How many languages is it possible for a person to speak?

03 November 2005

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Scientists have long studied how language abilities can be impaired. We know, for example, how a stroke or auto accident can injure areas of the brain that are important for speech. But we don't know enough about exceptionally strong language ability -- about the upper limits of language learning.

It's not unusual for someone to speak two or three languages -- they're bilinguals, or trilinguals. Beyond that, we talk about speakers of multiple languages as "polyglots." I know, it's an ugly-sounding word, but I'd be greatly pleased to be thought of as a polyglot. It would put me in the company of people like Pope John Paul II, famous for his language skills. At a certain point -- and here we’re talking about people who speak many languages, maybe even a dozen, or more -- we can use the term "hyper-polyglot," which was coined a few years ago by linguist Richard Hudson. There's always a question about how well they speak the languages. We know more about them through anecdotes than we do through science; but still, such people exist, and their language feats are astonishing.

The most famous hyper-polyglot was probably Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian Cardinal, who was reputed to speak 72 languages. The claim sounds preposterous. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, and Mezzofanti could remember a word infallibly after meeting it only once, he'd still have to learn a word a minute, 12 hours a day for five-and-a-half years. Not likely. But Mezzofanti was constantly tested by critics, and they were all impressed. One of them even called him "the Devil" because of his uncanny skill. Even if the stories are exaggerated, he was clearly some kind of linguistic superstar.

Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through motivation and hard work?

It's true that, after you have learned a second language, the third, fourth and other languages come easier, especially if the languages are related. You know more about how languages work, so in effect, you become an expert learner. Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, believes that exceptional language learners just work harder at it, and have a better understanding of how they learn. As an example, he cites a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the cold war. When she was 86 she could speak 16 languages, including Chinese and Russian, and was working on Hebrew. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks. She learned Russian from romantic novels and Spanish from a translation of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Some researchers argue to the contrary, that there's such a thing as a talent for learning languages. Such people score higher on verbal ability tests, though they're not necessarily more intelligent than the rest of us. Other researchers argue that there's something special about the actual brain of a hyper-polyglot. In the only detailed study, a German neuroscientist examined slices of a preserved brain, which belonged to hyper-polyglot Emil Krebs. Before he died in 1930, Krebs was said to speak 60 languages fluently. The scientists found that an area of Krebs' brain called Broca's region, which is associated with language, looked different from the brains of 11 monolingual men. But we still don't know if Krebs was born with a brain primed to learn languages, or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.

So how many languages can a person learn? In theory -- except for having enough time to learn them-- there's no limit to the human capacity for language. Everyone is potentially a polyglot, maybe even a hyper-polyglot. But if so, why aren't there more people like Emil Krebs or Giuseppe Mezzofanti? Is hyper-polyglottism a matter of genetics?

The jury's still out about whether some people are born with the ability to learn exceptional numbers of languages. But there's no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in second, third and fourth languages by putting our minds to it. And when we do, we enrich our lives.

That's the language thought for today, which comes from Michael Erard, linguist and writer in Austin, Texas. And this is the Five-Minute Linguist at the College of Charleston, in cooperation with the National Museum of Language. Visit our website at www.cofc.edu/linguist . And keep in mind that wherever you are, and whatever you do... language makes a difference.

Comments

Posted by: Eugenio Carlos Brito at December 19, 2005 02:42 PM