5.5 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List of polyglots | 5/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_polyglots | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:12:10.749388+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Europe === John C. Wells (1939–), British phonetician. He studied Latin and Ancient Greek at university, and speaks English, German, Welsh, French, Spanish, Italian, Modern Greek, and Esperanto with varying degrees of fluency. He also has some knowledge of Polish, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Japanese. Werner Herzog (1942–), German filmmaker. In addition to his native Bavarian, he knows German, English, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, and some Italian. Queen Silvia of Sweden (1943–), spouse of King Carl XVI Gustaf. The daughter of a German father and a Brazilian mother, she speaks German and Portuguese natively. She also knows Spanish, French, English, and Swedish, and has some knowledge of Swedish sign language. André Rieu (1949–), Dutch violinist and conductor. He speaks Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian. Arsène Wenger (1949–), French football manager. He speaks French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian, and has some knowledge of Japanese. Noel Malcolm (1956–), British historian. He speaks most Western and Eastern European languages. Ranga Yogeshwar (1959–), Luxembourgish physicist and science journalist. He speaks Luxembourgish, German, English, French, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, and Malayalam. Johan Vandewalle (1960–), Belgian linguist. In 1987, at the age of twenty-six, he won the Polyglot of Flanders/Babel Prize, after demonstrating communicative competence in nineteen languages (Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Kyrgyz, Persian, Russian, Swahili, Tajik, Tatar, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvan, Uyghur, and Uzbek). Frans Timmermans (1961–), Dutch politician. He speaks Dutch, English, German, French, Italian, and Russian. Sigrid Kaag (1961–), Dutch politician. She speaks Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, and Arabic. Elia Wallgrén (1961–), Finnish Orthodox archbishop. He speaks Finnish, Estonian, Swedish, English, German, Spanish, Czech, Polish, and Russian with varying degrees of fluency. José Mourinho (1963–), Portuguese football manager. He speaks Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Catalan, and English. 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). Among the other languages that he speaks are Russian, Bengali, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Mandarin. He has also studied a number of ancient languages, such as Old Church Slavonic, Classical Armenian, Sanskrit, Sogdian, and Assyro-Babylonian. Karin Kneissl (1965–), Austrian diplomat and politician. She speaks German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic, and has some knowledge of Russian, Hungarian, and Hebrew. Connie Nielsen (1965–), Danish actress. She speaks Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, English, German, French, Italian, and some Spanish. Anatoly Moskvin (1966–), Russian linguist, arrested in 2011 after twenty-six mummified bodies were discovered in his home. He has studied thirteen languages. Mikheil Saakashvili (1967–), former president of Georgia. He speaks Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian, English, and French, and has some command of Spanish and Ossetian. Gianni Infantino (1970–), current president of FIFA. Born in Switzerland to Italian parents, he speaks Italian, French, and Swiss German natively. He also knows English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Toto Wolff (1972–), Austrian motorsport executive. He speaks German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Polish. Željko Joksimović (1972–), Serbian singer-songwriter. He speaks Serbian, Russian, Polish, Greek, English, and French. Clarence Seedorf (1976–), Dutch former footballer. He speaks Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Surinamese. Richard Simcott (1977–), British language consultant. He speaks sixteen languages (English, French, Spanish, Welsh, German, Macedonian, Swedish, Italian, Serbian, Portuguese, Czech, Catalan, Russian, Dutch, Romanian, and Albanian) and can use around fifty languages in total to some degree. Zdeno Chára (1977–), Slovak ice hockey player. He speaks Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, Swedish, German, and English. Daniel Tammet (1979–), British author. In his book Born on a Blue Day, he states that he knows ten languages: English, German, Icelandic, French, Spanish, Romanian, Welsh, Lithuanian, Finnish, and Esperanto. Victor Bayda (c. 1981–), Russian linguist. He speaks Russian, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Icelandic, Swedish, English, Dutch, German, and French. Philip Crowther (1981–), Luxembourgish journalist. He speaks Luxembourgish, German, English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. Mikel Arteta (1982–), Spanish football manager. He speaks Basque, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, French, Italian, and English. Novak Djokovic (1987–), Serbian tennis player. He speaks Serbian, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Ivan Rakitić (1988–), Croatian footballer. He speaks Croatian, English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Miralem Pjanić (1990–), Bosnian footballer. He speaks Bosnian, Luxembourgish, German, English, French, and Italian. Romelu Lukaku (1993–), Belgian footballer. He speaks Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Lingala.