Polyglot people

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Polyglott ( adjective , from ancient Greek πολύγλωττος ( polýglōttos ) for multilingual , which in turn goes back to πολυ ( poly ) for much and γλῶττα ( glōtta ) for tongue, language ) is a person who speaks many languages ​​(also multilingual , multilingual ). It is not defined how many languages ​​one has to be able to speak and how well in order to be called polyglot , nor is the degree of active and passive command of a language objectively defined. Many of these points are also addressed in the article on multilingualism .

Well-known polyglot people

The epitome of a polyglot are the English political economist, traveler and writer Sir John Bowring (1792–1872), who according to his own account knew over 200 languages ​​and spoke over 100 of them, the German diplomat Emil Krebs (1867–1930), 68 Languages ​​spoken and written "mastered", as well as the Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti (1774–1849), who never left Italy but spoke 38 languages ​​and knew 50 dialects from different languages.

A living polyglot is the Greek Ioannis Ikonomou , who speaks over 30 languages ​​and works as a translator for the European Commission in Brussels.

Researchers led by Michael Chee from the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory in Singapore have found that people who learn a foreign language easily use the region of their brain known as the insula more intensively, because unusual sound patterns are unconsciously stored in this region.

See also

literature

  • Michael Erard: Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners. Free Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-4516-2825-8 .
  • Peter Hahn (Ed.): Emil Krebs - Kurier des Geistes , with contributions by Harald Braun (foreword), Katrin Amunts, Otto Julius Bierbaum , Peter Hahn, Gunnar Hille, Eckhard Hoffmann, Antonio Reda, Hans-Ulrich Seidt and Jürgen Stich, Oase Verlag, Badenweiler 2011, ISBN 978-3-88922-097-4 .

Web links

Wiktionary: polyglot  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Simpson and Edmund Weiner: The Oxford English Dictionary , Second Edition . Oxford University Press , Oxford 1989, ISBN 978-0-19-861186-8 . Article on polyglot
  2. ^ Entry in the database of the official website of the Duden on polyglot ; see: duden.de
  3. ^ Christian Lehmann: Polyglossy [1]
  4. Cecile and Oskar Vogt Archive, Düsseldorf, Interview with Dr. Zwirner / Mande Krebs in the brain research center Berlin-Buch 1930; Obituary Prof. Dr. Eduard Erkes, Litterae Orientales 1931, pp. 13 and 14.
  5. European Commission: Frequently Asked Questions: Multilingualism and Language Learning September 25, 2012 [2]