In the language world, every now and then we hear various terms such as monolinguals, bilinguals, multilinguals, polyglots and hyperpolyglots. Among the given terms, the hyperpolyglots rank in the higher sphere of people who speak more than one language. What are hyperpolyglots and why are they such amazing people?

A polyglot is a multilingual person who speaks two or more languages. He or she can also be referred to as bilingual or trilingual depending on the number of languages he or she can speak. A hyperpolyglot on the other hand is a polyglot who speaks more than the usual number of languages, more likely to be over ten languages.

Hyperpolyglots are multilingual people who have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood which is then called as his or her first language. The hyperpolyglots’ first language is acquired without formal education and later on they acquire other languages either through immersion or formal language learning.

People who are potential hyperpolyglots are:

• those with strong interest in a foreign language;
• those who find in necessary to acquire other languages for practical purposes either for education, information, entertainment or business;
• those who reside in border areas between countries with different languages;
• those who migrate to other countries;
• those who are children of expatriates; those who are children of parents who speak different languages;
• children who have a parent or both parents who have learned other languages;
• and children in language-rich communities.

Since the world has so many languages and dialects, it is no wonder that some people are gifted enough to absorb and speak many as many as possible. The following are some people who are reputed to be hyeperpolyglots:

• Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti – known to have perfect knowledge of twenty-eight languages, spoke thirty-eight languages and forty dialects;
  

  Image via Wikipedia

• Heinrich Schliemann – known to be conversant in thirteen languages;
• Ziad Fazah – claims to speak fifty-nine languages;
• Uku Masing – knowledge of sixty-five languages;
• Alexander Arguelles – claims to have knowledge of more than twenty-one languages;
• Kenneth Hale – has speaking knowledge of more than fifty languages;
• Emil Krebs – mastered sixty-eight languages in speech and writing and studied one hundred twenty other languages;
• Sir John Bowring – reportedly spoke one hundred languages and had knowledge of more two hundred;
• Harold Williams – fluent in fifty-eight languages;
• Jose Rizal – known to be fluent in twenty-two languages;
• Richard Francis Burton – spoke twenty-nine languages;
• PV Narasimha Rao – reputed to speak thirteen languages;
• Paul Robeson – studied more than twenty languages;
• Barry Farber – studied twenty-six languages;
  

  Image via Wikipedia

• Daniel Tammet – speaks more than ten languages;
• Carlos do Amaral Freire – studied more than a hundred languages and mastered sixty of them.

If you are one of those who can speak and understand many languages, you are a polyglot and you may be a hyperpolyglot if you can speak more! If you are still one of those who speak only one language, be inspired and motivated enough to learn another language or two or more and be part of the many multilingual people in the world who outnumber the monolingual ones.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 6:31 pm and is filed under Language and Science, Languages and Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.