How Were Languages Studied 200 Years Ago?
16.04.2024 - revisited 11.09.2025
Giuseppe Mezzofanti, an Italian cardinal (living in 1774–1849), is considered the first polyglot of the modern era. It's hard to verify the evidence or put his knowledge to CEFR levels on the scale from A1 to C2, but even if half of it is true, it still looks very impressive, even by modern standards.
What is different today and 200 years ago for language learning?
The easy and cheap (and often free) access to all possible kinds of materials (one could only dream about video and audio) together with the ease of travel and communication.
What resources were available to Mezzofanti?
One of the few texts available in multiple languages at the time was, of course, the Bible. Significant resources were invested in its high-quality translation (e.g., the Greek Septuagint involved seventy translators, and kings commissioned translations like the English King James Version).
Is it still a valid method today?
The text itself has some advantages: even if you've never thoroughly read it, you may already know the stories and names through TV, films, art, songs, cross-references, and common sayings. The Tower of Babel, a metaphor for language learning used by some apps and websites, also originates from the Bible.
However, there are also notable disadvantages: the language often becomes outdated, as it is essentially "frozen" in the time it was written. For example:
By today’s standards of gamification and engaging learning materials (and rather short length), the text might seem particularly unappealing and hard to concentrate on, especially for younger audiences.
In the end, I'm not sure if this is a universally promising approach—much depends on the individual.
To let everyone explore it (as if it were 1800), I've developed a free tool: langtools.io/gb
It generates parallel versions of Bible quotes or longer text passages, incorporating modern elements like gamification and quick access.
While building the toolkit, I was surprised to find out that there's strict formatting required for Bible citation. For example:
Proverbs 1:5 refers to the first chapter of Proverbs, fifth verse. Proverbs 1:5-9 covers verses five to nine. This formatting is similar to hyperlinks: an incorrect format won't direct you to the desired passage.
Here’s an example of a quote available in three languages:
Proverbs 1:5 Proverbs 1:5-9With the ability to directly reference specific text locations, you can effectively utilize tools like spaced repetition or integrate this into your personal knowledge database.
Regarding gamification, I've integrated a Random Verse button that generates a random Bible quote with each click. While there are certainly more interactive games available, this feature adds a playful element that's better than nothing.
Additionally, users can search through the text using keywords, much like a Google search. This functionality returns Bible quotes that match the search terms, similar to how Google provides hyperlinks.
To conclude, you can experience language learning as it was in the year 1800, but equipped with the tools of 2024.
We live in the age of deep learning technologies evolving rapidly. One of them that I thought could be useful is so-called RAG search - search based on the close semantic meaning. For example, let's take a catchy phrase "Play stupid games - win stupid prizes" and try to find verses in Bible with a similar meaning, here are the results:
1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Proverbs 14:24 The crown of the wise is their riches: but the foolishness of fools is folly.
Proverbs 9:6 Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
Proverbs 16:16 How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!
Proverbs 8:10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
How good is the outcome? It's not an exact science to evaluate the closeness in meaning. The first result without the context can be actually interpreted as the opposite of the query phrase, one or two results are quite good, the rest is not great, but still OK. At the same time, we don't know what we've missed. Overall, not perfect, but good to consult it.
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p.s. For more technically-savvy users, you can install the command-line interface tool — grepbible — which, with a bit of experience, should take less than a minute to set up. This provides all the functionality directly within your terminal.
p.p.s. For those interested in running the server locally, extending its functionality, or customizing the user interface, the server is also open source: grepbible-server.