Talk:Multilingualism

assistance request

I don't know how to do the reference properly. Could someone find the link below and move it to the references properly. Thank you. http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/sesquilingual —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.50.129.90 (talk) 03:03, 5 August 2010 (UTC)

Compound and Coordinate Bilingual definitions

The definitions compound and coordinate appear mixed up. Understanding the idiosyncrasies of connotation is an advanced skill, while the beginning student is limited to what their dictionary maps the word to. Therefore the beginning student is treating a word in each language as the same concept until they learn the subtleties. This is complete opposite of what the article suggests.

template added--90.179.235.249 (talk) 20:23, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

I also consider mastering different intonations in different languages an advanced skill, rather than a collateral of poor learning. As a trilingual speaker, I know the importance of the intonations, and that different language families require different "music" of the language to sound rigth. Not even speaking of the pronunciation (also mentioned in the article as a feature of a lower-degree speaker). Try talking e.g. German with English accent. To children (not adults!). And see how much they understand. From my experience - some won't even recognise the language as their mother tongue. So mastering this level of details shows an advanced speaker - probably one who can use both (or more :-) languages to the same extend. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mnikit (talk • contribs) 07:26, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

In response to above comments: This isn't a matter of how proficient the individual is, but rather a matter of how they organize the linguistic information in their mind. In compound multilingualism the speaker stores the lexicons for their languages together, and they have easy access to information across languages. However in coordinate multilingualism the lexical information for each language is relatively separate and independent. The author for this section does include two paragraphs regarding the recent uncertainty on the issue within the linguistics community. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fwnikkei10 (talk • contribs) 06:14, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Requested move

Introductory description has "multilingualism" bolded instead of "multilingual", which is nonexistent. Also, a noun may be more appropriate as an article title than a qualitative adjective.

• Support per request. --70.25.168.90 09:43, 22 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support use nouns. --Tysto 23:18, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

dsfsdf

Result

Moved. WhiteNight ^{T | @ | C} 03:22, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Africa

Would ambilingualism be more common in certain parts of Africa, or is that just a prejudice, and code-switching would actually prevail? 惑乱 分からん 14:39, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Blockquote

Headline text

== Dreadful article! ==

This is a bloody dreadful article, covering too much and still not being very intelligible. We should always attempt to write articles in such a way that they can be understood by people who do not have degrees in the subject. Anyone landing here because he or she searched for "bilingual", meaning someone who is totally fluent in two languages (there are extremely few who master three or more languages equally well, although there are many who can communicate well in 8-10 languages), find themselves drowning in terms like "Multilingualism at the societal level" (what's wrong with the established adjective "social", suddenly?), and lists of areas in the world where more than one language is spoken. Written by predominantly English speakers with none or limited knowledge of other languages, the article seems to equate bilingualism with the ability to make yourself understood (however limited) by someone speaking another language.

I therefore suggest letting bilingualism (i.e. the ability to speak at at least two languages at native level) once again become an article in its own right instead of a redirect, covering this specific theme and referring readers to this broader article, for more in-depth linguistic speak. Thomas Blomberg 02:23, 13 February 2006 (UTC)

For now, I'll stay out of the discussion of whether bilingualism should be its own article. I agree that there is a tendency for these articles to focus on situations in which English is one of the languages involved and to use too much technical jargon.

With that said, clumsy as the use of "societal" may be, it isn't the same thing as "social." The latter generally means simply "involving interactions among persons," which the former usually describes "that which pertains to a society as a whole." One way to improve the sentence (which seems to have been removed in the intervening months) might be something like this:

• Multilingualism within a society ...

or this:

• Multilingualism across a society ...

There are other possibilities, of course, but I think I've made my point. This is an issue that comes up often when one reads critical theory, which is some of the most semantically impenetrable stuff around. For a project such as Wikipedia, it's important that we look for ways to break these ideas down into their component parts whenever possible, and when a word is unquestionably a distinct concept, try to explain that concept in the simplest terms justifiable. Lawikitejana 00:16, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

list of countries and other stuff

That list of countries/regions where several languages are spoken was getting a bit mess looking, I though. I grouped the places by geographical area, with the exception of a few certain territories. The division is just a rough draft. It needs work. Also, several countries have too much info, the list became out of shape. Perhaps this list should be spinned off to a separate page. Hmmm...

OK, I made that list on a separate page. I just cut and pasted it. Please help with it.DDD DDD 12:47, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Someone above complained that the article was heavy with technical terms. That seems fair. Also, the article seems to be saying that bilinguals are on a continuum from only 1 language known to completely/perfectly having two (or more languages). That seems appropriate to me.

On second thought, maybe there should be fewer technical terms.DDD DDD 12:47, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

Promoting bilingualwiki.com

I've just deleted the sentence

Since the year 2000, even parents who speak a foreign language are raising their children from birth to speak that language, such that their children are bilingual from birth and have greater facility learning other languages in the future. Reasons to have done so: 1. It's somehow contradictory with the sentence placed immediatly before it: It is possible, although rare, for children to have and maintain more than one first language.

2. It doesn't seem very logical that the year 2000 means something like an edge, and that before that date children almost always weren't multilingual, while being now. To state something like that, it should at least cite a source. And I think that even then, it could still be objectable.

3. It seems that it was added to promote the website bilingualwiki.com because it links to the article on that site (which is, btw, proposed to be deleted for being only promo for the site). No one would link to such a content-less article without clear intentions to promote the site. --Pfc432 05:19, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Spanish and Portuguese Speakers as Receptive Bilinguals

In the section on receptive bilingualism, it seems to limit the concept to those who are living in a multilingual environment, such as Spanish-speaking immigrants in Japan, where the local language (in this case, Japanese) is prized over a heritage language (Spanish). This seems to dishonestly limit the concept if receptive biliguals must merely be able to understand but not be able to produce the language. Speakers of Spanish, while not being able to write or speak Portuguese without instruction, are able to understand it. This is also true among speakers of some Scandivian langauages. Does this count as receptive bilingualism? I am not sure, and the article is not clear. --chemica 04:43, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Correction please?

This sentance doesn't make any sense to me:

"Being a bilingual does not necessarily mean that you can speak e.g English and American."

Can the person who wrote it (or someone who understands what they were trying to say) correct it, please?

This means that being bilingual could mean that e.g. you speak French and German or Serbian and Romanian, not necessarily German and English, French and English or Serbian and English, etc....

So what ?--136.8.150.6 (talk) 17:24, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

lists and the article

I am not convinced that a list of countries, regions, cities, towns, villages, hamlets, neighbourhoods, streets, ... belongs in this article. When we start listing places, the list soon becomes too unwieldy. We inhabit a big world, with many different regions. To fairly list all multilingual regions in this article would result in an article that is simply to long. I had previously removed the cities listed and suggested they belong on the list of multi-lingual regions that the multilingualism article links to. I still believe they should go there. Also, the article remains incomplete on so many levels. I think we should be attempting to edit the language in the article and agree on the language in the article before we begin the list of lists of multilingual regions. That being said, I took the time several months ago to write a complete list of multilingual countries (according to each countries wiki page) on the French wiki... DDD DDD 03:07, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

More than ever, I am convinced that this list of cities does not belong in this article, it is simply becoming too long and people are adding anything they want. Scanning it, I saw that Quebec City was listed. Unbelievable. I lived in Quebec City for 4 years in the mid-90s. It was in know way ever a multilingual (French-English) city and I find it insulting that someone added it to the list. Take a look at Census Canada data. The government agency counts 810 speakers of English and French in Quebec City. See [[1]] DDD DDD 14:02, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I finally moved that list of cities to the List of multilingual countries and regions as was (with a bit of an edit of that intro paragraph). Here's the paragraph again before I edited: "In many cities around the globe, two or more languages are spoken at a high frequency by the huge majority of the population, creating truly multi-lingual cultures. While there are many cities, such as New York City, where dozens of languages can be heard, there are only a few were the wide spread number of multi-lingual speakers makes multi-lingualism a part of everyday life. The following list is just a small example:"

First sentence, I object to the language 'many cities', 'huge majority', 'truly multi...' If we are going to indicate that there are many cities, and start listing them, we could end up with a list of a thousand cities. Huge majorities? In all the cities on that list, do huge majorities speak several languages? Hmm... That 'truly'-word seems not very neutral - as opposed to 'truly-monolingual'? Or? Does anyone agree with me on that?

Second sentence, the paragraph continues "while there are many cities such as NYC'. Well, no. I doubt that. In the English-speaking world, there is London, NYC and Toronto where are plethora of languages can be heard everday as you walk down the street. From other cultures, you could probably add Paris, Moscow maybe, and ??? That's not being cultural-centric or anything on my part, but that's based on the English, French and Russian empires for the case of London, Paris and Moscow. And then modern emigration patterns for the two cities in the Americas (Yes, I know I am over-simplifying causes and results of emigration/immigration). So that's a list of maybe five cities or slightly more, which does not add to 'many cities'. Then the sentence continues 'there are only a few... where multilingualism [is] a part of everyday life'. And then the list includes 26 cities as of August 28th. That is not a few. Sorry. And why make the contradictory sentence that there are many like NYC but few not multilingual, when, as the list shows, it seems to be the opposite.

The article on multilingualism makes the point that mulitlingual socities may be those where they are officially multilingual but with many monolingual speakers or the opposite, a monolingual society with multilingual speakers. Then, this mini cities article tries to argue for something 'truly' multilingual. It seems contradictory to me and not staying neutral. Both types of multilingualism (officially mulitlingual or monolingual) are valid.

India is a multilingual country wih a plethora of languages spoken. The List of multilingual countries and regions, Indian languages, and List of national languages of India already discuss India's multilingualism. Does this list of cities need to include six Indian cities (Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mangalore, Mumbai and Trivandrum)?

The same goes for Canada (Montreal and Ottawa) and Switzerland (Biel, Fribourg and Zurich) - two other countries known for their multilingualism.

The List of multilingual countries and regions also indicates that Miami government recognizes English, French Creole and Spanish. This list of cities wants to argue, these 'languages are spoken at a high frequency by the huge majority of the population'. Is this true? Do a huge majority of people in Miami speak these 3 languages? And do we need to repeat Miami again?

I still have my doubts that this list of cities is necessary at all. But if it is to be maintained, it should be on the List of multilingual regions... And some standards need to be applied. As of today, I see very little standards on that list. If we are going to create a list of multilingual cities, let's creat one that is good and not too long and unwieldy.

And what kind of standards to we need to apply? Where do we base our information on? The wiki pages for those cities? Or something else?DDD DDD 02:45, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The list is a hodge-podge. Criteria must be set out at the beginning of the article for what Multi-lingual cities are defined as in this list, and the criteria should be strict enough to mean something, and of course, the list should reflect these criteria. Malnova 02:58, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

English, English, English and English

Is the purpose of this article to pretend that English is spoken everywhere? What justifies including English as a community language in Bruxelles, Zürich or Tel Aviv?

Another reason I prefer leaving out the languages spoken in that never ending list of cities...and simply sticking with the official list of multilingual regions.DDD DDD 03:39, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

It probably has to do with the international community in those cities, because they are important international political or financial capitals. Bruselles, for example is the center of EU activity, and English is an important language in the EU. I'm not so sure about Zurich or Tel Aviv, but from what I've heard of the later, English abounds there because of its many tourists.—Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

English is indeed very common in Brussels. --Gronky (talk) 10:43, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

Cognitive advantlingualism

Under "Cognitive Proficiency," there is a section that suggests Cognitive Advantlingualism be merged with this article. However, Wikipedia does not have a page called Cognitive Advantlingualism (nor does a search for it turn up any results). I suggest deleting said suggestion.

I think they meant the page on Cognitive Advantages to Bilingualism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fwnikkei10 (talk • contribs) 06:25, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Definition section

From the "Definition of multilingualism" section:

As a result, since most speakers do not achieve the maximal ideal, language learners may come to be seen as deficient and by extension, language teaching may come to be seen as a failure.

I have trouble following this line of logic. Is maximal fluency the only acceptable goal in language teaching? --Kjoonlee 13:12, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

I think in the context of the whole paragraph, it is clearly stated that maximal fluency is NOT the only acceptable goal.

However, problems may arise with these definitions as they do not answer the question regarding how much knowledge of a language is required to be classified as bilingual. As a result, since most speakers do not achieve the maximal ideal, language learners may come to be seen as deficient and by extension, language teaching may come to be seen as a failure. One does not expect children to "speak chemistry" like Nobel prize winners or to have become a professional athlete by the time they have left school, yet anything less than fluency in a second language by graduating school children is somehow inadequate.DDD DDD 13:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

1. 1.1 Definition of multilingualism

Who is "Cook"? Is this "Vivian Cook" from the external links section? Is this person a studied linguist, a diner cook who's nickname is cook? "Since 1992, Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers are somewhere between these minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these people multi-competent." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.41.210.236 (talk) 21:01, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

Redirect from Linguistic diversity

I noticed "linguistic diversity" redirects here, but this does not seem to make much sense - even a redirect to linguistic typology would seem more natural, but I think an article of its own is needed on this topic. So I'd suggest replacing the redirect with a stub for further expansion.--AAikio 09:43, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Trash can picture

The trash can picture shows an example of multilingualism for the sake of multilingualism without real utility. The Vietnamese sign is incorrect, since it uses the wrong tone mark. The sign uses the grave accent when an acute accent is required, rendering the word unpronounceable in Vietnamese. DHN 01:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Merging Polyglot into this article

It was proposed in August 2007 that Polyglot (person) be merged into Multilingualism#Multilingualism within an individual. Please discuss, decide and resolve this issue.--Laughitup2 (talk) 16:59, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Merge. The Polyglot (person) article was created as a futile attempt to list "polyglots" without defining what a polyglot was and without setting up any criteria for the language skills needed in order to master a language. It initially contained a long list of unreferenced dubious claims. After removing all the unreferenced claims, there are now only three "polyglots" left, all with some references, but none with reliable references. Polyglot (person) was nominated for deletion by me in April 2006, but it survived. A merger is a good alternative to deletion. Mlewan (talk) 20:14, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

There was apparently not opposition, so I went ahead and performed a partial merge. The text needs to be cleaned up much more, so feel free to take out the broom sticks. Mlewan (talk) 10:54, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

there are now only three "polyglots" left, all with some references, but none with reliable references -- Uku Masing had the source from the foreign ministry of Estonia. How much more official and reliable, can a thing be? :-)

But then again, that's probably why he is the only visible claim left on this page. Oh and concerning This means that it is very difficult to judge the actual achievement of claims like for Uku Masing an Estonian linguist, who was claimed to be fluent in approximately 65 languages. Masing did work professionally on very language-related subjects for all his life, so at least in his case the fluency is very well documented. But yes, most of the available data - the "reliable sources" - are in estonian language, thus not easily accessibly for 99% of the readers and editors of this article.

To give you just one random example, then - http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:-jq4vNG7_-sJ:tjaani.eelk.ee/doc/masing_leksikon.rtf+%22Uku+Masing%22+keeled&hl=et&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=ee

It's one of the long list of articles which are more specific about what languages he knew. (The list is roughly this - all the indo-european languages of Europe (except South Slavic ones), all notable semitic languages, Sumerian, japanese, persian, tibetan, sanskrit, various uralic languages (especially samoyedic and finnic ones) and then he also knew several polynesian languages and some mayan ones.)

Anyway, point being - of course it's hard to judge fluency-claims with absolute certainty, however!, relative certainty can be reached. Merely the fact that one can translate from a language and that those translations are considered good by other specialists should act as a sort of "proof" for fluency-claims. Thus I think that possible listings of "highest claims" should not be brushed aside totally (as they appear to be right now). Just the reliability and how-well-they-are-documented should be studied very carefully and any additions without any good sources should be deleted immediately. Ones with sources should be studied before dismissed. But still, lists of all sorts of things is one of the virtues (rather than vices) of wikipedia. At least for me. :) Androg (talk) 19:16, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Hyperpolyglot

What happened to that article? Did somebody "merge" it with this one? There's not a single appearance of the word "hyperpolyglot" here, a pity. --Taraborn (talk) 22:05, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah, someone asked the same thing I wanted to ask... 3 years ago. Sweet. :( --jae (talk) 16:04, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Prestigious?

This article often speaks of prestigious language. What is meant by this? --Abdull (talk) 10:43, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

I cannot see that the article talks about "prestigious language" but "language that is considered prestigious". There is a big difference. Wealth and prestige often go hand in hand in human society. In a village where there is a wealthy Komi family and a lot of poor Russians, it is possible that some people will consider Komi "prestigious". In the next village, there may be a wealthy Russian family and a lot of poor Komi, and Russian may be considered prestigious. None of the languages is more prestigious than the other, but there may be people who consider one or the other more prestigious. Mlewan (talk) 19:52, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Comparing multilingual speakers

I'm disappointed by the Comparing multilingual speakers section. I'm not enough of an expert on this to be able to improve it (I only have enough skill to delete it :), but it doesn't fit my experience. I dream, think, and talk in my sleep in languages I've learned as an adult, so I will need a bit more proof if I'm to believe I must be doing these things through the intermediary of my first language. --Gronky (talk) 10:47, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

List of "polyglots"

I do not want to get into any edit war about the list of polyglots, but I would strongly advice other editors to remove any trace of it, as any such list is unreliable and useless. In, for example, the article about Georg Sauerwein there is no trace of any sources. Ziad Fazah is basically a circus artist with as much credibility as Uri Geller. The only source in the article about Robert Stiller is an expired link to a note from a parliamentary election campaign (!) 2005. And so on. There are not and cannot be any reliable sources for the "number" of languages of any "polyglot".

The section that used to be called "Counting languages" (not perfect header) and now is called "Polyglots" (ghastly header, considering the content), explains why this kind of list is ridiculous. If someone wants to have it, put it at some blog somewhere. Mlewan (talk) 17:13, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

The recently added "polyglot", Emil Krebs, mastered only seven languages according to himself, and there is no reliable and verifiable source that confirms that he even did that. (See the talk page of his article.) I now give this page up, because of the number of unverifiable unsourced claims that keep getting added. If anyone for some reason want my input on anything, please put a comment on my talk page. Thanks. Mlewan (talk) 15:54, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree this list is highly dubious. Many of the references are to unreliable sources, and the problem is compounded by the mysterious fact that there is no mention of many of the subjects' alleged Herculean language abilities in their respective articles. It needs to be severely pruned, particularly in cases where fluency in large numbers of languages is claimed without credible reference. Exploding Boy (talk) 02:11, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

I'll be bold and remove the list! :) Lova Falk talk 17:01, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

Thank you! Akerbeltz (talk) 17:27, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

That was a very interesting section. We definitely should list, group, or at least categorize people somehow related to polyglottery just as we do with people from other fields. The number of languages these people speak is not that important and mostly inaccurate anyway, but the fact that they should be listed and recognized, is. That list doesn't have to be comparative; just a listing of polyglots (10+ languages) would be enough. Otherwise polyglottery feels ignored and there is no page nor section grouping such people together. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iketsi (talk • contribs) 14:25, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

Multilingualism within communities

IThe example with Argentina is inaccurate. There is only one widely spoken language, Spanish. Italian is an important part of the Argentine identity, and most Argentines are familiar with some Italian terms, but the language is very rarely spoken in the media, in schools, or in public. I would say that most Argentines cannot speak Italian at all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.37.221.92 (talk) 21:54, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia - Wiktionary

I propose we change the article on Wikipedia to a redirect to the definition on Wiktionary. What do you guys think? Veraladeramanera (talk) 18:29, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Reference?

Accuracy of the first reference seems to be non-existant! "Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population". Looking at the 1st footnote (A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education (1999), G. Richard Tucker, Carnegie Mellon University) (Ten years old - irrelevant reference? inaccurate? expired?) in the article reads... "However, despite these conservative government policies, available data indicate (sp?) that there are many more bilingual or multilingual individuals in the world than there are monolingual." What 'available data' indicate(s) this fact? The (decade old) reference source itself is not properly referenced. The 'available data' is not referred to. This line ("Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population") of the article should at least be in dispute. The line that 'multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers' should at least be directly referenced to the available data itself, not to a decade old university article which does not specify the source (and size) of the available data, the way the data was gathered or how universally accurate the data is. I have deleted the line pending justification for the inclusion of the line in the main article, pending a proper reference to what is currently a claim, not a fact. 08:41, 2 July 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.239.5.127 (talk) 08:39, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

Data is a plural noun. The singular is datum. Hence "the data are", "the data indicate". This is standard British and academic usage. 213.106.114.219 (talk) 18:42, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Adam

[under Polyglots] "Adam - knew every language of his time". Who is Adam? Is this the Adam of Genesis? If so, how many languages did he supposedly know? 91.104.182.71 (talk) 00:06, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

US not requiring foreign language

My school and every school I ever heard of in the US required that one take foreign language classes, and almost all college degrees require credits in foreign languages. The sentence may mean that it is not a law on the federal level, but the sentence is still misleading since the reason for that is that the US is more or less a federation that wouldn't legislate education in that way. I'm pretty sure most states have their own laws concerning foreign language study, at least the ones I've been to (even if it doesn't work).

Chris 12/25/09 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.104.15.61 (talk) 03:55, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I was just about to post something similar myself. It is referenced with a book, so I can't easily check the source, but it is true that almost every (I would be surprised to learn not all) public high school requires at least one year of foreign language. Here is the California department of education's requirements for high school, listing foreign language. Is there any reason not to remove that claim? Howan (talk) 05:42, 2 April 2010 (UTC)

Country Level Descriptions

What's the point of that section? There is virtually no nation-state apart from a few island nations such as Iceland which isn't bi- or multilingual. Akerbeltz (talk) 20:48, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

One point may be that people belonging to the majority not necessarily understand that multilingualism is quite normal. The section may also be relevant for studying how multilingualism is handled in different countries. --LPfi (talk) 11:02, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Fair point but then I would suggest a paragraph explaining that multilingualism is the norm in most countries anc cite perhaps one prime example from each continent (e.g. India, South Africa, Bolivia, Canada, Switzerland). Don't you think that would make more sense? Akerbeltz (talk) 11:26, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Writing synchronized linguistic versions to promote writing quality and interculturalism

I would like to document here (in a sub-article) a proposal (toward authors in International Publications) for writing synchronized texts to promote the richness of individual cultures while sharing and communicating efficiently in English. For an author, the writing process is often much more precise and creative in his/her mother language. The translation process is often the opportunity for deep assesment of terminology (in the source language and in English) and text/ideas flow. Promoting "synchronized writing" could be a way to reinforce the presence of diverse languages on the web (and other publication media), a way to foster maximal productivity of author, a way to establish bridges between all cultures and English, the "pivot" language. For instance, in medicine, most publications in all countries are now in English only. "Synchronized writing" would allow better writing quality, better terminology equivalences, better translations, better English publications. With electronic media, the space needed for keeping both linguistic versions side by side is not a problem anymore. An example: [MasterMySubject.org[2]] How this could be presented here in an accepted way? User:Christophe Dupriez —Preceding undated comment added 10:29, 22 August 2010 (UTC).

I think this could involve a lot of WP:original research, which is not allowed here, and is difficult to present in an encyclopedic form. On the other hand the subject is highly relevant for the authors of at least the other Wikipedias.

Wikibooks could be the right place for this effort. Links from some talk or meta pages on Wikipedia and a notice on the Village Pump would probably be appropriate. I do not know the best way to reach editors on the other Wikipedias, on Commons and on the other sister projects.

--LPfi (talk) 15:25, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Nice to follow directions when they come from the land of Paasilinna! --Christophe Dupriez (talk) 15:14, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Multilingual is Different than Multilingualism

Multilingual describes a person who has more than one culture in them (like me). So I don't understand why there isn't an article for that. Multilingualism is an idea-- I am not saying that it's a bad idea, but it's not the same as being Multilingual. So my point is, the term "Multilingual" should not redirect here-- it should go to it's own article. 98.245.148.9 (talk) 02:55, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Ditto for "bilingual". It describes a kind of person, or an ability, not an idea. So it also should not redirect here, but to it's own article. 98.245.148.9 (talk) 03:11, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree with in that the way we use the words multilingual and multilingualism in English is different in that they have different grammatical functions. However, I think the general concept underlying the two words is the same. For example, Mirriam-Webster's online dictionary lists the two words in the same dictionary entry. Wikipedia, on the other hand, is not a dictionary, so there is no need to have separate entries for each word. I'm not saying you're wrong, however. If you can find some reliable sources that say there is a difference in concept between multilingual and multilingualism, then there should certainly be separate articles for the two terms, or at least more clarification in the present article. Feel free to post the details of any such sources here, and I'll have a go at writing a new article if the information warrants it. Or you could start one yourself by going to WP:AFC.

I think you may be right about the need for a separate article on Bilingualism, however. It seems that there are two senses of that word being used. One is the sense used in the current article, i.e. someone who can speak two languages. The other sense is of someone who can speak two or more languages to near-native competency, which almost exclusively means people who learned both (or all) their languages from early childhood. I intend to write an article on this when I have finished with the current pages I'm working on, but you are welcome to start one in the meantime. All the best. — GypsyJiver (drop me a line) 08:12, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

There is a page Polyglot (person), which seems to correspond to 98.245.148.9's conception of multilingual (person), but see Akerbeltz's distinction between polyglot and multilingual, below. Both of these usages are idiosyncratic, in the sense that 98.245.148.9 (and no doubt many other people) uses "multilingual" in one sense while Akerbeltz (and no doubt many other people) uses it in a slightly different sense. Neither is wrong, but neither is the whole story. Cnilep (talk) 01:59, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, but you are completely wrong. :) "Multilingual" is an adjective that describes someone who speaks multiple languages: multi= multiple, and lingual=languages (from the latin for "tongue". You say that you bilingual describes having "more than one culture in them (like me)" - I'm not sure what you are trying to say here, but do you mean someone whose family is from more than one country? Or do you mean someone, eg. someone who migrated from one country to another at a relatively young age, and therefore identifies with both the culture of the country of origin, as well as the country of residence/new citizenship? If so, then the word would be multicultural, not multilingual... If you meant something else, then I'm curious to know. :) Take care. ★★Violet Fae (talk)★★ 07:34, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Dubious

The lead section states, "The generic term for a multilingual person is polyglot," and cites as a source a dictionary definition of polyglot. Yet the simple fact that polyglot means a multilingual person does not imply that this is "the generic". Polyglot, multilingual, bilingual, and linguist are all used to refer to an individual who speaks multiple languages. To call one of these "generic" seems to suggest some sense of primacy that the current source simply does not warrant. Cnilep (talk) 13:29, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm answering this on the go... if I remember rightly, technically a polyglot is someone who has acquired more than one language but without specifying whether this is native multilingualism or languages learned as an adult. To be bi-tri-multilingual in the linguistic sense (though often used messily) you need to acquire these natively as a child. So if you take French and German at uni as a native English speaker, you become a polyglot. Notwithstanding, colloquially people will call that being multilingual. Messy. Akerbeltz (talk) 14:00, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

No doubt there are some sources that assert such a technical distinction, but in ordinary language there is no clear difference between the terms. It is, as you say, messy. Cnilep (talk) 02:02, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps we should rephrase that to "Colloquially, people who speak more than one language are also called polyglots" and sidestep the definition? Akerbeltz (talk) 10:00, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't think you even need the qualifier "colloquially", and as I hint above there should probably be some cross reference with Polyglot (person). Ergo something like, "People who speak more than one language are also called polyglots." Cnilep (talk) 12:45, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Sounds good to me, go for it. Akerbeltz (talk) 15:41, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

In Cebu

I don't know which model they fall. Cebuanos knows to speak at least three languages. Their native-tongue Cebuano. They are taught Filipino, which is the Philippines' national language, in school. The medium of instruction in school is English. Others speak four or more. Take for example a Chinese Filipino born and raised in Cebu or a Cebuano with Spanish roots. The Chinese Filipino could converse in Mandarin, Cebuano, English and Filipino. Plus, these people are the upper class and most of them attend international school.112.202.85.152 (talk) 16:18, 14 June 2011 (UTC)