Multilingual
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
A multilingual person or a polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages. (A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, a trilingual three.)
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Noted polyglots
Record holders
The world's most prolific living polyglot is Ziad Fazah (born 1954) who apart from his mother tongue Arabic is reported to speak 55 other languages. Calculations as to how many languages now-dead polyglots spoke is difficult, since no one can offer an objective description of what is required to "know a language" fluently, but the greatest polyglot in history is believed to be cardinal Giuseppe Gaspardo Mezzofanti (1774-1849), who is reported to have spoken up to a hundred languages fluently (though about fifty of them were "only" dialects). On a visit from the Lord Byron, he surprised Byron by showing a more extensive knowledge of local London slang than the poet himself.
- Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774-1849), Italian ecclesiast
- Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), British M.P.
- Kenneth Hale, (1934?-2001), MIT linguistics professor (over 50 languages)
40
- Georges Dumézil - famous French philologist, knew up to forty languages.
- William James Sidis - child prodigy, knew around forty languages and could apparently learn a language in a day.
- Ferenc Kemény (Francis Kemeni), Hungarian translator, understands 40 languages, writes in 24 languages, speaks in 12 languages
30 or more
- H. K. Freher, linguist and singer (said to have known 36 languages)
- Rasmus Christian Rask, Danish philologist, could read in 35 languages
20 or more
- Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), British explorer/orientalist - spoke 29 European, Asian, and African languages and countless dialects
- Sir William Jones (1746-1794), British philologist - reported to speak twenty-eight languages.
- Géza Képes, Hungarian man of letters, understands 25 languages
- Mithridates (said to have known 25 languages)
- Dr. José Rizal (1861-1896}, National hero of the Philippines, 22 languages
- Pico della Mirandola, Italian scholar of the Renaissance (said to have known 22 languages at the age of 18)
- Kevin Golden, British translator, speaks or understands 21 languages
- Taneda Teruyoto, Japanese interpreter, leader of a conference centre, speaks 20 languages
10 or more
- Joao Guimaraes Rosa - one of the most notorious of brazilian writers, spoke more than twelve languages fluently, read eighteen.
- James Joyce - famous Irish writer, spoke thirteen languages.
- Anthony Burgess - British writer, knew thirteen languages, fluent in eight.
- Niels Ege, Danish translator, translates into 6 languages, interprets from 15 languages, knows 5 further languages
- Narsimha Rao (born 1921), Indian politician - can read and write 17 languages
- Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (aka Alexander Csoma de Körös), Hungarian scholar, explorer of Eastern languages, could read in 17 languages
- Kató Lomb, Hungarian translator and interpreter, spoke 17 languages, could read in 11 further languages
- Andrew Sugár, Hungarian translator, speaks 10 languages, understands 6 more languages
- Ármin Vámbéry, Hungarian linguist, spoke 16 languages
- Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský), Moravian linguist, scholar of learning languages (said to have translated his own book into 15 languages)
- J.R.R. Tolkien - famous British writer and conlanger, as well as a professor at Oxford. He is known particularly for the Lord of the Rings. He knew some thirteen languages, in addition to his own creations.
- Jean-François Champollion (1790-1832), French egyptologist - mastered at leaast 13
- Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist, who discovered the ruins of Troy, was familiar with English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian, Greek, Latin, Russian, Arabic and Turkish
- André Martinet, French linguist, speaks 12 languages
- Thomas Young (1773-1829), British scientist - 12
- Admirable Crichton, Scot musician, sportsman and linguist (said to have known 12 languages)
- Aleksandr Naumenko, Russian translator, speaks 8 languages, translates from 4 further languages
- Herbert Pilch, German scholar, speaks more than 11 languages
- Gedeon Dienes, Hungarian consultant, speaks 11 languages
- Jacques Berg, French historian and linguist, writer, speaks 11 languages
- Eva Toulouze, French, speaks or understands 11 languages
- Lajos Kada, Hungarian archbishop, spoke at least 10 languages
- Otto Back, Austrian, director of the Translators' College, speaks at least 10 languages
5 or more
- Roman Jakobson- famous Russian linguist, structuralist, knew at least 6 languages fluently.
- Alexander Lénárd,(1910-1972) Hungarian linguist, doctor, musician,painter, writer and translator, spoke at least 9 languages
- Julien Green, American-French, speaks at least 9 languages
- Philip King, British teacher of English in Birmingham, speaks 9 languages
- Sascha Felix, German professor of Language Institute at Passau University, speaks at least 8 languages
- Otto Habsburg, Hungarian-German diplomat, speaks 8 languages
- Albert Lange Fliflet, Norwegian professor, speaks 8 languages
- Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian linguist, mathematician, and philosopher could speak French and Italian by age 5 and Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Latin by age 13
- Angelo Possimiers, Belgian translator of the European Parliament, speaks at least 7 languages
- Susan Polgar, Hungarian, professional chess player, 7 languages including Esperanto
- Will Hay, British comedian/actor, was first an accomplished translator - fluent in French, German, Latin, Italian, Norwegian and Afrikaans
- Juan Alvaro Sanges d'Abadie, English politologist, speaks 6 languages
- Julio Dam, Uruguayan Messianic Renewed leader, writes English, Spanish, speaks Hebrew, Yiddish, and some French, Italian
- Yesudas, Malayali singer, recorded songs in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu and Bengali
Other polyglots
- Harold Williams (1876-1928), New Zealandish journalist
- Pent Nurmekund (1906-1996), Estonian linguist
- Emil Krebs (1867-1930), German interpreter and translator
- Donald Kenrick
- Felix of Raguza, linguist
- Cleopatra (said to have not required interpreters at receiving messengers)
