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Shouldn't this article move from "multilingual" to "polyglot": the article is about polyglots (people with the unusual ability of speaking dozens of languages) rather than multilingualism (the more widespread ability to speak two or more languages). Quite different from what is discussed at bilingual; this last article could be renamed multilingual, since there is nothing much special in speaking two languages fluently as opposed to speaking more than one language fluently. Then, the bilingual title would be freed for an article on "true" bilingualism i.e. people who speak two languages (or more ???) equally fluently. --FvdP

I (the original article's creator) concur. --Gabbe 16:31 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)

Why was it moved? (I'm neutral just curious.) This page title originally was polyglot.--Jondel 01:47, 20 Aug 2004 (UTC)

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hint : Georg Sauerwein (1831 - 1904) multlingual poet

Georg Julius Justus Sauerwein was born on 15. January 1831. His father worked as pastor in 0annover, Bodenstedt and Gronau in northern Germany. From 1843 to 1848 he went to the gymnasium (comprehensive secondary school) in Hannover. It is said, that he could read, write and talk about 60 languages, at least the following Latin, ancient Greek, New Greek, Hebrew , French, Italian, Spanish, Basque, Portuguese,English, Welsh, Erse(native Irish), Gaelic(native Scotish) , Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedisch, language of Lapland , Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, Belarus , Ukrainian, Sorbian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian, Albanian, Turkish, language of Azerbajian, Tschuwaschisch ( could not find english translation: a caucasian language) , Tamil, Kaschgarisch (spoken in Siberia , similar to the language of Uzbekistan), Kumykisch ( spoken in Siberia), Persian, Armenian. Georgian, Sanskrit, Romani (language of the gipsi), Hindustani, Kabylish, Ethiopian, Tigrisch ( another language of Ethiopia ), Coptic, ancient Egyptian, Arabic, language of Madagascar, Malaysian, Samoan, Hawaian, different dialects of Chinese , Cornish, Aneitum ( language spoken on the New Hebrides), Manxish (language spoken on the isle of Man), translated from "Das Sprachgenie Georg Sauerwein" by Hans Masalski Oldenburg 2003 ISBN 3-89621-157-9

I guess "Tschuwaschisch" is the Chuvash language.

Dubious claims

I question the value of citing unsupported claims of vast numbers of languages that someone of the present or the past is "said to have spoken". Being multilingual myself, I have often heard vastly exaggerated accounts of my own linguistic abilities from people utterly unqualified to assess them. Many of the claims presented here, I'm willing to bet, are similarly distorted, with three words written in Chuvash magically becoming fluency in Chuvash or a reading knowledge of a dozen languages becoming oral mastery of a hundred. In any case, if no standard for evaluating linguistic competence is offered, the reader cannot begin to know what these claims mean.

I suggest that the list of polyglots be edited or dropped altogether. At a minimum, any attribution of a specific number of languages to a person should be supported by a reference.

Shorne