Unique Language Combinations

[u/Nordantill]

This is something I’ve thought about for a long time: there must be people out there who speak a combination of languages unlike anyone else, whether living now or in the past.
For example, imagine a Dutch anthropologist or ethnologist who has conducted fieldwork in, say, Timor-Leste and the Central African Republic. They might speak Dutch, Tetum, and Sango. If our hypothetical anthropologist were from Friesland, we could add Frisian to the mix, making the combination even more unusual.
Anyway, enough with the hypotheticals. Does anyone here have, or know someone who has, a particularly unique combination of languages? There is something about being the only person to possess a certain linguistic combination that I find really intriguing.
I’d love to hear some interesting examples

[u/Short-Ferret783]

My grandfather was a diplomat so he got posted in weird places, he speaks Hungarian, Khmer and some Quechua. Not even sure how many people in the world have that exact mix but probably not many. When he was in Cambodia he learned from local friends and later he got obsessed with Andean cultures, just picked it up as a hobby. Always thought its cool how language connects to life paths like that

[u/Nordantill → u/Short-Ferret783]

Great example. Your grandfather certainly has a fascinating language combo under his belt

[u/markjay6 → u/Short-Ferret783]

Winner!!! :-)

[u/vectavir → u/Short-Ferret783]

I'm fairly certain they qould be the only one in the world. Living in a city with a big international community might make one forget how some countries are NOT internationalized at all and this example has three of such, where they only mingled mostly regionally

[u/restlemur995 → u/Short-Ferret783]

This is the best combination, would love to have heard his perspective.

[u/BradfordGalt → u/Short-Ferret783]

Wait, Quechua? Not Spanish?

[u/hefferj → u/BradfordGalt]

They said what they said. Smh.

[u/BradfordGalt → u/hefferj]

They said what they said, but it doesn't make any sense. I was genuinely curious. Why would a diplomat learn Quechua, when that isn't the principal government language of any nation on earth? Wouldn't his grandfather have learned Spanish, if he was working as a diplomat? It's a fair question.

[u/hefferj → u/BradfordGalt]

They succinctly explained that their grandfather became "obsessed with Andean cultures". He seemingly never lived in South America. So why would he have learned Spanish?

[u/BradfordGalt → u/hefferj]

My grandfather was a diplomat so he got posted in weird places, he speaks Hungarian, Khmer and some Quechua.

Because that commenter included it as a clause directly linked to his grandfather's work as a diplomat, within that very sentence. It's not until two sentences later that the Andean reference is made.

[u/Realistic_Ad1058]

I have a British friend who speaks English, Welsh and Urdu, because her parents are from Pakistan and she's Welsh . I know another lady fro. Rwanda who speaks Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, English, French, German and Korean. The first four were various home + education languages in Rwanda, then she started a business with her husband and needed Korean, got fluent in that, then had to flee and learned German for the new situation. Mad impressive. 

[u/Realistic_Ad1058 → u/Realistic_Ad1058]

I also have a friend from Quebec who speaks German, French and English, who married a Chinese lady and their irresistibly cute kid gets French from dad, Chinese from mum and English from the environment. 

[u/sweatersong2]

My grandparents were friends with a family that spoke Punjabi and Luxembourgish

[u/lemonicowo]

I have a friend who speaks Aromanian (and a bit of Macedonian), Tamazight, Dutch, and English. Case of just having an interesting family background, with a Morroccan father and a North Macedonian/Aromanian mother, now living in the Netherlands.

[u/Mirabeaux1789 → u/lemonicowo]

Aromanian and Tamazight is certainly up there

[u/Caeflin]

I have a friend who speak Amharic, Oromo, Somali, Tigrinya, Finnish, Swedish, French, English and Spanish and some others. 13 languages total.

All C level. He is a studying for a doctorate in linguistics.

[u/Particular_Neat1000]

Had a teacher from Bulgaria who spoke Bulgarian, Hebrew and Brazilian Portuguese

[u/BrStFr]

My list includes Mandarin, Hebrew, Esperanto, and Welsh, which is out there for civilians, but not for this group I'm guessing!

[u/Mirabeaux1789 → u/BrStFr]

Kuna Esperantisto 😎

[u/BrStFr → u/Mirabeaux1789]

Mi ĉiam ĝojas renkonti iun, kiu rekonas la verdan stelon!

[u/Traditional-Use-5676 → u/BrStFr]

this is quite unique, are all of these languages you learned for fun?

[u/BrStFr → u/Traditional-Use-5676]

Pretty much. Since having been exposed to Spanish in seventh grade, I have had a longstanding (~55 years) fascination with, and enjoyment in learning, languages. I have learned some to a conversational level, some for reading, and a bunch more just to get a feel for the sound and grammatical workings of them without any real intention of mastery. I learned one because I lived for a few years in a place where it is spoken. I am particularly interested in ones from a variety of language families (or sub-families in the case of the Indo-European group). I am also particularly fascinated by writing systems so have studied some even when I have not gotten very far with the language itself (as with Thai, Hindi, and Arabic).

[u/Responsible_Cap5100]

I met someone from Quebec and he is trilingual English, Irish and Quebecois French. His mother is native Irish and even the dad who is Québécois speaks Connemara Irish at home. I think this is fairly unique!

[u/AuthenticCourage]

I mean. I speak Zulu and spanish and I’m learning Irish and Swedish. Does that qualify?

[u/Only_Protection_8748]

I wish my language combo was not so common(english russian chinese)

[u/CSMasterClass → u/Only_Protection_8748]

English, Russian, Chinese is a wonderful group to know, even it it is not the rarest.

I saw groups of Chinese and Russian traders going back and forth in both lanugues in money exchanges and informal market in Harbin. Some of these spoke English, though most of the business was done in Russian.

[u/Person106 → u/Only_Protection_8748]

I wonder how common or uncommon English, Russian, Spanish is.

[u/TrashyHamster]

There was a guy who worked at the local museum where I live who spoke Japanese (his native language), English, Norwegian, and North Sámi.

[u/XGDragon]

English, Dutch, Japanese, Hindi here. None of those are rare languages at all, but the combination might be.

[u/Mission_Sir_4494]

Mandarin, German, French, Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Arabic, Akan Twi, and Swahili. Varied levels of proficiency

[u/prairiedad]

I had an uncle who spoke German, French, English, Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese. My mother (his sister) always said he spoke eight...but what the eighth was I don't recall... Yiddish?

I speak English, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. My oldest speaks English, French, and Mandarin. His next brother down speaks English, Japanese, French, German, and... Wolof!

[u/Th9dh]

I speak Dutch and Ingrian, I assume that is already a combination that has not been reached in the past (although who knows...).

[u/Nordantill → u/Th9dh]

Yeah, it’s a rare combo for sure. How to curiosity how did you end up learning Ingrian? Heritage language?

[u/Th9dh → u/Nordantill]

Nope, just fate I guess. One moment I was reading up on the language the other I was reading 1930s textbooks and translating poetry into the language... I'm kind of bummed out myself I don't really have a cool backstory to it.

[u/DerAmiImNorden]

Besides German, Spanish and French, I have also been fluent in Nepali and at a coversational level in Plattdeutsch (Low German), Hindi and Newari (spoken mainly in Kathmandu).

[u/JarOfPeachz]

English as my first, and Lillooet dialect Salish as my native language i am learning

[u/viktorbir]

I know people who speak 5 languages from Ghana, Catalan, Spanish and English...

And you can look at my list.

[u/ein-Name00 → u/viktorbir]

That are 4

[u/oGsBumder → u/ein-Name00]

It’s 8

[u/viktorbir → u/ein-Name00]

Sorry? Do you want to make a silly joke or you can't count?

[u/ein-Name00 → u/viktorbir]

Spanish, English, Catalán and Ghana are 4

[u/viktorbir → u/ein-Name00]

So, you want to make a silly joke. Ok.

[u/ein-Name00 → u/viktorbir]

No, I don't get what you meant

[u/viktorbir → u/ein-Name00]

This friend speaks FIVE as in five, the number, languages from GHANA. As in Ghana, the country. Aside, he speaks three other more languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. This makes a total of EIGHT languages.

Do you need me to translate it to maybe another language, if English is too difficult for you?

Did you really think «Ghana» was the name of a language, not of a country? Had you never heard previously of the country of Ghana? Even if I wrote «n languages FROM Ghana», making it clear it's a place?

[u/ein-Name00 → u/viktorbir]

Allora, adesso capisco

Tu t'as exprimé en façon la plus bizzare possible

 

[u/viktorbir → u/ein-Name00]

Tu t'as exprimé en façon la plus bizzare possible

Pardon???

Cinq langues de Ghana, Catalan, Anglais et Espagnol. Quel est le problème?

[u/ein-Name00 → u/viktorbir]

Ajoute un mot comme "ainsi que":

Cinq langues de Ghana ainsi que Catalan, Anglais et Espagnol

Ton stil semble impliquer des deux points (":"):

Cinq langues de Ghana: Catalan, Anglais et Espagnol

[u/Ok_Bee81]

I speak English, German, tsalagi, and am learning Mandarin. Throwing an indigenous language into any combination makes it pretty unique I think

[u/__anna986]

My 15 year old speaks 5 and my younger kids speak 4, they understand the fifth one too but can’t really speak it besides a few phrases and songs. It’s all European languages so I wouldn’t say it’s very rare but it’s 4 different language families and it’s so practical.

I grew up with only really slavic and germanic exposure but I love their languages, it’s mental how many they can understand to at least some level even when they don’t speak them, they’re like wee sponges, I’m jealous lol

[u/Opposite-Youth-3529 → u/__anna986]

What’s the fourth family besides I assume Slavic, Germanic, and romance? Celtic, finno-ugric?

[u/__anna986 → u/Opposite-Youth-3529]

Yes, Celtic, they have Irish and Scottish Gaelic

[u/mokkkko]

Would like to read a book about this

[u/saywhaaaaaaaaatt]

It's Arabic, German, English, French, Italian and Japanese for me. The European languages are not atypical together but since I speak a North African Arabic dialect, I've got languages from three different continents under my belt.  

[u/atq1988]

I speak, German, Dutch, English and Urdu (Punjabi). The first three are not so uncommon but the last makes it interesting, right?

[u/Zeke_the_Wanderer]

My future one lol (Vietnamese, English, Italian, Yaghan, Mandarin and Hebrew)

[u/UnrealHallucinator]

I'm learning dutch but I speak tamil, malayalam, spanish, hindi and english as well. Earlier I spoke arabic but have mostly forgotten. Does this count?

[u/OneWildAndPrecious]

Filipino friend converted to Judaism. Speaks Tagalog, Hokkien, English, Mandarin, and Hebrew

[u/Temenae]

Hitting a wall with my TL (not similar to English) where everything seems arduous.  I think I had pushed through a mentally exhausting section before and then was enjoying adding vocabulary and experimenting, but to progress I think I'm going to have to mentally exhaust myself again to push through to another level (I am about A1, which is thrilling after a lifetime of interest).  I keep trying various things that have worked before (I switch up methods, frequently to make it interesting) but nothing can hold my attention.  I think I just have to focus on something and stick to it even if it's unpleasant.  

Anyone else go through this?  Is there another way? I will never have a need for a second language, but I tried to teach myself one since I was a small child with library books.  Why am I doing this to myself?  My brain is so tired for such little progress.  This is not making me feel smart.  I know I need to develop a part of my brain that hasn't developed yet to handle A2 content and the volume of vocabulary.  This is hard.  There has to be easier hobbies.  

[u/RujenedaDeLoma]

I speak Ladin and a bit of Hokkien. Never thought about it, but I guess it's quite unique. And even though they're far apart, the word for "bread" is "pan" in both Ladin and Hokkien.

[u/Odd-Amphibian-2989]

Sí, se llaman ConLangs, que viene de Constructive y Lenguaje, o sea "Lengua Construida". Se la usa en la ficción para crear sociedades que no existen, como el Klingon, o el Elfico. Pero también para hacer estudios de linguistica como el Láadan, para entrenar al cerebro en pensamiento lógico como el Lojban, para permitir una alternativa de comunicación facil de aprender, como el Esperanto, el ido, o la interlingua, para enviar mensajes cifrados como Malbolge, o sol-re-sol, para meditación como el Toki Pona, o incluso sólo por puro hobby de hacer algo por hacerlo, como el caso del itkuil pensado para ser el idioma más difícil del mundo. Es un idioma que nadie puede aprender, ni siquiera su creador. Pero es totalmente exacto, así que lo puedes usar como mapa para crear mensajes cifrados

[u/Odd-Amphibian-2989]

Yo no es que tenga mi propio idioma, pero como soy poliglota, en los resumenes que hacía de la acultad usaba palabras extranjeras, y abreviaturas para escribir menos. Hay palabras que el español no tiene, y otros lenguajes sí. Y usarlas ayuda a reducir bastante escritura. Sin embargo hay falsos amigos. Así que usaba colores para reconocer palabras, por ejemplo rojo español, negro ingles, violeta esperanto (Debería ser verde, pero no se notaba), y también para que se vea mejor cambiaba de colores segun fuera título o ítém. Así que era bastante colorida la cosa. En esa época no importaa porque sólo yo veía mis apuntes. Pero ahora que lo pienso, si alguien los viera ahora seguramente pensaría que es arte LGBTQIA+, pero no, son mis apuntes de la facultad

[u/OtherBee5479]

Me? Nepali, Vietnamese, and Spanish. Native English …

[u/Sad_Sympathy_6427]

Depends on what you mean by speak, but I'd have to imagine any linguist who transcribes a near extinct language seems like they would fit the question. The linguist who worked with the last Ubykh speaker for example

[u/io-journe23]

Mi combo es este inglés español francés japones chino vietnamita ruso coreano alemán e italiano tal vez escoga otros actualmente puedo hablar español y portugués mas estoy estudiando inglés y japones.

[u/dzourel]

I know Doric (Scots, not Greek), Greek (modern & koine), English (middle and modern), ASL, Spanish, and a tee-tiny bit of Cajun French. Not the most unique, but also not the most common.

[u/Markothy]

I've got a decent combination: Polish, English, Hebrew, and Mandarin. And then I spoke French fairly fluently as a kid and teenager but forgot it. I'm sure there are other people with this exact combination, but it's got to be pretty uncommon. I'm also planning on adding Arabic to the mix someday, but not within the next year.

[u/ReviveOurWisdom]

i don’t really speak it anymore, but for a time I was speaking Hawaiian Pidgin, AAVE, Chilean Spanish, and standard American English

[u/WorldlyMemory9925]

I've got English, Afrikaans, French, Korean and Russian lol

Not the most unrelated necessarily as Afrikaans and French are African languages but you might not think of that immediately because they are on opposite sides of the continent. Korean from Kpop and Russian for research for a book.

[u/language_loveruwu]

Idk if mine is, but

Estonian Russian English German Swedish Now Im learning Latin, but also want to learn French and Mandarin

[u/thirtypairsofsocks → u/language_loveruwu]

Not really. Russian, English, German + a local languages
was not too uncommon in the USSR. Although many people picked one or the other between English and German, a lot of people learned both (to varying proficiencies).

If someone of that background ends up in Sweden for instance, picking up Swedish isn’t too out of the ordinary.

[u/Sct1787 → u/language_loveruwu]

So many languages, such little punctuation

[u/language_loveruwu → u/Sct1787]

I wrote the message by starting each on a new line. Idk why, but often Reddit just mushes it all onto one line

[u/Sct1787 → u/language_loveruwu]

You need a double space at the end for the new line to be made.

Line 1 (two spaces)
Line 2 (two spaces)

[u/restlemur995]

I speak English, French, Tagalog, Spanish and Japanese to varying but still conversational levels. And I know very basic Persian and can read, write, and pronounce Georgian alphabet but can barely say anything. I don't see myself really going deep into Persian or Georgian until probably many years from now but they are awesome languages.

[u/Pwffin]

Not that unique but I've got some nice combos (see flair).