Are Multicultural Societies More Prone To Hosting Polyglots?
These days the subject of multiculturalism is very much at the forefront of any discussion on national demographics, the changing cultural make up of inner city areas or the effects of cross border migration, as are its consequences. It has often been put forward that one direct effect of multiculturalism its propensity to hosting polyglots, but is there really any basis for this? In theory, because two diverse but discrete cultural groups co-exist in parallel to each other, their proximity leads them to a working knowledge of each others language in order to facilitate their interactions, so let us examine some instances of multicultural societies to see whether the theory holds up. The first example is that of the Western and South Western States of the USA. There has been a Hispanic presence in this area since 1761 and at that time most of that region was actually a colony of Spain. In the 1820’s the territory passed to the United States but the Hispanic influence has been very stro
