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Pylyp Orlik (1672 - 1742) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Polyglots |  | |
| Ivan1989 Triglot Newbie Ukraine Joined 4305 days ago 10 posts - 30 votes Speaks: Ukrainian*, English, Russian Studies: Polish, Spanish | Message 1 of 3 08 July 2012 at 12:33am | IP Logged |
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Zaporozhian Cossack diplomat, statesman and hetman in exile was a well-known polyglot
who knew at least 10 languages (according to Ukrainian wikipedia - 13 or 14 languages). He was born in a noble family of Czech origin which resided in Grand Duchy of Lithuania (part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath at that time). Thus since the very childhood he knew Polish, Czech and probably some of the East Slavic languages. He was educated in Jesuit college in Vilnus and then in Kiyv-Mohyla Collegium where he acquired a good knowledge of French and Latin ( much later ,in 1710 he wrote the so-called Orlyk's Constitution in both Latin and Ukrainian languages). In the 1690s he became a close ally of Hetman Ivan Mazepa (another polyglot, who allegely spoke 8 languages) and his secretary. The post of secretary in Ukraine at that time was equivalent to minister of Foreign Affairs( even though Left-bank Ukraine and Zaporozhian Sich were de-jure autonomous parts of Russia but in reality managed to conduct their own foreign policy). Orlyk as a nobleman and diplomat had a lot of money a time to travel across Europe where he came in touch with some other european kanguages, like German and italian, which he subsequently learned. After the defeat in The battle of Poltava in 1709 he had to flee to Ottoman Empire where he spent the rest of his ( until 1742), so he also acquired knowldge of Turkish. Ukrainian historians these days keep studying his correspondence which was conducted in numerous languages and thus it probably makes him the most prominent polyglot among Ukrainian statesmen of all times. Modern Ukraine rulers look very pitiful compared to Orlyk or Mazepa when it comes to linguistic skills since they are not able to speak any other foreign language apart from Russian ( which is not so "foreign" to Ukraine though). Thank you for reading and attention , my friends ;-) Edited by Fasulye on 08 July 2012 at 8:13am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5627 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 2 of 3 08 July 2012 at 8:17am | IP Logged |
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I have never heard of him, so thanks for posting this!
People who want to know more about Pylyp Orlik can read the Wikipedia article: Wikipedia in English: Pylyp Orlik Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 4926 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 3 of 3 08 July 2012 at 3:35pm | IP Logged |
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The PLC was per se a polyglot country. It had six official languages: Polish,
Latin, Ruthenian, German, Hebrew and Armenian. Compared to its rival Russia, was not a so bad place for minorities. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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