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Multi-lingual sign outside the mayor's office in Novi Sad, written in the four official languages of the city: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Pannonian Rusyn.

Multilingualism is the act of using polyglotism, or using multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.[1] Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness.[2] Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages is becoming increasingly frequent thereby promoting a need to acquire additional languages.

People who speak several languages are also called polyglots.[3]


The definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the very same way as the definition of language fluency. On one end of a sort of linguistic-continuum, one may define multilingualism as complete competence and mastery in another language. The speaker would presumably have complete knowledge and control over the language so as to sound native. On the opposite end of the spectrum would be people such as tourists who know enough phrases to get around using the alternate language.

Because of the lack of any true definition for multilingualism, it is very difficult to define an individual as being multilingual. Having no specification of how much knowledge of a language is required for a person to be classified as bilingual makes it difficult for language teaching institutions to teach languages to students to the point of fluency. As a result, since most speakers do not achieve the maximally ideal level, language learners may come to be seen as deficient and by extension, language teaching may come to be seen as a failure.

Since 1992, Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these people multi-competent.

Definition of language[edit]

There are variations in what it means to "speak a language". A tourist who can handle a simple conversation with a waiter may be completely lost when it comes to discussing current affairs or even using multiple tenses. A diplomat or businessman who can handle complicated negotiations in a foreign language may not be able to write a simple letter correctly. A four-year-old French child would usually be said to "speak French fluently", but it is possible that he cannot handle the grammar as well as even some mediocre foreign students of the language do and may have a very limited vocabulary despite possibly having perfect pronunciation. On the other hand, it is quite common that even very highly accomplished linguists may speak the language(s) of which they are experts with a distinct accent and to have gaps in their active vocabulary when it comes to everyday topics and situations.

Because the development of spoken fluency requires prolonged exposure to a given language, claims of extensive polyglottism must generally be understood to refer to the mastery of basic communicative skills along with the grammatical rules and (possibly) an extensive vocabulary in the target languages, rather than a near-native level of spoken fluency. In historical times prior to audio and video recordings which can be used to facilitate artificial language exposure, quite unusual circumstances would have been needed for an individual to achieve high-level spoken fluency in several languages. Although it is possible to learn the grammatical rules and vocabulary of a language from books alone, such an individual might not be able to communicate in the language at all, neither understanding the language as it sounds spoken out loud nor being able to produce the sounds him- or herself.

In addition there is no clear definition of what "one language" means. For instance, scholars often disagree whether Scots is a language in its own right or a dialect of English.[4]

As another example, a person who has learned five different languages such as French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Portuguese, all belonging to the closely related group of Romance languages, has accomplished something less difficult than a person who has learnt Hebrew, Chinese, Finnish, Navajo, and Welsh, none of which are remotely related to another.

Furthermore, what is considered a language can change, often for purely political purposes, such as when Serbo-Croatian was assembled from South Slavic dialects, and after the breakup of Yugoslavia dissolved into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, or when Ukrainian was dismissed as a Russian dialect by the Russian tsars to discourage national feelings.[5]

Many small independent nations' schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions. For example in Finland, all children are required to learn at least two foreign languages: the other national language (Swedish or Finnish) and one alien language (usually English). Many Finnish schoolchildren also select further languages, such as German or Russian. In some large nations with multiple languages, such as India, school children may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country. In major metros of Central, South and East India, many children may be fluent in four languages (the mother tongue, the state language, and the official languages of India, Hindi and English.) Thus a child of Gujarati parents living in Bangalore will end up speaking his or her mother tongue (Gujarati) at home and the state language (Kannada), Hindi and English in school and his or her surroundings.

Multilingual individuals[edit]

A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through listening, reading, or perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means "many", glot (Greek: γλώσσα) means "language".


In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the concept of a "native speaker". According to a view widely held by linguists, a native speaker of a given language has in some respects a level of skill which a second (or subsequent) language learner can hardly reliably accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers as informants. This view is, however, slightly problematic, particularly as many non-native speakers demonstrably not only successfully engage with and in their non-native language societies, but in fact may become culturally and even linguistically important contributors (as, for example, writers, politicians, media personalities and performing artists) in their non-native language. In recent years, linguistic research has focused attention on the use of widely known world languages such as English as lingua franca, or the shared common language of professional and commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of the common language are functionally multilingual.

Cognitive ability[edit]

Bilinguals who are highly proficient in two or more languages are reported to have enhanced executive function[6][7] and are better at some aspects of language learning compared to monolinguals.[8] Research indicates that a multilingual brain is nimbler, quicker, better able to deal with ambiguities, resolve conflicts, and resist Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia longer.[9]




Receptive bilingualism[edit]




Because it is difficult or impossible to master many of the high-level semantic aspects of a language (including but not limited to its idioms and eponyms) without first understanding the culture and history of the region in which that language evolved, as a practical matter an in-depth familiarity with multiple cultures is a prerequisite for high-level multilingualism. This knowledge of cultures individually and comparatively, or indeed the mere fact of one's having that knowledge, often forms an important part of both what one considers one's own personal identity to be and what others consider that identity to be.[11] Some studies have found that groups of multilingual individuals get higher average scores on tests for certain personality traits such as cultural empathy, openmindedness and social initiative.[12][13]

The idea of linguistic relativity, which claims that the language people speak influences the way they see the world, can be interpreted to mean that individuals who speak multiple languages have a broader, more diverse view of the world, even when speaking only one language at a time.[14]

Some bilinguals feel that their personality changes depending on which language they are speaking;[15][16] thus multilingualism is said to create multiple personalities. Xiao-lei Wang states in her book Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven: “Languages used by speakers with one or more than one language are used not just to represent a unitary self, but to enact different kinds of selves, and different linguistic contexts create different kinds of self-expression and experiences for the same person.” However, there has been little rigorous research done on this topic and it is difficult to define “personality” in this context. François Grosjean wrote: “What is seen as a change in personality is most probably simply a shift in attitudes and behaviors that correspond to a shift in situation or context, independent of language.”[17]

Learning language[edit]




Based on the research in Ann Fathman’s The Relationship between age and second language productive ability,[20][21] there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology, syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but that the order of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.




Centralization of language areas in the brain[edit]


Brain plasticity in multilingualism[edit]


Aphasia in multilingualism[edit]

An abundance of insight about language storage in the brain comes from studying bilingual/ mulilingual individuals afflicted with a form of aphasia. The symptoms and severity of aphasia in bilinguals/ multilinguals depend on how many languages the individual knows, what order they have them stored in the brain, how frequently they use each one, and how proficient they are in using those languages.[30] Two primary theoretical approaches to studying and viewing bilingual/ multilingual aphasics exist—the localizationalist approach and the dynamic approach. The localizationalist approach views different languages as stored in different regions of the brain; and therefore, is the reason why bilingual/ multilingual aphasics may lose one language they know, but not the other(s).[31] The dynamical theory approach suggests that the language system is supervised by a dynamic equilibrium between the existing language capabilities and the constant alteration and adaptation to the communicative requirements of the environment.[32][33] The dynamic approach views the representation and control aspects of the language system as compromised as a result of brain damage to the brain’s language regions.[34][35][36] The dynamic approach offers a satisfactory explanation for the various recovery times of each of the languages the aphasic has had impaired or lost because of the brain damage. Recovery of languages varies across aphasic patients. Some may recover all lost or impaired languages simultaneously. For some, one language is recovered before the others. In others, an involuntary mix of languages occurs in the recovery process; the aphasic would intermix words from the various languages he/she knows when speaking.[36]

PET scan studies on bimodal individuals[edit]


Role of the executive control system in preventing cross talk[edit]

There are sophisticated mechanisms to prevent cross talk in brains where more than one language is stored.[25] The executive control system might be implicated to prevent one language from interfering with another in multilinguals.The executive control system is responsible for processes that are sometimes referred to as executive functions, and among others includes supervisory attentional system, or cognitive control. Despite the fact that most research on the executive control system pertains to nonverbal tasks, there is some evidence that the system might be involved in resolving and ordering the conflict generated by the competing languages stored in the multilingual’s brain.[40] During speech production there is a constant need to channel attention to the appropriate word associated with the concept, congruent with the language being used. The word must be placed in the appropriate phonological and morphological context.[41] Multilinguals constantly utilize the general executive control system to resolve interference/conflicts among the known languages, enhancing the system’s functional performance, even on nonverbal tasks. In studies, multilingual subjects of all ages, showed overall enhanced executive control abilities. This may indicate that the multilingual experience leads to a transfer of skill from the verbal to the nonverbal.[40] There is no one specific domain of language modulation in the general executive control system, as far as studies reveal. Studies show that the speed with which multilingual subjects perform tasks, with-and-without mediation required to resolve language-use conflict, is better in bilingual than monolingual subjects.[41]

Health benefits of multilingualism and bilingualism[edit]

Researcher Ellen Bialystok examined the effect of multilingualism on Alzheimer’s disease and found that it delays its onset by about 4 years. The researcher’s study found that those who spoke two or more languages showed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease at a later time than speakers of a single language.[40] Interestingly, the study found that the more languages the multilingual knows, the later the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Both bilingualism and multilingualism aid in the building up of cognitive reserves in the brain; these cognitive reserves force the brain to work harder—they themselves, restructure the brain.[42] Multilingualism and bilingualism lead to greater efficiency of use in the brain, and organize the brain to be more efficient and conservative in using energy. More research is required to determine whether learning another language later in life has the same protective effects; nonetheless, it is evident from the variety of studies performed on the effects of multilingualism and bilingualism on the brain, that learning and knowing multiple languages sets the stage for a cognitive healthy life.

Multilingualism within communities[edit]

A bilingual sign in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels, both Dutch and French are official languages.
The three-language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in Chennai, South India. Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language).
Multilingual sign at Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages.
Multilingual sign at an exit of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown: Japanese/Mandarin ("deguchi" or "chūkǒu", respectively), English ("exit") and Korean ("chulgu"). While Filipinos themselves are anglophone, such signs cater to the growing number of Koreans and other foreigners in the country.
A Train name found in South India written in four languages: Kannada, Hindi, Tamil and English. Boards like this are common on trains which pass through two or more states where the languages spoken are different.
A trilingual (Arabic, English and Urdu) sign in the UAE in the three widely spoken languages in the UAE


Widespread multilingualism is one form of language contact. Multilingualism was more common in the past than is usually supposed[weasel words]: in early times, when most people were members of small language communities, it was necessary to know two or more languages for trade or any other dealings outside one's own town or village, and this holds good today in places of high linguistic diversity such as Sub-Saharan Africa and India. Linguist Ekkehard Wolff estimates that 50% of the population of Africa is multilingual.[43]




Multilingualism between different language speakers[edit]






Japanese, English, and Russian sign in Northern Japan

Multilingualism at the linguistic level[edit]

Models for native language literacy programs[edit]


Sequential model[edit]



Bilingual model[edit]


Coordinate model[edit]






Multilingualism in computing[edit]

Dual language Hebrew and English keyboard

Multilingualisation (or “m17n”[citation needed]) of computer systems can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization:




Multilingualism in music[edit]

It is extremely common for music to be written in whatever the contemporary lingua franca is. If a song is not written in a common tongue, then it is usually written in whatever is the predominant language of the musician's country of origin, or in another largely-recognized language, such as German, Spanish, or French.[citation needed]

The bilingual song cycles "there..." and "Sing, Poetry" on the 2011 contemporary classical album Troika consist of musical settings of Russian poems with their English self-translations by Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively.[47]

Songs with lyrics in multiple languages are known as macaronic verse.

See also[edit]

Policies and proposals[edit]




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  5. ^ Ems Ukaz
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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

International Journal of Bilingualism International Journal of Bilingualism International Symposium on Bilingualism International S