Join FunTrivia for Free: Hourly trivia games, quizzes, community, and more!
Fun Trivia
Ask FunTrivia: Questions and Answers
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


The great linguist Harold Williams was said to have spoken 58 languages. Is there somewhere that lists all the languages he spoke? Were his abilities limited to only European based languages, or also included Asian or African languages?

Question #36538. Asked by mli699.
Last updated May 14 2021.

avatar
McGruff
Answer has 26 votes
Currently Best Answer
McGruff
24 year member
3694 replies avatar

Answer has 26 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
In addition to the paragraphs below, this short biography mentions a good number of the languages he studied. Asian and African languages were definitely included.
By the end of his life he had studied the bible in twenty-six languages, including Zulu, Swahili and Hausa. Before attending Christchurch and Timaru Boys' High Schools he had managed to teach himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian and other Polynesian dialects ... augmented no doubt by his acquisition of Finnish, Lettish, Estonian, Georgian, Tartar and a grasp of Russian grammar, better than most of his Russian friends. On his return from Russia he taught himself Japanese, Old Irish, Tagalog, Hungarian, Czech, Coptic, Egyptian, Hittite, Albanian, Basque, Chinese and mastered the cuneiform inscriptions and a book of 12,000 Chinese Mandarin characters.
link https://letrecillasenglishclass.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/important-polyglots/

Response last updated by gtho4 on May 14 2021.
Jul 25 2003, 6:57 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion