Jump to content

List of polyglots

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 93.44.96.184 (talk) at 21:43, 14 March 2017. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

A polyglot is a person with a command of many languages.[1] A polyglot may also be called a multilingual person; the label "multilingual" is used for communities as well as individual speakers.

Richard Hudson, professor emeritus of linguistics at University College London, coined the term "hyperpolyglot" for a person who can speak twelve or more languages fluently.[2][3] Other scholars apply the label to speakers of even more languages: twelve, sixteen, or in the most extreme cases, even fifty or more.[4]

It is difficult to judge which individuals are polyglots, as there is no uncontroversial definition for what it means to "master" a language, and because it is not always clear where to distinguish a dialect from a language. Being able to communicate in a language does not mean the person has "mastered" a language. There are far fewer who have attained higher levels of multi-linguistic attainment, and there is no basis for testing those levels, or at least those levels of ability have not been noted here.

This list consists of people who have been noted in news media, historical texts, or academic work as speaking six or more languages fluently. For general discussion of the phenomenon, including discussion of polyglot savants, see polyglotism.

Notable living polyglots

The 2012 book Babel No More[5] by Michael Erard highlights some polyglots around the globe, including Alexander Argüelles. Canada's Global TV also brought out a piece on hyperpolyglots on their 16x9 show, entitled "Word Play",[6] featuring Canadian polyglots Axel Van Hout, Alexandre Coutu, Steve Kaufmann, James Chang and Keith Swayne. Tim Doner (US) and Richard Simcott (UK) also appear in the programme to describe their experiences speaking multiple languages.

Africa

The Americas

  • Alexander Argüelles is an American polyglot. He speaks around a dozen languages and has a reading knowledge of many more. He was profiled in Michael Erard's Babel No More.[9]
  • Powell Janulus (born 1939) is a notable living polyglot, also known as "the most fluent person on earth." In 1985, Powell Janulus was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for fluency in forty-two languages.
  • Timothy Doner, then a seventeen-year-old New York City-based student, was featured in the New York Times for his ability to speak over twenty languages to various levels, including English, French, Hausa, Wolof, Russian, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Arabic, Pashto, Persian, Mandarin, Turkish, Indonesian, Dutch, Xhosa, Kiswahili, Hindi, Ojibwe, Kinyarwanda, and Creole.[10]
  • Pope Francis, 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He is conversational in Spanish, Latin, Italian, German,[11] French,[12] Portuguese and [13] English,[14][15] and he understands the Piedmontese language and some Genoese.[16]
  • Steve Kaufmann is a Canadian polyglot who speaks 15 languages.[17] He is author of a book on language learning,[18] and co-founder of the language learning website Lingq.[19] He is an enthusiastic endorser of the theories of Stephen Krashen, on the importance of input (reading) in language learning.
  • Usman W. Chohan is the President of the The International Association of Hyperpolyglots, and is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi; and conversant in Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.[20][21]
  • Nicholas Kontovas is a New York City native currently teaching Uyghur, Turkish, and Ottoman Turkish at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.[22] He has studied and is able to speak at least eighteen languages at a conversational level or higher, many at a native proficiency, including English, Turkish, French, Uyghur, Persian, Chinese, Uzbek, Greek, Spanish, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Occitan, Russian, German, Moroccan Arabic, Laz, Yiddish, Urdu, and Romani, and those in which he has reading proficiency Chaghatay, Ottoman Turkish, Old Turkic, Latin, Middle Persian, and Classical Chinese. He has additional knowledge and basic proficiency in Balochi, Evenki, Zulu and Middle Egyptian.
  • Melania Trump (Melania Knauss), Slovene-American former model and the current First Lady of the United States. She speaks English, French, Italian, German, Serbo-Croatian and her native Slovene.[23]

Asia

  • Subramania Bharati, a great Tamil poet,learnt 32 languages (29 Indian languages and 3 foreign languages) including Tamil, English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Bengali.
  • Shoichi Funaki is a professional wrestler. He is fluent in Japanese, English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.
  • Jackson Wang is a Hongkonger and a member of Got7 (kpop boy group by JYPE). He speaks Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, English, Japanese and basic French. [24]
  • Asin is an Indian actress who can speak Malayalam (her mother-tongue), Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, Sanskrit, and French. She speaks some Marathi, Italian, Spanish and German.[25]
  • Ambassador Naela Chohan is a polyglot, feminist artist, and current Ambassador of Pakistan to Australia and former Ambassador of Pakistan for Latin America. She is fluent in 7 Indo-European languages: English, French, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Persian (acquired at age 35), and Spanish (acquired at age 51).
  • George Fernandes, an Indian politician who is well-versed in ten languages: Konkani, English, Hindi, Tulu, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Latin.[26]
  • Janet Hsieh, Taiwanese-American television personality, violinist, author, and model. She is fluent in English, Spanish, French, Mandarin, and Taiwanese.[27]
  • Lokesh Chandra, one of the world's foremost scholars of Buddhism, the Indian researcher is described as "a polyglot and knows Pali, Avesta, Old Persian, Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Indonesian, Greek, Latin, German, French and Russian besides Hindi, Sanskrit and English."[28]
  • Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, a Sri Lankan Catholic prelate, is fluent in 11 languages: Sinhala, Tamil, English, (the 3 official languages of Sri Lanka), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Bahasa Indonesia.[29]
  • Mickey Curtis, a Japanese actor, singer, and television celebrity born to Japanese-English parents. He speaks Japanese, English, French, German, Italian and Thai.[30]
  • K. Luke, a Kerala Catholic priest of Syrian Church, belonged to Capuchin Congregation, died in 2010. He obtained Ph.D in Philology from Chicago University. He had mastery over 45 languages. He was very fluent in more than 15 languages. He was not very much known to the outside world since he lived within the confines of monastery as a simple Capuchin friar. Perhaps, he is the first among all Asian philologists.
  • Kamal Haasan, an Indian actor who can speak Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and English.[31]
  • Péter Frankl, juggler and mathematician, speaks twelve languages (English, Russian, Swedish, French, Spanish, Polish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean).
  • Prakash Raj is an Indian actor who can speak Tulu (his mother tongue), Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Hindi and Malayalam.[32]
  • Priya Anand, an Indian actress who can speak Tamil, Telugu, English, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Spanish languages.[33]
  • R. Sarathkumar, an Indian actor who can speak Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Russian and English fluently.[34]
  • Rajinikanth, an Indian actor who can speak Marathi (his mother tongue), Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, and English fluently.[34]
  • Swami Rambhadracharya, a Hindu religious leader and Sanskrit scholar based in Chitrakoot, India, can speak twenty-two languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, English, French, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Oriya, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Magadhi, Awadhi, and Braj. Rambhadracharya has been blind since the age of two months and received no formal education until the age of seventeen. He has never used braille, or any other aid, to learn or compose his works and has authored more than 100 books.[35][36][37]
  • Suman Pokhrel, a Nepali poet who speaks Nepali, English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Maithili.
  • Abin Shrestha, a Nepali scholar who can speak Nepali, Newari, English, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Spanish.
  • Ling Tan, Malaysian supermodel, speaks four varieties of Chinese, Malay, and English[38]

Europe

Notable deceased reputed polyglots

The following list consists of deceased individuals who are associated with claims of polyglotism, by year of birth.

  • Mithridates VI of Pontus (134–63 BC) could supposedly speak the languages of all twenty-two nations within his kingdom.[70]
  • Cleopatra VII (69–30 BC), the last ruling Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, could, according to the Roman biographer Plutarch, speak nine languages and was the only member of her dynasty who could speak Egyptian as well as her native Greek.[71]
  • al-Farabi (872–950/951), a Persian polymath who mastered over seventy languages.[72]
  • Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thera (1408–1491)[73] was a Buddhist monk and an eminent scholar,[74] who lived in the fifteenth century in Sri Lanka.[75] He was a multi-linguist who was given the title "Shad Bhasha Parameshwara" due to his mastery in six oriental languages which prevailed in the Indian subcontinent.[76]
  • Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603 AD) could speak ten languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Latin, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and Irish. The Venetian Ambassador once said: "it is as if she possessed these languages as if they were her mother tongue"
  • Athanasius Kircher (1601?–1680), German Jesuit polymath and scholar. Claimed knowledge of twelve languages; among them: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic, as well as several modern languages. He also pioneered the study of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and Classical Chinese characters.[citation needed]
  • John Milton (1608–1674), an English poet who is famous for the epic work Paradise Lost, could speak English, Latin, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Aramaic, Syriac, and Old English. Milton coined 630 terms in the English language.[77]
  • Wojciech Bobowski or Ali Ufki (1610–1675) a Polish musician based in the Ottoman Empire who mastered sixteen languages.
  • Gavril Stefanović Venclović (1670–1749) was a Serbian priest, writer, poet, orator, philosopher, polyglot, and illuminator.
  • Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian and humanitarian. Agnecy was known as "the seven language orator" already in her childhood, since she was fluent with Italian, French, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German and Latin.
  • Adam František Kollár (1718–1783), a Slovak writer, spoke Slovak, Czech, Serbian, Polish, Rusin, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, German, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Chinese, Persian, Arabic, Italian, Romanian, French, Dutch, and English.[78] was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian and humanitarian.
  • Sir William Jones (1746–1794), an Anglo-Welsh philologist known for founding comparative linguistics through proposing the existence of a relationship between European and Indian languages (the Indo-European Languages). Alongside his native English and Welsh languages, he learned Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew and the basics of Chinese writing at an early age. In all, Jones could speak forty-one languages (at least thirteen fluently).[79][80]
  • Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), a French classical scholar, philologist, and orientalist, was the first to decipher the inscription on the Rosetta Stone, an achievement that facilitated the translation of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs—the titles "Father of Egyptology"[81] and "the founder of scientific Egyptology" have since been bestowed upon Champollion.[82] He specialized in Oriental languages while he was a student at the College de France between 1807 and 1809, and his linguistic repertoire eventually consisted of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Pahlavi, Arabic, Persian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Zend, and his native French.[81][82][83]
  • Matija Čop (1797–1835) was a Slovenian polymath and linguist, and was said to speak nineteen languages, among which were his native Slovene, Latin, ancient Greek, German, English, French, Italian, Serbian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Occitan and Hebrew.
  • Noah Webster (1758–1843), a lexicographer, English spelling reformer, and author, mastered twenty-three languages.[citation needed]
  • Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774–1849), an Italian Cardinal, knew the following thirty-nine languages, speaking many fluently and teaching some:[84] Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinical Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, Ancient Armenian, Modern Armenian, Persian, Turkish, Albanian, Maltese, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, English, Illyrian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Chinese, Syriac, Ge'ez, Hindustani, Amharic, Gujarati, Basque, Romanian, and Algonquin.
  • John Bowring (1792–1872), an English political economist, traveler, writer, and the fourth governor of Hong Kong. Reputed to have known over two hundred languages, and to have had varying speaking ability in one hundred.
  • Jan Prosper Witkiewicz (known as: Yan Vitkevich)(1808-1839) a Polish orientalist, explorer and diplomat in the Russian service, agent of Russia at Kabul just before the First Anglo-Afghan War a part of the Great Game. He knew 19 languages i.e.: Polish, Russian, French, German and English. In exile he learned Persian, Pashto and several Turkic languages, memorized the Qur'an in Arabic.[85]
  • Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), a German-English industrialist, social scientist, and cofounder of Marxist theory alongside Karl Marx, mastered over twenty languages.[86]
  • Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) was a British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat; his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures amounted to having "mastered at least twenty-five languages—or forty, if distinct dialects are counted."[87]
  • Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) was a German businessman and a pioneer of field archaeology. He was an advocate of the historical reality of places mentioned in the works of Homer. Schliemann was an archaeological excavator of Hissarlik, now presumed to be the site of Troy, along with the Mycenaean sites Mycenae and Tiryns. Mastered over fifteen languages.
  • Georg Sauerwein (1831–1904) was a German publisher, polyglot, poet, and linguist. Sauerwein mastered about seventy-five languages, including: Latin, ancient Greek, modern Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, Spanish, Basque, Portuguese, English, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx Gaelic, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Sami, Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Sorbian, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chuvash (a Turkic language), Tamil, Kashgar (spoken in Siberia, similar to the language of Uzbekistan), Kumyk (spoken in Siberia), Persian, Armenian, Georgian, Sanskrit, Romani, Hindustani, Ethiopian, Tigrinya (another language of Ethiopia), Coptic or ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Malagasy (the language of Madagascar), Malay, Samoan, Hawaiian, different dialects of Chinese, and Aneitum (a language spoken in the New Hebrides).
  • James Augustus Henry Murray (1837–1915), was a Scottish lexicographer, instrumental in the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and its primary editor from 1879 until his death. In an application letter written to the British Museum Library in November 1866, he claimed abilities in Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, and Latin, and "in a less degree" Portuguese, Provençal, Dutch, German, Flemish, and Danish. The letter also referred to Murray's study of Celtic, Russian, Persian, Hebrew, and Syriac, among other languages and dialects.[88]
  • Yaqub Sanu (1839–1912), Egyptian journalist.
  • Hagop Baronian, (1843-1891), notable Armenian writer and playwright. He was fluent in 6 languages including French, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Bulgarian and his native Armenian
  • Chiragh Ali (1844–1895), an Islamic scholar who, apart from his native Urdu, mastered Persian, Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Greek.[89]
  • Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Symbolist poet. After retiring from writing he went on ambitious language learning program while traveling around Europe and the Middle East; mastering Latin, Ancient and Modern Greek, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Arabic, Hindi, Amharic,[90] as well as developing a working knowledge of several native African languages while living in Ethiopia.[91]
  • Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist, best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. Read and memorized the entirety of many books, and was capable of speaking eight languages: Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin.[92]
  • Robert Dick Wilson (1856–1930), American Bible scholar, spoke forty-five languages including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, as well as all the languages into which the Scriptures had been translated up to 600 CE.
  • Ludwig Zamenhof (1859–1917), creator of the constructed language Esperanto, spoke eleven languages besides his own: Aramaic, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Polish, his native Russian, Volapük, and Yiddish. He also had an interest in Arabic, Italian, and Lithuanian, though he never claimed fluency in those.[citation needed]
  • José Rizal (1861–1896), was a Filipino nationalist, writer and revolutionary. He was able to speak twenty-two languages including Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, German, Portuguese, Italian, English, Dutch, and Japanese. Rizal also made translations from Arabic, Swedish, Russian, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew and Sanskrit. He translated the poetry of Schiller into his native Tagalog. In addition he had at least some knowledge of Malay, Chavacano, Cebuano, Ilocano, and Subanun.[93][94][95]
  • Minakata Kumagusu (1867–1941), a Japanese author, biologist and naturalist.
  • Emil Krebs (1867-1930) was a German polyglot and sinologist. He mastered sixty-eight languages in speech and writing, and studied 120 others.
  • Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı (1869–1949), a Turkish philosopher and politician, who "...was proficient in eight languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Persian, and Spanish"[96] in addition to Hebrew, Albanian and Armenian.[97]
  • Ahatanhel Krymsky (1871–1942), a Ukrainian orientalist and linguist; was an expert in up to 34 languages.[98]
  • Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), an Indian philosopher who, apart from his native Bengali and educational English, knew ancient Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Indian languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.[99]
  • Harold Williams (1876–1928), a New Zealand journalist and linguist, spoke more than fifty-eight languages.[100]
  • Hrachia Adjarian (1876–1953), Armenian linguist. He spoke Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, French, English, German, Italian, Persian, Latin, Sanskrit, and Laz.[101]
  • Sir Mohammed Iqbal (b. 9 November 1877) perhaps one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. Among his work of poetry, Asrar-e-Khudi, appeared in the Persian language in 1915, and other books of poetry include Rumuz-i-Bekhudi, Payam-i-Mashriq and Zabur-i-Ajam. Amongst these his best known Urdu works are Bang-i-Dara, Bal-i-Jibril, Zarb-i Kalim and a part of Armughan-e-Hijaz. Mohammed Iqbal was fluent in Persian, Panjabi, Arabic, Hindi, Latin, Greek and English.
  • Martin Buber (1878–1965), Austrian Jewish philosopher, who "spoke German, Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, English, French and Italian and read, in addition to these, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Dutch and other languages".[102]
  • Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969), the Vietnamese Communist leader, became fluent in French, English, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin, in addition to his native Vietnamese, through study and many years spent in exile.[103]
  • Harinath De (1877–1911) could speak thirty-four languages including many eastern and western languages such as Chinese, Tibetan, Pali, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, Greek, Latin, out of which he was M.A in fourteen.
  • J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973), English writer, poet, linguist and university professor who could speak thirty-five languages[citation needed] and constructed several fictional ones. The most developed of these are Quenya and Sindarin, which he used in his books The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. He used his understanding in language to correct translators and translations of his books in other languages.
  • Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963) could speak thirty-six languages and wrote in more than six.[104]
  • William James Sidis (1898–1944), an American child prodigy who knew eight languages (Latin, Greek, German, French, Russian, Hebrew, Turkish and Armenian) when eight years old and claimed to speak about forty languages shortly before his death. He also created his own artificial language, which was called Vendergood. Although Sidis was supposed to have an IQ between 250 and 300 measured through psychological analysis, this was never confirmed.[105]
  • Andrzej Gawroński (1885-1927) was a Polish indologist, linguist and polyglot, the author of the first Polish handbook of Sanskrit, founder of Polish Oriental Society who was able to speak more than 40 languages and studied 100 others [106]
  • Agop Dilâçar, Turkish-Armenian linguist who was proficient in 22 languages.
  • Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) claimed to be trilingual "in the proper sense of writing, not only speaking, three languages". He wrote in English, Russian, and French.[107]
  • Sukarno (1901–1970), the first President of Indonesia, was able to speak Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, Indonesian, Dutch, German, English, French, Arabic, and Japanese.[108]
  • John von Neumann (1903–1957), mathematician. While better known for his work in mathematics, Von Neumann was a polyglot; fluent in French, German, Latin, Greek, English and Yiddish, as well as his native Hungarian.[citation needed]
  • Syed Mujtaba Ali (1904-1974), a Bangladeshi author proficient in 15 languages.
  • S. Srikanta Sastri (1904–1974), eminent Indian Historian, Indologist, and epigraphist at the University of Mysore, was fluent in over fourteen languages, including Greek, Latin, Hittite, Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit.[109][110]
  • Nathan Leopold Jr. (1904–1971) was born to a wealthy Jewish family. He spoke his first words at four months. He reportedly had an intelligence quotient of 210, and claimed to have been able to speak twenty-seven languages by the time he was nineteen.[111] More likely he was only fluent in nine or ten languages.[112] He was involved in the murder of Robert "Bobby" Franks with friend Richard Loeb. He served thirty-three years in prison before receiving parole.
  • João Guimarães Rosa (1908–1967) was a Brazilian writer, considered by many to be one of the greatest Brazilian novelists born in the 20th century, and a self-taught polyglot. In a letter he claimed to speak Portuguese, German, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Esperanto, and some Russian. He also claimed to read Swedish, Dutch, Latin and Greek, but with the use of a dictionary. He also professed some understanding of German dialects, and study of Hungarian, Arabic, Sanskrit, Lithuanian, Polish, Tupi, Hebrew, Japanese, Czech, Finnish, and Danish grammar. Guimarães Rosa suggested that studying other languages helped him understand the national language of Brazil more deeply, but that he studied primarily for pleasure.[113]
  • Muhammad Hamidullah (1908–2002), an Islamic scholar, knew twenty-two languages and learned Thai at eighty-five.
  • Uku Masing (1909–1985), an Estonian linguist, theologian, ethnologist, and poet, claimed to know approximately sixty-five languages, and could translate twenty.[114]
  • Kató Lomb (1909–2003), a Hungarian interpreter, translator, and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, was able to interpret fluently in ten languages.[115]
  • George Campbell (1912–2004), a Scottish polyglot and a linguist at the BBC, who could speak and write fluently in at least forty-four languages and had a working knowledge of perhaps twenty others.[116]
  • Meredith Gardner (1912–2002), an American linguist and codebreaker. German, Old High German, Middle High German, Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Lithuanian, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Japanese.[117]
  • Enoch Powell (1912–1998), an English politician, classical scholar, linguist, and poet. English, French, German, Italian, Urdu, Modern Greek, Classical Greek, Latin, Welsh, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hebrew.[118]
  • Aziz Ahmad (1914-1978), a Pakistani poet, short story writer, novelist, translator, historian, research scholar, Iqbal scholar and critic fluent in Urdu, English, French, German, Arabic, Persian, Italian and Turkish.[119]
  • Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (1917-2011), a Pakistani scholar who "has written in seven languages — Sindhi, Arabic, Urdu, English, Persian, Balochi and Seraiki."[120]
  • Fazlur Rahman Malik (1919-1988), a Pakistani scholar of Islam, proficient in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, English, classical Greek, Latin, German and French.[121]
  • Pope John Paul II (1920-2005), could speak many languages but reportedly was only fluent in Polish, Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Latin.[122]
  • Ahmad Hasan Dani (1920–2009), a Pakistani intellectual, archaeologist, historian, and linguist, who mastered thirty-five languages.
  • Sahabzada Yaqub Khan (1920-2016), a Pakistani diplomat and army general who could "speak, read and write somewhere between 6 and 10 languages."[123]
  • P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921–2004), who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India (1991–1996), could fluently speak seven Indian languages Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Tamil and Bengali and six Foreign languages English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Persian.[124]
  • Jayalalithaa (1948-2016), an Indian politician and actress, who could fluently speak Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Malayalam and English.
  • Christopher Lee (1922–2015), English actor, singer, author, and World War II veteran who spoke fluent English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, and was moderately proficient in Swedish, Russian and Greek.[125]
  • Michael Ventris (1922–1956), an English linguist and architect. French, German, Swiss German, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Italian, Spanish, some Turkish, and Modern Greek.[126]
  • P. B. Sreenivas (1930–2013), an Indian singer and poet, spoke and wrote in eight languages, including Kannada, English and Urdu.[127]
  • Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (1930–1989), a Kurdish political activist and economist, mastered eight languages that included his mother tongue.[128][129][130]
  • Jon Elia (1931-2002), a Pakistani poet and scholar who was fluent in Urdu, English, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit and Hebrew.
  • Thomas Joseph Odhiambo "Tom" Mboya, (1930 – 1969) a Kenyan trade unionist, educationist, Pan Africanist, author, and politician could speak English as well as several Kenyan languages such as KiKamba, Kikuyu and his mother tongue DhoLuo.
  • Hassan al-Turabi (1932–2016), a Sudanese Islamist leader, was fluent in Arabic, English, French, German, and many European languages.[131]
  • Kenneth L. Hale (1934–2001) was an American professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He spoke over fifty languages, including Basque, Dutch, French, Hopi, Irish Gaelic, Japanese, Jemez, Lardil, Navajo, O'odham, Polish, Spanish, Warlpiri, and Wômpanâak.[132][133]
  • Sergei Starostin (1953–2005), a Russian linguist, recognised as one of the creators of hypothetical Sino-Caucasian language family. He claimed to have known up to fifteen languages and to read forty without a dictionary.[134]
  • Shahab Ahmed (1966–2015), a university professor and scholar of Islam from Pakistan who was "master of perhaps 15 languages".[135]
  • Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993), deceased American actress. She was fluent in six languages: English, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, German.

References

  1. ^ "polyglot | Collins Dictionary". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  2. ^ Hudson, Richard (2008). "Word grammar, cognitive linguistics, and second language learning and teaching". In P. Robinson and N. Ellis (ed.). Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Routledge. pp. 89–113.
  3. ^ Erard, Michael (June 2012). "The Polyglot of Bologna". Public Domain Review. Retrieved 16 May 2014.
  4. ^ Erard, Michael (3 November 2005). "How many languages is it possible for a person to speak?". The Five Minute Linguist. Archived from the original on 13 April 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  5. ^ "Babel No More". babelnomore.com. Jamie-Lee Nardone at Duckworth Publishers. 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
  6. ^ 16x9onglobal (7 May 2012). "Word Play" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved 7 May 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Sam Jones; Afua Hirsch (11 February 2013). "Who will be the next pope? The contenders for Vatican's top job". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  8. ^ "Dikembe Mutombo". NBA.com. NBA Media Ventures, LLC. 2013. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  9. ^ Erard, Michael (2012). Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners. New York: Free Press.
  10. ^ John Leland (9 March 2012). "Adventures of a Teenage Polyglot". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2013.
  11. ^ "Pope Francis: 13 key facts about the new pontiff". The Guardian. London. 13 March 2013. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  12. ^ "Briefing di padre Lombardi". The Vatican Today. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  13. ^ "Francis and those humble gestures by the Pope, he does not sit on a throne, paying the bill at the hotel" (in Italian). Corriere Della Sera. 14 March 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  14. ^ Peter Walker, Paul Owen and David Batty (14 March 2013). "Pope Francis, first day after election". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  15. ^ Willey, David, News analysis sidebar to "Pope Francis delivers Easter plea for peace", BBC News, 31 March 2013, Retrieved 31 March 2013
  16. ^ Glatz, Carol. "Can't chant, can't speak English? Pope says it's because he's tone-deaf". Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  17. ^ "The Linguist on Language".
  18. ^ Steve Kaufmann. The Way of the Linguist. ISBN 9781420873290.
  19. ^ "Meet the LingQ Team". Lingq website.
  20. ^ Chohan, UW (2016). "President's Message" - The International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA).
  21. ^ Usman W. Chohan The Conversation: Academic Rigour, Journalistic Flair. Academic Profile. Accessed 7 November 2016.
  22. ^ "Nicholas Kontovas | Bogazici University - Academia.edu". boun.academia.edu. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  23. ^ Yglesias, Matthew (18 July 2016). "Melania Trump, explained". Vox. Retrieved 11 August 2016. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlyjcA2Tpkg. Retrieved 6 January 2017. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ "Asin Thottumkal knows seven languages! - Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". 21 March 2014.
  26. ^ "George Fernandes: Rebel without a pause". GulfNews.com. 27 April 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  27. ^ Koh, Bernard."But I speak only five languages",The Straits Times, Mon, Jun 02, 2008. Retrieved on 12/02/2011.
  28. ^ "Lokesh Chandra New ICCR President". Outlook. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  29. ^ "Sri Lanka overjoyed as prelate named cardinal". Catholic News. 7 November 2010. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  30. ^ "ミッキー・カーチス｜ワタナベエンターテインメント".
  31. ^ "rediff.com, Movies: Kamal, as we know him".
  32. ^ "15 Things to Know as Prakash Raj Turns 50 - Silverscreen.in". 26 March 2015.
  33. ^ "Priya Anand interview - Telugu Cinema interview - Telugu film actress".
  34. ^ a b Saravanan, T. (23 November 2012). "Sarath Speak" – via The Hindu.
  35. ^ "वाचस्पति पुरस्कार २००७" (PDF) (in Hindi). K. K. Birla Foundation. Retrieved 26 July 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  36. ^ Dinkar, Dr. Vagish (2008). श्रीभार्गवराघवीयम् मीमांसा (in Hindi). Delhi, India: Deshbharti Prakashan. p. 39. ISBN 978-81-908276-6-9. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ Aneja, Mukta (2005). "Shri Ram Bhadracharyaji – A Religious Head With A Vision". In Kaul, J. K.; Abraham, George (eds.). Abilities Redefined – Forty Life Stories Of Courage And Accomplishment (PDF). Delhi, India: All India Confederation of the Blind. pp. 66–68. Retrieved 25 April 2011.
  38. ^ "Malaysia's runway dar-Ling - Features - The Star Online".
  39. ^ Template:Nl icon Timmermans: si, je spreche multiple talen (features a short video of Timmermans speaking five languages), Nos.nl, 7 October 2014
  40. ^ Template:Nl icon Arme Frans, Nu.nl, 25 January 2012
  41. ^ Bishop, John (2010). "Bruins by the Numbers: 33". BostonBruins.Com. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  42. ^ Onze Nederlandse vriend A. den Doolaard, Ohrid, 2013
  43. ^ Ghazanchyan, Siranush (27 February 2013). "Henrikh Mkhitaryan: A classy player, an outstanding personality, a well-educated polyglot…". Public Radio of Armenia.
  44. ^ Hughes, Rob (27 November 2013). "Mkhitaryan Is Not the Leading Scorer, but He's Leading the Way". The New York Times.
  45. ^ Hakobyan, Tatul (27 March 2009). "Armenia is a homeland for the Assyrians, who have no homeland". The Armenian Reporter. Together with other languages, Levon Ter-Petrossian, the first president of Armenia, also knew Assyrian.
  46. ^ Լևոն Տեր-Պետրոսյան. avproduction.am (in Armenian). Տիրապետում է հայերեն, ռուսերեն, ֆրանսերեն, անգլերեն, գերմաներեն, արաբերեն, ինչպես նաև մի քանի «մեռած» լեզուների։ Հեղինակ է ավելի քան 70 գիտական աշխատությունների, որոնք հրապարակվել են հայերեն, ռուսերեն, ֆրանսերեն լեզուներով
  47. ^ TEDxTalks (15 May 2013). "Hacking Language Learning: Benny Lewis at TEDxWarsaw" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  48. ^ sgendreau (12 September 2013). "Traveling the World for 10 Years: An Interview with Polyglot Benny Lewis". lingholic. Samuel Gendreau. Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  49. ^ Benny Lewis (11 March 2014). Fluent in 3 Months: How Anyone at Any Age Can Learn to Speak Any Language from Anywhere in the World. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-755675-5.
  50. ^ Vaughan, Brendan (1 March 2007). "A Woman We Love: Connie Nielsen". Esquire Magazine.
  51. ^ Rice, Xan (3 August 2015). "The man who speaks 32 languages – and counting". New Statesman. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  52. ^ Rice, Xan (3 August 2015). "The best way to teach languages in schools". New Statesman. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  53. ^ Ganesh, Janan (11 April 2014). "Arsène Wenger: Patience wears thin with Le Professeur". ft.com. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  54. ^ McCarra, Kevin (16 April 2003). "United by passion, divided by ambition, Ferguson and Wenger define an era". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 May 2012.
  55. ^ "Fulham boss Roy Hodgson admits he would take a big-four job". Daily Mail. 8 May 2010. Retrieved 1 July 2010.
  56. ^ "10 Questions for Viggo Mortensen". Time. 17 December 2008.
  57. ^ Viggo Mortensen speaks Catalan on YouTube, Sitges Film Festival 2009.
  58. ^ "Gianni Infantino". FIFA.com. FIFA. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  59. ^ "Sepp Blatter faces Figo, five others in FIFA election: What you need to know". ESPN. Retrieved 28 January 2015
  60. ^ Илюмжинов, Кирсан. Lenta.ru. Retrieved on 2013-07-28.
  61. ^ "Soccer Training Info - Soccer Players Speaking Foreign Languages".
  62. ^ "Discover".
  63. ^ "Both Thierry Henry and Clarence Seedorf speak English much better than Rio Ferdinand • /r/britishproblems".
  64. ^ "Nothing found for 2014 01 18 The Most Interesting Man In The World Clarence Seedorf".
  65. ^ FIFA.com (13 May 2012). "Seedorf reaches Milan landmark".
  66. ^ "Seedorf, campione anche nel business". Retrieved 15 September 2014.
  67. ^ ABDOMEDIAGROUP (9 March 2011). "Kate Giles Interviews Clarence Seedorf on CNN" – via YouTube.
  68. ^ Lindsay, Robert (9 June 2009). "Polyglots – Riccardo Bertani". Beyond Highbrow. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  69. ^ Talignani, Giacomo (8 February 2017). "Il contadino che conosce 100 lingue". la Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  70. ^ "Mithridates, who was king of twenty-two nations, administered their laws in as many languages, and could harangue each of them, without employing an interpreter:" Pliny the Elder, Natural History, VII, 24.
  71. ^ "she could pass from one language to another; so that there were few of the barbarian nations that she answered by an interpreter; to most of them she spoke herself, as to the Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Hebrews, Arabians, Syrians, Medes, Parthians, and many others, whose language she had learnt; which was all the more surprising because most of the kings, her predecessors, scarcely gave themselves the trouble to acquire the Egyptian tongue, and several of them quite abandoned the Macedonian." Plutarch, Antony, 27.3–4
  72. ^ Rom Landau, Islam and the Arabs, Routledge (2013), p. 147
  73. ^ Royal Asiatic Society, Sri Lanka (2004). "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka". 47–48. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  74. ^ Zhao, Yong (2011). Handbook of Asian Education: A Cultural Perspective. Routledge. p. 399.
  75. ^ Himbutana, Gopitha Peiris (29 January 2006). "Ven. Thotagamuwe Sri Rahula Thera Scholar monk par excellence" (PDF). Lake House. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  76. ^ Disanayaka, Professor. J. B. (20 February 2000). "A taste of Sinhala : What apabbransa are you jabbering?". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
  77. ^ John Crace (28 January 2008). "John Milton – our greatest word-maker". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  78. ^ Kopčan Vojtech:Adam František Kollár ako orientalista. In: Literárnomuzejný letopis č. 16, Martin, Matica slovenská, 1985, s. 171–178
  79. ^ Edward Said, Orientalism New York: Random House, page 77.
  80. ^ Jones, Sir William (1824). Discourses delivered before the Asiatic Society: and miscellaneous papers, on the religion, poetry, literature, etc., of the nations of India. Printed for C. S. Arnold. p. 28.
  81. ^ a b Jimmy Dunn writing as John Warren (1996–2013). "Jean Francois Champollion: The Father of Egyptology". Tour Egypt. Tour Egypt. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  82. ^ a b "Jean Francois Champollion and the Rosetta Stone". Translator Interpreter Hall of Fame. Translator Interpreter Hall of Fame. 2000–2003. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  83. ^ E Bruce Brooks (2001). "Gallery of Philologists Jean-François Champollion 23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832". University of Massachusetts Amherst. University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  84. ^ C. W. Russel, D.D., 1863, Longman & Green, London
  85. ^ Janusz Fedirko: Szalony plan wyzwolenia Polski, cz. I, "Alma Mater", 2008 r., nr. 102–104 [1].
  86. ^ Paul Lafargue; Jacques Bonhomme (15 August 1905). "Frederick Engels". Marxists Internet Archive (from The Social Democrat journal). Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  87. ^ McLynn, Frank (1990), Of No Country: An Anthology of the Works of Sir Richard Burton, Scribner's, pp. 5–6.
  88. ^ Winchester, Simon (2003). The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press.
  89. ^ Sohail H. Hashmi in Just Wars, Holy Wars, and Jihads: Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Encounters and Exchanges, Oxford University Press (2012), p. 307
  90. ^ Nicholas, Jean (2010). Complete Works, selected letters. Chicago: University of Chicago.
  91. ^ Robb, Graham (2001). Rimbaud: A Biography. United States of America: W.W. Norton.
  92. ^ John J. O'Neill (May 2009). Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla. Lulu.com. pp. 282–284. ISBN 978-1-4421-7396-5.
  93. ^ Andrei Medina (19 June 2012). "Jose Rizal a revered hero abroad, not just PHL". GMA News. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  94. ^ Zaide, Gregorio (1999). Jose Rizal: Life, Works and Writings. Manila, Philippines: All Nations Publishing Co., Inc.
  95. ^ "Rizal and Language". Filipinaslibrary.org.ph. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  96. ^ Metin Heper & Nur Bilge Criss, Historical Dictionary of Turkey, Scarecrow Press (2009), p. 43
  97. ^ Hakan Ozoglu, From Caliphate to Secular State, ABC-CLIO (2011), p. 48
  98. ^ Krymsky, Ahatanhel. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  99. ^ Heehs, Peter (2008). The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-231-14098-0.
  100. ^ "Harold Williams VOICE OF THE WORLD". The New Zealand Edge. NZEDGE.COM IP HOLDINGS LIMITED. 1998–2011. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  101. ^ Աճառյան Հրաչյա (in Armenian). Armenian Encyclopedia.
  102. ^ Maurice Friedman, Martin Buber's Life and Work, Wayne State University Press (1988), p. 8
  103. ^ Duiker, William J. (2000). Ho Chi Minh: A Life. Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-8701-9.
  104. ^ Sharma, R.S. (2009). Rethinking India's Past. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-569787-2.
  105. ^ Sperling, Abraham Paul (1947). Psychology for the Millions. New York: Frederick Fell. pp. 332–339. Retrieved 26 November 2014. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  106. ^ Fedirko, Janusz. 2008. Fenomenalny Multilingwista Professor Andrzej Gawroński (1885–1927). Alma Mater nr 2 (100), miesięcznik Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego [2]
  107. ^ Bodenstein, Jürgen (1977). The Excitement of Verbal Adventure: A Study of Vladimir Nabokov's English Prose Volume 1. Рипол Классик. ISBN 9785881083526.
  108. ^ Ludwig M., Arnold (2004). King of the Mountain: The Nature of Political Leadership. University Press of Kentucky. p. 150.
  109. ^ Sastri, S. Srikanta. "Official Website of Dr S. Srikanta Sastri". Biographical Sketch of S. Srikanta Sastri. Website Administrator. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  110. ^ Rahman, M.M. (2005). Encyclopedia of historiography. New Delhi, India: Anmol Publications. p. 2056. ISBN 8126123052.
  111. ^ http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/loeb/7c.html
  112. ^ Linder, Doug. "Nathan F. Leopold".
  113. ^ "Germina – Revista De Literatura & Arte". Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  114. ^ "UKU MASING – Writer, theologian, philologist". Välisministeerium – Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Välisministeerium. 26 August 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  115. ^ Scott Alkire. "Insights of a Master Language Learner". Retrieved 10 May 2013.
  116. ^ George Campbell Dies; Spoke 44 Languages (The Washington Post)
  117. ^ BARNES, BART (21 August 2002). "Meredith K. Gardner, 89; Cracked Codes to Unmask Key Soviet Spies" – via LA Times.
  118. ^ Heffer, Simon (1998). Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  119. ^ Aziz Ahmed, literary research and controversies, Rauf Parekh, Dawn News
  120. ^ Dr Nabi Bukhsh Baloch: a nonagenarian scholar, Rauf Parekh, Dawn News
  121. ^ Muhammad Khalid Masud, In Memorium: Dr. Fazlur Rahman (1919-1988), Islamic Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Winter 1988), p. 399
  122. ^ "The Many Languages of Pope John Paul II". 30 April 2005.
  123. ^ S. Abbas Raza (27 June 2005). "UMonday Musing: The Man With Qualities". 3 Quarks Daily. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  124. ^ "Obituary: PV Narasimha Rao - World news - The Guardian". 28 August 2013.
  125. ^ "Extensive biography at Tiscali UK". Tiscali.co.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  126. ^ A Very English Genius, BBC documentary.
  127. ^ MURALIDHARA KHAJANE (15 April 2013). "P.B. Sreenivas was the voice of Rajkumar". The Hindu. Chennai, India. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  128. ^ Carol Prunhuber (2010). "The Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan". Carol Prunhuber. CarolPrunhuber.com. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  129. ^ "Dr Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou". SARA Distribution. Foundation For Kurdish Library & Museum. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  130. ^ Dr Carol Prunhuber (28 April 2012). "I wrote the book to denounce the assassination by the Iranian regime and the complicity of the Austrian authorities". KDP Press. Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP.Iran. Retrieved 15 April 2013.
  131. ^ "Profile: Sudan's Islamist leader".
  132. ^ "Kenneth Hale: Kenneth Locke Hale, a master of languages, died on October 8th, aged 67". The Economist. 1 November 2001. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  133. ^ Keyser, Jay (10 November 2001). "Kenneth Hale: The master of more than 50 languages, he fought to protect vanishing native traditions". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  134. ^ Дуняша Смирнова (28 July 2012). "Школа злословия: Сергей Старостин (11.12.2004)" – via YouTube.
  135. ^ Noah Feldman (20 September 2015). "An Extraordinary Scholar Redefined Islam". Bloomberg View. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_polyglots&oldid=770348142"