multilingualism#Computing

The first recorded use of the word multilingual in the English language occurred in the 1830s. The word is a combination of multi- ("many") and -lingual ("pertaining to languages").{{Cite web |author-link=Oxford English Dictionary |date=2023 |title=multilingual, adj. & n. |url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/multilingual_adj?tab=factsheet#35428304 |url-access=limited |access-date=December 30, 2023 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |language=en}} The phenomenon of multilingualism is as old as the very existence of different languages.{{Cite web |last=King |first=Lid |date=2018 |title=The Impact of Multilingualism on Global Education and Language Learning |url=https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/Images/539682-perspectives-impact-on-multilingualism.pdf |access-date=December 30, 2023 |at=4 |language=en |quote="The world has always been multilingual"}}

Today, evidence of multilingualism in an area includes things such as bilingual signs, which represent the same message in more than one language. Historical examples include glosses in textual sources, which can provide notes in a different language from the source text; macaronic texts which mix together two or more languages with the expectation that the reader will understand both; the existence of separate sacred and vernacular languages (such as Church Latin vs. common forms of Latin, and Hebrew vs. Aramaic and Jewish languages); and the frequency of linguistic borrowings and other results of language contact.{{Cite book |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781405198431 |title=The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics |chapter=History of Multilingualism |date=2013-01-30 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-4051-9473-0 |editor-last=Chapelle |editor-first=Carol A. |edition=1 |publication-date=2013 |pages=2526–2531 |language=en |doi=10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0511}}

File:Bilingual Finnish-Swedish construction area sign in Helsinki, Finland, 2022.jpg (upper text in Finnish, lower text in Swedish)]]

The definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the same way as that of language fluency. At one end of the linguistic continuum, multilingualism may be defined as the mastery of more than one language. The speaker would have knowledge of and control over the languages equivalent to that of a native speaker. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist using the alternate language. Since 1992, Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these people multi-competent.{{cite web|url=http://www.viviancook.uk/Writings/Papers/MCentry.htm|title=Multi-competence definition|website=viviancook.uk|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171022003750/http://www.viviancook.uk/Writings/Papers/MCentry.htm|archive-date=22 October 2017}}{{cite journal |vauthors=Paradowski MB, Bator A |title=Perceived effectiveness of language acquisition in the process of multilingual upbringing by parents of different nationalities |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305368839 |journal=International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism |volume=21 |issue=6 |pages=1–19 |year=2016 |doi=10.1080/13670050.2016.1203858 |s2cid=148407626 }}

In addition, there is no consistent definition of what constitutes a distinct language.{{cite book|last=Cook|first=Vivian|title=Second Language Learning and Language Teaching|year=2008|publisher=Hodder Education|isbn=978-0-340-95876-6}} For instance, scholars often disagree whether Scots is a language in its own right or merely a dialect of English.A.J. Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1992. p.894 Furthermore, what is considered a language can change, often for purely political reasons. One example is the creation of Serbo-Croatian as a standard language on the basis of the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect to function as umbrella for numerous South Slavic dialects; after the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was split into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. Another example is the historical dismissal of Ukrainian as a Russian dialect by the Russian tsars to discourage national feelings.Ems Ukaz

Many small independent nations' schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions.{{cite web|url=http://foreign-language.org/|title=Writing With English As A Second Language|publisher=Foreign-Language.org|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421235102/http://foreign-language.org/|archive-date=21 April 2015}} For example, in Finland, all children are required to learn at least three languages: the two national languages (Finnish and Swedish) and one foreign language (usually English). Many Finnish schoolchildren also study further languages, such as German or Russian.{{Cite web|last=Korhonen|first=Muusa|date=2022-01-22|title=Foreign Languages in Finland's Educational System|url=https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/foreign-languages-in-finland-s-educational-system|access-date=2022-01-22|website=The New Federalist|language=en|archive-date=6 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406192100/https://www.thenewfederalist.eu/foreign-languages-in-finland-s-educational-system|url-status=live}}

In some large nations with multiple languages, such as India, schoolchildren may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country.

In many countries, bilingualism occurs through international relations, which, with English being a global lingua franca, sometimes results in majority bilingualism even when the countries in question have just one domestic official language. This occurs especially in regions such as Scandinavia and the Benelux, as well as among Germanophones, but the phenomenon has also been expanding into some non-Germanic countries.{{cite web|url=https://www.europelanguagejobs.com/blog/english-who-speaks-it-best.php|title=English as a second language: Who in Europe speaks it best?|publisher=Europe Language Jobs|date=31 July 2018|access-date=22 December 2018|archive-date=5 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405184022/https://www.europelanguagejobs.com/blog/english-who-speaks-it-best.php|url-status=live}}

{{main|Language acquisition|Language education|Second-language acquisition|Simultaneous bilingualism#Bilingual acquisition}}

One view is that of the linguist Noam Chomsky in what he calls the human language acquisition device—a mechanism that enables a learner to recreate correctly the rules and certain other characteristics of language used by surrounding speakers.Santrock, John W. (2008). Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (4th ed.) (pp. 330–335). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. This device, according to Chomsky, wears out over time, and is not normally available by puberty, which he uses to explain the poor results some adolescents and adults have when learning aspects of a second language (L2).

If language learning is a cognitive process, rather than a language acquisition device, as the school led by Stephen Krashen suggests, there would only be relative, not categorical, differences between the two types of language learning.

Rod Ellis quotes research finding that the earlier children learn a second language, the better off they are, in terms of pronunciation.{{efn|See the critical period hypothesis.}} European schools generally offer secondary language classes for their students early on, due to the interconnectedness among neighboring countries with different languages. Most European students now study at least two foreign languages, a process strongly encouraged by the European Union.{{cite web|url=http://www.euractiv.com/culture/eu-students-learn-foreign-languages-study/article-185818|title= Most EU students learn two foreign languages: Study |date=28 September 2009 |website=EurActiv |access-date=8 May 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113012757/http://www.euractiv.com/culture/eu-students-learn-foreign-languages-study/article-185818 |archive-date= Jan 13, 2012 }}

Based on the research in Ann Fathman's The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability,{{cite journal | last=Fathman | first=Ann | title=The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability | journal=Language Learning | publisher=Wiley | volume=25 | issue=2 | year=1975 | issn=0023-8333 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-1770.1975.tb00244.x | pages=245–253}} there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology, syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but the order of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.

In second language class, students commonly face difficulties in thinking in the target language because they are influenced by their native language and cultural patterns. Robert B. Kaplan believes that in second language classes, foreign students' papers may seem out of focus because the foreign student employs rhetoric and sequences of thought that violate the expectations of the native reader.{{cite journal |last1=Kaplan |first1=Robert B. |title=Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education |journal=Language Learning |date=1966 |volume=16 |issue=1–2 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-1770.1966.tb00804.x }} Foreign students who have mastered syntactic structures have still demonstrated an inability to compose adequate themes, term papers, theses, and dissertations. Robert B. Kaplan describes two key words that affect people when they learn a second language. Logic in the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word, is the basis of rhetoric, evolved out of a culture; it is not universal. Rhetoric, then, is not universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time within a given culture. Language teachers know how to predict the differences between pronunciations or constructions in different languages, but they might be less clear about the differences between rhetoric, that is, in the way they use language to accomplish various purposes, particularly in writing.{{cite book |last1=Gadda |first1=George |chapter=Writing and Language Socialization Across Cultures: Some Implications for the classroom |pages=43–56 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801312823/page/43/ |editor1-last=Peitzman |editor1-first=Faye |editor2-last=Gadda |editor2-first=George |title=With Different Eyes: Insights into Teaching Language Minority Students Across the Disciplines |date=1994 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-8013-1282-3 }}

People who learn multiple languages may also experience positive transfer – the process by which it becomes easier to learn additional languages if the grammar or vocabulary of the new language is similar to those of the languages already spoken. On the other hand, students may also experience negative transfer – interference from languages learned at an earlier stage of development while learning a new language later in life.{{cite web|last=Pavlenko|first=Aneta|title=Can a second language help you learn a third?|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201506/can-second-language-help-you-learn-third|website=Psychology Today: Life as a Bilingual|date=2 June 2015|access-date=7 September 2016|archive-date=26 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230426210029/https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/life-bilingual/201506/can-second-language-help-you-learn-third|url-status=live}}

Translanguaging also supports the acquisition of new languages. It helps the development of new languages by forming connections from one language to another. Second language acquisition results in a lexical deficit.{{Cite journal |last1=Bylund |first1=Emanuel |last2=Antfolk |first2=Jan |last3=Abrahamsson |first3=Niclas |last4=Olstad |first4=Anne Marte Haug |last5=Norrman |first5=Gunnar |last6=Lehtonen |first6=Minna |date=2023-06-01 |title=Does bilingualism come with linguistic costs? A meta-analytic review of the bilingual lexical deficit |url=https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02136-7 |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |language=en |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=897–913 |doi=10.3758/s13423-022-02136-7 |issn=1531-5320 |pmc=10264296 |pmid=36327027}}{{Explain|date=October 2023}}

{{Main|Passive speaker (language)}}

Receptive bilinguals are those who can understand a second language but who cannot speak it or whose abilities to speak it are inhibited by psychological barriers. Receptive bilingualism is frequently encountered among adult immigrants to the U.S. who do not speak English as a native language but who have children who do speak English natively, usually in part because those children's education has been conducted in English; while the immigrant parents can understand both their native language and English, they speak only their native language to their children. If their children are likewise receptively bilingual but productively English-monolingual, throughout the conversation the parents will speak their native language and the children will speak English. If their children are productively bilingual, however, those children may answer in their parents' native language, in English, or in a combination of both languages, varying their choice of language depending on factors such as the communication's content, context or emotional intensity and the presence or absence of third-party speakers of one language or the other. The third alternative represents the phenomenon of "code-switching" in which the productively bilingual party to a communication switches languages in the course of that communication. Receptively bilingual persons, especially children, may rapidly achieve oral fluency by spending extended time in situations where they are required to speak the language that they theretofore understood only passively. Until both generations achieve oral fluency, not all definitions of bilingualism accurately characterize the family as a whole, but the linguistic differences between the family's generations often constitute little or no impairment to the family's functionality.{{Cite journal|last=Nakamura|first=Janice|date=2019-09-01|title=Receptive bilingual children's use of language in interaction|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349176664 |volume=18 |publisher=The Japanese Society for Language Sciences |journal=Studies in Language Sciences|pages=46–66|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122103522/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349176664_Receptive_bilingual_children's_use_of_language_in_interaction|archive-date=January 22, 2022|url-status=live}} Receptive bilingualism in one language as exhibited by a speaker of another language, or even as exhibited by most speakers of that language, is not the same as mutual intelligibility of languages; the latter is a property of a pair of languages, namely a consequence of objectively high lexical and grammatical similarities between the languages themselves (e.g., Norwegian and Swedish), whereas the former is a property of one or more persons and is determined by subjective or intersubjective factors such as the respective languages' prevalence in the life history (including family upbringing, educational setting, and ambient culture) of the person or persons.{{Cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa |title=Ethnologue report for language code: spa |publisher=Ethnologue.com |access-date=2010-07-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100418134038/http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa |archive-date=18 April 2010 }}

In sequential bilingualism, learners receive literacy instruction in their native language until they acquire a "threshold" literacy proficiency. Some researchers use age three as the age when a child has basic communicative competence in their first language (Kessler, 1984).{{cite web|url=http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/AboutHanen/NewsViews/OneLanguageorTwo/tabid/220/Default.aspx|title=One Language or Two? Home Language or Not? Some Answers to Questions about Bilingualism in Language-Delayed Children |last1=Weitzman|first1=Elaine |website=hanen.org|publisher=The Hanen Centre|access-date=8 May 2018|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530230334/http://www.hanen.org/web/Home/AboutHanen/NewsViews/OneLanguageorTwo/tabid/220/Default.aspx|archive-date=30 May 2009}} Children may go through a process of sequential acquisition if they migrate at a young age to a country where a different language is spoken, or if the child exclusively speaks his or her heritage language at home until he or she is immersed in a school setting where instruction is offered in a different language.

In simultaneous bilingualism, the native language and the community language are simultaneously taught. The advantage is literacy in two languages as the outcome. However, the teacher must be well-versed in both languages and also in techniques for teaching a second language.

The phases children go through during sequential acquisition are less linear than for simultaneous acquisition and can vary greatly among children. Sequential acquisition is a more complex and lengthier process, although there is no indication that non-language-delayed children end up less proficient than simultaneous bilinguals, so long as they receive adequate input in both languages.{{Cite book|last=Gass|first=Susan M.|title=Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|isbn=978-0805854985|language=english}}

A coordinate model posits that equal time should be spent in separate instruction of the native language and the community language. The native language class, however, focuses on basic literacy while the community language class focuses on listening and speaking skills. Being bilingual does not necessarily mean that one can speak, for example, English and French.

Research has found that the development of competence in the native language serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be transposed to the second language – the common underlying proficiency hypothesis.{{cite web |title=Developing Native Language Literacy in Language Minority Adults |url=https://www.ericdigests.org/1993/native.htm |website=ericdigests.org |access-date=24 February 2019 |language=en |archive-date=24 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190224062558/https://www.ericdigests.org/1993/native.htm |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal |last1=Trudell |first1=Barbara |title=Language choice, education and community identity |journal=International Journal of Educational Development |date=May 2005 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=237–251 |doi=10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.08.004 |url=http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/5099 |access-date=6 December 2019 |archive-date=19 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719163752/https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/5099 |url-status=live }}; cited in {{cite news |title=The perils of learning in English |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/23/the-perils-of-learning-in-english |access-date=24 February 2019 |date=21 February 2019 |quote=Research demonstrates that children learn more when they are taught in their mother tongue than they do when they are taught in any other language. In a study of children in the first three years in 12 schools in Cameroon, those taught in Kom did better than those taught in English in all subjects. Parents might say that the point is to prepare children for the workplace and that a grasp of English is more use than sums or history. Yet by year five, the children taught in Kom outperformed English-medium children even in English. Perhaps this is because they gain a better grasp of the mechanics of reading and writing when they are learning the skills in a language they understand. |archive-date=23 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223145929/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/02/23/the-perils-of-learning-in-english |url-status=live }} Cummins' work sought to overcome the perception propagated in the 1960s that learning two languages made for two competing aims. The belief was that the two languages were mutually exclusive and that learning a second required unlearning elements and dynamics of the first to accommodate the second.{{cite book | last=Hakuta | first=Kenji | chapter=Language and cognition in bilingual children | chapter-url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED329635.pdf#page=46 | editor-last=Padilla | editor-first=Amado M. | editor-last2=Fairchild | editor-first2=Halford H. | editor-last3=Valadez | editor-first3=Concepcion M. | title=Bilingual education: issues and strategies | publisher=Sage Publications | publication-place=California | date=1990 | isbn=0-8039-3638-9 | oclc=20453990 | id={{ERIC|ED329635}} | pages=47–59 | access-date=12 June 2022 | archive-date=1 July 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701132127/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED329635.pdf#page=46 | url-status=live }} The evidence for this perspective relied on the fact that some errors in acquiring the second language were related to the rules of the first language.

Another new development that has influenced the linguistic argument for bilingual literacy is the length of time necessary to acquire a second language. Previously, children were believed to have the ability to learn a language within a year, but today, researchers believe that within and across academic settings, the period is closer to five years.{{cite journal | last=Collier | first=Virginia P. | title=A Synthesis of Studies Examining Long-Term Language Minority Student Data on Academic Achievement | journal=Bilingual Research Journal | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=16 | issue=1–2 | year=1992 | issn=1523-5882 | doi=10.1080/15235882.1992.10162633 | pages=187–212}}The Ramírez report:

• Ramírez J., S. Yuen, D. Ramey & D. Pasta. 1991. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uga1.32108043132136 Final Report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit bilingual education programs for language-minority children: Volume I] (prepared for the U.S. Department of Education). San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International. No. 300-87-0156.
• Ramírez, J., Pasta, D., Yuen, S., Ramey, D. & D. Billings. 1991. Final report: Longitudinal study of structured English immersion strategy, early-exit and late-exit bilingual education programs for language-minority children: Volume II (prepared for the U.S. Department of Education). San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International. No. 300-87-0156.{{Update inline|date=June 2022|reason=It says "today researchers believe...", but the citations are from the early 1990s, i.e. 30 years ago.|?=yes}}

An interesting outcome of studies during the early 1990s, however, confirmed that students who do complete bilingual instruction perform better academically. These students exhibit more cognitive flexibility, including a better ability to analyze abstract visual patterns. Students who receive two-way bilingual immersion, a form of dual language education that brings together students from two different language backgrounds to learn in both languages,{{cite web | title=Two-Way Immersion Education: The Basics | url=https://www.cal.org/twi/toolkit/PI/Basics_Eng.pdf | access-date=2025-04-11}} will perform at an even higher level.{{cn|date=April 2025}} Examples of such programs include international and multi-national education schools.

{{redirect|Polyglot}}

{{See also|List of polyglots}}

File:"Pvt. Lloyd A. Taylor, 21-year-old transportation dispatcher at Mitchel Field, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Sp - NARA - 535873.jpg at Mitchel Field, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese, studies a book on Chinese. A former medical student at Temple University, he passes two hours a day studying languages as a hobby."
This picture was taken during World War II.]]

A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than one language actively (through speaking, writing, or signing). Multilingual people can logically speak any language they write in (aside from mute multilingual people{{cite journal|last=Wallesch|first=Claus W.|date=1990|title=An early detailed description of aphasia in a deaf-mute: Anton leischner's "die 'aphasie' der taubstummen" (1943)|journal=Aphasiology|volume=4|issue=5|pages=511–518|doi=10.1080/02687039008248790|quote=a congenitally deaf-mute trilingual (sign language, Czech and German) patient}}), but they cannot necessarily write in any language they speak.{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/speaking-second-language-delays-dementias-even-illiterate-study-finds-8c11544770|title=Speaking a second language delays dementias, even in the illiterate, study finds|last=Aleccia|first=JoNel|date=November 6, 2013|website=NBCNews.com|publisher=NBCUniversal|access-date=September 26, 2023|quote=in a population where even illiterate people reaped the benefits of being bilingual}} More specifically, bilingual and trilingual people are those in comparable situations involving two or three languages, respectively. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot, a term that may also refer to people who learn multiple languages as a hobby.{{cite web|last=Krzeminska|first=Marta|url=http://www.latg.org/2016/07/the-cult-polyglot.html/|title=The cult of the polyglot|date=19 July 2016|access-date=7 September 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160906123938/http://www.latg.org/2016/07/the-cult-polyglot.html/|archive-date=6 September 2016}}{{cite book|last=Erard|first=Michael|year=2012|title=Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners|publisher=Free Press|isbn=978-1-4516-2825-8}}

Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates over the other.{{Cite journal |last=Hult |first=Francis M. |date=2014 |title=Covert bilingualism and symbolic competence: Analytical reflections on negotiating insider/outsider positionality in Swedish speech situations |journal=Applied Linguistics |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=63–81 |doi=10.1093/applin/amt003|doi-access=free }}

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 that a second (or subsequent) language learner cannot easily accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers. 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 a lingua franca or a shared common language of professional and commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of the common language are functionally multilingual.

The reverse phenomenon, where people who know more than one language end up losing command of some or all of their additional languages, is called language attrition. It has been documented that, under certain conditions, individuals may lose their L1 language proficiency completely, after switching to the exclusive use of another language, and effectively "become native" in a language that was once secondary after the L1 undergoes total attrition.

This is most commonly seen among immigrant communities. The most important factor in spontaneous, total L1 loss appears to be age; in the absence of neurological dysfunction or injury, only young children typically are at risk of forgetting their native language and switching to a new one.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1177/0267658309337641| title=Quantitative analyses in a multivariate study of language attrition: The impact of extralinguistic factors | year=2010 | last1=Schmid| first1=Monika S.| last2=Dusseldorp| first2=Elise| journal=Second Language Research| volume=26| pages=125–160| s2cid=36475272}} Once they pass an age that seems to correlate closely with the critical period, around the age of 12, total loss of a native language is not typical, although it is still possible for speakers to experience diminished expressive capacity if the language is never practiced.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00521.x| title=Maturational Constraints and First Language Attrition| year=2009| last1=Bylund| first1=Emanuel| journal=Language Learning| volume=59| issue=3| pages=687–715}}

{{Main|Cognitive effects of multilingualism}}There is no evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive function and there is a small bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency. Some initial reports concluded that people who use more than one language have been reported to be more adept at language learning compared to monolinguals, and this idea persisted in part due to publication bias.{{Cite journal |last1=Donnelly |first1=Seamus |last2=Brooks |first2=Patricia J. |last3=Homer |first3=Bruce D. |date=2019-02-27 |title=Is there a bilingual advantage on interference-control tasks? A multiverse meta-analysis of global reaction time and interference cost |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |language=en |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=1122–1147 |doi=10.3758/s13423-019-01567-z |issn=1531-5320 |pmid=30815795 |doi-access=free}} Current meta-analyses find no effect.{{cite journal |vauthors=Lehtonen M, Soveri A, Laine A, Järvenpää J, de Bruin A, Antfolk J |date=April 2018 |title=Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review |url=http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/157474/1/Bilingual_meta_analysis.pdf |journal=Psychological Bulletin |volume=144 |issue=4 |pages=394–425 |doi=10.1037/bul0000142 |pmid=29494195 |s2cid=4444068 |hdl=10810/26594}}

Individuals who are highly proficient in two or more languages have been reported to have a certain very marginally enhanced or no different executive function,{{Cite web |title=APA PsycNet |url=https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2020-67422-001.html |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=psycnet.apa.org |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last1=Lehtonen |first1=Minna |last2=Soveri |first2=Anna |last3=Laine |first3=Aini |last4=Järvenpää |first4=Janica |last5=de Bruin |first5=Angela |last6=Antfolk |first6=Jan |date=April 2018 |title=Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/bul0000142 |journal=Psychological Bulletin |language=en |volume=144 |issue=4 |pages=394–425 |doi=10.1037/bul0000142 |pmid=29494195 |s2cid=4444068 |issn=1939-1455|hdl=10810/26594 |hdl-access=free }} and older onset for dementia.{{cite journal |vauthors=Bialystok E, Martin MM |title=Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: evidence from the dimensional change card sort task |journal=Dev Sci |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=325–39 |year=2004 |pmid=15595373 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00351.x|s2cid=1510311 }}{{cite journal |vauthors=Bialystok E, Craik FI, Grady C, Chau W, Ishii R, Gunji A, Pantev C |title=Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in the Simon task: evidence from MEG |journal=NeuroImage |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=40–49 |year=2005 |doi=10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.09.044 |pmid=15588595|s2cid=32548028 }}{{cite magazine |url=https://science.time.com/2013/07/18/how-the-brain-benefits-from-being-bilingual/ |title=How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual |last=Kluger |first=Jeffrey |date=18 July 2013 |magazine=TIME |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721064643/http://science.time.com/2013/07/18/how-the-brain-benefits-from-being-bilingual/ |archive-date=21 July 2013 |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |vauthors = Atkinson AL |title = Does Bilingualism Delay the Development of Dementia? |journal = Journal of European Psychology Students |year = 2016 |pages = 43–50 |volume = 7 |issue = 1 |doi = 10.5334/jeps.375 |doi-access = free }}{{cite journal |last=Skibba |first=Ramin |title=How a second language can boost the brain |journal=Knowable Magazine |url=https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2018/how-second-language-can-boost-brain |doi=10.1146/knowable-112918-1 |language=en |year=2018 |s2cid=189556357 |access-date=4 January 2019 |archive-date=5 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105043454/https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2018/how-second-language-can-boost-brain |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} More recently, however, this claim has come under strong criticism{{Cite web|title = The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism|url = https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the-battle-over-bilingualism/462114/|website = The Atlantic|access-date = 2016-02-11|language = en-US|first = Ed|last = Yong|date = 10 February 2016|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160211015050/http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the-battle-over-bilingualism/462114/|archive-date = 11 February 2016}}{{cite journal |last1=Lehtonen |first1=Minna |last2=Soveri |first2=Anna |last3=Laine |first3=Aini |last4=Järvenpää |first4=Janica |last5=de Bruin |first5=Angela |last6=Antfolk |first6=Jan |title=Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review. |journal=Psychological Bulletin |date=April 2018 |volume=144 |issue=4 |pages=394–425 |doi=10.1037/bul0000142 |pmid=29494195 |hdl=10810/26594 |s2cid=4444068 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/157474/1/Bilingual_meta_analysis.pdf |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=21 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221222253/http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/157474/1/Bilingual_meta_analysis.pdf |url-status=live }} with repeated failures to replicate.{{cite journal |last1=de Bruin |first1=Angela |last2=Treccani |first2=Barbara |last3=Della Sala |first3=Sergio |title=Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias? |journal=Psychological Science |date=January 2015 |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=99–107 |doi=10.1177/0956797614557866 |pmid=25475825 |s2cid=13721983 |url=https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/19401953/Cognitive_advantage_in_bilingualism.pdf |hdl=20.500.11820/1c7d702a-90a7-484d-9d2a-d5841d4a1f49 |hdl-access=free |access-date=6 December 2019 |archive-date=22 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422222130/https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/files/19401953/Cognitive_advantage_in_bilingualism.pdf |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Paap |first1=Kenneth R. |last2=Johnson |first2=Hunter A. |last3=Sawi |first3=Oliver |title=Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances |journal=Cortex |date=August 2015 |volume=69 |pages=265–278 |doi=10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014 |pmid=26048659 |s2cid=25008687 }}{{cite journal | vauthors=Gullifer JW, Titone D | journal=Bilingualism: Language and Cognition | title=Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy | volume=23 | issue=2 | pages=283–294 | date=2020 | doi=10.1017/s1366728919000026 | s2cid=150591937 | url=https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/gullifer-titone-entropy.pdf | access-date=28 November 2021 | archive-date=28 November 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128003441/https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/gullifer-titone-entropy.pdf | url-status=live }}

Yet, many prior studies do not reliably quantify samples of bilinguals under investigation.{{cite journal | vauthors=Surrain S, Luk G | journal =Bilingualism: Language and Cognition | title=Describing bilinguals: A systematic review of labels and descriptions used in the literature between 2005–2015 | volume=22 | issue=2 | pages=401–415 | date= March 2019 | issn=1366-7289 | doi=10.1017/S1366728917000682| s2cid =149426763 | url =http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:37221624 }} An emerging perspective is that studies on bilingual and multilingual cognitive abilities need to account for validated and granular quantifications of language experience in order to identify boundary conditions of possible cognitive effects.{{cite journal | vauthors=Beatty-Martínez AL, Navarro-Torres CA, Dussias PE, Bajo MT, Guzzardo Tamargo RE, Kroll JF | journal =Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition | title=Interactional context mediates the consequences of bilingualism for language and cognition | volume=46 | issue=6 | pages=1022–1047 | publisher=American Psychological Association | date= 2020 | eissn=1939-1285 | issn=0278-7393 | pmid=31580119 |doi=10.1037/xlm0000770 | pmc=7117987}}{{cite journal | vauthors=Gullifer JW, Chai XJ, Whitford V, Pivneva I, Baum S, Klein D, Titone D | journal=Neuropsychologia | title=Bilingual experience and resting-state brain connectivity: Impacts of L2 age of acquisition and social diversity of language use on control networks | volume=117 | pages=123–134 | date=August 2018 | eissn=1873-3514 | issn=0028-3932 | doi=10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.037 | pmid=29727624 | pmc=6086747 | url=https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/language-entropy-connectivity.pdf | access-date=28 November 2021 | archive-date=28 November 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128003440/https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/language-entropy-connectivity.pdf | url-status=live }}{{cite journal | vauthors=Gullifer JW, Titone D | journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: General | title=Engaging proactive control: Influences of diverse language experiences using insights from machine learning. | volume=150 | issue=3 | pages=414–430 | date=October 2020 | eissn=1939-2222 | issn=0096-3445 | doi=10.1037/xge0000933 | pmid=33001688 | pmc=7954783 | url=https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/gullifer_titone_XGE.pdf | access-date=28 November 2021 | archive-date=28 November 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128003443/https://jasonwgullifer.com/files/preprints/gullifer_titone_XGE.pdf | url-status=live }}{{cite journal | vauthors=Sulpizio S, Maschio ND, Mauro GD, Fedeli D, Abutalebi J | journal =NeuroImage | title=Bilingualism as a gradient measure modulates functional connectivity of language and control networks. | volume=205 | date= 2020 | page =116306 | doi=10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116306| pmid =31654763 | s2cid =204837800 | doi-access=free | hdl=10037/18728 | hdl-access=free }} Second language acquisition results in a lexical deficit due to second language acquisition{{Clarify|date=July 2023}} and bilingualism results in decreased verbal fluency.

Bilingual and multilingual individuals are shown to have superior auditory processing abilities compared to monolingual individuals.{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Kaushlendra |last2=Raghavan |first2=Sreeshma | last3=Kalaiah |first3=Mohan |date=2020 |title=A comparison of temporal processing and spectral processing abilities of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual children |url= |journal=International Journal of Audiology |volume=59 |issue=7 |pages=501–505 |doi=10.1080/14992027.2020.1720921 |pmc= |pmid= 32022604|s2cid=211037029 |access-date= |name-list-style=vanc}} Several investigations have compared auditory processing abilities of monolingual and bilingual individuals using tasks such as gap detection, temporal ordering, pitch pattern recognition etc. In general, results of studies have reported superior performance among bilingual and multilingual individuals. Furthermore, among bilingual individuals, one's level of proficiency in one's second language was also reported to influence auditory processing abilities.

Bilinguals might have important labor market advantages over monolingual individuals as bilingual people can carry out duties that monolinguals cannot,Chohan, Usman W. (2021). [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3760757 The New Economy and Languages: HYPIA in Neoliberalism]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220128174222/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3760757 |date=28 January 2022 }}. The Papers of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA). Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Accessed 15 February 2021.{{Self-published source|date=November 2023}} such as interacting with customers who only speak a minority language. A study in Switzerland has found that multilingualism is positively correlated with an individual's salary, the productivity of firms, and the gross domestic production (GDP); the authors state that Switzerland's GDP is augmented by 10% by multilingualism.{{cite book|last1=Grin|first1=François|last2=Sfreddo|first2=Claudio|last3=Vaillancourt|first3=François|title=Economics of the multilingual workplace.|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|location=[S.l.]|isbn=978-0-415-85106-0}} A study in the United States by O. Agirdag found that bilingualism has substantial economic benefits, as bilingual people were found to earn around $3,000 more per year in salary than monolinguals.{{cite journal | last=Agirdag |first=O. |title=The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings |journal=International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=449–464 |year=2014 |doi=10.1080/13670050.2013.816264 |s2cid=27479622 |url=http://dare.uva.nl/personal/pure/en/publications/the-longterm-effects-of-bilingualism-on-children-of-immigration-student-bilingualism-and-future-earnings(1ebc5588-e90f-49c5-8dde-a77f5f78ef76).html }}

A study in 2012 has shown that using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. It was surmised that the framing effect disappeared when choices are presented in a second language. As human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought: one that is systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that is fast, unconscious and emotionally charged, it was believed that a second language provides a useful cognitive distance from automatic processes, promoting analytical thought and reducing unthinking, emotional reaction. Therefore, those who speak two languages have better critical thinking and decision-making skills.{{cite journal

|author1=Boaz Keysar |author2=Sayuri L. Hayakawa |author3=Sun Gyu An |date = 18 April 2012

|title = The Foreign-Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases

|journal = Psychological Science

|volume = 23

|issue = 6

|pages=661–668

|doi = 10.1177/0956797611432178 |pmid=22517192|s2cid=1397617 }} A study published a year later found that switching to a second language seems to exempt bilinguals from social norms and constraints, such as political correctness.{{cite journal |vauthors=Gawinkowska M, Paradowski MB, Bilewicz M |title=Second language as an exemption from sociocultural norms. Emotion-Related Language Choice revisited |journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8 |issue=12 |pages=e8122 |year=2013 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0081225 |pmid=24349044 |pmc=3859501 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...881225G |doi-access=free }} In 2014, another study showed that people using a foreign language are more likely to make utilitarian decisions when faced with moral dilemmas, such as the trolley problem and its variations. Participants in this study chose the utilitarian option more often in the Fat Man dilemma when it was presented in a foreign language. For the related Switch Track dilemma, however, the use of a foreign language presented no significant influence on the choices participants made. The authors of this study surmised that a foreign language lacks the emotional impact of one's native language.{{cite journal | last1=Costa | first1=Albert | last2=Foucart | first2=Alice | last3=Hayakawa | first3=Sayuri | last4=Aparici | first4=Melina | last5=Apesteguia | first5=Jose | last6=Heafner | first6=Joy | last7=Keysar | first7=Boaz | title=Your Morals Depend on Language | journal=PLOS ONE | publisher=Public Library of Science (PLoS) | volume=9 | issue=4 | date=23 April 2014 | issn=1932-6203 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0094842 | doi-access=free | pmid=24760073 |pmc=3997430 | bibcode = 2014PLoSO...994842C | page=e94842}}

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 multiple cultures, both individually and comparatively, can shape an individual's sense of identity and how others perceive it.{{cite journal |last=Halwachs |first=D.W. |title=Polysystem, Repertoire und Identität |trans-title=Polysystem repertoire and identity |journal=Grazer Linguistische Studien |year=1993 |volume=39–40 |pages=71–90 |language=de |url=https://unipub.uni-graz.at/gls/periodical/titleinfo/4047899 |access-date=12 June 2021 |archive-date=12 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612113657/https://unipub.uni-graz.at/gls/periodical/titleinfo/4047899 |url-status=live }} Some studies have found that groups of multilingual individuals get higher average scores on tests for certain personality traits such as cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative.{{cite journal|last=Dewaele|first=J. |author2=Li Wei |title=Multilingualism, empathy, and multicompetence|journal=International Journal of Multilingualism |year=2012 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=352–366 |doi=10.1080/14790718.2012.714380 |s2cid=32872300 |url=http://www.bbk.ac.uk/linguistics/our-staff/li-wei/copy_of_DewaeleLiWei2012.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131009194907/http://www.bbk.ac.uk/linguistics/our-staff/li-wei/copy_of_DewaeleLiWei2012.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2013}}{{cite journal|last=Dewaele|first=J.|title=The effect of multilingualism, socio-biographical, and situational factors on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety of mature language learners|journal=International Journal of Bilingualism|year=2007|volume=11|pages=391–409|doi=10.1177/13670069070110040301|issue=4|s2cid=51402969|url=http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/647/1/DewaeleIJB07.pdf|access-date=9 July 2019|archive-date=9 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809112034/http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/647/1/DewaeleIJB07.pdf|url-status=live}} 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.{{cite web |last1=Grosjean |first1=François |title=Life as a Bilingual |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/life-bilingual |work=Psychology Today }}{{verify source|date=January 2021}} Some bilinguals feel that their personality changes depending on which language they are speaking;{{cite book|editor-last=Tokuhama-Espinosa|editor-first=T.|title=The Multilingual Mind: Issues Discussed By, For, and About People Living with Many Languages|year=2003|publisher=Praeger Publishers|location=Westport, Connecticut|isbn=9780897899185}} 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."{{cite book|last=Wang|first=X.|title=Growing up with three languages: Birth to eleven|year=2008|publisher=Multilingualism Matters|location=Briston, United Kingdom|isbn=978-1-8476-9106-4}} 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."{{cite book | chapter=Living with two languages and two cultures |title=Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience | publisher=Cambridge University Press |first=François |last=Grosjean |editor=I. Parasnis | year=1996 |pages=20–37 |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139163804.003|isbn=978-0-521-45477-3 }} However, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that a language shapes our vision of the world, may suggest that a language learned by a grown-up may have much fewer emotional connotations and therefore allow a more serene discussion than a language learned by a child and to that respect more or less bound to a child's perception of the world.

Many polyglots know up to five or six languages, but the frequency of polyglotism drops off sharply past this point.Chohan, Usman W. (2021). [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3760731 "Who Is a Hyperpolyglot?"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206095828/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3760731 |date=6 February 2021 }}. Linguistic Anthropology eJournal. Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Accessed 7 February 2021.{{Self-published source|date=June 2022}} Those who know more languages than five or six—Michael Erard suggests eleven or more, while Usman W. Chohan suggests six to eight (depending on proficiency) or more—are sometimes classed as hyperpolyglots.{{cite magazine |last=Steinmetz |first=Katy |date=30 January 2012 |url=https://healthland.time.com/2012/01/30/are-you-a-hyperpolyglot-the-secrets-of-language-superlearners/ |title=Are You A Hyperpolyglot?: the secrets of language superlearners |magazine=Time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202113329/http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/30/are-you-a-hyperpolyglot-the-secrets-of-language-superlearners/|archive-date=2 February 2012|url-status=live}}{{cite book|last=Hudson|first=Richard|chapter=Word grammar, cognitive linguistics, and second language learning and teaching|editor=Peter Robinson|editor2=Nick Ellis|title=Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition|location=New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|pages=99–123 |isbn=9780805853513|doi=10.4324/9780203938560-13|chapter-url=http://dickhudson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sla.pdf|access-date=24 February 2019|archive-date=25 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125162502/https://dickhudson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/sla.pdf|url-status=live}} Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, for example, was an Italian priest reputed to have spoken anywhere from 30 to 72 languages.

The term savant, in a general sense, may refer to any individual with a natural or innate talent for a particular field; however, people diagnosed with savant syndrome are specifically individuals with significant mental disabilities who demonstrate certain profound and prodigious capacities or certain abilities far in excess of what would usually be considered normal,{{cite journal|pmid=9990844|year=1999|last1=Miller|first1=LK|title=The savant syndrome: Intellectual impairment and exceptional skill|volume=125|issue=1|pages=31–46|journal=Psychological Bulletin|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.125.1.31}}{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2003.11.002|title=Comparing the intelligence profiles of savant and nonsavant individuals with autistic disorder|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222427835|year=2004|last1=Bolte|first1=S|journal=Intelligence|volume=32|issue=2|page=121}} occasionally including a prodigious capacity for languages. Savant syndrome is almost always associated with an increased memory capacity of some sort, which can, for certain savants, aid in storing and retrieving knowledge of different languages.{{cite journal |last1=Treffert |first1=Darold A. |title=The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |date=27 May 2009 |volume=364 |issue=1522 |pages=1351–1357 |doi=10.1098/rstb.2008.0326 |pmid=19528017 |pmc=2677584 }} In 1991, for example, linguists Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli described a man, named Christopher, who learned sixteen languages even with a non-verbal IQ between 40 and 70. Christopher was born in 1962, and he was diagnosed with brain damage approximately six months after his birth.{{cite journal |last1=Bates |first1=Elizabeth |title=On Language Savants and the Structure of the Mind Review of: The Mind of a Savant: Language Learning and Modularity by Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli, 1995 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/136700699700100204 |journal=International Journal of Bilingualism |date=September 1997 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=163–179 |doi=10.1177/136700699700100204 |s2cid=142262640 }} Despite being institutionalized because he was unable to take care of himself, Christopher had a verbal IQ of 89, could speak English with no impairment, and could learn subsequent languages with apparent ease. This facility with language and communication is considered to be unusual for most diagnosed with savant syndrome.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Neil |last2=Tsimpli |first2=Ianthi Maria |title=Linguistic modularity? A case study of a 'Savant' linguist |url=https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=9d88b8fc1ba4f542267c159f037aac03ff933931 |format=PDF |journal=Lingua |date=August 1991 |volume=84 |issue=4 |pages=315–351 |doi=10.1016/0024-3841(91)90034-3 }}

{{main|Neuroscience of multilingualism}}

{{Further|List of multilingual countries and regions}}

File:Pola 07.jpg/Pola (Istria)]]

File:Brussels signs.jpg, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels, both Dutch and French are official languages.]]

File:Multilingual sign in Macau.png at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier in Macau. At the top are Portuguese and Chinese, which are the official languages of Macau, while at the bottom are Japanese and English, which are common languages used by tourists (English is also one of Hong Kong's two official languages).]]

File:MultilingualismEnglishKannadaHindi.jpg, Kannada and Hindi found in Bangalore, India]]

File:Trisulam railway station nameboard.JPG, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in Chennai (Madras). Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language(s)).]]

File:YVR intl arrivals signage 2.jpg, 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.]]

File:SPM A7786.jpg in Pasay, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown: Japanese/Mandarin Chinese ("deguchi" or "chūkǒu", respectively), English ("exit") and Korean ("chulgu"). While Filipinos themselves are anglophones, such signs cater to the growing number of Koreans and other foreigners in the country.]]

File:Multilingual message at a comfort room in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.jpg, Palawan, Philippines that prohibits foot washing. Text is written in six languages: English, Filipino, Cebuano, Chinese, Korean, and Russian, from top to bottom.]]

File:Quadrilingual Train Name written in Kannada-Hindi-Tamil-English.jpg

File:UAE signboard.jpg, 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 common in the past: 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 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.Wolff, Ekkehard (2000). Language and Society. In: Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (Eds.) African Languages – An Introduction, 317. Cambridge University Press.

In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual. Some states can have multilingual policies and recognize several official languages, such as Canada (English and French). In some states, particular languages may be associated with particular regions in the state (e.g., Canada) or with particular ethnicities (e.g., Malaysia and Singapore). When all speakers are multilingual, linguists classify the community according to the functional distribution of the languages involved:

• Diglossia: if there is a structural-functional distribution of the languages involved, the society is termed 'diglossic'. Typical diglossic areas are those areas in Europe where a regional language is used in informal, usually oral, contexts, while the state language is used in more formal situations. Frisia (with Frisian and German or Dutch) and Lusatia (with Sorbian and German) are well-known examples. Some writers limit diglossia to situations where the languages are closely related and could be considered dialects of each other. This can also be observed in Scotland where, in formal situations, English is used. However, in informal situations in many areas, Scots is the preferred language of choice. A similar phenomenon is also observed in Arabic-speaking regions. The effects of diglossia can be seen in the difference between written Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) and colloquial Arabic. However, as time has passed, Arabic speakers have developed what some have deemed "Middle Arabic" or "Common Arabic", somewhere between the two extremes. Because of this diversification of the language, the concept of spectroglossiaM.H. Bakalla (1984), Arabic Culture Through Its Language and Literature, Kegan Paul International, London, {{ISBN|978-0-7103-0027-0}} has been suggested.
• {{anchor|ambilingualism}}Ambilingualism: a region is called ambilingual if this functional distribution is not observed. In a typical ambilingual area it is nearly impossible to predict which language will be used in a given setting. True ambilingualism is rare. Ambilingual tendencies can be found in small states with multiple heritages, like Luxembourg, which has a combined Franco-Germanic heritage, or Malaysia and Singapore, which fuse the cultures of Malays, Chinese people, and Indians, as well as in communities with high rates of deafness, like Martha's Vineyard, where historically most inhabitants spoke both Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and English, or southern Israel, where locals tend to speak both Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language and Arabic or Hebrew. Ambilingualism also can manifest in specific regions of larger states that have both a dominant state language (be it de jure or de facto) and a protected minority language that is limited in terms of the distribution of speakers within the country. This tendency is especially pronounced when, even though the local language is widely spoken, there is a reasonable assumption that all citizens speak the predominant state tongue (e.g., English in Quebec vs. all of Canada; Spanish in Catalonia vs. all of Spain). This phenomenon can also occur in border regions with many cross-border contacts.
• Bipart-lingualism: if more than one language can be heard in a small area, but the large majority of speakers are monolinguals, who have little contact with speakers from neighboring ethnic groups, an area is called 'bipart-lingual'. An example of this is the Balkans.

Note that the terms given above all refer to situations describing only two languages. In cases of an unspecified number of languages, the terms polyglossia, omnilingualism, and multipart-lingualism are more appropriate.

Taxell's paradox refers to the notion that monolingual solutions are essential to the realization of functional bilingualism, with multilingual solutions ultimately leading to monolingualism. The theory is based on the observation of the Swedish language in Finland in environments such as schools is subordinated to the majority language Finnish for practical and social reasons, despite the positive characteristics associated with mutual language learning.{{Cite thesis |last=Valkonen |first=Eero |date=2020 |title=En- eller tvåspråkiga lösningar?: diskursanalys om användning av begreppet 'den taxellska paradoxen' i Vasabladets debattinlägg 2013–2018 |trans-title=Monolingual or bilingual solutions?: discourse analysis on the use of the term 'Taxell's paradox' in Vasabladet's debates 2013–2018 |degree=Bachelor |url=https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/71802 |language=sv |access-date=17 May 2022 |archive-date=9 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220809045356/https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/71802 |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Finnilä |first=Heidi |title=Taxell om sin paradox |trans-title=About Taxell's paradox |date=12 September 2014 |url=https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-615859 |access-date=2022-05-17 |newspaper=yle |language=sv |archive-date=17 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517071658/https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-615859 |url-status=live }}

Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behavior. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and differences are sought. This mechanism also extends to language, as described by the communication accommodation theory.

Some multilingual people use code-switching, which involves swapping between languages. In many cases, code-switching allows speakers to participate in more than one cultural group or environment. Code-switching may also function as a strategy where proficiency is lacking. Such strategies are common if the vocabulary of one of the languages is not very elaborated for certain fields, or if the speakers have not developed proficiency in certain lexical domains, as in the case of immigrant languages.

This code-switching appears in many forms. If a speaker has a positive attitude towards both languages and towards code-switching, many switches can be found, even within the same sentence.{{cite journal | author = Poplack Shana | author-link = Shana Poplack | year = 1980 | title = Sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español": toward a typology of code-switching | journal = Linguistics | volume = 18 | issue = 7/8| pages = 581–618 | doi = 10.1515/ling.1980.18.7-8.581 | hdl = 10315/2506 | s2cid = 201699959 | hdl-access = free }} If however, the speaker is reluctant to use code-switching, as in the case of a lack of proficiency, he might knowingly or unknowingly try to camouflage his attempt by converting elements of one language into elements of the other language through calquing. This results in speakers using terms like courrier noir (literally, mail that is black) in French, instead of the proper word for blackmail in French, chantage.

Sometimes pidgins develop. A pidgin is a fusion of two or more languages that is grammatically simplified but can be understood by native speakers of any of the original languages. Some pidgins develop into "real" creole languages (such as Papiamento in Curaçao or Singlish in Singapore), while others simply evolve into slangs or jargons (such as Helsinki slang, which remains more or less mutually intelligible with standard Finnish and Swedish).{{Clarify|date=July 2014}} In other cases, prolonged influence of languages on each other may have the effect of changing one or both of them to the point a new, non-creole language is born. For example, many linguists believe that the Occitan language and the Catalan language were formed because a population speaking a single Occitano-Romance language was divided by the political spheres of influence of France and Spain, respectively. Yiddish is a complex blend of Middle High German with Hebrew and also has borrowings from Slavic languages.

Bilingual interaction can even take place without speakers switching between languages or fusing them together. In certain areas, it is not uncommon for speakers to use a different language within the same conversation. This phenomenon is found, amongst other places, in Scandinavia. Most speakers of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can communicate with each other speaking their respective languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations often adjust their language, avoiding words that are not found in the other language or that can be misunderstood). Using different languages is usually called non-convergent discourse, a term introduced by the Dutch linguist Reitze Jonkman.{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}} To a certain extent, this situation also exists between Dutch and Afrikaans, although everyday contact is fairly rare because of the distance between the two respective communities. Another example is the former state of Czechoslovakia, where two closely related and mutually intelligible languages (Czech and Slovak) were in common use. Most Czechs and Slovaks understand both languages, although they would use only one of them (their respective mother tongue) when speaking. For example, in Czechoslovakia, it was common to hear two people talking on television each speaking a different language without any difficulty understanding each other. This bilingualism still exists nowadays, although it has started to deteriorate since Czechoslovakia split up.{{cite book | last1=Musilová | first1=Květa | chapter=Vývojové tendence v komunikaci Čechů a Slováků po rozdělení ČSFR | trans-chapter=Developmental trends in communication between Czechs and Slovaks after the division of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic | editor-last=Lotko | editor-first=Edvard | editor-last2=Fiala | editor-first2=Jiří. | editor-last3=Hádková | editor-first3=Marie | title=České, polské a slovenské jazykové a literární souvislosti: sborník referátů z mezinárodního odborného semináře uspořádaného u příležitosti sedmdesátin prof. PhDr. Edvarda Lotka, CSc., na filozofické fakultě univerzity Palackého v Olomouci dne 20. února 2002 | trans-title=Czech, Polish and Slovak linguistic and literary contexts: a collection of papers from an international professional seminar organized on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Prof. Edvard Lotek PhD CSc, At the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc on 20 February 2002 | publisher=Palacký University | publication-place=Olomouc | date=2003 | isbn=80-244-0628-4 | oclc=84662327 | language=cs |pages=223–229 }}

File:Wakkanai Russian sign.jpg|Japanese, English, and Russian sign in Northern Japan

File:Chengde summer palace writings.jpg|Mongolian, Chagatai, Chinese, Tibetan, and Manchu sign in Chengde, China

File:Languages of Israel.jpeg|A sign at the Israeli Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Immigration and Absorption in Haifa in 2009 uses Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian

File:Protected place sign, Fort Canning Park, Singapore - 20081203.jpg|A multilingual sign in Singapore's four official languages: English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay

File:Trilingual road sign in India.png|Urdu, Hindi, and English on a road sign in India

File:Tifinagh writing.JPG|A sign in Morocco uses Arabic, Berber (written in Tifinagh), and French

File:Hebkeyboard.JPG and English keyboard]]

With emerging markets and expanding international cooperation, business users expect to be able to use software and applications in their own language.{{cite conference |last1=Dedić |first1=N. |last2=Stanier |first2=C. |year=2016 |title=An Evaluation of the Challenges of Multilingualism in Data Warehouse Development |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299536587 |conference=18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems – ICEIS 2016 |page=196 }} Multilingualisation (or "m17n", where "17" stands for 17 omitted letters) of computer systems can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization:

• A localized system has been adapted or converted for a particular locale (other than the one it was originally developed for), including the language of the user interface, input, and display, and features such as time/date display and currency; but each instance of the system only supports a single locale.
• Multilingualised software supports multiple languages for display and input simultaneously, but generally has a single user interface language. Support for other locale features like time, date, number and currency formats may vary as the system tends towards full internationalization. Generally, a multilingual system is intended for use in a specific locale, whilst allowing for multilingual content.
• An internationalized system is equipped for use in a range of locales, allowing for the co-existence of several languages and character sets in user interfaces and displays. In particular, a system may not be considered internationalized in the fullest sense unless the interface language is selectable by the user at runtime.

Translating the user interface is usually part of the software localization process, which also includes adaptations such as units and date conversion. Many software applications are available in several languages, ranging from a handful (the most spoken languages) to dozens for the most popular applications (such as office suites, web browsers, etc.). Due to the status of English in computing, software development nearly always uses it (but see also Non-English-based programming languages), so almost all commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original.

The Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT){{cite web|title=The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales|url=http://oro.open.ac.uk/33033/|website=oro.open.ac.uk|date=22 April 2011|access-date=21 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222075011/http://oro.open.ac.uk/33033/|archive-date=22 December 2015}} was first released in concert with the release of Windows 8 as a way to provide developers a set of free tooling that enabled adding languages to their apps with just a few clicks, in large part due to the integration of a free, unlimited license to both the Microsoft Translator machine translation service and the Microsoft Language Platform service, along with platform extensibility to enable anyone to add translation services into MAT. Microsoft engineers and inventors of MAT Jan A. Nelson and Camerum Lerum have continued to drive the development of the tools, working with third parties and standards bodies to ensure that broad availability of multilingual app development is provided.{{cite web|title=Jan Nelson (Microsoft): The Multilingual App Toolkit Version 3.0|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw-ktuc3F_Y|website=YouTube| date=23 June 2014 |access-date=21 December 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151216053603/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw-ktuc3F_Y|archive-date=16 December 2015}} With the release of Windows 10, MAT is now delivering support for cross-platform development for Universal Windows Platform apps as well as for iOS and Android apps.

{{Main|Languages used on the Internet}}

According to Hewitt (2008){{full citation needed|date=June 2022}} entrepreneurs in London from Poland, China, and Turkey tend to use English for communication with customers, suppliers, and banks but their native languages for work tasks and other social purposes. Even in English-speaking countries, immigrants can often still use their mother tongue in the workplace thanks to the presence of other immigrants in that workplace who come from the same place. Kovacs (2004) describes this phenomenon in Australia with Finnish immigrants in the construction industry who spoke Finnish during working hours.{{cite journal |last1=Kovács |first1=M. |title=Australiansuomalaiset kielenvaihdon kynnyksellä |trans-title=Australian Finns on the verge of language shift |journal=Virittäjä |volume=108 |issue=2 |date=2004 |pages=200–223 |language=fi |issn=0042-6806 |url=https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/40330 |format=PDF |access-date=12 June 2022 |archive-date=6 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206152915/https://journal.fi/virittaja/article/view/40330 |url-status=live }} Although foreign languages may be used in the workplace, English is still a key working skill.

Many Asian companies, due to increasing globalization, have recently been focusing more and more on their employees' English proficiency. Especially in South Korea since the 1990s, Asian companies have lately used different English language tests to evaluate job applicants, and the standards for these tests continue to be raised. Meanwhile, Japan ranks 53rd out of 100 countries in 2019 EF English Proficiency Index, amid calls for this to improve in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.{{citation needed|date=April 2018}}{{Update inline|date=June 2022|reason=It is well past the Tokyo Olympics now}}

Within multiracial countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, it is not unusual for one to speak two or more languages, albeit with varying degrees of fluency.{{cite news|first1=Josh|last1=Lew|title=9 of the world's most multilingual countries|url=http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/9-of-the-worlds-most-multilingual-countries|publisher=Dotdash Meredith|website=Treehugger|date=28 June 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525215014/https://www.treehugger.com/worlds-most-multilingual-countries-4864180|archive-date=25 May 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Platt |first1=John T. |title=A model for polyglossia and multilingualism (with special reference to Singapore and Malaysia) |journal=Language in Society |date=December 1977 |volume=6 |issue=3 |pages=361–378 |doi=10.1017/s0047404500005066 |jstor=4166945 |s2cid=145669949 }}{{cite book|chapter=English and Multilingualism in Singapore|title=Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics|first=Lisa|last=Lim|date=2012|publisher=Wiley Online|doi=10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0373|isbn=978-1-4051-9473-0 }} Some are proficient in several Chinese varieties, given the linguistic diversity of the ethnic Chinese community in both countries. In Singapore, bilingualism is embraced in the education system with English as the medium of instruction and the official mother tongue taught as a second language.{{cite web |last1=Sim |first1=Cheryl |title=Bilingual Policy |url=https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=82fbbca5-e8e2-40cc-b944-fbb2bd2367fe |website=National Library Board |publisher=Singapore Infopedia |access-date=31 August 2024}}

In Africa, knowledge of English is important not only for multinational companies but also in the fields of engineering, chemistry, electricity and aeronautics. A study directed by Hill and van Zyl (2002) shows that in South Africa young black engineers used English most often for communication and documentation. However, Afrikaans and other local languages were also used to explain particular concepts to workers in order to ensure understanding and cooperation.{{cite journal |last1=Gunnarsson |first1=Britt-Louise |title=Multilingualism in the Workplace |journal=Annual Review of Applied Linguistics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |issn=0267-1905 |date=March 2013 |volume=33 |pages=162–189 |doi=10.1017/S0267190513000123 |s2cid=145761597 }}

File:Bilingualism boosts grades at Treorchy Comprehensive.webm, where introducing a second language (Welsh) has boosted the exam results]]

Languages that are used in multiple countries include:

• Arabic in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman; and to a co-official extent in Mali, Chad, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Zanzibar, and the Comoros.
• Chinese in China, Taiwan, Singapore, and to a co-official extent in Malaysia and Brunei.
• German in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Belgium.
• Greek in Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, and Italy (in Calabria and Salento).
• French in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco, Andorra, and Switzerland; and to a co-official extent in Canada, as well as much of Francophone Africa including Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Tunisia, Niger, Rwanda, Seychelles, and Togo.
• Portuguese in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and São Tomé e Príncipe.
• English in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, India, Antigua and Barbuda,The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, the Gambia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malta.
• Dutch in the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao and Suriname.
• Swedish in Sweden and Finland.
• Italian in Italy, Switzerland, and San Marino; and to a co-official in Malta.
• Russian in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine; and to a co-official extent in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Israel.
• Persian in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

English is a commonly taught second language at schools, so it is also the most common choice for two speakers, whose native languages are different. However, some languages are so close to each other that it is generally more common when meeting to use their mother tongue rather than English. These language groups include:

• Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
• Arabic dialectic continuum
• Czech and Slovak.
• Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin: standardized in the 19th century and throughout the existence of Yugoslavia, Croatian and Serbian were considered as Western and Eastern variants of a common, Serbo-Croatian language. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, each successor state proclaimed and codified its own official language. In sociolinguistics, however, these are still considered standardized varieties of one pluricentric language, all based on Shtokavian dialect, with the biggest distinction being between the Ekavian and Ijekavian pronunciation. Cyrillic and Latin writing scripts are official in Montenegrin and Serbian, while Latin is exclusively official in Bosnian and Croatian.

In multilingual countries such as Belgium (Dutch, French, and German), Finland (Finnish and Swedish), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French, and German), Spain (Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Galician), and Malta (Maltese, English, and Italian), it is common to see people who have mastered two or even three of their country's chief languages.

Many minor Russian ethnic groups, such as Tatars, Bashkirs and others, are also multilingual. Moreover, with the beginning of the compulsory study of the Tatar language in Tatarstan, there has been an increase in knowledge of Tatar among the natively Russian-speaking population of the republic.{{Cite thesis |url=http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/94828.html |last=Khabibrakhmanovna |first=Sharipova Nailya |title=Dvuyazıçiye v Tatarstane |trans-title=Bilingualism in Tatarstan |year=2004 |language=tt |url-status=dead |degree=PhD Science |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305190550/http://www.lib.ua-ru.net/diss/cont/94828.html |archive-date=2016-03-05}}

Continued global diversity has led to an increasingly multilingual population. Europe has become an excellent model to observe this newly diversified culture. The expansion of the European Union with its open labour market has provided opportunities both for well-trained professionals and unskilled workers to move to new countries to seek employment. Political changes and turmoil have also led to migration and the creation of new and more complex multilingual workplaces. In most wealthy and secure countries, immigrants are found mostly in low-paid jobs but also, increasingly, in high-status positions.{{cite journal|last1=Gunnarsson|first1=Britt-Louise|title=Multilingualism in European Workplaces |date=2014 |volume=33 |issue=1–2 |pages=11–33 |doi=10.1515/multi-2014-0002 |journal=Multilingua |s2cid=144233073}}

{{further|List of multilingual bands and artists}}

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 in the musician's country of origin, or in another widely recognized language, such as English, German, Spanish, or French.{{Cite journal |last=Maxwell |first=Christine |date=2012-11-26 |title=The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babelby Nicholas Ostler |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971x.2012.01784.x |journal=World Englishes |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=559–561 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-971x.2012.01784.x |issn=0883-2919|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201000239/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2012.01784.x|archive-date=February 1, 2023|url-status=live}}

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-translation by Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively.{{Cite AV media |type=CD |last1=Kogan |first1=Julia |title=Troika, Russia's Westerly Poetry in Three Orchestral Song Cycles |date=2013 |asin=B005USB24A }}

Songs with lyrics in multiple languages are known as macaronic verse.{{cite journal |last1=Harvey |first1=Carol J. |title=Macaronic Techniques in Anglo-Norman Verse |journal=L'Esprit Créateur |date=1978 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=70–81 |jstor=26280874 }}

Multilingual stories, essays, and novels are often written by immigrants and second generation American authors.{{Cite web|date=2013-02-07|title=Second-Generation Americans|url=https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/02/07/second-generation-americans/|access-date=2020-11-04|website=Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project|language=en-US|archive-date=4 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201104014738/https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/02/07/second-generation-americans/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|title=Second Generation Stories {{!}} Literature by Children of Immigrants|url=https://secondgenstories.com/|access-date=2020-11-04|language=en-US|archive-date=29 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029171756/https://secondgenstories.com/|url-status=live}} Chicana author Gloria E. Anzaldúa, a major figure in the fields Third World Feminism, Postcolonial Feminism, and Latino philosophy explained the author's existential sense of obligation to write multilingual literature.{{Cite book|last1=Lunsford|first1=Andrea A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nH_9bkigKmgC&q=gloria+anzaldua+postcolonial+feminism&pg=PP1|title=Crossing Borderlands: Composition and Postcolonial Studies|last2=Ouzgane|first2=Lahoucine|date=2004-01-01|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=978-0-8229-7253-2|language=en}} An often quoted passage, from her collection of stories and essays entitled Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, states:

"Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue – my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence".{{cite news |last1=Fowler |first1=Yara Rodrigues |title=Top 10 bilingual books |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/17/top-10-bilingual-books |work=the Guardian |date=17 April 2019 |access-date=4 November 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207193836/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/17/top-10-bilingual-books |url-status=live }}

{{Expand section|date=October 2023}}

Multilingual poetry is prevalent in the United States' Latino literature, where code-switching and translanguaging between English, Spanish, and Spanglish is common within a single poem or throughout a book of poems.{{Cite book |last=Pérez |first=Rolando |editor1-first=Ilan |editor1-last=Stavans |editor-link1=Ilan Stavans |chapter=The Bilingualisms of Latino/a Literatures |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190691202.013.31 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Latino Studies |year=2020 |pages=281–306 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190691202.013.31|isbn=978-0-19-069120-2 |access-date=2020-11-04}} Latino poetry is also written in Portuguese and can include phrases in Nahuatl, Mayan, Huichol, Arawakan, and other indigenous languages related to the Latino experience. Contemporary multilingual Latino American poets include Giannina Braschi, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hmiACgAAQBAJ|title=The FSG book of twentieth-century Latin American poetry: an anthology|date=2011|publisher=Farrar, Straus, Giroux|editor-last=Stavans|editor-first=Ilan|editor-link1=Ilan Stavans|isbn=978-0-374-10024-7|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=650212679|access-date=25 June 2023|archive-date=6 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406005635/https://books.google.com/books?id=hmiACgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}

The British-Cuban political activist, surrealist poet and artist Mary Stanley Low published the trilingual poetry volume Tres voces – Three Voices – Trois Vois in 1957, which featured poetry in English, Spanish and French.{{Cite web |title=J.J. Plant: Obituary - Mary Stanley Low (1912-2007) |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/revhist/backiss/vol9/no4/plant3.html |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=www.marxists.org}}

The 2021 Indian documentary film Dreaming of Words traces the life and work of Njattyela Sreedharan, a fourth standard drop-out, who compiled a multilingual dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages: Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.{{Cite web|url=https://bookofachievers.com/articles/82-yo-compiles-dictionary-of-4-dravidian-languages-useful-ofcourse|title=82-year-old Kerala man's Dictionary is in the four Dravidian languages. 25 long years to compile|access-date=7 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331160135/https://bookofachievers.com/articles/82-yo-compiles-dictionary-of-4-dravidian-languages-useful-ofcourse|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/246205/83-yo-kerala-school-dropout-creates-unique-dictionary-in-4-south-indian-languages-vid01/|title=83-YO Kerala School Dropout Creates Unique Dictionary in 4 South Indian Languages|date=31 December 2020|access-date=7 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331160135/https://www.thebetterindia.com/246205/83-yo-kerala-school-dropout-creates-unique-dictionary-in-4-south-indian-languages-vid01/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url = https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/for-keralites-door-opens-to-three-other-dravidian-languages/article32986464.ece|title = For Keralites, door opens to three other Dravidian languages|newspaper = The Hindu|date = 30 October 2020|last1 = Sajit|first1 = C. p.|access-date = 7 March 2022|archive-date = 31 March 2022|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220331160129/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/for-keralites-door-opens-to-three-other-dravidian-languages/article32986464.ece|url-status = live}} Travelling across four states and doing extensive research, he spent twenty five years{{Cite web|url=https://silvertalkies.com/the-man-who-wrote-a-dictionary-in-four-languages/|title=The Man Who Wrote A Dictionary In Four Languages – Silver Talkies|website=silvertalkies.com|access-date=7 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331160135/https://silvertalkies.com/the-man-who-wrote-a-dictionary-in-four-languages/|url-status=live}} making this multilingual dictionary.

{{columnslist|colwidth=25em|

• {{annotated link|Cultural diversity}}
• {{annotated link|Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre}} (in Hong Kong)
• {{annotated link|Digraphia}}
• {{annotated link|Economics of language}}
• {{annotated link|Linguapax Prize}}
• {{annotated link|List of multilingual countries and regions}}
• {{annotated link|Multilingualism and globalization}}
• {{annotated link|Official multilingualism}}
• {{annotated link|Plurilingualism}}
• {{annotated link|Interlinguistics}}
• {{annotated link|Linguistic rights}}
• {{annotated link|Metatypy}}
• {{annotated link|The Multilingual Library}}
• {{annotated link|One person, one language}}
• {{annotated link|Spanish language in the United States}}

• {{annotated link|European Commissioner for Multilingualism}}
• {{annotated link|European Day of Languages}}
• {{annotated link|English-only movement}}
• {{annotated link|Language legislation in Belgium}}
• {{annotated link|Languages of the European Union}}

• {{annotated link|Multilingual education}}
• {{annotated link|Multilingual education in Africa|In Africa}}

}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | last=Valore | first=Paolo | title=Multilingualism: language, power, and knowledge | publisher=Edistudio | publication-place=Pisa | date=2011 | isbn=978-88-7036-809-3 | oclc=863307786}}, {{in lang|en|it}}.
• {{cite book | last1 = Bhatia | first1 = Tej | last2 = Ritchie | first2 = William C. | title = The Handbook of Bilingualism | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pNqVaUk4dM0C | publisher = Blackwell Publishing | location = Oxford | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-631-22735-9 }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Bialystok |first1=Ellen |title=The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. |journal=Psychological Bulletin |date=March 2017 |volume=143 |issue=3 |pages=233–262 |doi=10.1037/bul0000099 |pmid=28230411 |pmc=5324728 }}
• {{cite book | last = Burck | first = Charlotte | title = Multilingual Living | publisher = Palgrave Macmillan | location = Basingstoke | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-230-55433-7 }}
• Jared Diamond, The World until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (especially chapter ten: "Speaking in many tongues"), Penguin Books, 2012 ({{ISBN|978-0-141-02448-6}}).
• {{cite book | last = Komorowska | first = Hanna | title = Issues in Promoting Multilingualism. Teaching – Learning – Assessment | publisher = Foundation for the Development of the Education System | location = Warsaw | year = 2011 | url = https://issuu.com/frse/docs/issues_in_promoting_multilingualism_internet/1 | isbn = 978-83-62634-19-4 }}
• {{SLS Q|Q113529945}}
• {{Cite web

| last = Kramsch

| first = Claire

| title = Are You Another Person When You Speak Another Language?

| work = Berkeley Language Center

| access-date = 2013-06-02

| date = 2011-06-03

| url = http://blc.berkeley.edu/index.php/blc/post/are_you_another_person_when_you_speak_another_language/

}}

• {{SLS Q|Q113529982}}
• {{cite book | last = Romaine | first = Suzanne | title = Bilingualism | publisher = Blackwell | location = Oxford | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-631-19539-9 }}
• {{cite book | last1 = Baker| first1 = Colin| last2 = Prys| first2 = Sylvia | title = Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtSqB9oqDIC| year = 1998 | publisher = Multilingual Matters| isbn = 978-1853593628 }}

{{Wiktionary|multilingual|multilingualism|bilingual|bilingualism}}

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• {{Commons category-inline|Multilingualism}}

{{SLA topics}}

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Category:Language acquisition

Category:Sociology of language

Category:Neurolinguistics