Topic summary
Polyglot
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Multilingualism.
Hyperpolyglots and savants
Many polyglots know up to five or six languages, but the frequency of polyglotism drops off sharply past this point. 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. Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, for example, was an Italian priest reputed to have spoken anywhere from 30 to 72 languages.