London, 41
as most multilingual city, 10, 71, 278
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 75
Lord’s Prayer, 11
Luiseño language, 31, 267
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 jet crash (1993), 55
MacEachern, Scott, 190–91, 206
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 159
Mair, Victor, 149
Malayalam language, 196
Malay language, 42, 88, 131
Maltese language, 4, 31, 43
Manavit, Augustin, 36
Manchurian language, 149, 151
Mandinka language, 112
Marathi language, 47n, 193, 194, 202
Marvelous Possessions (Greenblatt), ix
Maryland, University of, 24
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 81, 83, 190, 226
Massachusetts language, 76
Maswary, Dave, 109
Mayan calendar, 119n
Mecca, 47
Mediterranean Sea, 3
memory, 11, 24, 25, 34, 36, 38, 62, 63, 95, 163–65, 175, 240, 259
boosting of, 237
decay and loss of, 18, 73, 102n, 137
declarative, 288
long-term, 133, 134, 135, 143, 234, 236, 237
photographic, 92
procedural, 165, 287–88
verbal, 163
visual, 236
working, 98, 134–37, 139–40, 227–28, 233, 236, 263, 275, 293
metaphors, 31, 96
“Mexican” language, 43
Mexico, 14, 87–89, 118
pre-Columbian, 60
Mezzofanti, Francis, 32, 35
Mezzofanti, Giuseppe Cardinal, 4, 18, 24, 48, 50–54, 67, 78, 84, 92–93
asceticism and humility of, 37, 60–61
biographies of, 16, 36, 37, 40, 41–44, 45, 58, 137–38, 277, 285, 294
birth of, 32, 33, 58
celebrity of, 58, 81
childhood and adolescence of, 32–36, 148
correspondence of, 30–31, 39, 61, 93
death and burial of, 33, 59
education of, 32–35, 36–37
extraordinary linguistic skills of, 3–6, 11, 12, 16–17, 19, 30–32, 35–44, 56–63, 74, 100, 113, 115, 137–38, 210, 222
handwriting of, 30–31, 39, 60, 93, 268
historic archive of, 27–32, 36, 38–40, 57–62, 93, 267–69, 269
illnesses of, 35, 37, 124
knowledge and humor of, 11
as librarian, 3, 57–62, 261
personal library of, 58–60, 267
poetry of, 30, 31, 57, 60–61
priesthood of, 3, 33, 35–38, 46, 58–60
skepticism about, 42, 61–62, 92–93, 101, 105, 140
social rank of, 46
teaching of, 35
testing of, 6, 16–17, 109
migration, 8, 84–85, 90–91, 140, 190
Mikolainis, Peter, 153–54
Milton, John, 194, 280
Mind of a Savant, The: Language Learning and Modularity (Smith and Tsimpli), 94–97, 98, 283
Minnesota, University of, 259
Mismeasure of Man, The (Gould), 177
Mithridates, King of Persia, 4, 12, 42
mnemonics, 99
Moby-Dick (Melville), 17
Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), 163
modularity, 97–98
Mongolian language, 149, 151
monolingualism, 8, 20, 35, 47, 52, 63, 90, 140
culture and, 18, 206
Moore, Leslie, 190, 206, 290
morphology, 22
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 23, 83
multicompetence, 52–56
multilingualism, 18, 21–26, 34, 52–54, 68, 89–93, 174
countries strong in, 85, 188–205
political evolution of, 90–91
musical ability, 23, 57, 99, 163, 171n, 179, 231
Muslims, 47, 191, 192, 197, 200
Myers-Briggs personality type test, 215
Myers-Scotton, Carol, 13
Napoleón I, Emperor of France, 35
Narraganset language, 76
nationalism, 51, 84, 90
Native Americans, 40, 76, 148, 219
“natural education,” 79
Navajo language, 82
nervous system, 85n, 86
neural tribe, 15, 213, 214–16, 229, 234, 239, 242–43, 247, 265
neurodiversity, 214
Neurodiversity (Armstrong), 214–15
New Age movement, 119n
New Testament, 58–59, 75, 76
New York, N.Y., 7, 10, 67, 80, 119, 153–54
New York Times, 79n
New York University, 158
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 85
Nigeria, 8
Nilep, Chad, 89
Norwegian language, 75, 81, 97
nouns, 11, 34, 82, 239
Nurmekund, Pent, 100, 105
nursery rhymes, 79
Obler, Loraine, 161–62, 164–66, 168–71, 175, 176, 178, 212, 222, 287
O’Brien, Ira T., 74
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 228, 291
Oceanica languages, 42
Odyssey, The (Homer), 75
Olympic Games of 1968 (Mexico), 95
“On the Extraordinary Powers of Cardinal Mezzofanti as a Linguist” (Watts), 41
On the Track of Unknown Animals (Heuvelmans), 248–49
oral skills, assessing of, 25–26
Oregon Health and Science University, 234
Owen, Steven, 149–50
oxytocin, 237
Paget, Polyxena, 5–6, 37
Papiamentu language, 106
Papua New Guinea, 9
Parkinson’s disease, 237
parts of speech, 4, 11
Pascual-Leone, Alvaro, 86
Pasti, Franco, 57–62, 242
Patchett, Ann, 21–22
Pattanayak, D. P., 191
Peace Corps, 162
Peek, Kim, 229
Peguan language, 43, 138
Pennsylvania, University of, 149
Perecman, Ellen, 139
Persian language, 4, 31, 42, 43, 58, 61, 119, 120, 197
“Peruvian” language, 43
Philippines, 85n
Philological Society, 41
philology, 5, 42, 131, 141, 153
phrenology, 77–78
piano playing, 23
pidgin languages, 7, 36
pilots, 54–55
Pimsleur, Paul, 134, 284
Pimsleur method, 134, 239
Pinker, Steven, 226
Pius IX, Pope, 59–60
Poeppel, David, 158, 287
Polish language, 4, 5, 35, 43, 75n, 207, 262
Pollock, Sheldon, 200, 201, 290
“Polyglot, the,” 150
Polyglot in the Library, A (Pasti), 57, 61
Polyglot of Europe contest, 253–57
Polyglot of Flanders contest, 247–48, 250–53, 253
polyglots, 5, 15, 17, 25, 29–30, 41–42
psychotic, 49–50, 280
see also hyperpolyglots
Polyglottery Today (Gunnemark), 92
Porter, E. X., 79n
Portuguese language, 4, 18, 30, 39, 43, 106, 119
positron emission tomography (PET), 157
Prasad, Chandrabhan, 201–2
pronunciation, 9, 11, 22, 36, 37, 40, 89, 158
perfect, 43
social, gender and geographic variations in, 45
Provençal language, 47n, 118, 119
psychosis, 49–50
Punjabi language, 47n, 194
Qing dynasty, 150
quadrilingualism, 190
Quakers, 59
Quechua language, 31, 42
Rain Man, 229
Real Academia Española, 208
recombination, 11
Reiterer, Susanne, 231–32, 234, 235, 292
Renaissance, 28
Renkema, Jan, 207
Respighi, Father, 32
Reuters, 106–7
Ricci, Matteo, 35
Rich, Katherine Russell, 86
Rigby, Christopher Palmer, 47n
Rio de Janeiro, 10
Rochester, University of, 241
Romaic language, 43
Roman Catholic Church, 32, 33
baptism in, 59n
books banned by, 59
confession in, 35–36, 37–38
conversion to, 59
evangelism and missionary work in, 137–38
excesses of, 46
feast days in, 137–38
Propaganda Fide of, 137–38, 261
Romance languages, 34, 44, 96, 115, 119, 120, 218, 254
Romanian language, 4, 104, 119, 255
Romani language, 35
Romanticism, 41, 46
Rome, 3, 4, 16, 33, 41, 57, 59, 137
Rosetta Stone, 239
Rugh, William, 45
Russell, Charles William, 41–44, 45–46, 48, 100, 137–38, 222, 267, 285, 294
Russia, 17
Russian language, 5, 8, 17, 23, 30, 35, 43, 74, 102, 109, 110, 124, 137
study of, 127–29, 251
Russian revolution, 17
Ruthenian language, 42, 153
RWTH Aachen University, 171
Saami language, 109
St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, 41
St. Petersburg, 17, 74
Sakakibara, Yo, 86, 88
“Salamanic” language, 74
Samaritan language, 75, 76
Sanskrit language, 42, 47n, 77, 108, 119, 149, 194–97
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, 49
Sardinian language, 38
Saudi-Arabia, 85n
Sauerwein, Georg, 73–74, 172
schizophrenia, 214
Schrijfwijzer “Style Guide” (Renkema), 207
Schumann, John, 159–60, 237–38
science, 11, 14
empirical, 41
language, 13, 16
medical, 28
neurological, 15, 16, 41, 156–62, 170–75
polyglottery as, 92
Scoresby-Jackson, Robert, 172
Seashore, Carl, 163
Seashore Tests of Musical Ability, 163
self-confidence, 34, 46, 131
Semitic language family, 44
sentences, 18
bilingual, 51
construction of, 11, 22, 56, 82, 83, 96, 99, 142
“dummy subject,” 181n
September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks, 71
Serbian language, 43
Shakespeare, William, 194
Sharma, Arpan, 15
Shaw, George Bernard, 194–95
Shogun, 80
Sicily, 3
Siddhartha, 194–95, 201
Sidis, William James, 79, 282
sign language, 45, 279
Signs of the Savant, The: Language Against the Odds (Smith and Tsimpli), 97–99, 283
Sillmann, Peter, 170–71
Simon, Paul, 72
Sindhi language, 47n
Singapore, 131, 208
Singer, Judy, 214
Sinhalese language, 42
Sino-Tibetan languages, 44n, 112
Skehan, Peter, 164, 227, 284, 287
Skype, 109
slavery, 3
Slavic languages, 44, 75, 153, 218, 252
East Slavic subgroup of, 17
sleep, 143
dreaming in, 48–49
rapid eye movement (REM), 48, 280
Smith, Neil, 94–99
Somali language, 47n
Sorenson, Arthur, 189–90, 289
sound:
mimicking of, 63, 71, 160
perception of, 33
production of, 33, 163
South America, 31
Southern California, University of, 101
Soviet Union, 129, 154–55, 251
Spain, 35
Spanish language, 4, 7, 10, 14, 30, 35, 43, 45, 49–50, 55, 82, 88, 118, 122, 192
Italian relation to, 18
study of, 9, 19–20, 102, 134
speech:
defective, 95
loss of coherence in, 161
mimicking sounds of, 63, 71, 160
monitoring of, 24
organs of, 10, 11, 77
phonetic sounds of, 46
truthful, 45, 279
Spivak, Dimitri, 227
Sprachbund, 195–97, 208
Sprachegefühl, 263–64
Sproat, Richard, 234–35
Sri, 188–89, 192–94, 199, 204
Srinivasaraju, Sugata, 200, 201, 290
stammering, 5
Stanford University, 79
Starchevsky, A. V., 16–17, 267–68
“polyglot college” of, 17
State Department, U.S., 222–23, 291
Stieda, Ludwig, 172
Stoessel, Saskia, 224, 291
Stoner, Winifred Sackville, 79–80
Stoner, Winifred Sackville, Jr. “Cherie,” 78–80, 282
street signs, 10
strokes, 74, 171, 174
Strunk, William, 207
stuttering, 5, 166
Sumerian language, 154
superlearners, see hyperpolyglots
Suzuki, Kenshi, 88
Suzuki, Tomoko, 87–88
Svenska Akademien, 208
Swahili language, 9, 47n, 133
Swedish language, 10, 35, 43, 60, 75, 91, 109, 148, 181
Switzerland, 17–18
syntax, 21, 22, 96–97, 99
syphilis, 154, 156
Syriac language, 43, 75
Syrian language, 4
Tac, Pablo, 267, 294
Tagalog language, 35, 268, 269
Taiwanese language, 20
Tamil language, 75, 120, 131, 188, 194, 196, 198–200, 202, 208, 210, 290
Tammet, Daniel, 229
Teach Yourself Finnish, 81
television, 106, 109
languages on, 10
satellite, 8, 90
Teluga language, 47n, 188–89, 191–94, 196, 198–200, 202
tenses, 123
testosterone, 165, 166
Thai language, 123
Thomas, Michel, 275–76
Tibetan language, 42, 149
Time, 78–79
Toda language, 47n
Tok Pisin language, 9
Tolis, Peter, 75–76
tongues, 10
Tongue-Tied American, The: Confronting the Foreign Language Crisis (Simon), 72
“Tonquinese” language, 42
total language system, 52
Tourette’s syndrome, 230
tourism, 84, 85, 140
Tower of Babel, 5, 12, 44, 197
transcranial direct current stimulation (tDECS), 235–36
translation, 11, 12, 30, 40, 46, 47–48, 53, 58–59, 92, 104
technologies of, 10, 274–75
travel, 8, 14, 24
sea, 68, 147, 154
train, 17–19, 147–48
“Travelling Linguistics” (Ganahl), 84–85
trilingualism, 226
Truss, Lynn, 207
Tsimpli, Ianthi-Maria, 94–99, 283
Tukano language, 190
Turin, University, 6
Turkic language family, 44n
Turkish language, 4, 39, 42, 43, 54, 132, 151, 181, 250–51
Twitter, 15
languages featured on, 10
typewriters, 79
Ukrainian language, 16–17, 104
ultimo dei Mohicani, L’ (Cooper), 40
United Arab Emirates (UAE), 8, 15, 85n
United Nations, 54
United States, 14
counterterrorism strategy in, 71
economic and military power of, 85
English-speaking predominance in, 71–72, 147, 148, 206
intelligence community in, 53–54, 71
language learning in, 9
Latinos in, 22
University Co
llege, London, 67, 94
Uralic language family, 44n
Urdu language, 191, 192, 197
Vandewalle, Johan, 249–56, 253, 269, 293
Vatican, 5
library of, 3
verbs, 11, 31, 34, 82, 123, 124, 239
Victor, Elizabeth, 87
Vietnam, 8
Vietnamese language, 167
visuospatial abilities, 165
Viva el lunes, 109
vocabulary, 34, 42, 45, 99, 233, 275
gaps in, 103
memorizing of, 24, 259
recall of, 11, 96
shared, 48
Vogt, Cécile, 154, 172
Vogt, Oskar, 154–55, 171–73, 175, 178
voices, hearing of, 50
Volovick, Reuben, 153–54
Walkman, 114
Wallachian language, 43
Warlpiri language, 81, 82
Washington, D.C., 70, 132
Washington Post, 73
Watts, Thomas, 41, 43, 44, 100, 279
Welsh language, 10, 43, 75, 118
Wernicke, Carl, 157
White, E. B., 207
Will to plasticity, 14, 85–86, 107, 122, 209, 212
Wikipedia, 73
William II, Kaiser, 147
Williams, Harold, 73
Winner, Ellen, 142, 220, 285
wordplay, 11
words, 22, 33, 37, 38, 163
choosing of, 142
color, 49, 280
connecting of, 46
meaning of, 53, 124
order of, 97, 99, 122–23, 141, 210, 240n
recognition of, 162
rhyming of, 57
spelling of, 78, 96
structure of, 96
World Atlas of Language Structures, 249n
World Bank, 85, 132–33, 261, 282
World Tourism Organization, 85
World War I, 147, 148
World War II, 28, 255
Yemen, 45
Yiddish language, 148, 153
YouTube, 73, 109, 121, 127, 265
Ysaÿe, Eugène, 171n
Zach, Baron von, 5
Zilles, Karl, 171, 172, 175, 177–79, 212, 229, 287, 289
Zimmer, Benjamin, 150, 272
Zoraida, 19
Zulueta, Felicity de, 49–50
About the Author
Michael Erard is not a polyglot. He considers himself a monolingual with benefits. A native speaker of American English, he has lived in South America and Asia, where he learned Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, but please don’t ask him to say anything in those languages. He has graduate degrees in linguistics and rhetoric from the University of Texas at Austin. His writing about language, linguists, and linguistics has appeared in Science, Wired, Atlantic, The New York Times, New Scientist, Slate, and many other publications, and he is a contributing writer for Design Observer. His first book, Um . . . : Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean, a natural history of things we wish we didn’t say (but do), as well as a look at what happens in our culture when we do (and wish we didn’t), was published in 2007. Michael was awarded the Dobie Paisano Writing Fellowship in 2008 to work on Babel No More. See more at www.michaelerard.com.
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