Ales

I have heared many times that the pope and many other catholic dignitaries speak an enormous number of languages. Do you believe them? Always when I heared the pope speaking allegedly Czech, a language very similar to pope's native Polish, I didn't even recognize, it was in Czech. I think it is more a catholic propaganda, and it is easy to claim knowledge of a language after you learned a few basic sentences.

IvanK

I heard the current Pope speak in a Spanish-speaking country several years ago and from what I could tell his rather lengthy speech was in elegant Spanish. He generally does read his speeches though. Latin gave birth to Spanish as well as Italian, French, Portugese and Rumanian. He was born and raised in Poland which would give him a leg up on German and Slavic languages. If he were a scholar of the Christian Scriptures in original languages that would give him ancient Hebrew and Greek as well.

Bottom line: you don't get to be Pope unless you've got something on the ball mentally.

DB_Hunter

Polish ain't anywhere NEAR close to German - I should know, because I speak Polish fluently and have German friends. Knowing Polish gives you a basis for the Slavic languages, though not a great one - there are large conjugation and vocabulary differences in the different specific languages. Then there are the dialects - the gorale ("hillbillies," basically) of the southern Polish mountains have a completely different dialect than those of my area (southeast), and the ones on the Belorus border speak polish with a Russian accent... You've really got ot hae good ear for languages to sift through accents and understand people, expecially if you speak a number of languages.

I was in Austin two weeks ago, listening to a song on the radio - it was a club mix of a Polish song, but I didn't recognize it at first. I didn't sound Spanish (this is Texas), but it did sound Eastern European. Then the chorus hit, and I got it - nearly ran off the road laughing... The song's Banja u Czygana, or Party at the Gypsy's (Place) in English, by Zero. I told my friend about it, and he knew the song and though it was cool - but didn't know it was Polish.

Anyway, the Pope speaks about 17 or so languages fluently, and probably closer to 20 more to get by/do speeches in.

DB

Pandora

Pope John Paul II speaks eight languages, though not all of them fluently:
Polish, Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and English

Boro Nut

...and Pope, obviously.

Ales

So it is nothing supernatural. If he lived in Poland during WWII he must have learned German, if he lived in Poland during Communists' era, he must have learn Russian-actually this is similar to Polish-I heard Italian and Spanish are similar, both being relatively easy, I have no idea about Portuguese, English is a must and French to know the enemy’s language. But I am sure I heard about tens of languages-obviously he cannot prove that he is exceptional by claiming successful scientific investigation or something like this, he can only resort to these claims or exorcism.

leonarde

No, it is nothing supernatural but individual
ability in this area varies widely from individual
to individual, even if you live in a language-diverse country/region. Among some famous
polyglots: Hemingway (English, French, Spanish,
Italian, and, I think, German).
Ezra Pound (poets REALLY tend to be big on languages): 8 or so languages including classical
ones.
George Orwell: about 8 languages (including 2 or 3
he learned in Burma).
Thomas Jefferson: 4 or 5 (Latin, French, Italian,
and probably Greek).
Russian poet Mandelstam: 5 or 6 MODERN languages.
Mark Twain studied a lot of German.
etc.

PopeInTheWoods

Given his education and career choice, I'm guessing he's also literate in Latin and Greek.

Andy

Ales

I also think that it is interesting to note that an interpreter, who translates in various specialised fields, must know say 400 000 words and can claim that she speaks only two languages. but someone who learns 20 000 words from 20 languages is a "polyglot".

[ March 27, 2002: Message edited by: Ales ]</p>

leonarde

A vy mluvite c'esky?