9.1 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List of polyglots | 2/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_polyglots | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:12:10.749388+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== 19th century === William Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865), Irish mathematician. Encouraged by his uncle, he learnt many languages while still young, including Latin, Greek, Hindustani, Bengali, Marathi, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Malay. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882), American poet. He knew Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. He also had some knowledge of Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Finnish. Jan Prosper Witkiewicz (1808–1839), Polish-Lithuanian explorer and diplomat. He spoke Polish, Russian, English, German, French, Persian, Pashto, Kazakh, and Chagatai Turkish. Solomon Caesar Malan (1812–1894), British clergyman. He was conversant with around eighty languages, including German, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Tibetan. Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898), Prussian statesman. In addition to his native language, German, he spoke English and French, and to a lesser extent Italian, Russian, Polish, and Plattdeutsch. He also had some knowledge of Latin. Herschell Filipowski (1816–1872), Lithuanian-born British actuary and editor. He was conversant with Polish, Russian, German, English, French, Spanish, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese. Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political theorist. He spoke German, English, and French, and could read Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, and Russian. C. V. Runganada Sastri (1819–1881), Indian civil servant. The Dictionary of Indian Biography states that he knew English, German, French, Latin, Greek, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindustani, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Arabic, and some Hebrew. Other sources suggest he also knew Italian. Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), German political theorist. He spoke German, English, Danish, French, Italian, and Spanish, and to a lesser extent Russian, Polish, and Romanian. He also studied a number of other languages, including Greek, Latin, Portuguese, Dutch, Frisian, Gothic, Irish, Czech, Slovenian, Serbian, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish, and Japanese. Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890), British explorer and writer. He knew twenty-nine languages and eleven dialects, including Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Provençal, Béarnais, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindustani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Marathi, Telugu, Toda, Arabic, Somali, and Swahili. Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890), German businessman and archaeologist. He knew eighteen languages, including German, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian. Pedro II (1825–1891), last emperor of Brazil. He spoke Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Latin, German, Hebrew, and Tupi-Guarani, and could read Provençal, Greek, Sanskrit, and Arabic. Pashko Vasa (1825–1892), Albanian writer. He spoke Albanian, Italian, French, Greek, and Turkish. He also knew some English and Serbo-Croatian, and in his later years learnt Arabic. Georg Sauerwein (1831–1904), German translator and private tutor. He spoke and wrote twenty-six languages. Pétrus Ký (1837–1898), Vietnamese scholar. He spoke eight languages and had reasonable competence in several others. James Murray (1837–1915), Scottish lexicographer. He was familiar with a wide range of languages and dialects, including Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Provençal, Vaudois, Anglo-Saxon, Mœso-Gothic, German, Dutch, Flemish, Danish, Russian, Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, Phoenician, and Coptic. Nikodim Milaš (1845–1915), Serbian Orthodox bishop and saint. He could read Serbian, Russian, German, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. Naim Frashëri (1846–1900), Albanian writer. He wrote in Albanian, Greek, Persian, and Turkish. He also knew French, Italian, and Arabic. Sami Frashëri (1850–1904), Albanian writer. He knew Albanian, Greek, French, Italian, Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. Eduardo Toda y Güell (1852–1941), Spanish diplomat. He spoke seven languages. Emilio Kosterlitzky (1853–1928), Russian-born Mexican soldier. He spoke Russian, Polish, Spanish, French, Italian, English, German, Danish, and Swedish. Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet. He spoke and wrote five European languages: French, Italian, Spanish, English, and German. He also knew Arabic, Amharic, Harari, Oromo, and Somali, and may have had some knowledge of Argobba, Tigrinya, and a now-extinct language named Kotou. Robert Dick Wilson (1856–1930), American Bible scholar. He learnt twenty-six languages and dialects, including Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Arabic. Nikola Tesla (1856–1943), Serbian-American inventor. He spoke eight languages, including Serbo-Croatian, English, German, French, and Italian. Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1859–1906), Austro-Hungarian diplomat. He spoke sixteen languages, including Japanese, Russian, Turkish, and Hebrew. L. L. Zamenhof (1859–1917), creator of Esperanto. He spoke Russian, Polish, Yiddish, German, and French natively or at a native level. He also spoke English, but not well. He knew four classical languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and two constructed languages, Volapük and Esperanto, and may have had some knowledge of Italian and Lithuanian. José Rizal (1861–1896), Filipino writer and nationalist. He spoke or could read Tagalog, Visayan, Ilocano, Cebuano, Subanen, Malay, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Catalan, Latin, English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Russian, Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese. Emil Krebs (1867–1930), German diplomat. By the time he left school, he could speak twelve languages. In 1914, he calculated that he could translate to and from German in thirty-two languages. Later he was said to know sixty or sixty-five languages, including English, Dutch, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Irish, Greek, Albanian, Armenian, Persian, Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Georgian, Basque, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian, Coptic, Swahili, Turkish, Tatar, Mongolian, Manchu, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Malay, and Javanese. Minakata Kumagusu (1867–1941), Japanese scholar. He could read eighteen or nineteen languages, including Latin, Greek, Persian, and Arabic. Rıza Tevfik Bölükbaşı (1869–1949), Turkish politician. He knew Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Albanian, Armenian, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew. Ahatanhel Krymsky (1871–1942), Ukrainian scholar. At the age of twenty-five, he was proficient in seventeen languages. Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), Indian philosopher. He could speak, read, and write Bengali, English, and French; read and write Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek; speak and read Gujarati, Marathi, and Hindi; and read German, Italian, and Spanish. Harold Williams (1876–1928), New Zealand journalist. He knew more than forty languages, including Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian, Ilocano, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Old Church Slavonic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Greek, Armenian, Persian, Sanskrit, Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Georgian, Turkish, Tatar, Buryat, Japanese, and Chinese. Hrachia Acharian (1876–1953), Armenian linguist. Among the languages he knew were Armenian, Greek, English, German, French, Italian, Latin, Persian, Sanskrit, Hebrew, and Laz. Harinath De (1877–1911), Indian scholar. He knew Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Arabic. He also had some knowledge of Danish, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Old and Middle High German, Portuguese, Romanian, Provençal, Hebrew, Turkish, and Chinese. Martin Buber (1878–1965), Austrian philosopher. He spoke German, Yiddish, English, French, Italian, Polish, and Hebrew, and could read Dutch, Spanish, Latin, and Greek. Muhammad Shahidullah (1885–1969), Bengali linguist. He knew twenty-four languages. Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969), Vietnamese statesman. In addition to his native language, Vietnamese, he knew French, English, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Ahmad Kasravi (1890–1946), Iranian scholar. He knew Persian, Middle Persian, Armenian, English, Arabic, and Esperanto. Edmund Wilson (1895–1972), American literary critic. He studied French and Italian at university, and later learnt to read German, Russian, Hebrew, and some Hungarian. Roman Jakobson (1896–1982), Russian linguist. He knew around twenty languages, including Russian, Czech, Bulgarian, French, and German. William James Sidis (1898–1944), American child prodigy. He knew English, German, Russian, French, Latin, Greek, Armenian, and Turkish. Paul Robeson (1898–1976), American singer and activist. He spoke ten languages, including Russian, German, French, Spanish, and Chinese, and had knowledge of a further ten. He sang in more than fifty languages.