Editing Multilingualism (section)

{{Short description|Use of multiple languages}}
{{Redirect|Bilingual}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
[[File:Constitutional Court South Africa.jpg|thumb|right|The frontage of the [[Constitutional Court of South Africa]], with text written in eleven of [[Languages of South Africa|South Africa's twelve official languages]]]]
[[File:Novi Sad mayor office.jpg|thumb|A multilingual sign outside the mayor's office in [[Novi Sad]], Serbia, written in the four official languages of the city: [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], and [[Pannonian Rusyn language|Pannonian Rusyn]]]]
[[File:Quadrilingual danger sign - Singapore (gabbe).jpg|thumb|A stenciled danger sign in [[Singapore]] written in English, [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], and [[Malay language|Malay]] (the [[Languages of Singapore|four official languages of Singapore]])]]
[[File:Logo der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft.svg|thumb|The logo and name of the [[Federal administration of Switzerland|Swiss federal administration]] in the [[Languages of Switzerland|four national languages of Switzerland]] ([[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], and [[Romansh language|Romansh]])]]

'''Multilingualism''' is the use of more than one [[language]], either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called '''bilingualism'''. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber [[monolingual]] speakers in the [[world's population]].<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.cal.org/content/download/1803/19986/file/AGlobalPerspectiveonBilingualism.pdf |title=A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education |date=1999 |first=G. Richard |last=Tucker |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |access-date=8 May 2018 |archive-date=15 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215235020/http://www.cal.org/content/download/1803/19986/file/AGlobalPerspectiveonBilingualism.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Valdés|first=Guadalupe|title=Multilingualism|url=http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/multilingualism|website=Linguistic Society of America|year=2012|access-date=7 September 2016|archive-date=26 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326025619/http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/multilingualism|url-status=live}}</ref> More than half of all [[Europeans]] claim to speak at least one language other than their [[first language|mother tongue]];<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf |title=Europeans and their languages, a survey co-ordinated by the European Commission |publisher=European Commission |access-date=2016-11-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160205094116/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_386_en.pdf |archive-date=5 February 2016 }}</ref> but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://multilingualism.org/multilingualism/the-importance-of-multilingualism |title=The importance of multilingualism |publisher=multilingualism.org |access-date=2010-09-16 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100828122216/http://multilingualism.org/multilingualism/the-importance-of-multilingualism |archive-date=28 August 2010 }}</ref> Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called ''[[#In individuals|polyglot]]s''.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/polyglot |title=Polyglot|encyclopedia= Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia |publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |access-date=2010-07-10}}</ref>

Multilingual speakers have [[language acquisition|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 usually acquired without formal education, by [[Language acquisition|mechanisms]] about which scholars disagree.<ref name="Kennison 2013">{{Cite book | last1=Kennison | first1=Shelia M. | title=Introduction to language development | date =2013-07-30 | publisher=SAGE Publications | location=Los Angeles | isbn=978-1-4129-9606-8 | oclc=830837502 }}</ref> Children acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called [[Simultaneous bilingualism|simultaneous bilinguals]]. It is common for young simultaneous bilinguals to be more proficient in one language than the other.<ref name="Taeschner 1983, p. 4">{{cite book | last=Taeschner | first=T. | title=The Sun is Feminine: A Study on Language Acquisition in Bilingual Children | publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg | series=Springer Series in Language and Communication | year=1983 | isbn=978-3-642-48329-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5e-BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT15 | access-date=2022-06-12 | page=4 | archive-date=26 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164811/https://books.google.com/books?id=v5e-BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT15 | url-status=live }}</ref>

People who speak more than one language have been reported to be better at language learning when compared to monolinguals.<ref name="Kaushanskaya-2009">{{cite journal |title=The bilingual advantage in novel word learning |vauthors=Kaushanskaya M, Marian V |journal=Psychonomic Bulletin & Review |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=705–710 |year=2009 |doi=10.3758/PBR.16.4.705 |pmid=19648456 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between [[internationalization and localization]]. Due to the status of [[English in computing]], software development nearly always uses it (but not in the case of [[non-English-based programming languages]]). Some 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.