6.4 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List of polyglots | 4/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_polyglots | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:12:10.749388+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== 1930s ==== Barry Farber (1930–2020), American radio host. When inducted into the army, he qualified for work in fourteen languages. He had some knowledge of twenty-five languages in total. George Fernandes (1930–2019), Indian politician. In addition to his mother tongue, Konkani, he spoke Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Tulu. He also knew Latin. P. B. Sreenivas (1930–2013), Indian singer. He spoke eight languages, including Kannada, Urdu, and English. Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou (1930–1989), Iranian politician. He spoke Kurdish, Persian, English, German, French, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Turkish, Azerbaijani, and Arabic. Jon Elia (1931–2002), Pakistani poet. He knew Urdu, Sanskrit, Persian, English, Arabic, and Hebrew. Corazon Aquino (1933–2009), former president of the Philippines. She spoke Kapampangan, Tagalog, English, Spanish, French, and Japanese. Kenneth L. Hale (1934–2001), American linguist. He spoke over fifty languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Irish, Polish, Basque, Turkish, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Navajo, Jemez, Hopi, Oʼodham, Wômpanâak, Ulwa, Miskitu, Warlpiri, and Lardil. Jeong Su-il (1934–2025), Chinese-born North Korean spy. He spoke Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Malay, Arabic, Persian, Russian, French, Spanish, German, and English. William Fulco (1936–2021), American Jesuit priest and scholar. He knew nine languages, including Latin, Greek, German, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Pope Francis (1936–2025), former leader of the Catholic Church. Born in Argentina and of Italian descent, he spoke Spanish and Italian natively. In addition, he knew Latin, and could converse in German, French, Portuguese, and English. Madeleine Albright (1937–2022), former U.S. secretary of state. She spoke Czech, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, English, German, and French. Ivan Argüelles (1939–2024), American poet. He knew most of the Romance languages (including Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, Provençal, and Romanian) and a number of Indic languages (Hindi, Bengali, Sinhala, and Nepali), as well as Persian, German, Russian, Arabic, and some Chinese. He also studied Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Old Scandinavian, and Old Icelandic.
==== Post-1930s ==== Michael Henry Heim (1943–2012), American literary translator. He knew twelve languages and translated from eight of them: Russian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, German, Dutch, French, Romanian, and Hungarian. John Boswell (1947–1994), American historian. He spoke or read several Scandinavian languages, Old Icelandic, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, early and modern Russian, Old Church Slavonic, Armenian, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, and Akkadian. Daniel Kane (1948–2021), Australian linguist. He knew English, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Chinese, Jurchen, Khitan, and Esperanto. J. Jayalalithaa (1948–2016), Indian politician and actress. She spoke Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, and English. Robert Hübner (1948–2025), German chess grandmaster. He spoke a dozen languages. Sergei Starostin (1953–2005), Russian linguist. He spoke Russian, Polish, English, German, and French, and could read a further thirteen Slavic languages, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit. Through his research, he had some knowledge of a wide range of other languages. Dikembe Mutombo (1966–2024), Congolese basketball player. He spoke English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Tshiluba, Swahili, Lingala, and two other Central African languages. Shahab Ahmed (1966–2015), Pakistani scholar. He mastered around fifteen languages. Moses McCormick (1981–2021), American YouTuber. He spoke around twenty languages at a basic conversational level.
== Living ==
=== Africa === Peter Turkson (1948–), Ghanaian Catholic cardinal. In addition to his native language, Fante, he speaks a number of other Ghanaian languages, as well as English, French, Italian, German, and Hebrew. He also knows Latin and Greek. Mohamoud Dirir Gheddi (1959–) Ethiopian politician. He speaks Somali, Oromo, Amharic, Harari, Arabic, English, French, and some Tigrigna. Trevor Noah (1984–), South African comedian. He speaks English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Tsonga, and some German.
=== Asia === Lokesh Chandra (1927–), Indian scholar. He knows Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi, Avestan, Old Persian, Greek, Latin, French, German, English, Russian, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Japanese, and Indonesian. Mickey Curtis (1938–), Japanese actor and singer. He speaks Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, and Thai. Bartholomew I (1940–), Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. He knows Turkish, Greek, English, German, French, Italian, and Latin. Levon Ter-Petrosyan (1945–), former president of Armenia. He speaks Armenian, Russian, French, English, German, Arabic, and Assyrian. He also knows a number of ancient languages. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (1947–), former president of the Philippines. She speaks Tagalog, Kapampangan, Ilocano, Cebuano, Spanish, and English. Malcolm Ranjith (1947–), current archbishop of Colombo. He speaks Sinhala, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Tamil, and Indonesian. He also knows Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Péter Frankl (1953–), Hungarian mathematician, now living in Japan. He speaks eleven languages, including Hungarian, Japanese, Chinese, English, and French. Kamal Haasan (1954–), Indian actor. He speaks Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, and English. Shabnam Mausi (1955–), Indian politician. She speaks twelve languages. Naela Chohan (1958–), Pakistani diplomat. She speaks Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Persian, English, French, and Spanish. Prakash Raj (1965–), Indian actor. He speaks Kannada, Tulu, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, and English. Hikmat Hasanov (1975–), Azerbaijani military officer. He speaks Azerbaijani, Turkish, Armenian, Russian, English, and Persian. Asin Thottumkal (1985–) Indian actress. She speaks Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, and French. Priya Anand (1986–), Indian actress. She speaks Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Spanish, and English. Henrikh Mkhitaryan (1989–), Armenian footballer. He speaks Armenian, Russian, English, German, French, and Portuguese.