I'm hopelessly in love with words, especially the English language. Still, any new language (mainly European) that I can get my hands on is postively thrilling to me. However, I have come up with a somewhat strange hypothesis from my love of languages. Last night I was talking to my dad about how I like languages so much, and he found that interesting. But I came up with something so absurd he didn't think anyone could ever really do it. I'm out to prove him wrong. Here's my hypothesis:
By having a firm foundation in Latin, Greek, and English, a person with a large mental capacity could learn to read 75% of the world's major languages, without once opening an English dictionary or parallel to the language in question.
Yes, I'm crazy, and I'm guessing this hypothesis is wrong. Being a miserably obstinate person, though, let me lay out my explanation for one way this might work, assuming the person is fluent in Greek, Latin and English. I am giving the one with the most steps, but which would probably turn out to be the most natural order.
1. Spanish
2. Portugese
3. Romanian
4. Italian
5. Galician
6. Catalan
7. Esperanto
8. French
9. Creole
10. Maltese
11. Welsh
12. Danish
13. Dutch
14. Norwegian
15. Swedish
16. Latvian
17. Lithuanian
18. Slovenian
19. Croatian
20. Czech
21. Slovak
22. Polish
-------------- <This is the point at which a Greek refresher course might come in handy.
Well you get the idea, and I won't pain you anymore. But I honestly think this might work if someone had the time and brains to do it.Not that anyone would, but it's possible. Without ever opening a single dictionary.
Meridian
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