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When is it considered polyglottery? | ||
Tags: Polyglottery | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| ilovelanguages Newbie United States Joined 6086 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 43 08 May 2008 at 8:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I heard that it's 5 or more. If so, (I speak English, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish,
Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Russian, learning Icelandic and Japanese), am I a polyglot or do I have to learn more? EDIT: Don't pay attention to my profile. I was busy when I made it. Edited by ilovelanguages on 08 May 2008 at 10:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6173 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes  Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 2 of 43 08 May 2008 at 8:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Gee, so many languages and still having trouble with the English word 'polyglot'!
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6503 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 4 of 43 09 May 2008 at 4:36am | IP Logged | ||
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My understanding is that there isn't any fixed limit so we can more or less choose our own definition here if we want to. However there are several factors that make it difficult to impose a limit based on a specific number of languages. In places where monolingualism is the norm even 4 or 5 languages might be enough to arouse curiosity, while I would hesistate to use the word below 5-6 in places where most people can speak at least two or three languages. You also have to weigh the languages: it is more difficult and time consuming to learn distant languages than closely related languages so the limit should be lower if the languages on a person's list are widely scattered. And finally you would also have to consider the extent of his/her knowledge in each language: six languages known to perfection would command as much respect as a dozen known barely well enough to read a newspaper. But there must be a lower limit: even a nobel prize in literature wouldn't make a person with just 2 or 3 languages a polyglot.
Edited by Iversen on 13 May 2008 at 5:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Russianbear Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6575 days ago 358 posts - 422 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, Ukrainian Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 43 09 May 2008 at 9:26am | IP Logged | ||
I see you have updated your profile since yesterday, and I guess it reflects your skills more accurately now. With your knowledge of 4 languages to Native fluency, and 5 more to "Advanced fluency" level, I don't think anyone would object to calling you a polyglot. 4 languages learned to native fluency would do the trick by itself. "Poly" means "many", as opposed to "one", so anyone who knows more than one language qualifies, in my opinion. Edited by Russianbear on 09 May 2008 at 9:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Budz Octoglot Senior Member Australia languagepump.com Joined 6173 days ago 118 posts - 171 votes Speaks: German*, English, Russian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Persian, Hungarian, Kazakh, Swahili, Vietnamese, Polish | Message 8 of 43 09 May 2008 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well said!
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