Polyglot Mundial and Historic Ranking? I did this list based solid informations and I excluded polemical polyglots like Fazah. It´s the top ten: 1-Emil Krebs - German diplomat - 68 tongues 2-Harold Williams - Newzelandian journalist - 58 3-Sir John Bowring - +50 3-Francisco Lorenz - Czech occultist and esperantist exiled in Brazil - +50 4-Giuseppe Mezzofanti - Italian Cardinal - 38 5-Rasmus Christian Rask - Danish linguist - 35 6-Charles Berlitz - American writer - 32 7-Johan Wandewalle - Dutch Linguist - 31 8-Sir Richard Francis Burton - 29 9-Sir Willian Jones - 28 10-Barry Farber - 25 Obviously, this is a misdone and unfull list. And rankings are a democracy. I liked your opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TRENDY Diglot Newbie Spain Joined 5164 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 17 02 December 2010 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||
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it`s always controversial to make a list of polyglots based only in the number of languages spoken since we should measure as well the depth acquired in such languages.
Besides,it`s hard to know the command on languages of those polyglots who lived a long time ago withouth having any audio recording, to reach basic fluency ( understand and being understood even making a lot of mistakes ) is one thing, to fully master a language ( speaking, reading and writting ) quite another. Edited by TRENDY on 02 December 2010 at 10:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 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 3 of 17 02 December 2010 at 10:07am | IP Logged | ||
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You may have based it on the seemingly best sources, but even these sources aren't reliable.
For instance the thread about Krebs contains a list made by himself over languages which he claimed to be able to translate into German (on a high level, obviously) - and it didn't contain 68 languages. So maybe he spoke those languages on a level where he didn't trust that he could make good translations, or the number contains languages which he only could understand passively or with other restrictions. The same uncertainty clings to most other names on the list. On the other hand there are threads here at HTLAL about people who maybe/maybe not could speak more than Barry Farber's 25 languages - for instance K. Hale, who has been discussed in several threads here. Edited by Iversen on 02 December 2010 at 10:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5148 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 4 of 17 02 December 2010 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Indeed, it exists many non-mentioned polyglots like Kenneth Hale, Kenneth L. Pike,
Ioannis Ikonomou, Sebastian Heine, etc. But, I found few informations about somebody and forgot others. It´s hard making a ranking of anybody. In this sort of list, errors aren´t few. Edited by Gorgoll2 on 02 December 2010 at 10:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5383 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 17 02 December 2010 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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How about a list of living polyglots?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5849 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 17 03 December 2010 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
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For me poliglottery is not a competition, so I don't find such ranking hit lists of polyglots neither interesting nor reliable.
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 03 December 2010 at 1:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5336 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 17 07 December 2010 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | ||
I couldn't agree more. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 17 07 December 2010 at 11:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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I still haven't seen anyverified information about the UN-interpreter George Henri Schmidt who according to Guinness book of records spoke 12 languages fluenty and could translate from/into 66. If those numbers are real, he'd definitely have a place on a list.
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