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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.

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McGruff
Answer has 26 votes
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McGruff
25 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
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