Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who masters or becomes fluent in many different
languages
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Additionally, for the multilingual, learning another language is a way to participate in their community, but for a hyperpolyglot, it always brings them away from their community -- their local community, anyway.
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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The question is, do hyperpolyglot brains have some functional or structural difference that precedes intensive language learning?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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NK: Is every healthy human born with the possibility of becoming a hyperpolyglot?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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Also, a hyperpolyglot doesn't have much of a role to play in the future of any given language, whereas a multilingual does.
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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ME: I started my investigations with the definition that a hyperpolyglot is someone who speaks six or more languages, based on work by Dick Hudson, a University College London linguist, but that ought to be revised upward, to 11 languages or more.
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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NK: How fluent does one have to be in each language to be considered a hyperpolyglot?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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NK: What's the difference between a multilingual and a hyperpolyglot?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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The hyperpolyglot also keeps a set of languages "on ice" -- ones that are not kept active or immediately available but which need to be "warmed up" for use.
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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NK: How fluent does one have to be in each language to be considered a hyperpolyglot?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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NK: What's the difference between a multilingual and a hyperpolyglot?
Nataly Kelly: Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners Nataly Kelly 2011
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With a mere ten languages, Shakespeare’s Queen does not qualify as a hyperpolyglot; the accepted threshold is eleven.
The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages Condé Nast 2018
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The word “hyperpolyglot” was coined two decades ago, by a British linguist, Richard Hudson, who was launching an Internet search for the world’s greatest language learner.
The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages Condé Nast 2018
ecrivaine33 commented on the word hyperpolyglot
I learned this one just this week when the Google blog had an article about a guy who was one and speaks over 50-something languages - wow.
A hyperpolyglot is one who can speak six or more languages fluently. The term was coined by the linguist Richard Hudson in 2003 and derives from the word "polyglot", meaning one who can speak multiple languages.
Hyperpolyglot on Wikipedia
August 28, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hyperpolyglot
I'm jealous.
August 28, 2007
uselessness commented on the word hyperpolyglot
While learning all those languages is certainly no easy task, I'd think keeping them all straight afterward would be a pretty impossible feat in itself. He could know fifty words for hello but probably forget which one is correct for the language he's speaking at the moment. At least, I would.
August 28, 2007
reesetee commented on the word hyperpolyglot
True, yet I'm still jealous.
August 28, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hyperpolyglot
Me too! In middle school, a time of many wildly impossible ideas, I decided that I was going to learn sixteen languages. I am sorry to report that I am still working on language number two!
August 28, 2007
oroboros commented on the word hyperpolyglot
So, como se va?
August 28, 2007
jennarenn commented on the word hyperpolyglot
Ca va bien, merci.
August 30, 2007
valse commented on the word hyperpolyglot
Hmm, I know of Daniel Tammet and the pope. Over 50...that's downright unfathomable.
September 2, 2007