History Main / Omniglot

* Creator/JRRTolkien was a [[CunningLinguist polyglot]] who spoke well over a dozen languages and had some comprehension of up to forty. He even [[{{Conlang}} made up a few of his own.]] Let's just say there aren't many authors who kept interfering with the foreign translations of their books to point out how the translators aren't translating things properly into ''their native languages'' (see for instance Swedish translator Creator/AkeOhlmarks).

* Emil Krebs (1867–1930), German diplomat, is considered the greatest polyglot of all time. He was fluent in more than 60 languages not counting the regional dialects and dead languages and used 33 of them on a daily basis. He was so proficient in most of them that native speakers were often asking for help in linguistic matters, which is no small feat, given he spent a large part of his adult life in China. According to his contemporaries, he needed roughly 2-3 months to achieve relative fluency in a new language.

* Cardinal Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774–1849) was fluent in 30 contemporary languages, proficient in a further 10, and in total had some ability in around 70. While some historians claim that his abilities may have been limited to theological and religious matters, an ability to carry out a sermon or maintain a philosophical dispute in a language is still a mark of great fluency. Creator/LordByron once lost a multilingual cursing contest with him, and described him as "a Monster of Languages, the Briareus [giant] of parts of Speech, a walking Polyglott and more, who ought to have existed at the time of the TowerOfBabel as universal Interpreter".

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km9-DiFaxpU Tim Doner]] is the youngest person to achieve this title.

* Israeli-born Creator/NataliePortman is fluent in English and Hebrew. She also knows French, Spanish, German, Arabic and Japanese.

* Alfred Nobel knew five languages (Swedish, Russian, German, English, and French) by age seventeen. He once ran an ad in those languages looking for a personal assistant and got a response in all five languages from one applicant: Bertha von Suttner. He hired her on the spot. She was a well-known pacifist and may well have been responsible for the inventor of dynamite and dealer in weapons-grade explosive dedicating his fortune to the Nobel Peace Prize (along with that whole "Merchant of Death" obituary).

* Caroline from ''Series/TwoBrokeGirls'' is shown to speak several languages including Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and French. She likely picked those up from [[FromRichesToRags her past rich life]], although she admits her French isn't very good and she only does it to impress Americans.

* The now-retired Pope Benedict XVI speaks nine languages.

* ''Fanfic/OneDayAtATimeFanfic'': The entire Bat-Family, to the point that when Jason was Batman, he made it a requirement for his children to be fluent in at least three different languages outside of English before they were even allowed to go out in the field. Jason also openly considers the fact that Tim knew "only" five other languages before he died a ''mark of shame'', and in a flashback reveals that he randomly learned Irish just to piss off his frenemy Kyle Rayner.

** ''VideoGame/SoulCalibur'' has Greek, Japanese, Korean, French, English, German, Tagalog, Chinese (which has its own numerous dialects), one of the Native American Languages, Spanish, and that's to start.

-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead "Planet of the Dead"]]

* Throughout the ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series, Agent 47 has impersonated people from France, Thailand, Italy, Colombia, Morocco, India, and many more places. [[TranslationConvention We hear the games' dialogue in English]], but Agent 47 presumably blends in by speaking the local language wherever he goes.

* One of the abilities that a ''LightNovel/{{Campione}}'' has is that they pick up and speak any language whatsoever. Kind of boring for the standards of this series, but very useful for the protagonist Godou.
* Sora in ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'' knows a few languages but not enough for this trope. His sister Shiro, on the other hand, knows ''18'' languages including their classical versions. This is topped by the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Flügel]] Jibril who states to know ''700'' languages and it's a plot point as well since the fact she has never seen Japanese script confirms the claim of Shiro and Sora that they weren't born in Disboard.

* Devils in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' have the ability Language, which allows them to verbally communicate in any language. After reincarnating as a devil, Issei finds himself having to make deliberate mistakes in his English classes to avoid suspicion on how he suddenly became fluent.

* Hồ Chí Minh, in addition to his native Vietnamese, could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin. He also knew Italian, German, Arabic, and conversational Esperanto, among others. This was out of necessity, as he spent nearly 30 years overseas and needed to communicate with political allies. (The French was particularly important, as much of his overseas career was in Paris--you couldn't so much as order a coffee in Paris without a working knowledge of French, not in the 1910s.) During his political career, his fluency enabled him to converse directly with other leaders without the need for interpreters. When interviewed by foreign reporters, he defaulted to French.

* Hồ Chí Minh, in addition to his native Vietnamese, could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin. He also spoke conversational Esperanto. This was out of necessity, as he spent nearly 30 years overseas and needed to communicate with political allies. (The French was particularly important, as much of his overseas career was in Paris--you couldn't so much as order a coffee in Paris without a working knowledge of French, not in the 1910s.) During his political career, his fluency enabled him to converse directly with other leaders without the need for interpreters. When interviewed by foreign reporters, he defaulted to French.

* Most male protagonists of a Creator/DanBrown novels. Most notably the guy in ''Literature/DigitalFortress'' (his being able to speak Spanish was the reason he was sent to Spain [[spoiler:that and [[MurderTheHypotenuse so his fiance's boss could get him killed]]]]). The only exception, strangely enough, is Robert Langdon (you'd think a historian would know a few European languages to be able to read primary historical sources), and his inability to speak French or Italian would go on to bite him in the ass quite a few times. This part being, as is usual in the author, DanBrowned. The character is supposed to speak Spanish so well that he can fake a Burgos accent. But that's like saying someone can speak English so well as to fake a perfect "neutral accent" such as [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents the RP]] or [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents Midwestern]].[[note]]Being in the heart of old Castile, Burgos has the same standard Castilian accent spoken over most of central Spain and the one in which virtually every film and TV in Spain is produced, so far that Spaniards sometimes joke that "The Burgos accent is the not-accent".[[/note]] Being able to speak fluently is much easier than speaking with no foreign accent and faking to be raised at Burgos.

* The Rankin-Bass version of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndAdventuresOfSantaClaus The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus]]'' has Tingler, who can not only speak any human language but animal languages as well. Justified in that he's a Sound Imp, who carry sounds from place to place and thus should be familiar with most any sound creatures are capable of making.

* Hồ Chí Minh, in addition to his native Vietnamese, could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese, and Mandarin. He also spoke conversational Esperanto. This was out of necessity, as he spent nearly 30 years overseas and needed to communicate with political allies. During his political career, his fluency enabled him to converse directly with other leaders without the need for interpreters. When interviewed by foreign reporters, he defaulted to French.

** Homer can also speak in Spanish and Chinese. He demonstrated this ability when he said "Its my first day" to both Spanish and Chinese navies.

* Elizabeth Bathory in ''Literature/CountAndCountess''.

* Omniglot is just one piece of the [[SuperpowerLottery assigned superpower package]] for the [[TheGrimReaper Angels of Death]] in Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant''. Less pan-lingual (but more impressive, since she learns languages the hard way) is [[spoiler:[[BigBad Carrie]] [[StepfordSmiler Raymond]], who her husband describes as]] a polyglot. She is known to speak English, Latin and flawless Portuguese (leading to an awkward moment!), probably speaks at least some Cantonese and/or Mandarin as well (this may be insinuated from certain plot points), and learns a language that human beings shouldn't even be able to speak! [[spoiler:[[BigBad Vincent]] [[StepfordSmiler Raymond]] himself]] speaks English, Japanese, and some Spanish.