Ever experience a coincidence? What they mean divides us into one of two camps: sceptics and believers. Believers think coincidences are evidence of mysterious and hidden causes. Sceptics put them down to statistical quirks.
Ever experience a coincidence? What they mean divides us into one of two camps: sceptics and believers. Believers think coincidences are evidence of mysterious and hidden causes. Sceptics put them down to statistical quirks.
Professional linguists, too, are divided on this question. Philip Herdina, at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, is a sceptic. He doubts whether anyone has the capacity to speak 72 languages.
Until recently, there was little scientific information about hyperpolyglots. Mezzofanti was supposed to have known 72 languages, and to have spoken 39 fluently, but nowadays such tales are often greeted with scepticism.