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The word "Polyglot"=rude? | ||
Tags: Polyglot | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| MLSUSA94 Groupie United States linguisticventures19 Joined 5710 days ago 50 posts - 53 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 7 15 June 2009 at 2:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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This might just be me, but I sort of find the word "Polyglot" to be kind of snobby. I've heard people say, "You have to be totally OBSESSED about a language to be a 'polyglot'" or "I don't know if YOU are a polyglot even though you know X amount of languages."
I personally think that the word shouldn't have any justifications; it literally means "Can speak more than one language" Edited by MLSUSA94 on 15 June 2009 at 2:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6124 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 2 of 7 15 June 2009 at 3:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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The people you quote are using the term incorrectly. Even your definition is too restrictive. It means:
"a person who speaks, writes, or reads a number of languages" 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| scott_c Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5679 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 7 15 June 2009 at 4:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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But, in practice, "polyglot" doesn't mean that at all; and snobbishness has little to do with dictionaries.
Most English-speaking people link the "poly" prefix with the mental association "many." You enter the swamp. "Many" is an elusive quantity - anyone hoping to define it risks doing so at the expense of common sense and actual usage. The rest is easy. Emotional reactions, stereotypes, confusion, etc. In particular, the stench of the know-it-all. It's probably a worthless word to use, socially, unless you seek the ensuing reactions. Better to say "I speak several languages" or some such phrase. Edited by scott_c on 15 June 2009 at 4:30am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| snovymgodom Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5727 days ago 136 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian | Message 4 of 7 15 June 2009 at 5:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd use it to describe someone who is particularly known for his competency in five or more foreign languages, especially if these languages are all in different branches (such as Hindi, Georgian, Korean, Basque, and Swahili). There are others who happen to know 5+ languages very well but they don't consider languages a big part of their life or are more well known for other accomplishments.
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| MLSUSA94 Groupie United States linguisticventures19 Joined 5710 days ago 50 posts - 53 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 5 of 7 15 June 2009 at 5:40am | IP Logged | |||||
That's what I'm talking about. 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 6 of 7 15 June 2009 at 6:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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Maybe there are people who hate the idea of learning of learning other languages, and then it won't help just to change the name - they will also hate an eventual new name
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| JW Hexaglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/egw Joined 6124 days ago 1802 posts - 2011 votes 22 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Luxembourgish, Dutch, Greek, Italian | Message 7 of 7 15 June 2009 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
It seems to me that with this definition, “Polygot” is being invested with a meaning more akin to “Polymath” in that the latter indeed does have a qualitative connotation, i.e., “a person of great learning in several subjects”. Thus your definition sounds like a “linguistic polymath” Polyglot, in its dictionary definition, has no such qualitative connotation. In fact, Polyglot, in its normal range of meaning, is usually a neutral term (#1, 2, 4, and 5 below) or even a pejorative term (# 3 below) 1. able to speak or write several languages; multilingual. 2. containing, composed of, or written in several languages: a polyglot Bible. 3. a mixture or confusion of languages 4. a person who speaks, writes, or reads a number of languages 5. a book, esp. a Bible, containing the same text in several languages. Reference: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/polyglot Edited by JW on 15 June 2009 at 6:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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