The question most often asked when people find out you’ve dabbled in linguistics is “How many languages do you speak?” Well, I’ve studied quite a few languages, but there are only a couple I’d be comfortable jumping in blind right now.
James McGrath has started a meme that widens the net a bit:
List every language that [you] have made some sort of concerted effort to learn, even if [you] didn’t get beyond the first lesson or so, or even if [you] are still learning it. No need to specify the degree of fluency in the blog post – if readers are curious how much Swahili you know, they can ask.
Here’s my list, in no order whatsoever:
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Italian
- Russian
- Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Basque
- Cantonese
- Mandarin
- Arabic (Standard, Levantine)
- Japanese
- Neo-Melanesian
- Krahn (Tchien)
- Dioula
- Swahili
- Lingala
- Poqomchi’
- Anglo-Saxon
- Greek (Attic, Koine)
- Latin (Classical)
- Hebrew (Biblical)
- Sumerian
- Akkadian
- Esperanto
- Ido
- Lojban
- tlhIngan Hol
- Latejami
- Toki Pona
- Láadan