There’s a story going around about a 19th Century priest named Giuseppe Mezzofanti who claimed to speak forty to fifty languages. Hyperpolyglots, or those who speak six or more languages fluently, offer some key insights into learnings language. Michael Erard chronicles all this in his linguistic cliffhanger, Babel No More: The Search for Extraordinary Language Learners. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Hyperpolyglots”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
If you’ve ever tried to learn a foreign language, you’ll probably be as amazed as I was by the story of a 19th century Catholic priest named Giuseppe Mezzofanti.
In the early 1800s, tourists to the city of Bologna returned home with these rapturous accounts of this priest’s extraordinary abilities when it came to language.
He himself claimed to speak between 40 and 50 foreign languages. But was that really true? And what was his secret?
People who can speak at least six languages fluently are known as hyperpolyglots. They’re sort of the Olympic athletes of language. But what is it about them that makes it easy to become fluent in all those languages when you and I struggle to master just one?
And are there any modern-day mezzofantis? Well, those are some of the questions that Michael Erard set out to explore in his new book. It’s called Babble No More, The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners.
Now, Grant, as you know, Michael Erard has a background in linguistics, but he’s also one of the few people who happen to know how to write a book about language that reads like a mystery.
He travels the world to interview hyperpolyglots. He delves into neuroscience and takes a look at the preserved brain tissue of gifted language learners. He uses his online survey to find 167 hyperpolyglots all around the world, and he uncovers some surprising answers about what a lot of them have in common.
Now, this is a book that’s really chewy with information. I can’t possibly go into all of it here, but let me just say that I blame the author for a couple of sleepless nights because this is a guy who knows how to write a linguistic cliffhanger.
And along the way, you’ll appreciate this, he tosses in some really nice turns of phrase. Like, for example, at one point he describes his own experience of taking a college-level Russian class. And this is a horrible class. The teacher is awful, super boring, grammatical rules and drills.
And Grant, you’ll appreciate this, he says of that dry, dusty language professor’s style, he taught like a jaded stripper. Isn’t that fabulous?
I’ve had, unfortunately, I’ve had a couple of language professors like that. And, you know, that’s no way to teach a foreign language. It doesn’t have to be that way.
I got an advanced look at this book, and Grant, obviously, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And you can find out more about it at babbelnomore.com. That’s babbel like the tower of Babbel, B-A-B-E-L, babbelnomore.com.
Thanks, Martha. Sounds like a wonderful book.
If you’ve got a language book that we should tell our listeners about, drop us a line, words@waywordradio.org, or let us know on the telephone, 877-929-9673.
