POLYGLOT

POLYGLOT

WHAT IS A POLYGLOT?

Essentially, a Polyglot is someone who can speak plural languages. The word polyglot is a term originated from Ancient Greek which literally means “many-tongued". If you speak a second language, a third, or fourth or more, you're  a Polyglot. Being called a Polyglot is a compliment. Polyglots are generally assumed to be intelligent,  cleverer than most, more mentally apt or even mentally superior because scientists say "their brains have more interconnected neurons and nodes than mono-languaged folk". However, science aside,  this may or may not be true since language ability is very different from mental capacity. In my experience, I found that Polyglots are more prevalent among the indigenous people of  a country. For example, South African has 11 official languages, viz. Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Tshonga, Tswana, Venda, English and Afrikaans; and a large percentage of its citizens can communicate in several of them and some in all of them.  To a degree, this is the result of colonialism. The indigenous people of South Africa were considered savages by their colonial masters who down-right refused to learn the indigenous native tongues but expected the "savage" to learn the tongue of their European masters. Today we find that virtually every South African at the bare minimum speaks both English and Afrikaans (Dutch), whilst others speak several more, with some speaking all  11 official languages.

Multi-language greetings

Generations of South American indigenous Indians and their offspring prefer to communicate in their native Maipurean  and Arawakan tongues in preference of Spanish, Portuguese or English even though several of them can. They found themselves in a similar position as the indigenous Africans of Africa.  Through colonialism, Spain and Portugal exported their languages to the America and neither bothered to learn the native language of the conquered. The same happened in Australia and New Zealand and the Philippines to mention but a few. If  language ability was the yardstick for intelligence then virtually every African polyglot is far more intelligent than most of their "colonial master" of days gone by. I consider myself as a  polyglot and I personally believe mental capacity is superior to language ability.

Even though, Polyglots are versatile, since they have the ability to translate conversations between two persons mutually unintelligible to one another. Like in a court of law for example where interpreters are often needed. This reminds of the somewhat mythical character, Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti of Bologna. Legend has it, that he know some 30 languages, another version of the legend says he knew as many as 72 languages. It is said that he once learned the native language of two prisoners who were condemned to death, overnight , so that he could hear their confessions and grant them absolution before their execution.

Legends aside, polyglots have the ability to learn and speak several languages and the gifted among them somehow have a knack to just suck up strange vocabularies that they hear and remember them. This makes them excellent teachers to teach English to people whose languages they speak. Every polyglot has his or her own way of committing language to memory. Some use flash cards, some needs to hear the foreign language spoken loudly, some need one-on-one interaction with the foreign language, some learn by listening to music in the target language, some learn from books, some say language immersion is the best way to learn a foreign language, some say marry someone who speaks the language, some learn foreign languages in foreign prisons, some say work on a cruise ship, some say travel, some say subscribe to your foreign language TV channel.  Each of the following polyglots both dead and alive has the secret to learning but in my opinion that is specific to them. Each and every person is unique so you have to find what works best for you. My personal preference is to indulge all my senses in learning, hear it, say it, write, it,  read it,  follow up with repetition and remember to speak out loudly. Making mistakes and tripping over your tongue is the key to learning a new language.  It is astounding how well spoken and confident you come across to other people by speaking with just a little extra volume.

Famous polyglots

Pope John Paul II is thought to have spoken 17 different languages.

Ferenc Kemeny was  one of the most accomplished Hungarian polyglots.He understood more than 40 languages, was able to write in 24, and speak in 12.

Lomb Kato was another  Hungarian hyper-polyglot who worked as an interpreter and translator. She was able  to interpret in 10 languages, fluently.

Kenneth Hale of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Professor of Linguist specialized in obscure and dying languages, like Navajo, Ulwa, Warlpiri , Tohono and O’odham and claimed to know more than 50 different languages.

Richard Simmcott from the UK speaks several different languages among them Spanish, Welsh and Swedish.

John Milton speaks 10 different  languages

William James Sidis was an exceptional linguistic. His IQ was estimated to be in excess of 250 . He claimed to be able to speak more than 40 languages.

Heinrich Schliemann a notable archaeologist, who excavated Troy, Mycenae and Tiryns, spoke 14 different languages.

Emil Krebs was a German diplomat best remembered for his extraordinary linguistic abilities. He spoke and wrote 68 languages with a fair degree of fluency, though he also studied more than 120.

Cleopatra VII  Queen of the Nile spoke Aramaic, Ethiopic, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Parthian, Trogodyte and Median

Harold Williams journalist and editor traveled the world and amassed 58 languages among which were Czech, Hittite, Irish and Tagalog. earning him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Audrey Hepburn raised by her Dutch mother and British father spoke both her parents tongues including Spanish, French, German and Italian.

Sir Richard Francis Burton was a British explorer, geographer, diplomat, said to have spoken 29 languages and  helped to translate and publish several  books including One Thousand and One Nights and the Kama Sutra.

 J R Tolkien author of  "The Lord of the Rings"  speaks 13 real languages among which are  Latin, French, German, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

Ziad Fazah is a Lebanese polyglot who currently holds the Guinness World Record for speaking the most number of languages. Fazah  reads and speak 58 languages including Arabic, Polish, Thai, Urdu, Norwegian, and many more.