Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

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Cainntear
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby Cainntear » Sun Apr 25, 2021 11:42 am

mentecuerpo wrote:Shakira is a native Spanish speaker, so all the six languages she speaks are derived from Latin.
...
I have not seen Shakira speaking other European languages besides English;

So not all the languages she speaks are derived from Latin, then, cos she speaks English...?
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby sillygoose1 » Sat May 01, 2021 3:48 pm

I think Ludwig Wittgenstein (if he counts as a celebrity) spoke English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and French.
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby einzelne » Tue May 18, 2021 3:12 am

Started to read R.A. Lafferty's Past Master today and came across the following biographical detail in the introduction to the book:

“Every day he went to mass, took a walk round his neighborhood, and settled in to read, watch TV, or work a little bit on his foremost hobby, the learning of languages.”


I googled further and discovered that he was quite a polyglot!

"Among his many intellectual hobbies was etymology, and he had, he once said, “a rough reading knowledge of all the languages of the Latin, German, and Slavic families, as well as Irish and Greek.”
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby DaveAgain » Thu May 20, 2021 8:55 am

UK gov't minister Lord Frost, in a Spectator article is revealed to be a bit of a language buff:
In an eyrie at the top of the Cabinet Office sits David Frost, Boris Johnson’s former Brexit negotiator who is now the cabinet minister responsible for handling the European Union. His office has the genial feel of a don’s study — there’s a book of Anglo-Saxon verse on his table alongside one of Greek poetry — yet mention Frost’s name to even the most mild-mannered EU diplomats and they begin to fume.
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby nooj » Thu May 20, 2021 9:46 am

David Gulpilil is one of the most famous Australian Aboriginal actors we have and he says he speaks 14 languages. His mother was Ganhalpuyngu and his father was Manydjalpuyngu (both varieties of the Djinba language), and he speaks both languages. The other 12 languages probably belong to the same Yolŋu language family spoken in Arnhem Land. It's common for people living in a traditional lifestyle in this region to speak 5-6 languages.
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby lysi » Thu May 20, 2021 11:23 am

The son of the poet Ivan Argüelles, Alexander Argüelles, speaks English, Spanish, French, and German, as well as having dabbled in a few other languages. He also made a dictionary called "English French Spanish German Dictionary" in 2006.

Source: Wikipedia
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby verdastelo » Thu May 20, 2021 4:36 pm

A former Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao could speak 13 Indian languages and a host of foreign languages. He knew Telugu, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Tamil, English, French, Arabic, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin and Persian. The list is incomplete.

Sources: Narasimha Rao, the intellectual giant who never stopped learning, Jayaprabha and Narasimha Rao, P. V. (tr.), and पी वी नरसिम्हा राव
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu May 20, 2021 9:32 pm

lysi wrote:(...)as well as having dabbled in a few other languages.


Dabbled? In a few languages? In this neck of the woods, it's as a polyglot Arguelles is a celebrity.
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby vonPeterhof » Fri May 21, 2021 12:58 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
lysi wrote:(...)as well as having dabbled in a few other languages.


Dabbled? In a few languages? In this neck of the woods, it's as a polyglot Arguelles is a celebrity.

Yeah, in fact this is the first time I'm hearing that his father is a poet :o
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Re: Unsuspected celebrity polyglots

Postby Deinonysus » Fri May 21, 2021 3:10 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
lysi wrote:(...)as well as having dabbled in a few other languages.


Dabbled? In a few languages? In this neck of the woods, it's as a polyglot Arguelles is a celebrity.

I think that's the joke. ;)
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