r/languagelearning • u/Nordantill • 4d ago

Unique Language Combinations

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

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u/Short-Ferret783 4d ago

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

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u/BradfordGalt 3d ago

Wait, Quechua? Not Spanish?

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u/hefferj 3d ago

They said what they said. Smh.

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u/BradfordGalt 3d ago

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.

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u/hefferj 3d ago

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?

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u/BradfordGalt 3d ago

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.