|
 |
How many languages to be a polyglot? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Dogbert Newbie United States Joined 6887 days ago 8 posts - 10 votes | Message 9 of 123 03 July 2005 at 4:48am | IP Logged |
|
In the US you are probably a polyglot if you know more than one. :)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Nephilim Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 6939 days ago 363 posts - 368 votes  Speaks: English*, Polish | Message 10 of 123 03 July 2005 at 5:09am | IP Logged |
|
in the uk you are probably a polyglot if you know someone who knows more than one :-)
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 6898 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 11 of 123 03 July 2005 at 5:48pm | IP Logged |
|
To me polyglot seems like six or more languages. After all, by the time you already speak about 5, what's another few more? By then I would consider that one a polyglot. So perhaps a language fanatic.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| haki Newbie Romania Joined 6875 days ago 3 posts - 2 votes | Message 12 of 123 06 July 2005 at 4:44am | IP Logged |
|
I think that a polyglot has to speak more than 3 languages, because after 3 you loose count and you call him a poly :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Raistlin Majere Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Spain uciprotour-cycling.c Joined 6946 days ago 455 posts - 424 votes 7 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan*, FrenchA1, Italian, German Studies: Swedish | Message 13 of 123 06 July 2005 at 5:02am | IP Logged |
|
If a polyglot is somebody with three languages, what was Mezzofanti? I think a distinction here needs to be made; you can't say cat when you mean lion.
PS: I already voted once, but the forum still permits me to vote again (I haven't tried it, but there still is the "Cast your vote" button). Perhaps the settings should be adjusted. Edited by Raistlin Majere on 06 July 2005 at 5:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7170 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 123 06 July 2005 at 5:21am | IP Logged |
|
Raistlin, the polling feature on this forum was poorly programmed by the guy who made it and it allows for multiple voting. I'll see if I can fix it.
When discussing poylgots we might use terms like super polyglot or confirmed 57 languages polyglot. It sure is heavy for everyday talk but it would help clarify what we mean. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| randy310 Senior Member United States Joined 6859 days ago 117 posts - 117 votes Speaks: English* | Message 15 of 123 10 August 2005 at 12:44am | IP Logged |
|
There is an international joke. Someone who is fluent in 4 languages is quadralingual, in 3 languages is trilingual, in 2 languages binlingual, and in one language American!
5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| andee Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6871 days ago 681 posts - 724 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, German, Korean, French | Message 16 of 123 10 August 2005 at 2:05am | IP Logged |
|
I think the term polyglot shouldn't be tied down to a specific number of languages, but rather to a number of language families.
I vaguely feel that someone that can use 6 or more languages is a polyglot, yet ultimately, someone that speaks only 4 languages but from different families has achieved a more difficult task. An English speaker can stay close to home and learn French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, together with German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Dutch - they would no doubt be seen as magical and mystical for being able to speak 11 languages (did I count that right?). But another English speaker could learn just 4 languages such as Russian, Arabic, Korean, and Finnish and be seen in a much dimmer light when compared to the speaker of 11 languages if sheer numbers are all that are considered. [Just for clarification - there's no way I'm saying that learning 10 languages from just 2 famillies is a simple task.] 7 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
