Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1911 — LINGUIST STUMPED AT LAST [ARTICLE]

LINGUIST STUMPED AT LAST

Man Knowing Beventy-B*ven Languages Dlaoovers He Muet Learn One More—Others Understand. New York.—“Do you know, I thought, with my linguistic equipment." said a man who speaks 77 languages, “I really thought that I could understand almost any tongue I might hear spoken; and as matter of fact in my rambles around the world, which have been somewhat extensive, I have very rarely met with anybody with whom I could not converse, at least sufficiently for mutual understanding; but I have been stumped at last, and that right here in New York. "Riding uptown last night on the elevated when we came to a station the guard opened the door and said: “ Orlxel blix fllx floct!* "And surely I wondered what language that was; it was some tongue that I had never before heard spoken, and I was etlU wondering over It when we came to /he next station, where the guard looked in again, saying this time: “’Qrooty noo sooros blewt!’ and that left me more In a fix than ever. "What tongue could he be speaking? I got more of It at the next station: ‘“Nagah, blah, yahlah glewk!* and then I gave It up. "He was an American, the guard, a nice, lively, intelligent-looking man.

but the tongue he spoke was, I found, wholly unknown to me, though It seemed to have a system to It, and plainly Its significance was clear to at least some of the people In the car, for at each of these several stations n number of people got out "Evidently If I am' going to atay here long I shall have to add one to my stock of tongues; I shall have to learn the guard’s language, and then I shall know seventy-eight.”