Matthew Youlden speaks nine languages fluently. Check out this video in which he speaks English, Irish, German, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, and Italian.
Cleopatra. Queen Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC) could speak nine languages, according to Plutarch, and rarely needed an interpreter for diplomatic purposes. Her native language was Greek but she was feted for also speaking the Egyptian language perfectly - apparently a rare accolade for Egyptian rulers of the time.
Neuroimaging reveals how polyglots' brains respond to both familiar and unfamiliar languages. Most people will learn one or two languages in their lives. But Vaughn Smith, a 47-year-old carpet cleaner from Washington, D.C., speaks 24. Smith is a hyperpolyglot—a rare individual who speaks more than 10 languages.
Some people can speak more than five languages, and they are known as polyglots. They are less than one percent of the population. Hyperpolyglots are fluent in more than 12 languages, and they are sporadic to find. It means that there are people who speak more than 12 languages in the world.
Only three percent of people around the world can speak over four languages. Less than one percent of people worldwide are proficient in many languages. If someone is fluent in more than five languages, the person is called a polyglot.
Polyglots do not naturally come from high IQs. It is much more effective to become fluent in another language if you have an average IQ, persuasiveness, sensitivity, and lots of practice.
Alexander Argüelles is a linguist from Chicago, Illinois. Aside from being an expert in the Korean language, he's best known for being able to speak anywhere from 20 to 50 languages.
Sir John Bowring (spoke 100 languages and knew 200 in varying degrees) Sir John Bowring was Hong Kong's fourth governor. He was a writer, traveler and political economist. He was best known for his linguistic abilities.
The record, though, probably belongs to Sir John Bowring, Governor of Hong Kong from 1854 to 1859, who was said to know 200 languages, and capable of speaking 100.
Eva Spekhorstova has a passion for languages. At the age of 15 she already speaks 17 languages and has an insatiable thirst to learn more as different cultures open up to her.
Indeed, a surprising proportion of them are “hyperglots”, like Keeley and Krasa, who can speak at least 10 languages. One of the most proficient linguists I meet here, Richard Simcott, leads a team of polyglots at a company called eModeration – and he uses about 30 languages himself.
One of the most well-known polyglots was Cardinal Guiseppe Mezzofanti. With a passion for linguistics, Mezzofanti could speak in at least 40 different languages – although it is said that the total is more around the 70-100 mark.
Ioannis Ikonomou (1964–), translator at the European Commission. He speaks thirty-two modern languages, including twenty-one of the twenty-four official languages of the European Union (the three exceptions being Estonian, Maltese, and Irish).
Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.
So while Jesus' most common spoken language was Aramaic, he was familiar with—if not fluent, or even proficient in—three or four different tongues.
Even Ziad Fazah – who is considered to be one of the most skilled living polyglots – is said to be able to speak 15 languages fluently without any preparation, with his proficiency in the others being unknown.
Across multiple sources, Mandarin Chinese is the number one language listed as the most challenging to learn. The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center puts Mandarin in Category IV, which is the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers.
Bilingual – Two different languages. Trilingual – Three different languages. Polyglot – (Three)/Four+ different languages. Hyperpolyglot – Six+ different languages.
Those aged 35-44 are the second most likely to be able to speak two languages, as 18.5% of people in this age category say they are bilingual. The least likely age group to speak more than one language are those aged 55 and over, as just 15% of people this age say they can speak two languages fluently.
Which are the most widely spoken languages in the world? Some, such as English and Spanish seem obvious, but others may surprise you. Around 7,139 languages are spoken in the world, 90% of which are used in communities of less than 100,000 people, such as tribes or dialects within certain populations.
There are currently 7,117 known languages spoken by people around the world, according to Ethnologue, widely considered to be the most extensive catalogue of the languages of the world.
It's unlikely that we'll see a world that speaks one language any time soon. Protecting each individual countries' cultures is a huge barrier, but an important one to ensure our world is as beautifully diverse as it's always been.
The super-quick answer? Kids (including toddlers) can learn to speak multiple languages at the same time. 2, 3, 4….or more languages at once.
Dysarthria means difficulty speaking. It can be caused by brain damage or by brain changes occurring in some conditions affecting the nervous system, or related to ageing.
If you speak more, you may be considered a polyglot. Polyglots are certainly rare and interesting people: only about 3% of the world's total population can speak four or more languages.